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Cooper Nash has featured all too often in my fantasies this year, and I don’t think that’s going to be changing anytime soon.

For some reason, I think the situation might have just gotten a million times worse.

Anticipation grows as I follow Sienna and Calvin toward the friends and family box so that Calvin can commiserate the loss with his teammates.

The brief moment of eye contact with Nash still has my heart beating a little too fast and desire zapping through my veins.

It’s stupid. But I can’t help it.

Despite knowing he won’t be up here yet, I still scan the room for his large frame.

Players, friends, and family litter the space, drinking, laughing, and dissecting the game they just watched.

I trail the happy couple to the bar and accept a beer from Calvin when he orders it for me. Beer isn’t usually my go-to drink. I’m mostly a gin guy, but I’ll take anything I can get right now.

I have no idea if Nash will come up here. From what I can figure, he doesn’t have family local, so for all I know, he’s going to go straight home. He’s been in LA a few months now, but I don’t think he’s been photographed hanging out with any of the guys other than at events organized by the franchise that he doesn’t have a choice but to attend.

With my beer in hand, I embark on a detailed analysis of tonight’s game with Calvin while Sienna chats to Bea, her best friend. She’s snuggling with the newest addition to the Viper family, Freddie Donnelly. I’m not gonna tell Rett, because it’ll no doubt go to his head, but his son is possibly the cutest kid I’ve ever seen.

I watch my sister as she stares down at the little bundle in her arms with so much love in her eyes that I can’t help but wonder how long it’ll be until she and Calvin start trying for a little one of their own.

Knowing Sienna, she’ll want to be married first. We’ve both grown up watching our parents live out what we deem to be the perfect relationship, and I know that she wants the same thing for herself.

Of course, their relationship isn’t actually perfect. No one’s is. They’ve had their fair share of ups and downs. I remember some heated arguments when I was a teenager—Mom racing up the stairs in tears before the front door slammed as Dad stormed out of the house. But thankfully, those memories are rare. They always made up, put disagreements behind them, and only ever got stronger. They really are couple goals, and I hope that one day, when the time is right, I find someone who makes me as happy as they make each other.

It’s safe to say that my sister has already found it.

Despite being in my favorite place, talking about arguably the best sport in the world, the time drags. And it only gets worse as more players begin to arrive.

I keep one eye on the door, waiting to see if he’s going to appear.

But eventually, the new arrivals slow to a stop, and I have to assume that he’s not coming.

4

COOPER

My muscles are so tight they could snap, and they don’t get any better as Darcy, my new trainer, and also the man I watched Garrett laughing and dancing with on New Year’s Eve, digs his fingers into them.

I bite my tongue to stop myself from crying out. I’ve learned over the years that trainers are the worst kind of masochists, and if you show any sign of weakness, they only torture you further.

“How’s that feeling?” he asks as his thumb digs into a spot just beneath my ass that makes me want to cry like a baby.

“Yeah, great,” I force out, my voice unusually high.

He chuckles, clearly hearing the pain and suffering in my tone. “Hopefully, after this, you’ll barely feel it in the morning.”

Bullshit, I want to snap. Right now, I have a feeling that I’m going to feel this for the rest of my life.

I swear, I’m sweating more right now than I was out on the ice.

“Where else?” he asks when he finally releases me, allowing me to breathe for the first time in what feels like a year. “You took some pretty brutal hits tonight,” he tells me, as if I didn’t feel the force of every single one.

It’s safe to say I’m gonna wake up in the morning littered with bruises. Not that it’s anything new.

I’ve always played rough. I never had a choice.

Use your speed and your aggression. That’ll get you noticed. It’ll get you results.