Hat Trick (D.C. Stars, #4)

by Chelsea Curto

it involves proving to Lexi every goddamn day she’s worthy of being treated right, worthy of being told she’s special and brilliant and beautiful, and I won’t stop until there’s not an ounce of doubt in her mind that she’s one in eight billion. One of a kind, my favorite person, and the woman I’m falling in love with.

So many things have been almost impossible for me since the night my life changed, but Lexi? Lexi is the easiest part of every day.

“Today was a good day,” I murmur. “They’re all good days with you, Riley,” she whispers, and I hold that as close to chest as tight as I can.

you’ve had my attention for years.” “Please.” I squeeze his arm. “I have not.” “You don’t believe me?” He untangles our limbs and frowns down at me. “Ask me what my tattoo means.” “The roller coaster? I know what it means. I was there when you⁠—” “No. The constellation.”

“What does your tattoo mean?” I whisper, and the room is so quiet, I can hear a car horn beeping from all the way across the street. “It’s the stars in the night sky the day I stepped foot into the arena for the first time. And, consequently, the day I met you.”

“Yeah. It was a big day for me.” He folds his hand over mine and guides me to each individual star. There are probably close to two dozen of them, and my heart lurches in my chest. “I signed my ELC. A pretty girl said hello to me. You had a ribbon in your hair, and your smile was the brightest thing I had ever seen.” “You remember what I was wearing?” “Down to your high-top sneakers. I wasn’t kidding, Lexi. You’ve been on my mind from the second I locked eyes with you across the ice, and I’d had done just about anything to get you to look at me back then. To get you to keep looking at me.”

“The girls would always tell me you had a crush on me, but I always shrugged it off.” “A crush?” Riley laughs like it’s the most ridiculous thing in the world. “Please. There’s a reason why I haven’t dated anyone since I got to DC...

You were moving pretty quick out there when you were helping me along. When did you get so fast?” “Oh.” Lexi blushes and knocks my knee with hers. “I wanted to be ready to join you if and when you wanted to get back on the ice, so I’ve, um, been skating with Maverick and Hudson a couple times a month. I can go backward—but I’m not great at it—and I know how to come to a complete stop too.” “You did that for me?” “All of this is for you.” She gestures at the rink then down to my leg. “I’ll make a hundred calls if it means finding something to get you back to the sport you love. I’ll stay here every day after practice with you if it means helping you feel closer and closer to who you were before. I’ll cheer you on even if you fall on your ass three hundred times in a row, because that smile of yours when you were out there was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

“And how’s Lexi?” I hesitate before answering his question. It feels like a trap. A trick to get me to blurt out, Oh, fucking fantastic. Have I mentioned I’m in love with her? Because I am. Head over heels, can’t eat, can’t sleep kind of love that makes all the bad shit seem irrelevant.

“Remember what we talked about, Riley. What would you tell your younger self if you found out you got a second chance at life, and you finally started fucking living again?” I’d tell him he’s going to have a lot of lows, the darkest hours he could ever imagine, but he’s also going to have a lot of highs. A lot of new experiences that are going to change and shape him. I’d let him know he’s skating again, that love still there even after it was almost snatched away from him.

then I’d tell him about the girl. The one he’s madly, hopelessly, irrevocably in love with who flipped his world upside down. I’d tell him about the life they have, the quiet moments late at night when she tucks herself into his side and the louder, brighter ones during the day when she’s giving him shit and making him laugh. I’d mention how perfect she is. How patient and kind and funny she is, and how every time he’s with her, his broken pieces put themselves back together. Because she’s the closest thing to an angel he’ll ever find on earth.

I push the door open to the training room, covering my eyes when I see Liam’s bare ass climbing off the treatment table. “Jesus, man. Put a fucking towel on,” I say. “I’m getting treatment done on my sore body because everything fucking hurts, dickbag, not parading around for all the world to see.” “Treatment on what? Your balls?” “You’re lucky I don’t have a free hand right now,” he growls, and I peek through my fingers to find him glaring at me with a palm over his dick. “Or I’d have you against a wall.” “I’m telling Piper about your violent tendencies,” I say, and his eyes go wide. “And then you’ll be in big trouble.”

“Why not?” Tears pool in her eyes, and she wipes her cheek. “Why are you different? Why should I believe you?” “Because I love you,” I tell her, and she freezes. Her shoulders shake, but I keep going. “I love you so much it fucking hurts, and I know that scares the shit out of you. It scares me too, because how can things be this fucking good with you when the rest of my life is in shambles?”

