Page 102 of Risky Play

“You love him, right?” Ari asked.

“So much,” I whispered.

“Then that’s settled. Tell him you love him, tell your brother so you can get back to getting laid and stop fucking up on the ice,” Elsa said and took a huge swig of her drink.

I stared back at her. If only it was that simple.

“I–”

She cut me off with a glare. “Fuck off with that brother bullshit. You’re scared.”

“What?”

“She’s right,” Ari said. “You're afraid of your feelings that you’re making your brother an excuse to drive a wedge in between you when you don’t need it.”

Kiira nodded in agreement.

I took in all their words and drank the rest of my beer. I loved Matt. I did, with all my heart and soul. Maybe I was scared. I needed to think more about this.

“Can we talk about that shitty game now?” Elsa asked.

I groaned.

Kiira laughed. “Is that all you think about?”

Elsa shrugged and pointed at me. “She’s the best player on the team, and she showed up tonight like she forgot how to skate!”

Ari looked a little lost at the conversation switch to hockey talk.

“E, if anyone needs to get laid, it’s you,” Kiira teased.

Elsa bristled at that. “I’m fine.”

“Do you miss Ty?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. We knew our relationship was over a long time ago. We’ve been together since fifth grade. We didn’t even know ourselves yet.”

“Oh. Matt seems to think⁠—”

She groaned. “Matt’s so romantic. He thinks we’re pining for each other. We’re not! I assure you, we’re not.”

I held up my hands.

“Enough relationship talk. We gotta talk about getting better on the power play.”

We all shook our heads at Elsa.

“Never change, E, never change,” Kiira said.

We let her rant about how shitty we played, and I felt a lot of the guilt fall on my shoulders. I was half paying attention as I looked at my phone, hoping that maybe Matt had reached out, but he hadn’t. I wanted to text him, but my fear still froze me with inaction. Maybe the girls were right to say I was scared, but I wasn’t ready for what that all meant.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

MATT

I grinned at the petite brunette bounding across the parking lot to Dinah’s borrowed car. If anyone could get me out of my foul mood, it was my sister.

“Get in the back,” I said to Ty, who sat in my passenger seat.