Page 41 of Meet Your Match (Kings of the Ice)

TELL ME WHAT YOU NEED

Vince

T he plane ride home from Canada was a circus.

We’d managed to squeak out a win in overtime against Ottawa, who were the number one team in our division. And it didn’t matter that, really, we didn’t play our best, or that we got lucky on a shot that tipped off their own player’s skate and got us the W.

We partied like we’d just won the Cup.

It was a Saturday, and it had been an afternoon game, so it was just past nine when we touched down in Tampa. The night was young, it was the weekend, we had a late practice the next day, and we’d just won the game every sportscaster in the nation was sure we’d lose.

The energy was untouchable.

Jaxson shotgunned another beer as the front half of the plane debarked, smashing the can on his head when he was done.

He shook his head with his tongue hanging out like a dog, and then started barking at Maven, which made her throw her head back in a laugh in such a carefree way it made my chest tight.

“You guys are insane!” she yelled in-between peals of laughter just as Carter started twerking on the seat in front of her.

“Come on, Maven. Match our energy,” he goaded her.

She snorted and waved him off. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

“The night is young, we are young, and Tampa is waiting to celebrate us,” Jaxson said, grabbing Maven by the hands and pulling her up reluctantly from her chair. “You’re part of this team now. Time to show it.”

“And exactly how do you propose I do that?”

Will smirked as he grabbed her shoulders from behind and gave them a little squeeze. “Show us your celly dance.”

“My what ?”

The guys who were still on the plane cheered, clapping and whistling before Carter started a chant.

Cel-ly dance, cel-ly dance.

Our pilot played right into our hands, cranking the music on the stereo system. It was a club mix of “Ferrari,” and our cheers grew louder as Maven’s mouth popped open in an amused smile.

“You brutes are dreaming,” she said on a laugh. Her eyes found mine then, and I made a fake pouty face, clucking my tongue.

“Aw, I think she’s embarrassed, guys,” I said, crossing the plane until I was behind her. I rubbed her shoulders, brushing my thumb along the slope of her neck and loving that I made chills break out when I did. “It’s okay, Maven. We know you can’t dance for shit.”

The guys laughed and made a deep ooohhhh sound, watching as Maven narrowed her eyes and looked over her shoulder at me .

“Is that what you think?”

I shrugged, egging her on. “Prove me wrong.”

The team started chanting her name, and she arched a brow, breaking out of my hold with a determined nod.

Using the hand Carter had outstretched to help her, she climbed up onto one of the large leather seats, and then she started pumping her fists to make the team roar even louder.

When she had their attention, she cast me one last watch this look, and she broke it down.

She was goofy at first, waving her hands in the air and bobbing her head.

Then, her shoulders shimmied, and she pointed at one of our wingers before doing his signature celebration dance — brushing off her shoulders with her brows pinched together before she pretended to shoot a basket.

She held her hands up in the little flick and we all went wild.

One by one, she pointed at each teammate and mimicked them, whether by doing their dance or, like in Daddy P’s case, crossing her arms and scowling hard while imitating his crouched goalie position.

My stomach was in stitches, and just when I thought she couldn’t shock us all any more than she had, she pointed right at me with a wink.

Then, she bent in half, her hands finding the leather of the seat. She kicked one foot up behind her to balance on the head rest, and then the other, until she was inverted and stacking her hips over her shoulders.

The plane quieted a bit with confused murmurs, the music growing in a crescendo toward the beat drop. When it did, Maven knocked us all on our asses.

Because she started shaking hers .

She twerked upside down, her ass bouncing side to side, up and down, and then in a circle as she threw it to the beat. The team went absolutely ape shit, but when Carter wound up like he was going to smack her ass, I caught his wrist before he could, pinning him with a glare.

“Do you want to die tonight?” I asked him.

He just laughed, holding his hands up in surrender while he and Jaxson exchanged looks.

Trying to play it off before they could read too much into it, I picked Maven up and hauled her over my shoulder, dancing us down the aisle and off the plane with her little fists beating on my back, and the team following behind us with hoots and hollers.

I didn’t drop her until we were on the tarmac, and she came up breathless, laughing and smacking my chest.

“You interrupted my celly!”

“That’s because it was about to get me thrown off my team and possibly in jail, too.”

She grinned, leaning forward with a little shimmy of her shoulders. “What’s wrong, Vince Cool? Don’t like other guys looking at my ass?”

