Break the ice

Bonus chapter 2: Falling in love with him all over again

Estelle's POV

It's chilly here. I'm sitting in the lower part of the arena of the Green Ivy's hockey team. Yes, you heard that right.

I'm texting Kaia and Sam to hurry up as I am waiting for them to return from their bathroom break.

It's starting. I hear loud music beaming through the arena and people start to cheer. The players enter the ice and start their warming ups.

I look down at my jersey with a big grin on my face. I'm wearing Huxley's number of course. And as I look around me I see that I'm not the only one. After signing with the Green Ivy's Huxley had to play for their AHL team first but that only lasted three months. They needed him on the ice as soon as possible, and it worked out pretty well. The Ivy's have had a strong season so far and their playoff chances are pretty high. Fans say that Huxley was definitely an important contributer for that.

I smile proudly at my boyfriend who's busy warming up. He's skating left and right shooting pucks into the net from multiple angles.

"Estie, there you are. We almost couldn't find you in this sea of blondes wearing Huxley Stokes jerseys.'' Samara says playfully.

I laugh. Yes, Huxley is pretty popular among the female fans, for good reason of course. ''I get it, I get it.''

I turn to Kaia, who has a mischievious look on her face. Oh no, what is she going to say.

Kaia moves her hand into her green shoulderbag and holds out her phone to Sam and I.

''Look, Huxley just got voted 4th hottest NHL player this year! You must be so proud.'' She says joyfully.

Sam bursts out in laughter and honestly so do I. I don't know what's on her algorithm but only Kaia is up to date with these things.

''But that's not the end of it though. Look, Dorian and Jake share 6th place!'' Kaia looks so proud saying that.

Samara turns red and her eyes start to water from laughing to hard. ''Oh, I need to show Dorian, he will hate this.''

''He definitely will. But I bet Jake's overjoyed.'' I say amused.

Kaia smiles. ''Yes he was happy to hear it, I showed him before the game. He's definitely using that against Dorian after the puck drop.''

Oh, that. Huxley has been playing with the Ivy's for over a year now. Two months ago they also signed Jake who'd been playing on an AHL team on the east coast. The Green Ivy's were in need of young talent and Huxley's old linemate retired. It was an amazing opportunity to sign Jake, especially given his on ice chemistry with Huxley.

Dorian also went pro. He signed with the Seaville Sharks two hours from Mountainview. Since the guys played for teams that were relatively close to each other they played against each other often.

Today was one of those games. Sam, Kaia and I tried to go to as many of these games as possible together. We didn't see each other as often anymore after graduation, but we tried to make as much time as we could.

Samara's living in Seaville with Dorian. When she's not visiting his games, she's working at an contemporary art museum. She's been loving it so far.

Kaia's travelling a lot for her job. She's filming travel documentaries so we don't see her as often anymore. She and Jake just moved into a suburb of Mountainview, next door to Miles and Leo. Kaia's had just returned from a month long work trip and Jake had been spending almost an entire month in between hockey practises and games at Miles' house, interrupting his quality time with Leo. And trust me, Miles has been nagging about it to Huxley and I.