Page 44

Brooke

The game is over, the team won, and I got one shot of the only shirt I had accidentally stuffed in Cami’s bag. The shot was edited while watching the game, and I’m facing the reality that The Drops is going to launch with half the collection missing.

Feeling disappointed as we head toward the area where we are meeting the team to head back on the bus.

“Sorry, B,” Cami says. “I wish I had thought to split the bags between us.”

Sighing, I lean against the wall and feel the stress wash over me in waves. I had already written The Drops projections into my paper, which is ready to be submitted, but now I’m going to have to go in and edit it before we leave tomorrow morning, as well as explain what happened to my professor.

“This sucks.” Leaning my head back.

“brOOKE! brOOKE!” Someone shouts my name as they run down the hall, pushing past the crowds, trying to leave the arena. “I got it! I got it!”

I push off the wall and run toward a panting Andrew holding the wheeled holdall containing The Drop.

“Oh my God,” I shout. “Where was it?” I gasp, opening the bag and running my fingers over the fabric, checking that they are all there.

“The other team manager took it, thinking it was one of their guys leaving straight for winter break.” He’s doubled over, bless him. “Only realised when no one claimed it before the game.”

“How long do we have until we leave?” Cami asks.

“Fifteen minutes.”

“Can we make that work?” I say, looking at Cami. “Twenty-three players?”

“We can do it.” I grab the bag, and we sprint toward the locker room. Andrew runs ahead to let the team know we got the bag.

“This is about to be carnage.” I laugh as we face the locker room, and Coach comes out shaking his head.

“I can delay us an extra ten, but good luck, girls, they are all on a post-game high.”

“I’m kind of excited to go in the locker room,” Cami whispers, bouncing up and down.

“Can we revisit that when I don’t feel like I’m going to vomit?” I laugh as I push into the locker room.

As promised, we are faced by twenty-three players in various stages of undress dancing around and chanting, and I can’t help but smile when I see Grant in the middle of it all.

“Hey!” His smile is huge when he spots me. “You found it!” He lifts me, spinning me around, and the guys cheer around him.

I can’t help but laugh, even though I’m so stressed and take a moment to feel like this isn’t all hidden and secret and hug him back. “Yeah.” I smile as he puts me down. “But I need to shoot it.”

He looks confused. “Now?”

“Now.”

“Shit!” His eyes are wide. “Okay, tell me who you need first.”

“Anyone! I’m just putting anyone in anything.”

“Hey, listen up,” he shouts. “Brooke needs to shoot the last of The Drop in the next 10 minutes.”

“Grab something that fits and line up,” I add, grabbing my camera and Cami hands out clothes, all the guys are rallying to help now.

We shoot some guys together and lean into the celebration of the win.

With time ticking away, I tell them to do exactly what they were doing when I walked in and shoot some shots and videos before Andrew comes back to tell us we are out of time.

We hustle it to the bus, and I take the damn bag onto the bus with me. No one argues.

“How long till you need to go live?” Cami asks as I’m loading the pictures onto my laptop. I had intended to edit as I went along, the mid-game, and then it would have been ready to launch as we got on the bus, but I’m running out of time now.

“Forty minutes,” I mutter, feeling the pressure. “I’ve got to get through three hundred images.”

Cami leans over her seat and shouts down the bus, “Who knows how to edit a photo?” Hands shoot up.

“Like Instagram edit, boys, not Photoshop your dick pics?” Some go down, but at least five stay up, and Cami instructs them to move to the front of the bus.

“Send me the ones you need editing, and I’ll send them over to them, and then they can send them straight back to you when done. ”

I nod at her, and we begin. It’s quick work with the guys helping, and the whole bus gets involved in which ones look better. I upload the last edited image with five minutes to spare and press live.

“It’s done.” I cover my eyes, and I’m surrounded by hockey players shouting and hollering. I can’t help but laugh in relief.

“It looks good, Brookie,” Adam shouts from the back of the bus. I can hear them all discussing their favourite images, and I’m watching The Drop being purchased; it’s going fast, and it could be sold out before we even make it home.

I lean my head back against the seat and let loose the breath I’ve been holding.

It’s about three in the morning when we pull back onto campus by the rink, and tired bodies get off the bus as we all head to our cars and say our goodbyes before break.

Bear slings an arm around Cami, subtly steering her toward his car. Adam and Gunnar follow behind him.

Grant puts a hand on my back, moving us to his car.

“Anything to do with you?” I yawn as we settle into the seats, and he starts the jeep to get the heating on, but doesn’t make any move to head back to the apartments.

“Might have nudged Bear to do it as a favour he owes me.” He gives me a lazy smile.

“Of course.” I laugh.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you today.” He sighs, taking my hand and playing with my fingers.

“You were. You helped me to get the shots,” I reassure him. “Plus, you had a game to win. I would never want to come between you and Hockey.”

“I just feel bad.” He furrows his brows and looks down. “I had also kind of hoped I could have sat with you on the way back, but Cami almost bit me when I tried to sit near you.”

Laughing at that, I lean over and hug him. “I’m going to miss you.” I smile against his neck.

“Me too.” He hugs me tighter and pulls me across into his lap, and I giggle as he readjusts us to be comfortable.

“I was going to ask you to come home with me for Christmas,” he murmurs after a beat of silence into my hair, resting his head on top of mine, and I stop breathing for a second against his neck.

“You were?” I breathe out against his neck and feel him nod.

I don’t know how to respond to him. Would I have been going as his “fun” friend or more?

Does he want more? Do I want more? I’m overwhelmed by thoughts of whether I want another relationship, particularly with Grant, given his history of casual hookups.

I love being around him. He makes me feel safe and comfortable, but also excited and free.

I don’t feel like I have to explain myself to him, and he just lets me be me.

I just don’t know if all that means we should be more.

“Would you have come?” he asks me, and I feel him pull back to look me in the eye, so I do the same.

“Yeah, I think I would have,” I whisper, nodding, and he kisses me sweetly, and I kiss him back, feeling vulnerable. When I pull back, I look him in the eyes and ask the question I’m scared of. “Are we still having fun, Grant?”

“I’m always having fun with you, Brooke, but when we get back from break, maybe we can talk?” He looks as nervous as I feel to be talking about what we could be, and smiles at him and nods.

He pulls me back in, and I go willingly. “We should head back before Cami gets suspicious.”

I feel him stiffen against me, pulling back, and I climb back over to my seat. As he drives off, he grabs my hand and holds it as he drives.

I’ve not even left yet, and I’m itching to get back from winter break.