She waggled her brows as I leaned in and tilted her chin up with my knuckles. “I’m going to spank that ass later.”

“Promises, promises.”

Maven was so light, so playful in that moment that I couldn’t help but mirror her smile.

I wanted to kiss her.

Right then, right there, without a fucking care in the world who saw us. I wanted to kiss her until she melted into me the way she always did, until she begged me to take her home.

“SURPRISE!”

I didn’t realize how close my lips were to Maven’s until the sound broke through the haze, and we both jumped away from each other, snapping our heads in the direction it came from.

When I saw my family standing there with wide-open arms, my jaw dropped.

“Mom? Dad? Grace ?” I shook my head in disbelief as they crowded me in a group hug. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“We knew you wouldn’t be able to come home for Christmas with your schedule,” Mom said.

“So, Mom insisted we bring Christmas to you,” my little sister finished, rolling her eyes. “Precious Prince Vince, always the favorite child.”

Mom narrowed her eyes, but we all laughed at the joke, the same one Grace had made for years. My dad clapped me on the shoulder, beaming, his chest puffed. “You look good, son. Damn good. And what a game!”

I was still in shock that they were there, shaking my head as my heart swelled.

If I wasn’t surrounded by my teammates, I probably would have cried.

It’d been so long since I’d seen them, my first season in the NHL sweeping me up and making it impossible to get back up to Michigan for a visit.

It had been hard at first without them, but then I’d been so focused on the schedule, and most recently, on Maven.

I hadn’t stopped long enough to remember how homesick I was.

Now that they were here, it was like a sigh of relief, a deep breath I didn’t know I had been needing so desperately to take.

My mom and dad were dressed to impress, just like always, Mom in a pencil skirt and elegant blouse, and Dad in slacks and a sports coat.

Grace was in a simple sundress, which I knew she had probably been so desperate to wear that she put it on even before they left the freezing cold weather in Michigan.

My sister was born to be a beach bum, and I knew it was just a matter of time before she’d leave our home state behind and find refuge in a state that didn’t have a winter.

Where I was at home on the ice, she was at home in the sun.

I saw my own features staring back at me when I looked at them — the eyes I got from my mom, the smile I got from my dad, the way my sister’s nose was the same blend of our parents as mine was.

“Okay, you are so rude,” Grace said, flicking me in the arm before she brushed past me. She swept her long blonde hair over her shoulder and walked right up to Maven. “Hi! It’s so nice to finally meet you! Especially after the embarrassing amount of times you’ve seen me dance.”

Maven seemed as surprised as me, her eyes flicking to mine before she extended her hand for Grace’s. “Trust me, you’re better than I could ever be.”

Grace didn’t shake Maven’s hand. Instead, she grabbed her in a crushing hug.

“Don’t let her lie to you,” Carter said, popping up out of nowhere and grabbing my shoulders from behind as he joined us. “Maven just rocked that whole damn plane.”

“Oh my, I bet that was quite the show,” Mom said, smiling at Maven next. “I’m Lorraine. This is my husband, Derrick.”

“You,” Dad said, pointing at Maven before crushing her in an even more powerful hug than Grace had. “Are one talented lady. I downloaded Instagram because of you.”

Grace groaned like she was embarrassed.

“The videos you post?” Mom shook her head, smiling. “Just… incredible! Do you do all that editing yourself? The way the clips match up to the music? ”

“It’s called a Reel, Mom,” Grace said.

“Well, whatever you call it, this one has turned our son into a superstar,” Dad beamed.

Maven smiled nervously. “Oh, he did that all on his own.”

Her eyes flitted to mine then, and my chest swelled in a completely new way.

“We’ve got cars coming,” Jaxson said, running over to join us. He smiled and introduced himself to my family, and I didn’t miss how he nearly swallowed his tongue when he met my sister.

I cocked a brow at him when he stared at her a little too long, and then glowered when his face turned like I’d caught him doing something he wasn’t supposed to.

I hoped that look told him not to get any ideas, because I loved Jax, but I’d kill him if he tried something with my sister.

“I think we’re going out without Vince Cool tonight,” Carter said, nodding toward Jaxson. “Let’s give him space to enjoy the family reunion.”

“I’ll hit you guys up later,” I promised, but the way they smirked at Maven, then my family, and then me — I knew they wouldn’t hold their breath waiting for that call.

Once they were gone, I turned back to my family.