DAKOTA

The plan was to go out to lunch with Parker and his parents before the game so that he could be there if I needed moral support, then head to the arena together.

The Michigan snow decided to play a cruel joke on me.

Their flight was delayed, meaning I'm now meeting them at the arena, without Parker. I'm considering pretending I came down with the stomach flu until tomorrow.

"Kota, I swear to Harry Styles I will drag you in there by your hair." Ellie stands at the entrance, foot tapping the pavement impatient as she waits for me to move.

Her statement makes me chuckle, breaking me out of my trance as I join her, scanning our tickets and entering the cold building.

"You go ahead to concessions, I have to use the bathroom."

Ellie nods warily, unsure if it's a ploy to get her away so I can make a break for it.

"I'm serious," I laugh, "go." I lightly push her in the direction of the growing line.

I spend a few minutes staring into the mirror, trying to give myself a pep talk. What didn't help my nerves was Connor and Brooks giving me a list of all the things I shouldn't do this morning, saying it would make them hate me.

Love you too, boys.

Finally feeling less nauseous, I exit the bathroom and run right into a body.

"I'm so sor-" the apology gets caught in my throat when I look up, realizing the body belongs to none other than Josh. "Actually, I'm not sorry at all," I go to push past him but he grips my upper arm tightly, holding me in place.

"You and Cadell seem cozy," he pauses, smirking. "It'd be a shame if something happened to his girl," his grip tightens. "After all, you'd deserve it for stealing my El from me."

I grit my teeth, trying to keep from showing any pain. "Get the fuck away from me, jackass. You lost Ellie on your own, maybe you should learn to treat women with respect."

He only chuckles, leaning down to place his mouth right next to my ear. "Watch your back, Lowen." With that, he releases me and walks casually down the hall.

I shake out my arm, trying to get the blood flowing again as I blink back the tears welling up in my eyes. Not today, Dakota. I plaster a smile on my face and head down to our seats.

"There you are," Ellie sighs when I reach her. "I thought you left."

I grab some popcorn from her bag, chuckling, "I was thinking about it."

I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket.

Baby

Come down to the tunnel really quick

Rich is standing there, I told him to let you in

I show Ellie the texts before rushing to the main tunnel. This one directly connects to the seats, so it's normally only used for the Zamboni, the team opting to use the one by the benches instead. Rich opens the gate right up, having met me before through Connor, whenever he has a 'crisis' before games.

By 'crisis' I mean not being able to find his extra pair of socks.

Parker stands at the end of the hall, fully dressed out but wearing a backward ball cap instead of his helmet. He's been wearing them a lot over the past few days, noting that I only talk to him in the accent if I can see his hair.

"Hey," my words are soft. "You okay?"

His head snaps up at my voice and he grabs my waist, hauling my body into his. "Perfect," he bends down, placing his pink lips on mine. "Wait," he flips my body around, noticing the name and number on my jersey.

I can't hold back my smile, "you like it?" I decided to wear his jersey today, wanting to surprise him since I've only worn his beanie up until now.

I feel his fingers run over the letters lightly, "I love it, but I'm gonna have to pretend this is the first time you've ever worn it so I don't get a hard-on."

I immediately blush at the reminder of the other night. I wouldn't mind a quick repeat of that right about now.

Glancing down, I notice my hands are still shaking from when I ran into Josh a few minutes ago. Holding them close to my chest, I turn back to Parker, pressing my body against his. "Not that I'm complaining, but what did you need me down here for?"

"Oh yeah," the lust covering his eyes dissipates. "My parents texted, they should be here in the next five minutes or so, I wanted to give you a heads up."

"Why didn't you just text me?" I laugh.

He grabs my hands, holding them tightly in his. "I know you're nervous, hell baby, you're even shaking," he places a light kiss on the back of each hand. "I needed to remind you one last time that it'll be fine, they already like you a lot."

I think about telling him the real reason for my shaking hands, but decide not to. He has enough to worry about today.

"Promise you won't break up with me if I make a fool out of myself?"

