Page 46 of Unhinged Obsession

Madi doesn’t release me right away, so I glance over her shoulder to see what Winter is pointing at and immediately find Hayden pressed against the glass. He isn’t skating, passing a puck, or participating in anything that could reasonably be described as warming up. Instead, he is standing perfectly still with both gloved hands braced against the boards, glaring directly at me like I personally orchestrated this hug to ruin his afternoon.

“Down, boy,” Winter calls loudly enough for him to hear. “Go get the puck. I’ll throw you a treat.” She holds up a bag of what looks like sour candy and wiggles it as if to distract him.

“Now I’m going to have to fight Lockwood for the entire game,” Elijah groans, and I realize in his tone that he’s aware that Hayden wouldn’t actually hurt me, but he is going to be insufferable on the ice.

Hayden’s head snaps toward Winter with such offended disbelief that I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. He gives Winter a look that could probably frighten a typical person into leaving the arena, but she only smiles sweetly and wiggles her fingers at him until he turns back toward us. By then, Madi has finally released me, which seems to lower his immediate threat level, although he continues watching closely enough that I’m starting to understand why the referee outside was willing to abandon the game entirely.

Madi looks at him as though none of this is unusual. She smiles, presses her fingertips to her lips, and blows him a kiss through the glass.

The change in Hayden is immediate. The murderous tension drains out of his face, replaced by a smile so warm and unexpectedly sweet that I almost wonder if I imagined the man who was glaring at me two seconds ago. He reaches up with one glove, catches the invisible kiss, and carefully presses it against the center of his chest like she handed him something precious instead of blowing him a kiss across a hockey rink.

It’s almost adorable.

Then Madi turns away to lead me toward the seats, and Hayden’s expression changes right back.

His attention shifts past me to Elijah, who is still standing at my side, and even through the glass I can clearly make out the words he mouths.

I’m gonna fuck you up.

“Great,” Elijah groans, before I can laugh, his arm circles my waist and pulls me back against his chest, his lips brushing the top of my head while he continues staring across the ice at Hayden. “If he takes off his skate and tries to stab me with it, remember I love you.”

A laugh spills out of me as I tilt my head back to look at him, and he guides me over to my seat. “I love you too.”

“The other night Winter asked him if he has trouble cutting his steak because he has small hands for someone his size,” Lilac tells us, leaning around Winter so she can see us. “He made everyone compare hands with him to prove that his hands are the perfect size for his body.”

Winter snorts out a laugh and nods eagerly. “He gets all screechy. It’s so funny.”

Madi turns toward both of them with an exasperated look, swatting one hand through the air as though she can physically knock the suggestion away before either of us decides to use it. “No more of that; he doesn’t need to be riled up before a friendly little game.”

Elijah’s eyebrows lift, but he wisely says nothing. I know exactly what he’s thinking, though, because nothing seems friendly about anyone on the ice right now.

“I love when we play St. Augustine,” Madi continues as she sits down and pats the open seat next to her. “It’s always so nice because it’s just a game between friends.”

My jaw drops before she even finishes speaking.

Most of the Castlebrook players are still skating through warm-ups, sending pucks toward the net or stretching along the boards, but Hayden is no longer anywhere near the glass. He is on top of Callum in front of the Castlebrook goal, and both of them are punching each other in the side of the helmet with enough enthusiasm that I’m fairly certain neither one remembers they’re supposed to be on the same team. Callum is laughing, and I realize what must be going on because Hayden pins him down and grabs his hand, and rips his glove off only to throw it across the ice. I’m confused at first because Callum has given up and is just there belly laughing while Hayden takes his own glove off and forces Callum to uncurl his fingers and press their palms together.

“What is he even doing? I don’t want to play anymore if this is the fuckery I’m going to have to deal with?” Elijah asks in such an exasperated voice that I have to cover my face in an effort not to snort and embarrass myself in front of the girls.

“Callum said he was going to ask him if he needed help holding his stick with his tiny hands,” Lilac admits sheepishly, and Madi lets out a groan, throwing her head back and slouching in her chair.

“Hey, I know this is my fault, but I was going to buy like four pairs of Hayden’s shoes and slowly replace them with bigger sizes until he was convinced he had teeny tiny feet,” Winter says, pushing her long black braid over her shoulder and sighing at her wasted potential. “I could have done that, but I knew that was probably too far, so I settled for the hand thing, and now they’re trying to kill each other.” She shrugs her shoulders like this really isn't a big deal at all.

