Sleet Sugar by S.J. Tilly

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

IZZY

“I

zz, are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine. Why?”

Katelyn taps the back of my hand, and I see that I’m clutching my peanut M&Ms so hard that my knuckles have turned white.

They don’t deserve to be treated like that. Honestly, they aren’t in my top favorite candies, but I feel slightly less bad about eating them since they have peanuts. I mean technically, it’s a protein.

“Oh.” I loosen my grip. “Just first game of the year jitters, I guess.”

Katelyn and I met during the season last year, so she doesn’t know that what I just said was a lie. It’s not a total lie, but it’s a lie nonetheless.

I’ve been coming to my dad’s games for as long as I can remember. They were college games when I was a kid, but he’s been coaching in the NHL for over a decade. It's not the fact that it’s the first game making me this nervous. And really, this is the first preseason game, which is important but not the same. Tonight is more of a warm-up game, a practice. A way for the new players to get on the ice and show their stuff.

And that is where my nerves come in. This will be the first time I get to see Zach on the ice. Well - in person, that is. I may have spent several… hours... watching clips of his games from overseas. He’s good. Really good. And if the attention he’s gotten since the press release announcing his new position with the Sleet is any indication, he’s going to have quite the fan base. Men love him because he’s a “tough guy”, fighting every chance he gets. And women love him because he’s hot as hell.

“I know,” Katelyn sighs, unaware of my inner monologue. “Mary says I’ll get used to the stress, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

“You’ll get there.” Mary pats Katelyn’s knee.

Mary is Jackson Wilder’s mother, and soon to be Katelyn’s mother-in-law. Or eventually to be, since I don’t think they’ve set a date. Jackson and Katelyn had a whirlwind, swoon-worthy romance. They got engaged, in this very arena, just a few months after meeting. And according to Katelyn, “Life’s been crazy.” But they’re happy, and obnoxiously in love, so we don’t pester them about picking a date for their wedding.

Mary leans forward to talk to me around Katelyn. “Izzy, I’ve never known you to be nervous before games. Do you want some of my popcorn? The salt might help to settle you down.”

Dangit.

I try to smile normally. “I’m okay, thanks. It’s just been a crazy couple weeks. I need the season to start, so I can get back into the groove of things.”

Katelyn gives me a knowing look. A look that says by crazy you mean you’ve been obsessing over a certain someone.

I give her back a look that says shut your mouth.

I’m saved from further interrogation when the skaters take the ice.