Page 51 of The Girlfriend Card (Vegas Sin #4)

They Can and They Will

Ottavia

Nine months later.

T he players had yet to take the ice, but a palpable anxiety lingered in the arena. Rock music blasted over the arena speakers, trying but failing to get the listless crowd pumped up.

“Euch.” McKayla grimaced. “You guys feel that?”

All of us WAGs (that’s hockey jargon for wives and girlfriends, and after nine months of dating Dakota, believe me, I’m now a walking rolodex of hockey jargon) hunkered down in our usual spots in the family suite.

We were clad in our matching gameday uniforms: a glittery Vegas Sin “shirtsey” (that’s a portmanteau of shirt and jersey, and no, I wasn’t lying about that lingo thing) with our man’s name and number on the back.

The back of my shirtsey read 17 Easton, and yes, I brimmed with pride whenever I donned it.

That’s because, despite being the team owner, I tend to think of myself as a WAG first and foremost. Not only was I immensely proud of everything Dakota has achieved this year, along with my role in supporting and helping him get there, but I also cherished my bond with the rest of the WAGs.

They’re my absolute best friends in the world.

I love these hilarious, amazing, and let’s be real, totally crazy ladies.

Isabelle shivered. “ Awful vibes in here,” the captain’s wife said. “What’s going on?”

“They’re nervous,” I said.

“ Pft. ” Sofia rolled her eyes. “Have some faith, people!”

I agreed with Sofia, but honestly, the fans had good reason to be nervous, too.

When we won, it was because we managed to eke out a victory by a single goal.

When Boston won, though? They stomped us right out of the gate.

This series had been a roller coaster of emotion with crazy highs and the lowest of lows.

Despite the uneven nature of the back-and-forth games, you have to give the Sin boys some credit: they’d snaked out a 3–2 series lead and had a chance to put the Brawlers away for good in Game Six.

But Boston wasn’t an easy out—and with the Brawlers up against the ropes, they fought back hard and evened the series at three games with a decisive 6–1 victory.

Now, it all came down to this; Game Seven. Whoever won tonight went home with hockey’s holy grail, the Stanley Cup.

The last time the Sin played a Game Seven, of course, was last year’s infamous first-round loss to the Dallas Devils. That blowout, and the embarrassing aftermath, seemed to linger on everybody’s mind …

But that was last year.

This team was different, even though many of the faces were the same. Really, there was only one big change from last year’s team to this year’s team.

My gaze lifted to the owner’s box, a space once haunted by Dad’s looming figure as he menacingly paced back and forth during games.

But that was in the past. Every game, we invited kiddos from the local children’s hospital to fill the box—and all you could see up there now was beaming smiles from the bravest little souls I’d ever known.

It feels like the least I could do, since I wasn’t using the owner’s box—I preferred to sit with the rest of the girls, among the people in the stands, where we felt like we had our finger on the pulse of the game, and where we could do our thing.

“We gotta lighten the mood up in here,” I said.

The girls agreed. We set down our phones and our cups, and soon every last WAG in our suite was shouting and clapping in unison,

“Let’s go, Ve~gas!”

Clap, clap, clap clap clap!

“Let’s go, Ve~gas!”

Because if the boys were going to get this thing done and win the Cup tonight? They needed to believe they could do it. And if they believed they could do it, then we needed the fans to believe they could do it, too.

Now I know what you’re probably thinking: Whoa, Ottavia, hold up. They’re playing for the Stanley Cup?!

Yup! In my very first year as owner, Dakota and the boys went on an amazing run, which has taken us right to the very edge of glory.

Dakota’s play was a huge part of our success this season. He was always putting pressure on himself to be a goal scorer like his dad was—but coming into this year with a new mindset changed everything about his game, and his reputation around the league.

Once Dakota stopped putting pressure on himself to be as good as his dad?

He didn’t care about his stat line anymore.

His focus on the ice completely shifted from always thinking about goals, goals, goals, to just winning.

As a result? Dakota not only accepted his role as a third-line center, he embraced it, and reinvented himself as a shutdown center.

