Riggs (Arizona Vengeance 11)

Loosening my laces, I look up at my comrades and do something that is so out of character, I’m sure they’re questioning my sanity. “Any of you guys interested in going for a beer or two?”

While there’s still a cacophony of chatter, Kane, Jett, Steele, and Bain all go still and silent. They blink at me in confusion.

Finally, Jett says, “Da fuck?”

“Come on,” I exclaim, hands thrust outward. “It’s not that out of the ordinary for me to invite you guys out.”

“It’s world-ending sort of stuff,” Bain says in a low voice and makes the sign of the cross.

I roll my eyes. “Sneaky Saguaro,” I say adamantly. “First round is on me.”

“Second and third one too,” Kane says with a grin. “You have much lost time to make up for.”

“Fine,” I grouse, but secretly I’m pleased. Part of me thought they’d decline, as a sort of payback for all the times I’ve been invited and never gone. “Let’s grab Baden too.”

“It’s a plan,” Jim says, pulling his phone from his cubby. “Let me text Ella since she was expecting me home.”

“I better text Mollie.” Kane, too, grabs his phone.

“I’ll text my mom and let her know I’m going out with you big, whipped babies,” Bain says, and doubles over laughing. I laugh, too, because I feel the same. Don’t need to be asking permission from a woman to go do my thing with my buds.

Somehow, I think Veronica would never be the type to care if her man went and did his thing. She seems like the type who’s going to do her thing, and holy shit… why am I even thinking of her like this?

It happens at the oddest times, and in ways that aren’t perverted—although that has happened once or twice—but usually when I’m observing couples together, I wonder what type of half she would make to a whole. Janelle says she was in an awful marriage, and I’m betting whatever happened, she’ll never let it happen again.

Not that it would happen with me.

No way, no how.

Aaron pops his head around the corner of the cubbies. “Anyone going to the Big Cactus?” Our nickname for the Sneaky Saguaro.

“We all are,” I reply for the group.

Aaron blinks in surprise. “Even you?”

“Even me,” I say dryly and bend to work on my other skate.

“Good,” he says. “I’ve got a favor I wanted to talk to you about, anyway.”

I look up at him. No one on the team has asked me for a favor before. This would not be unusual in normal circumstances, but I’ve been so standoffish, I’m wondering what makes him feel comfortable asking now.

?

We’re three beers in at the Big Cactus when I start to relax. The other guys have an ease about them, forged by playing together last year, winning the Cup, and spending a great deal of social time together. But they’re good dudes, and they went overboard to make me feel included.

I let Janelle know via text I was going out after the game. Veronica was going to give her a ride home from the store since I’d be at the arena, but she didn’t need to stay with Janelle. She’s seventeen years old and more than able to stay a few hours by herself on game days.

I only have an adult watching over her while I’m away on road trips to ensure someone has her back in case of an emergency, and to ensure she’s got general oversight.

Most of the team came out tonight, but many are heading home. The fans have settled, and Bain, Aaron, Kane, Jett, Jim, Baden, and I are at a large, rectangular table on the first floor. Normally we go upstairs, but Baden refused to let us carry him. He ditched the wheelchair in favor of his crutches and braces, feeling comfortable enough to walk into our regular hangout to a secured area where we had a table reserved. Not a lot of crowds to maneuver, and he wanted people to see him up and moving on his own.

He’s ready to let the world watch his progress.

I have to give it to the guy. He’s handling his reintroduction back into the hockey world well. He can’t play yet and can only walk with crutches, but he’s coming to every game, and he’s going out in public. With the strides he’s making in rehab, I imagine it won’t be long before he’s walking on his own. We all hope he will become strong enough to return to the ice, but it’s anyone’s guess if that’ll ever happen.

Up until now, the conversation has been bawdy and irreverent, as only men can do when hanging out and beer is involved. Thankfully, Kane hasn’t brought up his damn wedding once, and there’s plenty of teasing of Jett for falling hard for Emory Holland, our team’s VP of social media marketing.