Play With Me ✔️|| 2 || Off the Ice Series

1 | Arden

I am fucked. Completely and utterly fucked.

I shoot a glare at my two supposed best friends, Rose and Aster, who are standing just a few feet away, twin grins plastered on their faces. Those smiles do nothing to quell the anxiety curling in my stomach like a coiled snake, ready to strike.

Rose and Aster are identical twins. Gorgeous, stunning, manipulative twins. Aster is my sister-in-law, someone who has been in my life for years and naturally, we'd become close. Two years ago she married my older brother, Matt because somehow the goofball I called a sibling could pull a stunner like Aster.

And obviously, when you have one twin in your life, you kind of just fall into a friendship with both.

Not that I'm complaining. Except right now, I might be complaining because they're meant to be on my side and yet here they are - my eyes flicker behind them.

I blow out a breath, calming my nerves. Just because the two men behind them are here it doesn't mean he is.

Those two men smile wide, faces full of mischief as my eyes narrow on them.

'Girl week,' Aster had said. 'It'll be fun,' Rose added on. 'Just us,' they said.

So why the hell were there two hulking ice hockey players standing behind them, staring at me with equally amused expressions?

I bite my lip, narrowing my eyes on Aster, knowing she's the mastermind behind this. My brother's wife is nothing if not a professional meddler.

They are my best friends, and I tell them everything. Well, almost everything and judging from their faces right now, they aren't happy I've been keeping something from them - even if they only think they know what it is. To be honest, I've been trying to rid myself of the memory for the last two years - longer if I'm even more honest with myself.

Matt appears then, holding a tray of coffees and looking at me with a grin. I send one back as he passes a coffee to Aster and then Levi. "I didn't know you were here yet, otherwise I would've gotten you a coffee." My brother says, wrapping an arm around me to pull me into his side for a hug. The act is almost painful, my shoulder squished up to my ears and by the cheeky grin Matt shoots my way, he knows it.

I shrug out of his hug, knocking a sharp elbow into his ribs in the process that earns me a glare before I turn my body to face all of them. "I can get my own." I murmur, my stomach filling with butterflies as I look from my brother to the two other men.

I shift my gaze to Tobias first, offering him a small but tight, strained smile. His grin widens, and I swear there's a glint of delight in his eyes. Then I look over at Levi, who's standing just behind him, and narrow my eyes further. My heart climbs into my throat as I realize what this means.

If Matt, Tobias and Levi are here, then that means the fourth member of their little group is not far behind.

I'd first met Tobias and Levi at Matt's wedding to Aster, Tobias had knocked up Rose and, unbeknownst to Rose at the time of their one night together, he was friends with Matt - her identical twin sisters' fiancée – and well things kind of went haywire after that. But that's their story to tell. Levi and Tobias work with Jason, and that was how they'd met Matt.

That's brings us to the elephant in the room.

Jason Wilde, professional hockey player, panty dropper, charmer and heart breaker and he just so happens to be my brothers' best friend.

I'd watched Jason Wilde break girls hearts one after another in high school and yet they kept lining up for one shot to tame the notorious player.

I'd promised myself I would not be one of the girls Jason has falling at his feet or one he inevitably leaves behind - because he always did and I, being his best friends little sister and the girl that seemed to be closest to him - even if we weren't close at all, was there to pick up the pieces or receive the dirty looks.