Pucking Around: A Why Choose Hockey Romance (Jacksonville Rays Book 1)

“Honey, don’t get mad,” mom says.

“Don’t get mad?” I cry. “Too late! What the hell was that? Where did all those people come from? What are they doing here?”

“They’re here to see you,” Tess replies. “To support you, Rach. You and the guys.”

“Support me?”

“Yeah—look, we really need to let Caleb explain,” she says, nodding at my mom.

“Caleb?” I squawk. I feel like the world’s worst trained parrot, only able to echo every fourth word they’re saying.

“Come on, honey,” mom says, taking my arm. “Everything will make sense in a minute.”

The security guard scans our tickets and then mom and Tess lead me through the maze of the lower level towards our seat section. As soon as we enter the throngs of people, all hell breaks loose again.

From left and right, people start shouting my name. They surge to get closer. Mom and Tess stay to either side, holding my hands. Fans wave posters when they see me, cheering and screaming our names. Not just mine. I hear a lot of shouts for Jake and Ilmari, even Caleb. Most of the posters sport the numbers 31 and 42. And two words are on almost every single one.

PRICE IS LOVE

LOVE IS LOVE

FALL IN LOVE AT ANY PRICE

“We love you guys, Rachel!” one young woman calls out.

“Love the jersey!” comes a shout from the other direction.

“We’re here for you, Rachel!”

“Love is love!”

Suddenly, wearing this jersey feels like I’ve got a big target painted on my back. This is crazy. “I need to go to the bathroom,” I pant. I don’t need to go; I just need to get out of these throngs of people.

Mom glances over her shoulder. “But we’re almost to our section—”

“Now,” I cry, tugging us out of the flow of traffic towards the women’s restroom. I go in first. Rushing around the corner, I find the edge of the sink and hold on for dear life. I look up at my reflection in the mirror and take a deep breath.

Mom and Tess come in to flank either side of me, mom putting her hand on my shoulder. We look so much alike. Except where my eyes are dark brown, hers are blue.

“Oh, honey,” she murmurs. “I’m sorry. I warned them this would be a lot for you to take. Harrison likes the spotlight, but you were always my little snuggle bunny. You prefer the calm and the quiet.”

I hold her gaze in the mirror, the tears in her eyes reflecting the tears in mine.

“This was never going to be easy,” she goes on, brushing my hair back behind my ear. “In choosing them, you’ve chosen a difficult path for yourself. A path that will mean leaving the comfort of your burrow…at least for a little while. But if you love them as you say you do, you need to understand what this means to them. You need to see how much they need it. How much they need you,” she adds gently.

“Mom,” I whimper, the tears threatening to fall.

“I was worried when you first told me about them,” she admits. “Not about the polyamory,” she adds quickly. “We’re Prices. We’ve seen and done it all already.”

I sigh, shaking my head as next to me Tess laughs. Understatement of the decade.

“I was worried that they wouldn’t understand you,” mom goes on. “I was worried they would take from you. And you’re such a giver, honey. You’d give the clothes off your back. But they do know you, Rachel. They see you. They know what you need. Let them give it to you now. Let them show the world how much they love you. Let them have this moment. Ride it out with them, and they’ll be yours forever.”

“They did this,” I whisper, already knowing it to be true. Who else could?

Mom and Tess both nod.

“And you both knew? Of course, you did,” I answer for them. “That’s why you’re really here, isn’t it,” I say at Tess’s reflection.

“We all love you, Rach,” she says with a watery smile. “You deserve your happily ever after. You’ve got three knights in shining skates out there, waiting to show the world what your love means to them.” She holds out a hand. “Come on. Let’s go find them.”

I nod, sniffing back my tears as I turn. My focus catches on something in the mirror and I glance back. “Umm…Tess?”

She looks back at me. “Hmm?”

“What am I wearing?”

She flashes a grin at my mom. “Yeah, I totally can’t believe you let me get away with that.”

I look in the mirror again. I’m wearing a Rays jersey. Jake’s jersey. The front has the Rays logo, and the top shoulders have Jake’s 42s. But the back is Ilmari’s 31. And instead of either of their names at the top, the jersey reads PRICE.

“What am I wearing?” I say again.

“We reeeeeally need to find Caleb,” Tess says, grabbing my hand.

