Gonna Steal Your Heart Away

“Alright guys, ice cream’s on me,” Olivia announced as the group – Rachel, Brayden, Claude, Matt, James, Sean, Danny, and herself – made their way out of the Wells Fargo Center to their cars after the game. She paused for a moment to listen to the childish cheers erupt from the boys before continuing, “…for those of you who scored.” Matt and James began to pout and whine about having to pay for their own ice cream. Their disappointment was short lived when Rachel ran up behind them and ruffled their hair, having to jump to reach the top of James’s head, and offered to pay for their ice cream. They laughed it off and refused to let her ‘waste her money on them’.

Brayden was walking next to Olivia and looked down at her with a sad look in his eyes. “Low blow,” he mumbled when she looked up at him and made eye contact. He quickly turned his attention back to finding his car in the dark parking lot.

“Oh, so you’re gonna get grumpy over some ice cream?” Olivia questioned with a joking smirk appearing on her face. Brayden has walked a little further ahead of her at this point, to avoid being made fun of ever farther about acting like a child. “Don’t be like that, Bray, I was just joking.”

Olivia had sped up her pace to keep up with Brayden and then attached herself to his arm to keep him from scurrying off again.

“I tried really hard to get a goal, ‘s all,” Brayden commented and kicked at the few pieces of loose gravel on the pavement of the parking lot.

“I know,” Olivia returned. “But I’m still proud of your game and I know you’ll get ‘em next time.” Before they knew it, the pair was at Brayden’s car, without a teammate insight. “Where did everyone go?” Brayden simply shrugged and leaned against the trunk of his oversized, black SUV. “Where’s Rach? I don’t know if her being alone with five hockey players is a good idea.”

“They aren’t gonna hurt her, Liv.”

“I know. I’m more worried about their safety,” she answered and leaned against the SUV as well; not so close that their shoulders were touching, but not far enough away for the distance to create awkwardness. They both laughed at Olivia’s joke and the conversation was cut short when a car pulled up to them.

“You coming, slow pokes?” Sean asked once his passenger seat window was rolled down. Brayden and Olivia both got of the SUV and walked over to the car that was stopped a handful of feet ahead of them. “Last one there has to pay.”

“I thought I was already paying?” Olivia questioned in response and playfully hit the bill of Sean’s hat and he just waved her off.

“Claude is with Rachel back at your car, Olivia,” Danny added from his spot in the driver’s seat. “And he’s really set on not paying for everyone’s ice cream so you two better get a move on.” The two in the car didn’t get so much as a wave goodbye before Brayden and Olivia made a mad dash for the for the front seats of Brayden’s SUV and sped out of the parking lot.

*~*~*~*~*

“How’s that wallet of yours feeling? Tired out?” Rachel poked fun at Brayden while physically poking him as well.

“Feels about eight ice creams lighter,” Brayden joked back, but did not seem too bothered to have just bought ice cream for his friends.

“I could have helped pay you know,” Olivia commented and playfully elbowed him in the side from her seat next to him. “I was part of the losing car too.” Then, Brayden responded by saying something about not being gentlemanly if he had a gotten her to pay half the bill and she couldn’t help but giggle to herself.

“Hockey players being gentlemanly? This is news to me,” Rachel announced and earned a chuckle from everyone at the table. While still laughing, James, who was sitting next to Rachel, put her in a headlock and told her he would not let her go until she took back her words. “You are only proving my point, James,” she laughed out in response and he let got while huffing in a defeated manner.

After everyone finished their frozen dessert, the group began to go their own ways. But not before all the players exchanged phone numbers with Olivia and Rachel and promised to hangout like this again soon. Sean and Danny went back to their shared house which was currently free of the three younger Briere’s. Their mother and Danny’s ex-wife, Sylvie, came to pick them up from the game. Matt went to the apartment where he lived at with his girlfriend.

Rachel, James and Claude walked ahead of Olivia and Brayden when they were walking toward their cars. The pair was bumping into each other, trying to throw the other off balance the entire time.

“We should do this again sometime,” Brayden stated when they reached Olivia’s car. She sat down on the back bumper of her car and looked up at Brayden, throwing him a questioning look. They group as a whole had just decided that they were going to hangout like they just had sometime in the near future. “Just the two of us.” He reached down and picked up one of her hands in his own, intertwining their fingers. Olivia looked up at him with a shocked expression and began to open her mouth to respond, but got cut off by someone calling to them.

“Ay, Schenner! Quit flirting, we gotta get home,” Claude nearly yelled from just a couple of parking spots over at Brayden’s SUV. Olivia had turned her head to see Rachel walking in toward her car. Rachel gave Olivia a knowing smile and quickly slipped into the passenger seat of Olivia’s car with nothing more than telling Brayden to have a good night. When Olivia turned her attention back to Brayden, who was still holding her hand, she found that he was still staring down at her.

With a smile on her face, she told him, “Maybe after the first game you score a goal in this season.” She then rose to her feet and gave his hand a tight squeeze before letting go and making her way to the driver seat of her car. He was still standing there when she pulled out of the parking spot with a smirk on his lips. She rolled down her window to tell him got home before Claude ran him over with his own SUV, but he did not give her a chance.

“I’m gonna hold you to that.”

“I’m not trying to squiggle out of it, Bray,” Olivia replied and drove off before he could say anything back.