I Want You Back (Want You #1)(76)

I was a fucking dead man.

But for now, I was trying to gauge if she had other injuries as I said, “I saw it, squirt. That breakaway was perfect.”

“Wherth Mommy? Did sthe thee my firth goal ever? Did sthe video it?”

Lucy was gonna kill me twice for this.

“Mommy is not here yet.”

“Mimi, are you okay to play?” a familiar voice asked above me.

I glanced up and saw the referee was none other than . . . Gabi.

The universe was having a glorious time screwing with me today.

“Are you as surprised to see me, Lund, as I am surprised to see both of you?”

A swish of skates sounded behind me. The other ref asked, “What’s the holdup?”

“The player lost a tooth after colliding with the goal. Her dad is helping her off the ice.”

“No!” Mimi said. “Don’t make me go! I wanna play.”

For fuck’s sake. Seriously, universe?

“Maybe you should sit on the bench for a few moments,” Gabi suggested. “Catch your breath. Get a drink and wipe the blood off your mouth.”

Blood. Why wasn’t my little girl screaming at the sight of blood?

“Therth not that muth blood,” Mimi scoffed.

I heard a chuckle and saw that Nolan was taping us.

He wouldn’t find it so funny if I slammed his smarmy ass into the boards.

“Here, Daddy.”

Mimi held out her mouth guard. Inside the blood-dotted plastic mold was her baby tooth.

“Wanna thave it for the thooth fairy.”

I gently dumped it in my hand and stood up.

Gabi tried to confront me. Although I had several inches and at least seventy-five pounds on her, I felt small enough that it seemed she towered over me.

“Unauthorized persons on the ice usually results in automatic forfeit. But I’ll let it slide this one time due to an injury. But if you ever do anything like that again at any game where I’m officiating? I will throw you out of the rink. Understood?”

“Yes, ref.”

After I exited the ice, I turned to say something to Mimi, but she’d already skated off to the bench.

It was probably wrong to feel proud that she got right back in the game.

The second thing out of Nolan’s mouth after “Is Mimi all right?” was “Dude. You are so dead.”

Tell me about it.

Rather than freaking Lucy out and getting her to drive over here when the game was almost over, I took the chickenshit route and texted her.

    ME: Hey, are you around? Mimi wants to swing by for something.

LQ: I’m home all night. Is everything all right?



No, you’re going to lose your shit when you realize that I broke at least two of the “hockey rules” we laid out . . . within the first month.

Instead of sending a text, I sent her a thumbs-up emoji, so technically that wasn’t lying.

Next to me, Nolan clucked.

Asshole.



* * *



? ? ?

Mimi’s team won with her one goal, and she was on cloud nine.

That’s probably why it was taking her so long to emerge from the locker room.

It also gave Gabi the chance to skate over.

Awesome.

“Cheating on Lakeside already, Lund?”

I bristled. “I could ask the same.”

“I can’t ref at my home rink, and I’m required to ref, so I have no choice but to rotate to other rinks for games. What’s your excuse?”

“And who are you?” Nolan inserted.

Gabi ignored him as she waited for my response.

“You know why Mimi needs to explore other options. Besides, it was just a drop-in game.”

“Where she scored a goal. Now she won’t want to play with her assigned team. It’s only a matter of a few practices before she’ll be begging you to move her to this rink, or one of the other rinks with a coach who isn’t a clueless d-bag.”

“I can’t solve the problems at Lakeside.”

“You haven’t even tried. Geez, Lund, I thought you of all people would call that little sucker out. But you just sit in the stands, during games and practices, doing nothing. Nothing.”

“Hey,” Nolan said sharply, “I don’t know who you are or what you think gives you the right to speak to him that way, but simmer down, sister.”

Again, Gabi didn’t even acknowledge my brother as her eyes were too focused on melting my resolve with her death-ray stare.

A whistle blew behind her and she turned and nodded before facing me again. “You’ve shown you can put up and shut up. It’s past time for you to man up, Stonewall, and you know it.” She turned and skated off.

“Who is that?”

I scrubbed my hands over my face. “Gabriella Welk, the assistant coach for Mimi’s team at Lakeside.”

“So? Who is she?”

“So, she’s also the Gabi Welk, outstanding player for Fargo North High School and winner of back-to-back state hockey championships, who was offered full-ride scholarships to every major college in the country with a winning women’s hockey program—including the University of Minnesota—all of which she declined and signed on with the University of North Dakota in hopes of bringing a women’s Frozen Four championship to UND. She was a finalist for the Kazmaier Award. She also played for the U.S. Women’s National Team for six years, and was part of the team that won two Four Nations Cups, in addition to winning three World Championships. She was a key player on the U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team in the 2010 and 2014 Olympics, winning two silver medals. Then she was chosen as the first female assistant coach to the UND men’s hockey team, but she resigned in protest last year when UND eliminated the women’s hockey program. She moved to the Cities after her younger sister Dani transferred from UND to the U of M to play hockey, so Gabi could continue to coach her since Dani’s playing on the U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team in February representing the U.S. in PyeongChang. Lakeside was the only place Gabi could get hired on such short notice that allowed her to keep a flexible schedule.”