The players skated back out onto the ice to thunderous cheering, blasting music and a blinding light display. Remi stood with the others and clapped until her hands throbbed. The crowd started whistling and cheering again halfway through the national anthem. Remi couldn’t help but laugh, exchanging smiles with both Jason’s parents at the exuberance of the fans. Compared to the last game she’d been to, this was way more intense.

Jason moved to center ice and she leaned forward, her body tense, as he prepared to take the face-off. “That’s Tag,” Laura said in Remi’s ear. Oh dear lord. Jason was facing off against his brother. Nerves clutched at her stomach.

The referee paused with the puck in the air as the two centers appeared to exchange words. What were they saying to each other? Then the crowd went wild when Jason won the face-off and one of his teammates took off with the puck.

“They both play center,” Laura explained to Remi. “For a lot of years Jason played right wing, I think because he didn’t want to try to compete with Tag, but he’s so good at center.”

Remi nodded. Sibling rivalry was a difficult thing at the best of times. She’d seen it with Jasmine and Kyle, despite her best efforts to treat them equally. What on earth would it be like in an intensely competitive environment like hockey?

She focused on the game, her eyes constantly seeking and finding Jason. The Wolves played well, attacking and keeping the puck down in the Phoenix zone, and it seemed like Jason was everywhere, all the time. And yet the other team was right there with him, constantly hitting him and knocking him around.

“Why are they doing that?” she demanded in frustration, when once again he’d taken another brutal hit into the boards and lost the puck.

“Because he’s the best player on the team,” Jason’s dad said dryly. “They gotta stay on him or they know he’ll score.”

Pride swelled in her, so big and warm she thought she might burst. That was her man down there. He loved her. She loved him.

Then Jason was smashed into the boards in a glass-shuddering, bone-jarring, head-shaking body check. Remi slid to the edge of her seat, trying to see if he was okay, while her heart went into a brief arrhythmia.

The crowd all yelled, demanding a penalty.

“That was a good check,” Doug said to her. “There shouldn’t be a penalty.” Like hell there shouldn’t! Whoever had done that to Jason should be kicked out of the game! But there was no penalty despite the crowd’s loud protests. Jason skated off to the bench, straightening his helmet.

Remi pressed a hand to her stomach and saw Laura’s glance at her. “Don’t worry,” Laura said. “He’s tough. That’s just part of the game.”

Remi turned to her. “How could you watch that when he was little? You must have been so scared he’d get hurt.”

“Yes, I was. Terrified. Every single game.” Laura shook her head, mouth still lifted into a smile, eyes on the game. “When they’re really young, of course, there is no body checking. But then they get older and the game gets a lot more physical. But there was no way I could stop any of the boys from playing. They loved it so much. Jase especially needed to play hockey.”

Remi absorbed that. Was that because of his ADHD? Sports were a great way for kids to learn self-discipline and focus. Maybe it had been especially important for him.

And then Phoenix scored.

Although they were in the midst of a Wolves crowd, Laura and Doug cheered the goal because Tag had scored it.

Remi nibbled her lip as they announced the goal. “What does that mean when they say assisted by?” she asked Doug.

“Carver passed it to Romanov, who passed it to Tag,” he explained. “So they get credit for assisting with the goal.”

She’d seen all those stats—goals, assists and a whole lot more she couldn’t figure out - GP, PIM, +/-, PP. ABCDEFG. Whatever.

The crowd was momentarily subdued by the goal, but the Wolves came back strong and peppered the Stars goaltender with a series of hard, fast shots that had everyone in the arena screaming and groaning in unison.

“Damn!” Remi cried when another shot missed, her hands in fists. Oops. She slanted a grimace at Laura. Laura just grinned. And then one of the Stars got the puck and shot it all the way down the ice.

“Icing,” Laura announced.

““What does that mean?”

The whistle blew. “If a player shoots the puck all the way down the ice and a player from the other team touches it first, it’s icing.”

Remi nodded. Okay.

The puck was brought back to the Stars end for another face-off. Jason skated around on one foot, then the other, waiting for the ref to crouch with the puck. Remi admired his grace on skates. She’d learned to skate as a little girl, but had never been so confident or graceful as he was and she could only admire the incredible skill it took to move that fast, stop that quickly, turn that sharply on those two thin blades. Amazing.

