“So you think you’ll make the cut, Reeves?” Lucas Brooks asked, and Markus shrugged.

“I’m faster than you, for sure,” he teased, and Lucas chuckled.

“You wish.”

“Oh, I know. And because of that, I challenge you,” Markus said, standing and putting his foot on the chair, “my good man, to a race!”

Lucas stood, matching his stance as they shook hands firmly. “It’s on, brother.”

“To the ice rink!” Markus called, but Jace pulled him down, laughing.

“The ice rink is closed, loser.”

“Oh,” Markus said, and then he thought for a moment. “This is true. So I shall sing!”

“Boo,” everyone sang, but he ignored them, getting up and turning right into Mekena.

She bounced off him with flair, but he stopped her from falling, steadying her in front of him. Her eyes met his, and he hissed out a breath at her close proximity. If he thought she was beautiful from afar, up close, she was majestic. She had some eye makeup on that made her eyes appear bigger and brighter. His insides went to goo, and all he wanted was to wrap her up in his arms and never let go.

But, he refrained. Unfortunately. “My bad.”

“No, my bad,” she mumbled, trying to get around him, but he went the same way, and they ended up back in front of each other. As they held each other’s gaze, he felt his hands twitch to touch her. To tuck the piece of hair that was escaping back into her ponytail. To feel her skin once more, to whisper how gorgeous he thought she was, but her eyes were full of flight-mode.

“I’m going that way,” she said, pointing to the left, her speech a little garbled. She had been drinking; he could smell it.

“Then I’ll go this way,” he said, going to the right, but he almost didn’t move. Her perfume was intoxicating, causing him to want to smother his face in her neck. But somewhere, he found the willpower and went to the stage, requesting his song. He wasn’t sure why he picked this song, but he had to pick it. Reaching for the mic, he sucked in a deep breath as “Ruin” by Shawn Mendes filled the room and he started singing.

From his soul.

As he opened his eyes, it was like he was on a real stage, a spotlight on him and a spotlight on Mekena—because she was all he saw. Standing by the bar, she held a cup in her hand as she watched him. Her eyes were narrowed, her lips pressed together, and it was easy to say she didn’t seem impressed, but he had to sing this song. He hadn’t realized how much this song reminded him of her or how much shit he was going to get for singing it, but in a way, he didn’t care. He had to reach her. He had to get her to hear him.

As the song ended and he sang the last note like he had been singing his whole life, he threw his hands up. “Thank you, thank you, your applause is truly appreciated!”

Everyone laughed at that, while Johansson yelled out, “If you don’t make the cut, Reeves, you’ve got washed-up boy band member down for sure!”

Laughing, Markus rolled his eyes as he went offstage while the DJ announced, “Well, after that, let’s slow things down. Who wants to dance?”

Everyone cheered as Markus made his way to where Jace was sitting with Avery, Mekena, Shea, and Elli. He could have gone back to the table with the boys, but he wanted to be where Mekena was. Even if she wouldn’t talk to him, at least he could stare at her.

Because that wasn’t creepy or anything.

Sitting down next to Avery, he leaned on the table into her and she giggled happily. “Tell me I wasn’t amazing.”

“You weren’t amazing,” she said simply with a wink, and he laughed.

“Whatever, I made you wish you could sing like me.”

“You’re right. I sat here watching as you crooned, thinking, wow, I wish I was Markus Reeves.”

He nodded. “Happens a lot.”

Jace laughed along with Elli and Shea, while Mekena found something very interesting on her phone.

“You sang very passionately,” Elli slurred, and Markus winked at her.

“Thank you very much.”

“I don’t think that was a compliment,” Jace said, and Markus looked back at him, offended.

“Yes, it was.”

Rolling his eyes, Jace took a long pull of his flask as Elli asked, “Markus, probably not the best time to ask this since we are all drinking, and more than likely I’ll ask again tomorrow—”

“Then why don’t you wait until tomorrow?” Shea asked, and she shot him a look.

“Because I’ve already started talking,” she said with a glare. “Anyway, do I need to get some extra tickets for your family?”

Markus paused before looking back to Jace. “River and Autumn have season tickets, right?”

“Yeah.”

Looking back to his boss, he shook his head. “Nope, I’m good.”

Elli looked at Shea and then back to Markus. “You don’t want to invite your parents? It’s your first NHL game.”

Markus tried to smile, though, it looked more like a grimace. “River and Autumn will be there.”

“Ooh! I love this song. Come on, Jace, let’s dance,” Avery said, thankfully changing the subject as some slow song started. Jace agreed, standing up and taking her hand to lead her to the dance floor.

“Yes, let’s dance!” Elli said, shaking Shea to the point that he had no choice but to get up and take his beautiful wife to the floor. Looking across the table, Markus tapped his fingers to the beat, but Mekena wasn’t moving. She was looking at her phone as she pressed hard with her fingers on something. Glancing out at the floor where almost everyone was with their spouses, Markus smiled.

“Did you wanna dance?”

Mekena’s brows pulled together before she looked up at him. “Me?”

“Yeah, do you wanna dance?”

She just looked at him as if another head was coming up from his neck. Then she dropped her phone to the table, her brows touching even more. “Why aren’t you inviting your parents? It’s your first game. They’d love to go.”

He shrugged, confused by her subject change. “Because I don’t talk to them.”

“What?”

“What? It isn’t that hard to understand. I haven’t talked to them in over a year.”

“Why not?”