Lucy and I looked at each other for a moment before we both started to hum the theme song from the movie. “Can you just imagine if a guy asked you to wear a Stormtroopers costume or something to bed?”

“Um, no. I’d rather not,” I said, shaking my head to try to get the image out of my mind as the buzzer sounded for the start of the period.

Lucy leaned closer towards me. “Thanks for taking my mind off the game,” she whispered in my ear.

“No problem,” I replied while the ref dropped the puck.

The team looked more energized, like their coach had gotten them motivated to come back hard to fight and turn the game around. They quickly scored another goal, putting them only one more away from a tie. I thought the momentum had changed in their favor until their opponent managed to score again less than a minute later, and things went downhill from there. They just couldn’t seem to catch a break this game between unlucky puck bounces and penalties. By the end of the period, the final score was five to two, and Alex really did look defeated as they skated off the ice.

“Do you mind if we wait to see if we can catch them before we get lunch?” Lucy asked me.

The guys had a team lunch and then some free time before they had to come back to the rink for their last game. We’d planned to meet up with them after everyone had eaten, but I understood why she wanted to see Alex now if she could.

“Not at all,” I replied.

We walked down the stands and headed to the lobby, where a lot of family and friends were already waiting. I recognized most of them now since I’d been to so many games, but I was happy to see that there were a lot more people here to cheer the team on since it was right after the holiday. Luka’s family hadn’t been able to come because his younger brother also had a tournament closer to home, so he was really appreciative that I’d decided to make the road trip.

We didn’t have long to wait before Luka came out to find me.

“Tough game,” I said as I gave him a big hug.

“Hopefully we can pull a win out for the next one,” he replied, squeezing me tight.

When he stepped away from me, I noticed a wince cross his face before he shifted his stance.

“Hey, you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I just tweaked my knee a little,” he assured me. “It’s an old injury that’s flaring up. I’m going to grab an ice bag, and I’m sure it will feel better later.”

“Go do that now and I’ll just see you later tonight,” I urged him. “I know how tough it was for you to recover from your injury this summer.”

“Such a little worrier, you are,” he teased as he kissed my nose.

“That’s what good girlfriends do,” I reminded him.

Luka smiled and gave me another hug. “And you’re the very best.”

I nudged him back in the direction of the locker room. The last thing I wanted was for him to ignore an injury because he was hanging out with me. I’d get my time with him tonight.

I turned back to where I had left Lucy standing and saw her talking to Alex. He was slumped over, looking defeated as she whispered in his ear. I pointed to the door to let her know I’d be waiting outside for her and walked out to the car. By the time she joined me, it was warmed up and ready to go.

Lucy was pretty quiet at lunch, and I was still worrying about Luka’s knee. We decided to head back to the hotel to rest a little before the next game. Lucy went down to the hot tub while I hung out in the room and watched a movie. Since I was on my own, I picked out a chick flick I hadn’t had the chance to see yet and it lifted my spirits a bit.

I must have drifted off towards the end of the movie, though, because I woke up when Lucy shook my shoulder.

“Hey, sleepyhead. We better get going if we’re going to make it back to the rink before the game starts.”

I glanced at the clock and was surprised to see a couple of hours had passed. “Shit,” I muttered.

“Yeah, you were sound asleep,” Lucy said. “I tried waking you up a bunch of times but you just kept rolling back over. I think you were even drooling.”

Sure enough, there was a wet spot on my pillow. “Damn, I was tired.”

“Then it’s a good thing you got a nap in because I’m pretty sure you won’t get much sleep tonight,” she replied, wagging her eyebrows at me and pointing to the bag of grapefruit on the dresser.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I mumbled as I walked into the bathroom to fix my hair and makeup since I was sure I had a bad case of bed head from sleeping so soundly.