My determination hardens into stone as I set my fear and confusion aside. Oh yeah, we are going to find Caleb. And then I’m getting answers.

Rushing down the stairs of our section, mom calls out our seat numbers again.

“AA, seats one through four!”

All around us, people shout when they see me. I hear more people screaming my name, waving signs. Why the heck are they screaming my name? That’s what I’m not understanding. Why Price?

As we near the bottom of the stairs, I stop dead in my tracks. Standing there in the BB row, just behind our seats, are two faces I know as well as my own: Harrison and Somchai. They’re both looking over their shoulders, smiling up at me.

My gaze catches on the face of a pretty woman standing next to Harrison. Something about her is familiar. She’s young, maybe late 20s. Her dark hair is pulled up in a ponytail and she’s holding a beer as she smiles up at me…and she’s wearing a Compton jersey.

An explosion goes off in my mind and now I’m crying again. “Amy,” I say, hurrying down the last four stairs to my row.

She laughs, holding out one arm, sticking her beer out to the side. “Hey, Rachel! So nice to finally meet you. My brother hasn’t shut up about you for months.”

I’m laughing and I’m crying as I hug her.

“And you’ll notice her twin, the man who shared a womb with her, gets ignored,” Harrison says with a huff.

Amy lets me go, and then we’re all laughing as I hug Som first. He rocks a whole Thai mob boss vibe, with tattoos covering most of his body, even up his neck and a few on his scalp. His hair is growing in a bit, long on top like Ilmari’s. He looks tough, but inside he’s a big softie.

“Hey, sissy,” he says, giving my cheek a kiss.

“What the heck are you guys doing here?” I cry, finally giving Harrison his hug.

“Price Family always comes first,” Harrison says, kissing my other cheek.

Mom, Tess, and I shift into our row. As soon as I’m standing in front of the plexiglass, I turn, looking up into the stands. All around us people are wearing 31 and 42 jerseys. A woman moves to the side, and I do a double take. The back of her jersey reads PRICE.

My heart starts to race as I read more of the signs. This can’t be happening. This isn’t real—

“Finally!” Tess cries.

I turn around to see Caleb jogging down the stairs of the section, favoring his good leg. Behind him, people scream and cheer. He comes down to the bottom of the row, stopping to shake hands with Harrison and Somchai. Amy throws her arms around him, and they hug. Then he slips past mom, and she hugs him too. Tess just squeezes back in the row saying, “Boy, you better work your magic before she bolts!”

And then Caleb is standing before me, his dark gaze rooting me to the bleachers. “Hey, Hurricane,” he says with a smile. He takes my hand, weaving our fingers together.

“Cay, what is going on?” I murmur.

“You hadn’t noticed? We figured if the press was going to make us into a spectacle, we’d just beat them to it.” He gestures behind us to the sea of people waving posters.

“I don’t understand,” I say with a shake of my head. “What did you do?”

“We came out,” he replies. “Well, Jake and I came out. We’ve been photographed every night this week in public being…out,” he says with a smirk. “He’s been doing interviews, podcasts, a few TV spots.”

“What?” I say on a breath.

“Yep, Jake Compton is officially very out as a bisexual NHL player. Poppy is calling him the new face of queerness in pro sports,” he adds with a roll of his eyes.

“And…you’re okay?” I murmur, squeezing his hand.

“More than okay,” he replies. “It had to happen. To get what we all want, he and I had to come out.”

“But you’re not the only ones, are you?” I say with a raised brow.

He smiles. “Baby, the three of us have been doing press for five days coming out in every way possible. Mars has even been doing it in two languages.”

“What?” I cry. “How did I miss this? My phone has been radio silent,” I say as I tug it from my pocket.

He dares to look a little sheepish. “Yeah…babe, that’s not your phone.” He pulls a matching phone from his pocket. Same case and everything. “This is your phone.”

I gasp. “Oh, what the fuck?”

“Turns out Mars could be a spy,” he says. “He mirrored them and swapped them when he took you to the airport. That’s just a burner. No one has been able to contact you because no one has that number. And Poppy and your dad have been running major interference. It’s getting gnarly, to be honest.”

I gasp, snatching the phone from his hand and unlocking the screen. I’ve got hundreds of alerts and notifications. Even as I hold the phone, it’s buzzing with more. “Oh, I am going to murder you!” I hiss. “Is that why all these people are here?”