"Shut up," he chuckles, grabbing the sides of my face and kissing me harshly. His tongue tries to push its way into my mouth, but I don't let it, not wanting to go back out there turned on.

He pulls away, "killing me, Lowen."

"Later," I peck his cheek. "Good luck out there," I slap his ass as hard as I can before backing away.

"Damn, love. Felt that through my pads," he mock winces.

I wink, blowing him a kiss as I leave.

Hurrying back to our seats, I thank Rich once more, feeling a little calmer now that I saw Parker. He could've just sent me a text, but instead, he risked getting in trouble for disappearing right before warm-ups to ease my nerves. I'm obsessed with him.

The team skates onto the ice seconds later, and Ellie keeps shoving food into my hands until I hear my name being called.

"Dakota?"

I turn my head to see a tall woman walking down the row of seats, her green eyes and sparkling jersey being a dead giveaway as to who she is. I stand quickly, wiping a sweaty hand on my jeans before holding it out to her.

"That's me, hi Mr. and Mrs. Cadell, it's so nice to meet you." She grabs my outstretched hand and pulls me into a bone-crushing hug.

"None of that formal stuff, please. I'm Harper," she releases me but continues holding one of my arms. "This is my husband, Aaron."

I reach around her, shaking his hand.

"This is my best friend, Ellie," I motion to the girl shoving popcorn into her mouth behind me. The three of them share a quick hello before we all sit down.

Looking out to the ice, I see Parker and Connor standing together, already staring back at me with cheesy smiles on their faces. Harper and Aaron notice, waving and shouting at their boy in greeting.

For the remainder of warmups, Ellie and I give them the rundown on who's who, since they've never seen Brooks or Connor before.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Harper announces. "Honey, can I see the bag?"

Aaron hands her their bag, and she pulls out two beanies. "I brought you both a present," she smiles, handing me one with 22 bedazzled on the front, matching Parker's jersey, and Ellie one with 43, matching Connor's.

"These are incredible, thank you." I situate mine over my hair as Ellie does the same.

"Ellie, I just made a guess on whose number you'd want, but if you'd rather have Brooks let me know and I'll make another."

"Oh, no it's okay, I love it." Ellie waves her off, patting the hat on her head.

The four of us are on our feet most of the game, getting angry at bullshit calls and grabbing eachother in happiness every time the guys score a goal. Coach Cooper keeps smacking Parker's helmet for stealing quick glances at us whenever he's not on the ice.

We're down by one when the final buzzer goes off, and the team quickly leaves the ice for their post-game briefing.

Not discouraged by the loss, a still smiling Aaron turns to me, "will you be joining us later tonight, Dakota?"

"Oh yes, great idea, honey!" Harper exclaims, "we used to have this tradition of getting McDonald's french fries and soft serve after every game and would take it to the beach, but Parker is going to take us to some lake instead."

I smile at the thought of the lake, storing the extra information away for a later time. "Thank you so much, but you should spend some time alone together."

Harper rubs my arm, "you're so sweet. Next time we see you, you're coming with us."

I mentally throw my fist in the air, her comment making me realize I fucking nailed this. I'll get to keep my boyfriend for another day. "I'd love that," I can't wipe the bright smile from my face.

"We should get going down to the family tunnel," Ellie says, getting a text from Connor that they finished their meeting and should be out soon.

The four of us make our way down, talking about random things.

"I heard you make a mean blueberry muffin," Aaron smirks in my direction. "My boy wouldn't stop talking about them."

"Don't worry, sir, I made sure to have a fresh batch ready for you at the house." What he doesn't need to know is that I made them five times before deciding they were good enough.

He places a hand over his heart, "I knew I'd like you."

I chuckle, keeping one eye on the doors at the end of the hall.

Brooks comes out first, keeping his head low while walking toward Ellie and me. He wraps an arm around each of us, pulling us in tight. "Thanks for coming, sorry I dropped the ball. Or puck, I guess," he sounds sad.

Ellie and I both lean back and kiss his cheeks. "It happens to the best of us, bub," I reassure him. As we pull out of his grasp, I introduce him to Parker's parents, who shower him with praise.

