Page 104 of The Arrogant One

Things couldn’t get worse unless Toro was a flop. I believed that in my heart.

Until now.

“I wish I could. I want to be there. So badly.” I was running out of air, my throat getting narrower as I held off the tears. I held my neck and added, “But I can’t.”

He nodded. “I’m going to make that drink. What are you feeling?”

The only words that would come out were, “Surprise me.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Hart

Four minutes. That was how long the LA Whales needed to keep Dallas from scoring, or the game would go into overtime. But the entire team, including Beck, was tired. In every move they made, I could see the three days they’d just spent on the road, playing back-to-back away games, catching up to them—in the way they were skating, in the way they were holding their defensive stances. Hell, I could even see it in their offense. They didn’t have their normal speed or agility. If Dallas wasn’t a weaker team—their athleticism incomparable to the Whales—the one-goal lead would be double, if not triple.

Beck had scored two out of the three goals tonight, and I knew—because I knew my brother better than anyone—he was going after a hat trick. The Whales were on a four-game winning streak, and Dallas had been shit-talking our team in the press and across social media. Our guys were fucking starving for this victory. I could feel it in the buzz of the locker room when I had gone in before the game.

At this point in the game, they had one thing to beat.

That was the clock.

“God, I’m on fucking edge right now,” Brady said. He stood next to me behind the second row of seats in our suite, where I was gripping the hard plastic back of Colson’s chair, watching the puck like it was my fucking job. “Do you think Beck has one more goal in him?”

“Look at him.” I nodded toward the ice. “He’s beat. But he won’t let that stop him. He’ll fight like hell to get the third.”

“All that traveling wears a body down,” Macon, the youngest Spade brother, said, sitting next to Colson. “When I go back and forth to Hawaii several times within the span of a few weeks, I feel like shit. I can’t even process living on the road, like these guys do, for three-quarters of the year.”

“It’s more than just living on the road,” Cooper, the middle Spade, announced. He had his arm on his girl’s shoulders while they stood toward the side of the suite, Rowan smiling at him as he spoke. “It’s working out and practicing, sleeping in strange beds, being off your normal schedule. It’s making sure you get in enough food and nutrients to fuel your body. Being a professional athlete is no fucking joke.”

“I couldn’t do it,” Rowan said. “And we basically live in a hotel—and I still couldn’t do it.”

“I hear you. I couldn’t either,” I said to her, reaching into my pocket to take out my vibrating cell.

Sadie

Miss you.

Me

What part of you is aching for me?

Sadie

My heart—first and foremost. My hands—they’re dying to touch you. My lips—they want to kiss you. And that spot you love to put your mouth on—it’s throbbing. For you.

Me

I wish I could put my mouth there right now, baby. I miss the taste of you.

Sadie

Is that the only part of you that misses me?

“That makes three of us who couldn’t,” Macon added. “I’m all for sports, but playing at that level requires a dedication I just don’t have.”

“You did it in high school,” Brady said to him, referring to when Macon had played soccer. “Had you accepted the offers from the colleges that wanted you to play for them, you’d probably be in Europe right now and an international superstar.”

Brooklyn, Macon’s girlfriend, wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m so glad you’re not—in Europe, that is.”