“You want to know why I’ve had all those good days? Because you were there. Because I’ve been an idiotic, pathetic mess of a man since the first day I saw you. I can’t think straight when you’re around. I can’t walk right when you smile at me. I can’t… I can’t fucking breathe unless you’re looking at me. And everything in your past might have fallen apart, but we won’t. We can’t, because deep down, I know you love me too,” I say.

“If you want to run, I’ll chase you. If you want to build a wall to keep me out, I’ll climb it. If you need time, I’ll give it to you. I’m patient, Lexi. I’m going to be waiting for you when you come back. However long that takes.”

“I love you,” I repeat, my voice hoarse and throat raw. It feels like I’ve been screaming underwater for hours. It also feels like someone is digging a screwdriver into my chest. “And I’m going to love you for as long as you’ll let me.”

“You’re quiet tonight, Lex.” Maven rests her head on my shoulder. “Are you okay?” What a fucking loaded question that is. No, I’m not okay. The nicest and most supportive man in the world loves me. Isn’t that the most devastating thing you’ve ever heard?

The thought races through me, and I have to grip the table to steady myself. I take a deep breath, the culmination of the last eight months playing in my mind like a movie, and I see it there. In the doughnuts on my desk and his mumbled curses when I give him a difficult exercise to do. In a rooftop pool at a Chicago hotel, no one in the world but us, and his confession to me about how he wanted to end his life. It’s also in the times when he’d hook his pinky around mine before he took the ice in his nice suits. When he’d throw me over his shoulder then toss me on the bed. The nights when he’d listen to me talk about my day and the mornings where I’d wake up, his arms wrapped around me like he wanted to keep me in his bed forever. It might’ve been there all along, back when I saw the broken boy in our meeting after his accident, sunken cheeks and hate in his eyes. Before that, at the very beginning and the very first day we met, his sweaty palm shaking mine as he stammered out his name.

My heart is dangerously close to falling out of my chest, and when I make it to his apartment building and take the elevator up to his floor, he’s there. Standing in the doorway with a bouquet of tulips and the brightest smile on his face, and I lose it. “I’m sorry,” I sob, my arms around his neck and my face buried in his shirt. “I’m so sorry I made you wait so long. That was horrible of me.”

“I have to tell you something,” I say. “Yeah? What’s that, Lexi baby?” “It’s really important.” “I can’t wait to hear.” I wring my hands together, and he waits patiently for me to continue. He doesn’t rush me. He doesn’t try to guess what I’m going to say, but he knows, because his smile is widening. His eyes are crinkling in the corners, and I can’t keep it in anymore. “I love you,” I whisper. “I love you so much, and I hope you still love me too.” “I never stopped. And I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”

I don’t know how Lexi does it, but I fall more in love with her every day. I walk into a room and she’s there, a book in her lap and a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and it’s a lightning bolt to the chest. A flashing neon sign that says there’s the love of your life, and it’s true.

“You know I’m pathetic when it comes to you.” “Yeah.” Her grin is sharp and sly. “I do.”

My eyes prickle with tears. I squeeze them shut, and when I open them, I see twenty-six familiar faces right behind the Comets’ bench, all wearing my jersey. There’s Grant and Ethan. Liam with Piper on his shoulders and Maverick with his arm around Emmy and their little girl resting against her chest. Hudson and Madeline and Coach. My parents, Marcus, and Lamar with his son. They’re all banging on the glass, and I can’t help it. I let out a sob and skate over to them.

“Can you read the last three things I have on there?” “Sure. Let’s see. Get Lexi to like me. Get Lexi to fall in love with me. Get Lexi to spend the—’” She jerks her chin up to look at me. “Riley.” “Hm?” “What does this say?” “I don’t know.” I shrug and fight off my grin. “Read the whole thing.” Her hand shakes, and she tries again. “Get Lexi to spend the rest of her life with me,” she whispers. “It’s not a proposal. It’s not a ring, and I’m not going to get on one knee. Ever, if that’s what you want. But it is a promise I will be here by your side for as long as you’ll have me. It’s a vow that I’m not going anywhere unless you’re coming with me. I love you, Lex, and you have my word.”

“What do you say?” I ask. “Yes,” she whispers. “Yes to which one?” “All three. To liking you. To loving you. To spending the rest of my life with you, however that might look for us. I want all of that, Riley, and more.” “That’s a hat trick, Lexi baby, and that means I win.” “Win?” She wrinkles her nose, and I kiss away her frown. “What the hell do you win?” “You, obviously,” I say. “I don’t need anything else.”