The other two boys come out moments later, Connor coming to me while Parker takes a few private minutes with his family.

He wraps me up in a hug for a moment, playfully eyeing my beanie and jersey, but not saying a word. Turning to Ellie, I watch my two best friends hold onto eachother for a moment longer than normal, and he lightly taps the number on her head.

Weird. I'll be gossiping with Parker about that later.

Speak of the devil, he wraps me up in a hug from behind, placing a feather-like kiss on my exposed neck. "Cute beanie, love."

I turn around in his arms, "thanks, Harper made it for me." I smile, shrugging a shoulder as if it's a casual thing.

His hands come up to my face as leans in to kiss me, but I place two solid hands on his chest. "I'm not kissing you in front of your parents," I blush.

Those green eyes stay on mine as he yells out, "mom, dad, Kota has to get going. I'll meet you at the car in a few minutes!"

I giggle at his statement, ducking out of his hold and walking over to say goodbye. "It was really nice meeting you both, thank you again for the beanie."

Aaron reaches out to hug me first, Harper following close after. "I hope we get to see you again soon, Dakota."

"You will." Parker voices from behind me, placing both hands on my hips possessively.

Now I'm getting horny again.

I wave to them once more as we walk separate ways, and Ellie waits in the car while Parker and I stand together on the sidewalk.

"See you in a week," I whisper up at him with a country twang in my voice now that his hat is gone.

He kisses me hard, and this time, I let him slip a little tongue in there.

We finally pull away a few minutes later, breathless. "See you in a week," his forehead rests against mine.

"Try not to miss me too much, Coach," I smirk.

"Fuck," he groans. "I'm about to get in a car with my parents, don't do that to me."

I kiss him once more before stepping away, walking quickly through the snow to my car, feeling his eyes on my back the entire time.

~

A loud ringing wakes me up from my deep sleep. What the hell?

I grab my phone just as the ringing stops, seeing that it's three in the morning and I have four missed calls from Parker.

A worrying jolt of energy surges through my body and I sit up, calling him back. He picks up on the first ring.

"Are you alright?" My tired voice cracks as I rush out the words.

"I'm at your door," he ignores my question.

"What?"

"I'm at your door," he chuckles, the sound lighting up my body. "Come here."

I jump out of bed, throwing on a pair of pants as I stumble to the front door. I barely crack the door open when Parker places a hand over my mouth, rushing inside and closing the door before ushering me back to my room. "Don't wake Ellie up," he whispers.

Once inside, he removes his hand. "What are you doing here?" My eyebrows furrow in confusion.

He simply removes everything but his boxers, climbing under the white comforter on my bed. He lifts it in my direction, smiling, "don't just stand there."

I can't stop the smile that mirrors his as I pull off my sweats and jump in next to him, sighing contently as he holds me tight and kisses me softly.

"I spent the rest of my night listening to my parents talk about how much they adore you," his thumb brushes against my cheek. "Then I went home and realized there was no way I could keep from sleeping in the same bed as you tonight."

I do nothing but stare up at him, my heart feeling full. He makes me feel more special and appreciated than anyone ever has. He's a better guy than I will ever deserve.

He smiles softly. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of obsessed with you. I lied to you on our first date, you're my favorite person in Michigan, and something tells me you'll be that person for a very long time." He pulls me impossibly closer, "I'm sorry I locked myself away this summer, my selfishness caused us to lose out on a few months, but I fully intend to make up for the lost time every damn day moving forward."

Butterflies erupt in my stomach, the feeling so strong it almost makes me nauseous.

My silence humors him as he lets out a breathy laugh, kissing me again. "Time to go back to sleep, love. You've got an early flight."

I settle my head on his chest, running my fingers over his abs. "That I do, cowboy," my words have a southern twang.

"Goddamn it," his chest vibrates underneath my cheek as he laughs again.

That night, my dreams are filled with the boy who's flipped my heart upside down.

______

Surprise!

Early upload this week since I'll be busy finishing up with classes and moving tomorrow!