“Yeah, they all know our story now,” he replies. “They know how you and Jake met in Seattle. They know how we met at the airport. They know how you cared for Ilmari.”

Sensing my panic, Caleb cups my cheek and leans in. “Baby, breathe. This is good, okay? It’s all good.”

“What do you mean?” I cry, my brain already going into overdrive thinking of all the ways this will blow up.

“You’ve been taught to think that the press is wholly bad,” he says. “That people knowing your story can only be bad. That they only want to tear you down.”

I can’t help but scoff. “Well, duh—”

“But look around,” he says, gesturing up to the stands. “For every one troll who has something negative to say about us, there will be a thousand more people ready to wish us well. That’s what we wanted to show you tonight, Rach. We just wanted you to step out of your own way and let us show you that people can be good. They can be kind. They can be understanding. We are not alone. And this is not going to be bad.”

“Caleb,” I breathe, not knowing what else to say.

“Jake and Ilmari ran a contest,” he goes on. “First fifty people to buy Rays season tickets would get flown out to this game with comped airline tickets, hotel, the works. They’re footing the bill together. Rach, within the first hour, Poppy had to shut the website down.”

“Oh my god.”

“Season ticket sales have doubled,” he adds. “Our next six home games are sold out.”

“Stop,” I whisper, shaking my head. It’s all too good to be true.

But he just smiles. “Our story is out there now. It’s trending all over social media. Poppy had to hire help to deal with the overflow, and I think your dad is ready to kill us, but it’s working,” he adds quickly. “They’re on our side. They love our story. They love you.”

I glance over and see my mom trying to pretend she’s not listening with tears in her eyes. Yeah, she’s been helping them. Her media ban was effective, keeping me in the dark. Always protecting me.

“Why do the jerseys say Price?” I whisper, needing Caleb to say it out loud.

His smile softens as he cups my face again, his thumb brushing along my cheek. “That was my idea. You’re always saying that it’s the Price Family against the world, right? We just figured you could use a deeper bench.”

And now I’m ugly crying, pressing my face against his chest, clinging to him.

“Mars is gonna say he can’t legally change his name unless you marry him first,” he says in my ear, his voice getting louder as the music crescendos. “But I googled it, and cohabitation also works, so don’t let him trick you. He just may have to wait five years,” he adds with a shrug.

“Wait—legally,” I cry, pulling back from him.

Caleb nods. “I submitted all the paperwork on Monday. Within the next two to four weeks, it’ll be official. I’ll be Caleb Price.”

I shake my head, heart overflowing, unwilling to believe this is all real. “And Jake and Ilmari?”

Before Caleb can respond, the announcer’s voice comes blaring over the speakers.

“Get on your feet, Rays fans! It’s time to bring out the starting lineup!”

All around us, the Rays fans cheer and stomp.

“At forward, number 19, Josh O’Sullivan!”

The Rays fans go wild as Sully shoots out onto the ice, skating around in a sharp circle.

“At forward, number 20, Ryan Langley! At forward, number 17, Henrik Karlsson!”

Langley and Karlsson come skating out one after the other and the guys start shooting pucks into the empty net.

“And at defense for the Rays, number 3, Cole Morrow! At defense number 42, Jake Price!”

The Rays fans go wild as Jake skates on to the ice with Morrow. Jake looks great in his white away game jersey. The 42’s mark his shoulders and back, but stitched across the top is my name.

“And starting in the goal for the Rays is number 31, Ilmariiiii Priiiiice!”

Even many of the Kings fans go wild cheering for Ilmari. Meanwhile the Rays fans lose their ever-loving minds.

Ilmari steps out onto the ice in his full goalie kit, his mask already pulled down, looking every inch the Bear. But he doesn’t skate to his goal. He doesn’t even look at it. I can feel his eyes on me as he skates straight across the ice. The fans behind us go nuts as he skates right up to the glass and tips his helmet back, his steely blue eyes gazing into my soul. Tugging his blocker off, he presses his hand flat against the glass.

Without hesitation, I reach out and place my hand in the imprint of his. “Oon sun,” I call through the glass.

He smiles and I feel it everywhere. “Vain sun, Rakas.”

