Two minutes. Two minutes and we will have done it. We will win the Stanley Cup for the third time in four years. I will win my first Stanley Cup. With my brother. Levi skates and he actually smiles at me. He’s trying not to be cocky, but it’s two minutes left and we’re ahead by two goals. I take my position in my crease and glance at my team on the bench. They’re all standing, bouncing and shaking with anticipation.

The ref drops the puck. Jude wins it and gets it back to Duncan. He sails it over to Levi. They skate up the ice away from me for one final assault on the beleaguered Milwaukee Comets goalie. They take three shots between them, but no one scores, and I don’t care. All I care about is that clock counting down.

A Comets player gets in and starts down the ice toward me, but Duncan checks him into the boards and gets the puck back. They’re too close to my end, so I can’t glance at the clock, but I fucking want to more than anything. Jude has the puck now and moves behind the Comets net. He’s wasting time. We just need to beat the clock now. I hear the fans’ thunderous countdown: “Three! Two! One!”

A deafening roar shakes the arena. I never actually hear the final buzzer, but when I look up, the clock’s at zero. I toss my stick and throw my gloves off and lift my arms in victory. I throw off my helmet and start skating down the ice toward my team. Every single Thunder player is hopping the boards. Equipment is flying everywhere, and the next thing I know I’m colliding with everyone. We topple over onto the hard ice in a pile of bodies, but I don’t feel a thing. I’m euphoric.

Levi’s face swims into my vision. He’s grinning, tears brimming in his eyes. I grin back as he grabs the back of my head. “We did it! You did it! You fucking did it, Eli!”

I laugh. Jude grabs us both in a hug, roaring in victory. I hug everyone and anyone I see, and then Coach Schneider is in front of me grinning and he hugs me and kisses my cheek and hollers, “Fuck yeah! I knew you could do it, kid!”

“No, you didn’t.” I laugh, and he laughs too.

“I’m so fucking happy you proved me wrong.” He turns and bear hugs Levi next, and I skate a little away from the group, looking up at the section reserved for friends and family, but I can’t see her because everyone is jumping and hugging and high-fiving, and it’s just a blur of limbs and bobbing heads. God, I really want to see her.

“Handshakes!” Levi bellows because it’s his job as the captain to rally us for this act of sportsmanship so the despondent Milwaukee team can get the fuck off the ice and lick their wounds, they can give us the Cup and family can join us on the ice. I can’t wait to share this with Dixie and the Braddocks, who have accepted me like family. I push back the slight sting of knowing my own family won’t be here. Todd is in Europe for work, and although my parents are well aware of what’s going on and I’ve told them they have tickets if they want them, they won’t be here.

Fifteen minutes later, they bring out the Cup and hand it to Levi. I can’t believe it’s happening to me. Winning this is a lifelong dream, and I earned it. I started every single playoff game. I got us here. Levi takes a lap, kisses the brilliant metal, and then he turns and brings it to me. The camera flashes are blinding. I get that this is a moment. Not many brothers win the Cup together.

I kiss it, lift it over my head and roar. As I take my lap around the ice my eyes find her by the doors they’ll be opening to let family onto the ice in a few minutes. Her cheeks are pink with excitement and her eyes are blurry with tears of joy. I grin even larger at the sight and give her a wink. As I skate by to hand the Cup to Jude, I notice Winnie is on one side of her…and my parents are on the other.

I stare at them, blinking to see if this is just some hallucination brought on by mass levels of joy. But no, they’re still there. They look more uncomfortable than excited, but they are here. Our eyes meet, first mine and my mom’s and then mine and my dad’s. My mom waves her trademark little royal wave, a tentative smile on her lips. My dad nods.

I skate toward Levi, who is watching Jude spin around with the Cup above his head. I grab his jersey at the shoulder and tug him closer. “Mom and Dad are here.”

“No,” he kind of laughs.

“Levi, they’re here.” I turn him. I can tell the minute he lays eyes on them, because his expression changes to bewilderment and his eyes get a glimmer of hope. “They came?”

“Yeah…shit. They actually came.”

My eyes find Dixie’s again and she looks sheepish. She did this. That beautiful, uncontrollable, stubborn, nutty little firecracker did this. God, I love her.

Dixie

I lean closer to Mrs. Casco. “They’re going to open the doors now and let us onto the ice.”

“The ice? But it’s slippery. Won’t we all just fall?”

I smile reassuringly. “Just walk slowly and with short steps. It’s easier than you think.”

“You can hold on to me, Catherine,” Mr. Casco tells his wife and bends his elbow like he’s escorting her to the debutante ball. It’s stuffy but also cute as hell.