Madi gives Winter a knowing look, which makes her confess almost immediately. “Okay, fine, I didn’t do the shoe thing because Hayden has big ass feet and there weren’t enough sizes above his to make it work.” Madi only shakes her head and then turns her attention back to the ice when Winter waves her hand and points to Tristan. “My man is behaving himself, like always.” In Winter LeBlanc’s eyes, Tristan can do no wrong. I glance up at Elijah, and discreetly run my fingers under the hem of his shirt just to feel the hard skin of his lower stomach. Immediately, he pushes into my touch, and I suddenly understand how Winter feels. Because to me, Elijah can do no wrong either.

“Yours treats ours like they’re a science experiment he doesn’t want to be near,” Lilac says, pointing at Tristan, who had been looking at Winter, but must have seen Lilac’s gesture. He frowns like he’s offended that she’s perceiving him in any way.

Hayden and Callum roll over and land a little too close for Tristan’s comfort. He stands inside the crease watching them with the weary resignation of someone who has accepted this as a typical part of being their goalie. He doesn’t attempt to break up the fight or call for their coach or a ref. He simply waits until one of Hayden’s legs flails across the blue paint before using the blade of his goalie stick to shove it back out, then does the same with Callum’s arm when it lands too close to his space.

“He’s friends with them, right? Like I’ve always known them to be best friends, but maybe I have it wrong,” I say, and it’s Winter who answers me.

“He would do anything for them, but he’s going to be annoyed the whole time. It’s just their thing. It works for them,” she says, but then her attention is turned toward Tristan. She blows him a kiss, and he reaches out and catches it, only for Hayden to grab him by the ankle and bring him down into the absolutely absurd scuffle.

He pops Hayden on the head with his stick before tossing it and giving in to the urge to throw a punch. Apparently Tristan is not behaving any better than anyone else in this little group.

“They broke a guy’s nose and threw him into the penalty box once for daring to shoulder check their goalie,” Elijah says, like him and his brothers aren’t any more ridiculous than the trio on the ice.

Winter nods, and I can see the pride in her whole demeanor when she says, “They’re very protective of each other. Especially Tristan. They’ll throw hands if…” She’s cut off by Lilac.

“Let’s be honest, they’ll throw hands at the slightest inconvenience,” Lilac says, and she has such a pretty laugh. When she stands, clapping her hands and whistling before calling to the boys, I realize she’s all decked out in pink with bow accessories too. Paris would have loved to be here today with these girls, and I can’t help but acknowledge that it’s a little bittersweet that she isn’t. “You’re going to be too exhausted to actually play!”

All three of the Castlebrook Kings – who are currently being chastised by someone half their size – freeze for a moment. It appears that they’re letting her words sink in, looking at each other the best they can, given how tangled up they are. It’s as if they’re collectively and silently weighing their options, but that only lasts for one short moment. It’s Hayden who makes the decision by swinging on Tristan, and then the three of them, hockey game be damned, go right back to fighting each other.

“Hopefully they’ll tire one another out before the game starts,” Elijah says dryly, leaning down to kiss me one last time before he heads off toward the locker room. As I watch him go, I see Noah waiting for him, but he’s dressed oddly. Normally he shows up to games in sweatpants and a hoodie or a t-shirt. He has on black tactical pants with pockets on the side and a black jacket zipped up, paired with black combat boots. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Noah wearing boots before, and it might seem like a really small thing, but my intuition hasn’t let me down yet.

I watch as he greets Elijah and they stand close as if they’re speaking conspiratorily. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I suspect it has something to do with Ivy Davenport and where she’s been since last summer.

There’s a loud thud that jerks my attention to the partition in front of us. It’s Hayden pressing one of his teammate’s faces against the glass who I don’t recognize. He’s yelling at him for touching his goalie, and I realize that Tristan is back in his usual spot while Callum swings his stick and wacks a puck at the guy Hayden has a hold of.

“You hit me with one of those, and I’m going to fuck you up,” Hayden yells at Callum, and I’m so confused.

“What did I miss?” I ask, sinking in my seat to enjoy the show. For once, in a really long time, things actually feel like they’re going to be okay.

“Peterson tried to break up their little disagreement by pulling on Tristan’s leg,” Lilac says it like any reasonable person could draw the conclusion of how we got from that to Hayden pressing his face against the glass, and it wobbles with the force. “I don’t know why he thought that was a good idea.”

“He’s new,” Winter chimes in before looking at me. “The boys are going to be exhausted after the game, so we always plan a sneaky little girls’ movie night after they fall asleep. You wanna come?”

“I’d love that,” I say, smiling at her before I slowly turn my head toward Madi and see that she’s still smiling as Hayden literally tosses a grown man with blades on his feet across the ice like this is exactly what she meant by a friendly little game.