The first period ended with the score one-nothing for Phoenix. “Going to get beers,” Matt announced, standing up. “Remi, can I bring you one?”

“You’re not old enough to drink here,” Doug told his son, pushing him back down into his seat.

Matt grinned sheepishly. “I could get away with it.”

He probably could. He certainly looked older than nineteen with his massive size.

“I’ll bring her a drink,” Logan said, giving his brother a punch as he passed by him. Matt punched him back. Remi had to laugh. “Wanna come for a walk with me, Remi?”

The flirtatious gleam in his eye sizzled over her skin. “No thanks,” she said with a smile and a shake of her head.

“Damn.”

“Logan, she’s Jason’s friend,” Laura scolded. He grinned and kissed his mom’s forehead as he scooted past her and then bounded up the stairs to the concourse two at a time with his long legs.

“I’ll go with him,” Matt said.

“No beer,” Doug said.

“Dad! I’m legal at home.”

Doug rolled his eyes as if he knew he didn’t have a hope of controlling his son. “It’s true,” he said, shaking his head ruefully as he and Remi and Laura sat down again.

Laura shifted in her seat so she could talk to both her husband and Remi. “Jase is playing well,” she said. “He won every face-off.”

How had she noticed that?

“Yup,” Doug agreed. “Maybe Tag’s going easy on him.”

“He would never do that.”

Doug grinned. “Probably not.”

“But they’re going to have to do more forechecking,” Laura said.

A little lost, Remi listened to them analyze the game. God, Laura knew so much about the game, she sounded like a television commentator. After watching four sons grow up playing hockey their whole lives, she supposed Laura probably knew as much about it as they did. Remi sighed.

Jason scored a goal in the second period and the Wolves went into the third period with the score tied one-all. But despite intense pressure and a lot of end-to-end action, the Wolves could not put the puck in the net. The crowd was up and down with each opportunity, cheering, groaning, booing missed penalties.

“They need to change their lines up,” Doug muttered. “Put Jase with Daviduk and Lalonde.”

There were only three minutes left in the game.

“What happens if it’s a tie?” Remi asked.

“They play five minutes of four-on-four overtime, and then if it’s still tied, they have a shootout.”

“They have to win,” she murmured. Tension gripped her, every muscle tight, her stomach in knots. She was getting a headache from biting her lips, her hands ached from clapping and her throat was raw from cheering.

And then the Stars took a penalty. The crowd went crazy.

“Damn,” Laura muttered. “I mean, oh great.”

Remi turned to her. “Tag just took a stupid penalty,” Laura said. “The Stars play a man short now, with him in the penalty box.” Her brow creased. “So for two minutes the Wolves have a power play—a man advantage.”

Remi nodded. “That’s good, though, right?”

“It’s a great chance for them to score.”

“Oh, hell,” Doug sad. “They’re gonna pull their goalie.”

He nodded to the bench where the Wolves’ goaltender had skated over to talk to the coach. The coach gestured wildly and the goalie nodded, squirted water into his mask, then skated back to the net.

“He’s going back,” Remi said.

“He’ll come out when they get the puck down in the Phoenix end.” Doug explained. “Goddammit, that’s risky. Why the hell is he doing that? They’ve already got a man advantage.”

They all sat forward to watch Jason take the face-off and, damn, this time he lost. The Stars got the puck and immediately headed toward the Wolves net, tossing it back and forth with neat passes, the puck cracking against their sticks. But the Wolves defense knocked the puck away from Jason as he crossed the blue line. He and a Star raced into the corner and fought for the puck along the boards and Remi cringed at the bashing and crashing that went on, a vision of Jason bleeding on the ice flashing through her memory. She shivered.

Finally the puck came loose, but a Star slashed at it and sent it spinning down the ice.

“Icing!” Remi cried.

“Uh…no.” Laura patted her hand. “They have a penalty so it’s not icing.”

Remi frowned. Jesus. She wasn’t used to feeling so stupid and uninformed. She wanted to slide under the seat. This game was more complicated than she’d realized. But then Jason swooped in and picked up the puck. The crowd screamed. Remi gripped her hands tightly together. Go, go, go, Jason! She sucked on her bottom lip as he deked around a defenseman, came to a fast stop in a shower of ice in front of another and slid around him too, and then he was on his own, racing toward the Detroit net.