The Hockey Life

PART NINETY: HAPPY
Dylan’s POV

Forty seconds left on the clock. Smith had the puck, but I was ready for it now. He saw me and passed it. I received it easily, skating swiftly towards the net. I faked, then actually took a shot, and…it went in. It was 3-2, and thanks to my goal, the clock eventually ran down and we won. It felt so good to have scored the game winner. My teammates congratulated me, even Patrick. There was still something strange between us, but it had dwindled down a lot. The same went for Lena, who gave me a huge hug after the win. I still loved her hugs. There was still something there, just a little bit. But then Cassie found me and kissed me, and I forgot about the rest of the world for a few seconds.
Cassie used to be on Lena’s college hockey team with her. We were seated at the same table at Lena and Patrick’s wedding, and we really hit it off. She initiated the conversation first, which apparently wasn’t exactly normal for her. Lena said that she was generally pretty shy, even around Lena, until they had really gotten to know each other. She apparently was the quietest girl on the team, which was why everyone said she must have really been interested if she decided to say something to me first.
The wedding was a weird situation, considering everything that had happened, and the lingering feelings I had for Lena, but Cassie really distracted me from it all. She was the complete opposite of what I thought I wanted, after meeting Lena. Long, blonde hair, bright green eyes, a perfect smile…she was gorgeous, and so sweet to me at the wedding. We talked basically all night, and we danced together too. We swapped numbers, went on a couple dates, and here we were after a win, kissing, because she was officially my girlfriend.
“Get a room you two,” Sharpy chirped, and I just rolled my eyes.
“Preferably not the locker room,” Captain Serious added. Why, I wasn’t sure, but Kane flipped him off afterwards, so it must have had something to do with him. I went back to ignoring the guys and enjoying a moment with my girl, but after a minute or two all the wives and girlfriends had to leave so we could all get changed.
I was happy, I really was. Maybe it was because I was so new to this relationship, and it was still very exciting to me. Maybe it was because of someone liking me back, and the good feelings that gave me. Maybe it was because I had my dream job, and I was doing really well lately. Maybe it was because things were starting to get more normal between Lena and I again. It was probably a combination of all four, but I was feeling high on life, and I hoped that would last.

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Lena’s POV

“Hey Lean, the wedding pictures are here!” Patrick called from the kitchen. I was laying around in our bedroom, reading on my Kindle. The Hawks had a day off, so we had chosen to have a relaxing, lazy day. I was in my favorite pair of leggings and a long sleeved shirt from Pink, my hair natural and not a drop of makeup on, which felt so good. I got up and padded into the kitchen, where Patrick was digging into the cookie jar. Luckily for him, I did a lot of baking during the fall and winter months.
“You just got the mail?” I questioned him, helping myself to a cookie after he did.
“Yep. That’s the only interesting thing we got,” he replied. I smiled at him in his sweatpants and Blackhawks hoodie. He was adorable in comfy clothes.
We opened up the big envelope together. Inside was a disk with all of our pictures, as well as the few favorites we had selected to have printed out. They looked amazing, and I immediately grabbed the frames I had bought for them. I put the pictures inside and set them up on shelves around the apartment.
“It kind of looks like our wedding outside right now,” Pat noticed, peering out the living room window. It was lightly snowing outside, and there was already a thick layer of the fluffy stuff on the ground.
“Maybe we should have that snow day today. It’s not nearly as cold as it was before,” I offered.
“Really?” his eyes lit up in response.
“Really.”
We both put on a few heavy layers of clothing, hats, gloves, and scarves. We headed outside and he immediately grabbed some snow that he formed into a snowball. Before I could do anything, he threw it at my shoulder, where it exploded into dust.
“Oh, so THAT’S how it’s going to be!” He ran away quickly as I made a snowball of my own. He took cover behind a bush, but as soon as he popped his head up into, view, I threw my snowball. I missed, and I knew he was making a bunch of ammo in his safe zone, so I did the same thing. We started out staying hidden, attempting to hit each other when one of us took a peek. That got boring, though, so we ended up grabbing a bunch of the snowballs we made and running after each other, throwing them all. Some people were staring, but we didn’t care. We kept going until we ran out of snow to throw, and we sat down on the ground to catch our breath.
“Too bad there’s not enough snow for a snowman,” I commented. I almost wanted to take off a few layers. All the running around actually made me a little hot.
“There’s enough for snow angels,” Patrick noticed, so he laid down and started making one.
“You’re such a child,” I giggled, taking a Snapchat video of him for proof.
“Oh, come on. You know you want to make a snow angel too,” he pestered me. As much as I wanted to pretend he was wrong, he was completely right. I finally gave in and made one too before standing up and looking at our masterpieces.
We walked around outside for a bit until we started to get too cold. That was when we headed in and finally got to have the peppermint hot chocolate that I loved so much. We spent the rest of the day watching movies and playing video games in our comfiest outfits, and all the relaxation was perfect. The next day would be a different story, but at least we got to have one good day off.

Notes