As the crowd screams behind us, Jake skates up too, tugging off his glove, a wide smile on his face. He presses his hand against the glass next to Ilmari’s. “Hey, Seattle Girl.” His smile melts me inside. “How mad are you on a scale of one to ten?” he shouts through the glass.

I can’t help but laugh, shaking my head as Caleb leans in to kiss my temple. “Ten,” I call back.

“Yes,” he teases. “Angry make-up sex is the best.”

“Oh god,” Harrison says behind me.

“Cover your ears, Mama Price,” says Tess as the others laugh.

“Hey—and my sister is here!” Jake calls, pointing at Amy. “I brought her all the way from Japan, so I win first dibs tonight.”

“Shut up and go skate!” Caleb barks.

Everyone around us laughs as Jake blows Caleb and I a kiss and skates off, shamelessly sporting my name on his back.

Ilmari drops his hand away from the glass, replacing his blocker as he lowers his mask down over his face. With a nod, he turns and skates away. Seeing the name Price on his back settles everything home for me. This is the second time he’s remade himself, claiming the family he wants, choosing his life. I have a choice too.

I lean in closer, both hands pressed against the plexiglass. “Ilmari Price!” I call, my warm breath fogging the chilled glass.

He pauses, glancing over his shoulder.

“Win this game, and I’ll marry you!”

All around me, our friends and family shriek with surprise.

Ilmari skates back over to me, flipping his mask up, his eyes on fire. “Say it again,” he growls.

“No way in hell am I waiting five years to make that name change legal,” I say, pointing at his jersey. “You wanna be a Price?”

Glancing to Caleb, he gives a curt nod.

“Then you’re going to be a Price,” I say. “Win this game, and I’ll marry you. Make it a shutout, and we’ll do it tonight.”

“And if we lose?” he says.

“You won’t,” I reply, giving him a knowing look.

His face is set in determination as he lowers his mask and skates off again to the cheer of the crowd.

“Jake is gonna lose his fucking mind when he finds out,” Caleb says next to me.

“He’ll be fine,” I murmur, taking his hand and bringing it to my lips.

“Oh, you think so?”

“I know so,” I reply.

“How?”

Turning to face him, I smile. “Because if I marry Ilmari, that means you get to marry Jake. And he truly couldn’t find a better man.”

His eyes go wide as he gazes down at me, a smile tipping the corner of his lips.

“Yeah, I thought you’d like that,” I tease. “But they win first. We don’t cave unless they win. Stay strong with me.”

“Fuck,” he mutters under his breath, watching as Jake skates past looking like our every dream.

“Oh, and there’s one more surprise left tonight!” Harrison calls from behind us.

I glance over my shoulder with a groan. I’m honestly not sure how many more surprises I can take. “What is it?”

Harrison points down to the rink where a team of people are rolling out a carpet onto center ice. A pair of men hurry onto the ice wheeling an amp and a microphone. Then a third man brings out an electric guitar on a stand.

“Oh my god,” I gasp, eyes wide. “You did not rope him into this,” I say, turning to gape at Caleb.

He raises both hands in mock surrender. “Hurricane, I swear to god, he volunteered.”

“Apparently they booted a children’s choir for him,” Harrison says with a grin, poking his face down between us.

“Ohmygod,” I groan, burying my face in my hands.

“Come on, it’s not that bad,” Caleb teases. Wrapping me in his arms, he rests his chin on the top of my head.

“Please rise for the playing of our National Anthem!” comes the announcer’s booming voice. “Performed tonight by one of rock and roll’s biggest legends…”

The whole arena goes feral as my dad steps through the plexiglass, the cameras zooming in on him. His smiling face appears up on the jumbotron. He looks effortlessly cool in his ripped t-shirt and leather jacket, jeans, and a pair of scuffed motorcycle boots. He waves to the crowd as he walks down the carpet towards his waiting guitar.

“Hockey fans, please welcome to the ice the lead guitarist of The Ferrymen, LA’s own native son, Hallllll Priiiiice!!”

Content in Caleb’s arms, I smile and watch as Jake and Ilmari skate up to the carpet’s edge and each remove a glove to shake my dad’s hand. The crowd goes wild as he picks up his guitar. The moment he strums that first note, a hush falls. Then, closing his eyes, he leans back and begins to play.