Face-Off at the Altar Read online

  “I would have done it anyway.”

  Avery grinned. “You would have?”

  “Yeah, I loved you. I knew you were it, and I wasn’t letting anyone else have you but me. Ashlyn just rushed things along,” he said and Avery beamed, taking Markus’s breath away. She pressed her lips to Jace’s, and he kissed her hard. Markus couldn’t help but grin.

  Giving them a moment, he kept walking with Ashlyn as she ate happily, making them both a sticky mess, but he didn’t care. He was too engrossed with his thoughts and love for Mekena. He hadn’t realized how much he wanted to marry her until that moment. It didn’t have to be now or tomorrow, but he wanted her to know that the commitment he had for her was strong and irreversible. And her commitment was the same for him. Jace’s statement of how he didn’t want Avery with anyone else rang true for Markus. He didn’t want anyone else having Mekena but him. She was his. All his, and damn it, she’d waited for him, waited to give him her gift. He loved that he was her first, and he wanted to be her last. He wanted to be her one and only.

  Because she was his.

  But would she say yes?

  Was it too soon?

  Was she too young?

  He didn’t know, and in a way, he didn’t care. Was that naïve of him?

  “So what are you thinking?” Avery asked once they caught up with him and Ashlyn. “Jeez, you’re a mess, Ashlyn Joy Sinclair! And you got Uncle Markus all nasty. Goodness me!”

  Markus laughed as he waved her off. “We’ll jump in the ocean.”

  “You will not! It’s freezing!”

  Markus rolled his eyes. “Gosh, Ash, your mom is overprotective, huh?”

  He was answered with a happy laugh as Avery glared. “You aren’t answering my question, mister.”

  He laughed. “Because it’s none of your business, and I don’t want you to tell her anything.”

  Feigning hurt, she gasped, “I wouldn’t!”

  Jace scoffed. “You would.”

  “Shut up!” she said, smacking him, and Markus chuckled.

  “Hit me again,” Jace warned playfully, and Avery glared back.

  With her chin tipped up, she smacked him again and said, “I ain’t scared of you.”

  “You’re about to be,” he said then, reaching for her and throwing her over his shoulder.

  “Jace, no!”

  He ignored her, carrying her out toward the ocean as Avery screamed loudly, but Jace just laughed. Watching with a grin on his lips, Markus yelled, “Can I throw Ashlyn and me in there? We’re nasty.”

  Jace whipped around, the waves up to his knees before pushing Avery off his shoulders and into the water with no cares that she landed like a sack of rocks. “Hell no, bro, it’s cold as hell.”

  Markus pressed his lips together as Avery came up sputtering before she jumped up and pushed Jace face first into the water. “Well, that’s not fair.”

  Ashlyn babbled something, and Markus nodded. “Exactly. But then, I guess they’re good parents, huh, kiddo?”

  She babbled again and he smiled, wishing like hell Mekena were there. She would have enjoyed watching Jace and Avery try to drown each other.

  And he would have enjoyed watching her smile.

  “Now you know I’m gonna score on you both.”

  Markus laughed before he looked to Jayden, who was watching his little brother at center ice in front of Johansson as the ref waited for the signal to start the game.

  “Don’t we do this every time we play? And don’t I always stop you?”

  Jace shrugged, a smug grin on his face. “Maybe, but I always end up scoring.”

  “On other people, not me.”

  “And definitely not me,” Markus added and Jace laughed.

  “You watch. You’re both going down.”

  “We’ll see,” Markus mumbled more to himself, but Jayden nodded, tapping his stick to Markus’s shin.

  “Let’s do this.”

  “Hell yeah,” Markus said, leaning on his stick and watching as the ref bent down, blowing his whistle before dropping the puck. Unfortunately, Jace won it back for the Panthers, and they quickly entered the Assassins’ zone. Thankfully, though, Jayden was there, stealing the puck before sending it to Markus. Cradling the puck, he carried it up. Before he could send it up the boards to Johansson, though, he saw out of the corner of his eye, Jace coming at him for a big hit. Markus stopped short, and Jace went into the boards before Markus sent it up to Anderson, who was waiting.

  “Oh, so it’s like that?” Markus asked as Jace came off the boards, glaring at him.

  “Hey, friendship is left off the ice.”

  “Oh. Good to know,” Markus said as he skated out since somehow Anderson lost the puck and the defense was carrying it back up. Jace went to the blue line as Markus skated to the left, waiting for them to enter. He knew they were going to pass it to Jace, and as he expected, they did. But then, he was surprised by his best friend because, in a rookie move, he kept his head down as he entered, trying to get the puck to lie down right. Markus knew what he was about to do was an asshole move, but they weren’t friends on the ice according to his best friend.

  Skating hard to Jace, he got in his way, and Jace hit him hard. Flying off him, Jace landed on his ass, at which Markus stole the puck and sent it over to Jayden before skating off behind him. He glanced back, making sure Jace got up, only to find him right behind him, a grin on his face as he skated hard to the bench.

  “Fucker.”

  “Love you too,” Markus sang to him as he went into the doors, sitting down as the Assassins attacked the zone.

  “Great hit,” Jayden said, and Markus smiled.

  “Cocky little shit.”

  “Yeah, he is.”

  Markus laughed but then stopped when Coach put his hands on his shoulders and then Jayden’s. “Your job is to contain Sinclair. Do not let that little shit score. Sorry, Sinclair.”

  “It’s good, Coach,” Jayden laughed as he nodded, leaning on the boards as Markus did the same. Watching the play, the Assassins attacked but got nothing past the goalie. He was playing like Odder did every night, which sucked for them but was good for the Panthers—if Markus cared about their well-being.

  Which he didn’t.

  When the Panthers won the puck, they carried it into the Assassins’ zone and hammered shots at Odder. But like the ninja he was, he batted them away with the help of King and Thomas. Trying to clear, Thomas tried to hit to Franklin, but he missed and the puck sailed across the ice as the Panthers’ goalie raised his arm for icing. The whistle blew just as the Panthers got fresh bodies out there, including Jace.

  Fuck.

  “Shit, as soon as they get it out, Sinclair, Reeves, on,” Coach yelled from down the bench. “King, Thomas! Watch thirty-two!”

  Jordie and Karson nodded as they lined up in front of Odder for the puck drop. They were sucking in air, and Markus felt a sinking feeling come over him. He was basically on the tip of his skates, ready to jump over the boards. But before he could, Jace won the puck like a boss and rushed the net right as his defender sent it to the goal. It came off Odder’s left pad, right to Jace’s stick, to which he just tapped it in softly, hitting the back of the net.

  Markus’s head fell as the horn sounded, and Jayden yelled, “Fuck!”

  Looking up, he saw Jace grinning as he held up one finger. “That’s one, boys. Two will be on you two.”

  “I don’t like him,” Markus decided.

  “I hate him, and I’m going to fart on his pillow when we’re home next. Maybe then he won’t be able to see to score,” Jayden announced, and Markus sputtered with laughter as they went over the boards and onto the ice.

  “I’ll hold him down, and you can fart on his face to guarantee the pink eye,” Markus provided and Jayden nodded.

  “Good plan,” he said, leaning on his stick and then tapping it to the ice. “All right, boys. Let’s get one.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement as the puck was dropped