It's Our Time (Carolina Rebels 3)

I mostly listen, but sometimes, I contribute to the conversation ran by Sylvia and Meredith. It’s odd that before she was obsessed with finding out the backstory between Ian and me, but now, she hasn’t mentioned it once.

“How come you’re not being nosy?” I blurt out.

That surprises Sylvia for half a second. “Because I know what happened now.”

“How?”

“The guys were curious, too. How do you think we knew about you in the first place? Ian talked about you. He told the guys the full story and they told us. Well, Scott wasn’t one of them, but Marc and Noah were and after a while, Lizzy and Meredith got tired of me hounding them, so they told me. Curiosity satisfied; I can move on and forget about it.”

A second too late, my face blanches as I realize what this means. They most likely know that I kept Savannah from Ian. What do they think about me? Are they just being nice to me because Ian asked them to be? Sylvia puts a hand on my knee.

“We may be nosy, but we don’t judge.” She squeezes my knee and pulls her hand away, but a second later, she leans in. “Okay, I lied. We do judge, but it’s not our place to judge you for that. We like you and if you haven’t noticed, we don’t really talk to some of the other women. Since we do like you, we’d like to keep you in our circle. Does that work for you?”

She seems serious enough. Meredith is waiting for my response as well. The second period is about to start, so Lizzy has already put the headphones back on. “Yeah, sure.” Looks like I have new friends.

“Good. Okay, let’s test your knowledge and see if you retained anything from the first period.”

Oh, boy. She wants me to give her a play-by-play account of what’s happening on the ice? I spot my number eighty-five, take a deep breath, and figure I can do this. He’s my invested interest, the reason I care in the first place, so I’ve been paying attention. It’s time to show it.

Captain Hook rubs a hand over his hair from front to back and lets out a short puff of a sigh as he grabs the pair of boxing gloves, which he last received, and stands. The music is turned down and the room goes mostly silent. “I’ll make this short and sweet.”

“You? Sweet?” Tommy Boy interrupts, earning himself some chuckles and a glare from Brayden.

“He got the game-winning goal and he was the best D-man on the ice tonight. Good job, Bruiser.” Brayden tosses them to me and I catch them easily.

“Thanks, Captain Hooker. We all did real well.”

“Fucker,” he grumbles. He tolerates Captain Hook. Making it Hooker pushes it too far. I like to tease him every now and then. That’s all I’m willing to do. Brayden is usually an uptight guy, always serious, and I think in all the time I’ve known him, he’s smiled maybe twice. I don’t think he even smiles after he scores. It’s like the

re’s a permanent frown on his face.

Zane and Marc slap my shoulders in congrats as the rest of the guys hoot from their places across the room. A social media guru for the team comes in, so I hurry up and hang them around my neck for the photo she’ll take.

“Bruiser’s just showing off tonight because his woman came to watch,” Rams says.

“That makes sense,” Olsey nods. “He’s usually such a slacker.” He grins.

“Thank fuck he’s finally with his woman. He can focus instead of being on his phone all the damn time,” Marc adds.

“Shut the hell up. All of you.” Sydney had no effect on how I played. Thinking of her now, though, reminds me that I need to hurry the hell up and get out of here.

“Why do we have boxing gloves anyway?” Z asks, a bit quietly even though the music is turned back up so it’s unlikely anyone but me will hear him anyway.

“Ah, because Rebels are fighters? It’s symbolic? You gotta fight for what you want.”

“Kind of ironic though, don’t you think? We take the gloves off when we fight.”

I laugh. “Hey, I didn’t pick it.”

I make my way to the showers for a quick one and then get dressed, listening to the guys talk about our plans. A bunch of us are going to a bar. It surprises me a little that Brayden is going. He normally goes home if I had to guess. Which, it’s not like I always went out with the team because I chose Sydney instead, but when I did go, Brayden wasn’t there. Liam never goes either, and even he is going tonight. There are just some nights that brings those teammates out of their hiding places. This must be one of those nights.

“Are you going to the bar?” Zane asks me.

“Yeah. You?”

“Don’t think so.”

“How come?” He normally goes, I think, and especially if I go.