“Do you know those guys over there?” Lovey asked her friend. “No, don’t look yet.”

Jillian grinned. “Where?”

“Three o’clock. Three good-looking dudes, all in jeans, nice sweaters. One has a short beard.”

Jillian shifted position casually, looked the other way as if studying the crowd, tossed her hair back, and looked toward the guys, her gaze skimming past them. “Nope. Don’t know them. But they’re cute.”

“Yeah. They were watching us.”

Jillian lifted an eyebrow and sipped her beer. “Hmmm.”

Lovey looked back at the guy whose eye she’d caught, made eye contact again, smiled, and looked away. It was only minutes later when the men approached. “You ladies here at the game alone?” one of them asked.

Lovey smiled. “We are.”

“Hockey fans?”

“I sure am.”

“Cool. Cheering for the Aces, I assume?”

Lovey sipped her beer. “What if I said I’m a Bruins fan?”

Jillian choked.

The guy grinned. “I’m open-minded. Someone as pretty as you can cheer for whoever you want.”

Lovey just shook her head. “Aw. Thank you. But I’m kidding. I’m definitely an Aces fan.”

The guys introduced themselves as Corey, Hakim, and Josh. They flirted a little until the third period was set to start.

“What are you doing after the game?” Corey asked Lovey. “Join us for a drink?”

Lovey tipped her head to one side. “I’m not sure. We might be meeting up with my brother and his friends after the game.” She sensed Jillian’s amusement. “I’m not sure where we’re going.”

“Here’s my number,” Corey said, handing her a card. “Let us know where you end up. Maybe we can all hang out.”

“Sure.” She took the card with a smile and tucked it into her pocket and she and Jillian returned to their seats.

“They’re nice,” Jillian said.

“I guess.” Flirting was fun, sure, so why did she keep thinking of taciturn Captain Codger?

And there he was, on the ice, ready for the opening face-off of the third period, his face intense behind his visor. She watched him take the face-off, legs spread so wide he was almost doing the splits, leaning on his stick so low to the ice. His stick flashed and he won the face-off, getting the puck to his winger. He immediately headed toward the net. Lovey bit her lip, eyes flicking from him to the play, back to him. He took a neat pass, still driving to the net, took a shot that rebounded off the goalie’s pads. It was handled by Duncan as Marc rounded to the back of the net. She recalled what he’d been saying earlier and she watched eagerly, edging forward in her seat as the puck flew from one stick to another, finally back to Marc, who came from behind the net. As if he had all the time in the world, he played with it a bit, stickhandling with his head up, watching the defense and the goalie, and with a sharp flick of his wrists the puck flew past the net minder and into the goal.

The crowd erupted as the horn blasted and Lovey and Jillian jumped to their feet along with everyone else. A wide smile crossed her face as she cheered and clapped. “DUDE!” she yelled, although Marc couldn’t hear. As he skated past the bench, smacking gloves with his teammates, she saw his smile, and holy cheese whiz, he had a gorgeous smile. Even with his mouth guard in, it was wide and dazzling. Wow. What would it feel like to have that smile directed at her?

She swore she caught his eye as he entered the player’s bench and she shivered a little.

For the rest of the game, he continued to lead by example, playing hard, hitting hard, skating hard. On his next shift, he fed the puck to Duncan for another goal, to tie the game.

Lovey jumped up and down, clapping. “Yay!”

Now the crowd was energized again, the atmosphere electric for the next face-off. Marc was on the bench and Lovey’s eyes were drawn to him, watching as a trainer toweled his visor off for him and helped him replace his helmet, then gave him a smack of encouragement on the shoulder. His back was to her but she could tell he was focused intently on the game. “One more, guys,” she muttered. “One more. Come on!”

Then the whistle blew and a penalty was called against the Aces, against Olaf Pilkvist. “Goalie interference?” Lovey cried. “Are you kidding me? He was totally pushed into the net!”

They watched the replay several times; it was crystal clear that Olaf hadn’t deserved the penalty. Lovey watched Marc on the ice arguing with the ref, as the team captain the only one who could do that. Of course it was to no avail; the ref wasn’t going to change his mind. But there were reasons Marc had to argue: one of them, so his team saw him standing up for them; another, so the ref and linesman were on notice that they’d made a bad call.

She couldn’t hear what Marc was saying. It appeared to be a fairly heated discussion, but the ref was allowing it, so Marc probably wasn’t shouting profanity at him. Olaf went to the penalty box for two minutes.

The crowd was on the edge of their seats watching the Aces play shorthanded. When the penalty ended, there would be only three minutes left in the game, so they needed to kill this penalty and then try for one more goal for the win. But just as the penalty ended and before Olaf could skate from the penalty box to the play at their end, one of the Bruins scored.

The atmosphere in the arena deflated.

“Shit.” Lovey slumped back in her seat. She watched with other disappointed fans as the Bruins then scored an empty net goal when Brent was pulled from the goal, ending the game at four-two for Boston.

“No need to rush out,” she said to Jillian with a sigh. “They’ll be doing media interviews for a bit. Though Duncan does change pretty quickly.”

They watched as the three stars were announced, Marc getting the third star despite the loss. Lovey smiled as he tossed his stick over the glass to a kid who was beyond excited, and when Marc flashed that smile again at the boy, her heart gave a little bump.

She wanted him.

She gave a small sigh of acceptance. She’d admitted it.

They hung out for a while waiting for Duncan’s text message. Going to Eddy’s for food. Coming?

She looked up at Jillian. “They’re going to Eddy’s. Wanna go?”

“Sure!”

“I assume you know where it is,” she said to Jillian as they strolled to an exit.

“Yeah. It’s not exactly walking distance from here.”

“We can wait for Duncan. I’ll see how much longer he’ll be.”

She texted back and forth with him and eventually they met up with him at an exit. She introduced him and Jillian and they headed out to Duncan’s new vehicle. Jillian climbed into the back, leaving the front seat for Lovey. Lovey turned to her friend. “Should I text those guys we met and tell them where we’re going?”

“Yeah! They seemed like fun.”

“What guys?” Duncan demanded.

Lovey’s thumbs were busy. “Some guys we met in the second intermission.”

Duncan frowned as he pulled out of his parking spot. “Jesus, Lovey.”

“What?” She looked up from her phone. “You don’t want me dating hockey players. You apparently don’t want me dating anyone. Would it make you feel better if I told you Jillian’s a lesbian and she and I are dating?”

A choking sound came from the backseat.

“Jesus Christ,” Duncan muttered.

Lovey glanced behind her and saw Jillian shaking with silent laughter.

“Your sister’s hot, dude,” Jillian said. “Can’t keep my hands off her.”

“That is not funny,” Duncan growled.

Now Lovey dissolved into giggles. “You should see your face.”

He made a growling noise. “You’re gonna kill me, Lovey.”

“You love me,” she said with complete confidence and a smile.

“You are not a lesbian.”

“How do you know that?”

He frowned. “Was that the problem with Richard?”

Now she wanted to choke on her laughter. “Huh. Maybe it was.” Was he actually falling for this? She bit her lip. “By the way, nice goal in the third period there.”