(Shutdown center: a center whose primary role is to face the other team’s best players with the goal of suffocating their offense.

A good shutdown center excels at his job by simply keeping the other team off the score sheet.

A great shutdown center does that, but also chips in a point or two for his own team.)

After just one year, Dakota was known as one of the best shutdown centers in the league.

His tenacious, dependable play made him one of Coach Miller’s workhorses.

Best of all? His play allowed the rest of the team to excel at their jobs, which is what made the Sin one of the very best teams in the league, all year long.

Hockey fans, media, even Dakota’s own teammates have been utterly flabbergasted by his transformation this season.

Me? Well, I won’t say I saw it coming, because I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted how successful he’d be. But once Dakota proved to me he was willing to do the work to be a better person, I knew he had a lot of potential to become something special—both on and off the ice.

And for as amazing as Dakota has been on the ice this year? He’s been twice as amazing off the ice.

Let’s be real: when you’re dating a pro athlete, you do so knowing that they’re always on the road, where other girls will be trying to steal them away, if only for a single night. That’s scary enough as it is—but dating an athlete long distance, too?

I trusted him, of course; I wouldn’t have dated him if I didn’t. But after learning how Leo and Dad had both betrayed and manipulated me, I think it’s understandable that I’d have some lingering trust issues.

Dakota never gave me any reason to worry, ever. He was nothing but sweet and reliable the entire time we were apart. We talked at least once, every single day. When I first headed out to school, I was so sad, because I felt like I’d be lucky to see Dakota more than three times during the semester …

Whew, boy, am I ever happy to report that I was way, way off on that estimate!

It took approximately three days before Dakota and I missed each other so bad, he flew up to Stanford to see me.

We only had ten hours together before he had to fly back and return to the team—but trust me, we made the most of our half-day together.

We holed ourselves up in my bedroom, ordering take-out, making out, cuddling, and screwin’ until the sun came up.

Of course, ten hours flew by in the blink of an eye.

“I gotta get back to Vegas.” Dakota groaned, and added with a mischievous grin, “The team will kill me if they find out I’ve been out all night hookin’ up with some chick.”

“The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?” I giggled. “But somehow, I think your new owner wouldn’t mind.”

After a red-eye flight back to Vegas, Dakota was back on the ice in the morning, and no one was any wiser.

That first visit set the tone for the rest of the long-distance phase of our relationship.

Whenever Dakota had a window to squeeze in a short visit, he flew out.

Usually, he told me days in advance that he was coming—sometimes, though, he kept it a surprise, which was my absolute favorite.

When you’re in a relationship where distance is a factor, trust me, there’s no thrill quite like opening the door and seeing the love of your life standing before you.

Once, Dakota flew out just so we could have lunch together. It was such a simple gesture … but to me, it meant everything. This was exactly the kind of passionate, all-consuming love I’d always fantasized about having someday.

Of course, he wasn’t the only one flying out for visits.

Anytime I had a break from school, I flew back to Vegas, and Dakota welcomed me back into his condo with open arms and made me feel like I was home.

He told me again and again it was my home, too, and insisted that, once I graduated, I come live with him for real.

When graduation day arrived last week? Dakota was able to be there (thanks to the fact they’d gotten revenge on the Dallas Devils and eliminated them in six games, woohoo!), beaming with pride as I crossed the stage.

Knowing that he believed in me and supported my dreams as an actress made that moment even more special.

With that being said—and I know this might sound really obnoxious or cliché, considering I went through four years of school—but now that I finally graduated, I’m not sure if I want to pursue a future in acting after all.

*Groans from the audience.*

I know, I know.

Looking back, I realize that a big reason why I wanted to be an actress in the first place was because I felt so suffocated by my dad’s expectations and trapped in my situation with Leo. Acting became my escape from reality, a way to forget about my struggles and pretend I was somebody else.

However, once Dakota came into my life and helped me break out of that situation, my perspective began to shift, and I didn’t feel this all-consuming desire to embody someone else.

Instead, simply being true to myself and living my own life seemed to fill the void in my heart that I’d tried to fill with acting.