They both look unbelievably uncomfortable right now, but the whole night hasn’t gone that way. Tessa and I picked them up at the airport forty minutes before the game. Neither of us told Eli or Levi about their visit in case they decided to cancel at the last minute. They didn’t, and although it was super awkward for me to meet them like that, without Eli there, it was worth it. They were as uptight and cool as Eli has described them, and at first I fretted that they would get annoyed or even upset watching the game, but they didn’t. In fact, they got pretty into it, clapping and gasping and cheering. I think it helped that the rowdy bunch of hooligans that share my DNA were sitting in the row right behind them. My mom seemed to bond with Mrs. Casco, and my dad was all too happy to answer Mr. Casco’s questions about the game.

Zoey reaches over and squeezes my hand excitedly as Declan Randall Braddock squirms in his BabyBjörn at her chest. I reach up and caress his pudgy little cheek and wish for a second that he was more than three months old so he would remember this. But knowing his dad, there will be other Cup celebrations in his life. They open the door and we spill onto the ice with the rest of the families. I make sure the Cascos stay near me. Tessa is right beside me, and my family is right behind me, but they break off with Zoey to rush to Jude, who is standing just left of Levi and Eli. Both Casco brothers are looking at us as we approach like they’re seeing ghosts.

I rush to Eli and jump into him. He wraps his arms around me and squeezes me breathless. “You won a fucking Stanley Cup!” I say against his ear, my face smarting from the giant smile I can’t wipe off.

“I fucking did!” he replies and laughs as he loosens his hold on me and my feet hit the ice again. His eyes move over my shoulder quickly, and I turn and see Levi hugging his mom. “You did this?”

“It actually wasn’t that hard,” I reply with a shrug. “I just used my incredible charm.”

He laughs and takes my hand and he glides closer to his family. His dad smiles at him. “Congratulations, son. You’re very talented. So is Levi.”

“We are!” Eli agrees with a smile. “Thank you, Dad. I’m really happy you guys came.”

“I’m so glad your lovely girlfriends convinced us,” Mrs. Casco says, and Eli squeezes my hand as Levi leans over and kisses Tessa’s cheek. “It’s scary to watch you out there but…I’ve never seen you two happier.”

“We just won the hardest trophy there is to win in sports, Mom,” Levi tells her with a grin. “Together. This is one of the best days of my life.”

“We’re proud of you,” Mr. Casco says, and I can tell by both of the boys’ faces that they haven’t heard that a lot, or maybe at all.

Mrs. Casco looks at me. “So, where is your brother?’

I point a few feet away, closer to the middle of the ice. “I should go over there.”

She nods. I look up at Eli. He kisses the top of my head and lets go of my hand. I take quick short steps and scurry across the ice to get to my family. Jude is lifting Declan out of the BabyBjörn. My heart just melts, and a wave of happy tears hits the back of my eyes. I fight them off, because he’ll tease me mercilessly if he sees me cry. He still razzes me about how I was a weepy mess when I saw Declan for the first time, and he doesn’t believe my lie that I was upset he wasn’t a girl. I was thrilled he was healthy, and seeing Jude hold him had opened the floodgates, but then Jude handed him to my dad and, in front of everyone right there in the hospital room, put a gorgeous ring on Zoey’s finger, and well, it was game over.

He sees me and grins wildly. I shuffle over and hug him. “Congrats.”

“You don’t sound as excited as you should,” he tells me.

I shrug. “You do this all the time now. It’s really not a big deal.”

He laughs and ruffles my hair.

“Jude, let’s get a picture of Little D in the Cup!” my dad says, talking about Declan, because he’s inherited my nickname. His words are slurred, like they always are now, but we’ve all gotten really good at understanding him.

“Let’s do it!” Jude agrees and skates off toward the Cup, which is sitting, surrounded by people, at center ice. We all follow, Sadie pushing Dad in his wheelchair.

Ten minutes later, after tons of family pictures with Little D in the bowl of the Cup and the family around him, Jude picks Declan up and hands him to Dad, and Eli skates over. He hugs my mom and lets my sisters maul him, and then he’s skating toward me. I only have time to lift my arms and then he’s grabbing me around the waist, lifting me up and spinning me. I wrap my arms around his neck, and he kisses me long and hard. When we break the kiss I laugh. “Put me down! I’m getting dizzy.”

He gently lowers me to the ice but keeps his arms around my waist and rests his forehead against mine. “What you did…getting my parents here. There are no words.”

I smile and cup the side of his face. Well, the side of his thick scruffy beard. “I’d do anything for you.”

He grabs my waist and tugs me closer and I squeak because I almost lose my balance. “I love you, sweet Dixie.”

I suddenly feel like crying again. He sees the tears in my eyes and laughs. “I’m sorry if that upsets you, but I do. You’ll have to learn to live with it. For a very long time.”

I nod. “I can handle that. In fact, there’s nothing I would rather handle, because I love you too.”