My Hockey Captain Proposed After Cheating

My phone rang at 8:07 the next morning.

Tyler. Of course.

I let it ring three times, poured coffee into my mug, and put him on speaker.

"Morning, champ."

"Hey, baby." His voice was too bright. Too fast. "So, uh. Last night. After the game. Did you hear anything... weird?"

I dropped a sugar cube into my coffee. Then another.

"Yeah," I said. "I heard it."

Dead silence on the other end. I could practically hear him sweating.

I stirred slowly. One second. Two.

"Your fans are *terrible* singers, Tyler. Those drunk guys behind the bench? They butchered 'We Are the Champions.' I wanted to throw my shoe at them."

A long, shaky exhale came through the speaker.

Then he laughed. "God, you're cute."

"I know."

"Okay. Okay, good. I'll see you tonight. White dress, right?"

"White dress."

He hung up. I took a sip of coffee and almost sprayed it all over the counter.

Four years. Four years, and I never noticed how *easy* he was.

---

He didn't fully buy it, though. I knew that by ten o'clock, because the team group chat exploded.

**Marcus:** UPDATE. he's at the training center asking about the speakers 💀

**Marcus:** walked right up to Ethan and goes "hey man, was the sound system acting up last night?"

**Jake:** what did Ethan say

**Marcus:** Ethan didn't even look up from his skates. "Yeah, speakers broke. They fixed it though, right?"

**Danny:** ICONIC

**Marcus:** then I go "where'd you disappear to after the game anyway? Coach was looking everywhere for you"

**Jake:** you didn't

**Marcus:** I did. and he puts on this puppy face and says "post-game recovery, bro. had to stretch out my knee"

**Danny:** stretch out his KNEE

**Jake:** I'm gonna punch him. I'm actually gonna punch him

**Marcus:** I almost did. my hand was a fist for like ten minutes

**Danny:** the nerve of this man to come ASK us

I sat on my bed reading it, shoulders shaking, a pillow pressed over my mouth so my roommate wouldn't think I'd lost it.

Sophie texted me separately.

**Sophie:** Are you laughing or crying right now. Be honest.

**Avery:** Laughing.

**Sophie:** Good. Stay that way. I have the audio, plus three angles from the stands. Tonight is going to be beautiful.

---

The celebration started at seven.

Tyler had gone all out. Rose petals lined the rink's edge. A string quartet sat near the penalty box. A photographer with a giant lens hovered by the boards, and a kid from the campus sports channel was setting up a livestream camera on a tripod.

"He booked WBU Sports Live," Sophie whispered beside me. "For a *proposal*."

"He wants it on the internet forever."

"Then he'll get his wish."

I smoothed down the front of my white dress. His favorite. Thin straps, soft fabric, the one he said made me look like "the girl I'm gonna marry."

Then someone grabbed my arm from behind.

"Avery! Oh my God, you look *gorgeous*!"

Madison.

She was wearing my silver gown. The one I'd lent her for spring formal and never gotten back. It fit her a little loose in the chest.

"Thanks," I said. "That dress looks familiar."

She giggled and squeezed my elbow. "You're the best for letting me borrow it. Oh! Speaking of the best..." She leaned in, eyes shining. "Did you bring my birthday present? You promised."

"I did."

I pulled a small box out of my clutch. Pale blue paper, white satin ribbon. I'd wrapped it carefully at two in the morning.

She tore it open right there. Inside sat a thin gold chain with a tiny heart pendant. I'd stopped wearing it junior year. The clasp stuck.

"Avery." Her voice went soft and wobbly. "This is so *you*. I love it."

She threw her arms around my neck. "You're like my big sister, you know that? My actual big sister."

Over her shoulder, I watched Jake, Marcus, and Danny all reach for their water bottles at the exact same moment. Three heads tipped back. Three faces turned red.

Danny started coughing.

"You okay?" Madison asked him.

"Wrong pipe," he wheezed.

Ten minutes before the big moment, Tyler jogged up to me and pressed his phone into my hand.

"Hold this for me, babe? Don't want it falling out on the ice."

"Sure."

He kissed my forehead. His lips were cold. Mine didn't move.

---

The lights dropped at 8:15.

A single spotlight hit center ice. The quartet started playing something slow and sweet. The crowd gasped, then cheered, and a hundred phones went up at once.

Tyler stepped onto the ice holding a bundle of red roses. He wore a custom championship jersey, number 17 instead of his usual 19. The seventeenth. The day we met.

He'd remembered that.

Somehow, that made it worse.

Sophie gave me a little push. "Go. Queen it up."

I walked out onto the carpet they'd rolled across the ice. The spotlight followed me, hot on my bare shoulders.

Tyler sank to one knee. He pulled the box from his jersey and cracked it open. Princess cut. The ring I'd picked out myself.

"Avery Bennett." His voice carried through the whole arena. Same speakers as last night. "Four years ago, you agreed to be my girlfriend. That was the luckiest day of my life." He swallowed, eyes glossy. "Will you marry me?"

Freshman year flashed in front of me. His first win. He'd climbed the glass, jumped into the stands, and spun me around until I was dizzy.

*Every championship I ever win,* he'd said into my hair, *I'm sharing with you.*

How much of that boy had been real?

My eyes stung. I blinked fast.

Tyler saw it and smiled wider, like he'd already won.

"Tyler," I said softly. "If you make it to the NHL someday... will you still love me?"

"Of course, baby." No pause. Not even half a second. "Forever."

Behind him, the giant screen showed my face, twenty feet tall.

I smiled.

"Then ask me again," I said, "after you sign your contract."

The quartet's bow scraped to a stop.

Four thousand people went silent. Again.

Tyler's smile froze on his face like it had been painted there. "What?"

I bent down and kissed his cheek. Gentle. Sweet. The perfect girlfriend.

"You always say your career comes first," I murmured, loud enough for the mic clipped to his jersey. "I don't want a wedding distracting you. Not now. Not when you're this close."

He stared up at me. The ring box trembled in his hand.

Then someone in the stands started clapping.

One person. Then five. Then the whole section near the Wolves bench was on its feet, clapping and whistling. Jake was clapping hardest of all, grinning so wide I thought his face might split.

"That's love!" somebody yelled. "That's real love!"

Tyler had no choice. He stood, closed the ring box, and forced out a laugh.

"She's... she's amazing, right?" he said to the crowd. "Always thinking about me."

The cheers got louder. Every single person who'd heard last night's audio knew exactly why I'd said no.

Tyler was the only one who didn't.

I turned and walked off the ice, my heels sinking into the carpet, his phone still in my hand.

It buzzed against my palm.

I glanced down.

The preview glowed on the lock screen.

**Madison 💋:** Don't worry, handsome. I'd say yes.

I looked up. Across the rink, Madison stood by the boards in my silver dress, my old necklace around her throat, her thumbs still on her phone.

She caught my eye and waved.

I waved back.

Then I slid Tyler's phone into my clutch, right next to mine.