let the light in | jack hughes

Chapter 79

[May 7, 2024]

Beatrice

I put on the finishing touches of my makeup as Jack wraps his arms around my waist, pressing his lips against my shoulder and neck. "Ready?" I ask, setting down my makeup brush against the counter. He nods his head, lacing his fingers with mine as we grab our things and head out the door. This morning we're going out to breakfast with our families, and Jack isn't all that excited just because he's been in a mood after losing his tooth. 

Everyone has been asking him about it on top of losing the past few games, and he's tired of it. He just wants to fix his tooth and rest. Our drive to the restaurant is nice and quiet, I'll occasionally kiss the back of his hand, making him give me a closed-lip smile. We park beside Luke's car and walk to our reserved table hand in hand. 

We greet our families, Cami and Meg obviously pulling Jack down to their level to kiss his cheek. He giggles as I hug Ellen and Jim, asking them how their morning has been before Luke waves me over, yelling, "Beatrice, sit next to us." leaving the one seat in between him and Quinn to me. Ellen blows a laugh out through her nose as Jack eyes both of them. Quinn says, "You can sit over there." he points to the seat across from me with a big smile.

I walk over to the available seat in between my boyfriend's brothers as Jack shoots daggers at them. I order a mimosa as they scoot their chairs in closer to me, readying themselves to tell me how excited they are about Greece. Jack leans over the table, on his elbows listening in on our conversation. Luke eyes him with disgust as he grabs his menu and holds it over his mouth. "Alright, get up. She's my girlfriend," He says as Luke excuses himself to go to the restroom. 

He ran away. 

Jack takes his seat, rolling his shoulders back and wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I lean into his touch, loving how comfortable and normal it feels. It's so natural and I love that. "So, how'd you guys meet?" Quinn chuckles, snapping us out of our bubble. We tear our eyes away from one another and tell him the story as Luke takes Jack's previous seat.

Quinn and Luke listen intently as if this was the first time they heard the story. Jack draws stars over my shoulder as I recall the events like they happened yesterday. Jack will occasionally cut in to tell me he was in love back then and didn't know it. "So my car broke down, and Jack offered to take me where I needed to go." I say looking over at Jack.

"God, I was down bad and didn't tell you." He says, kissing the temple of my head.

-

"Everything is going to be fine." I tell Jack in passing, squeezing his bicep. He looks me in my eyes, following my figure until I'm out of his line of vision. I take a few pictures of the crowd, getting ready to watch their New Jersey Devils take on the Carolina Hurricanes. It hasn't been looking good, but we always have time to redeem ourselves. 

Within a matter of minutes, we score our first goal of the night, I capture Dougie's face as he scrunches it up in pure excitement. Our goal horn goes off and everyone in the room stands to their feet, yelling at the top of their lungs happy to see their team up by one. Jack bumps his helmet against Dougie's before moving back to his position. 

We score a few more times, giving us comfort in being ahead by four points, it gives us hope that we could tie the score and win this round. I think we're about to score again when Jack tries shooting the puck into the net a few feet away, but it gets snatched away from him. He moves to the back of the net trying to shoot it one more time. 

Sebastian Aho bumps him into the board but Jack quickly recovers. Aho uses his stick to block Jack and that's when he loses it. Jack drops his stick and swings at Sebastian. The boys and girls beside me stand to their feet hooting like owls as they point at my boyfriend. Jack takes Aho by the legs and puts him on the ground as he smashes his fist into his body. 

Aho has to crawl out of Jack's hold as the refs try and separate them. Jack fights the refs and tries to get another hit on him, but fortunately, the ref holds him back as Jack yells at Sebastian. I wish I had snapped out of the haze I was in to get a good video, but I was paralyzed. Thank god for the interns I brought today, because I'm sure they got a clip. 

Jack gets taken to the box, looking up at me for a quick second before flashing a smile as he rolls his eyes at whatever the ref is saying. I blow out a deep breath and move away from my spot. I move away with my head down as I replay the fight in my head and put my camera up to my eye as we score another time. 

I get through the rest of the game, anticipating the final horn of the night, letting the whole room know we finally won a game in this round. I watch as the legs of the boys on the bench bounce as the time runs out. "Fucking finally." I whisper to myself, dropping my chin to my chest and smile. The look on the team's faces is priceless. 

We finally won. 8-4.

They skate off the ice, and I head back to where my family is. I lay on the small couch in the middle of my family, resting my back for a quick second. I don't have the energy to go grab my camera bag at the moment. I need a second to breathe and then I'll get it. "Hi, honey." I hear my Mom say, looming over me. I have my arm over my eyes and I pull it away to look up at her. 

I sit up to greet everyone around me and then lay back down, feeling the ache in my back. "Jack, honey I didn't know you had it in you," My mom cackles, making me shoot up to look at him. He took extra long today, which probably means he had a stern talk with his coach. I hear him chuckle at my Mom before pressing a soft kiss to my forehead.

 He puts his hand on my back, rubbing it in slow circles as he says, "Yeah, well he knocked my tooth out and chirped me about Beatrice, so he deserved it," he shrugs, now leaning down to press a kiss to my lips. We sit and talk for a while before Jack asks if I'm ready to go. "Yeah, let me just grab my bag." I say softly, saying goodbye to our family before walking away. 

"What'd you think of the fight?" he asks, and even with my back to him, I can hear his smirk. I giggle at the way he said those few words. "I was surprised, especially with you being up for the Lady Byng award, this wasn't on my bingo card." I tell him, sliding the key into my office door and grabbing my belongings. Even he couldn't believe he was up for the award given his past. 

We make our way to his car, settling in before driving to my apartment. We fill the ride with commentary on tonight's game and sweet nothings. In our moments of silence, I wonder what could happen during the next few games. Whether we'll lose or if we'll make it to the next round.

Whatever happens, I hope we can somehow celebrate Jack's birthday, and make it better than last year's. 

-

a.n//hi my loves, wow I am so so sorry for how awful this chapter was. I could not figure out how to make this chapter longer, and believe me I tried. School has been kicking my ass, boys are boys, and pre-season is wow! I cannot believe Trevor and Jamie haven't been signed it's been driving me nuts.

The next chapter will be so much better (hopefully) I am trying to balance out my free time and my writing for you guys:) The next chapter will be Jack's birthday and my heart is gushing just thinking about it. 

I love you guys, so sorry for this shitty chapter. Thank you for being patient. 

Stay safe, stay kind, and DM me if you need anything!!!

Love Lottie 💐💐💐