Coming Up for Air (cole caufield x oc)

Thirty-Nine

𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙚

Cole meets Brady and Josh at the redline with a smile. "Gentlemen," he greets them. "Lovely to see you in town."

"Gotta get third in the Atlantic so that you losers don't," Brady replies, knocking Cole's skate with his stick. He goads, "You've been getting aggressive lately, eh? You wanna go for one out there today?"

Cole laughs: Brady is at least seven inches taller than him and probably sixty pounds bigger. More than that, though, in addition to being his team's captain, he's a well-known enforcer, and-unlike for Cole-a bout in this game wouldn't be his first.

"I'll have to pass," Cole replies. "Maybe if I put on a few in a couple years."

Brady indicates Josh beside him. "You and Norris could probably have a good go," he suggests.

Cole looks to Josh, whose eyes scan the buzzing arena. "You hear that, Norris?" Cole prompts.

Josh snaps out of his trance, raising his brows at Cole. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Brady wants to know if you and I can drop the gloves in this one," Cole supplants.

It makes Josh smile. The guy is probably the nicest person in the league. Brady is always on him for chatting with the opposing center at the faceoff dot, but poor Josh can't ever break the habit. It's always a "Hey, how you been?" or "How's your family? Your wife? Your dog?"

"Can we see your friends after the game?" Josh asks.

"If you're not too busy with one of them," Brady chimes in.

Cole slashes at Brady's stick, knocking it out of his hand. "Fuck off," Cole hollers over his shoulder, skating deeper into his own half.

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𝕗𝕣𝕖𝕪𝕒

The moment the group has found their seat, Tate jumps up again. Freya asks where she's headed, to which Tate replies, "Oh, just the bathroom!"

Just like that, she's gone again.

Meanwhile, Riley and Jess are leaned in close to one another on Freya's other side, whispering and giggling about something. Freya lets out a huff: all of her friends seem to have something going on that they're not ready to share. Meanwhile, Freya's whole goddamn sex life is free knowledge for anyone.

Fortunately, she doesn't feel alone for long, because Cole skids to a stop at the glass just in front of her. He taps at it, as if he doesn't already have her attention, and then flicks a puck up onto his stick, spinning it several times on the blade. When he drops it to the ice again, he skates closer to the glass.

"You look so beautiful," he tells her with a smile, leaning nearer to the little gap between the boards so that she can hear him.

Freya makes a face at him and counters, "You're just saying that so you can get in my pants."

Cole drops his jaw, feigning insult, before flashing her a little wink. It sends a rush of butterflies into Freya's stomach, and she can feel her cheeks burning. Cole is quick to call attention to it, "Is somebody blushing?" he teases.

Freya has to look away from him, her nose crinkled in embarrassment. "Maybe you should focus on getting the win," she suggests. "I don't want to be busy comforting you later when we could be doing other things." She raises her brows at him, and he's quick to raise his back.

"Don't worry," he assures her, leaning down so that his face is in line with Freya's. "Only one that's gonna need comforting is you when you can't walk tomorrow."

Before Freya can even gather a coherent response, he's skating away, slinging pucks towards the goal.

She'd nearly forgotten Jess and Riley were next to her until Jess pipes up, "That was hot."

Riley hums in agreement. "I gotta give it to you, Frey-you've got that man on his knees for you." She shakes her head in amazement. "Still a hard no on the dating?" Riley urges.

A beat of hesitation passes through Freya: dating? Another athlete? It seems insane. After all, she still feels like she's running from Dalton-how is she supposed to run right into someone who could end up exactly like him?

Cole isn't Dalton, Freya scolds herself. Just the thought is absurd. Dalton was agitated all the time, constantly frustrated with her. Cole, meanwhile, never does anything but adore her. Freya is inclined to believe he would've built her a whole new apartment by hand if he hadn't been able to find a new easily.

To Riley and Jess, Freya sighs, "I guess I'm not sure anymore."

-------

𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙚

Cole scores, and Nick gets the assist, but the team still falls short in the first minute of overtime. Josh notches the winning goal on a beauty of a shot from nearly the redline-a shot he never would have taken during their days in the development program. In fact, Cole had never seen Josh play with as much confidence as tonight, which is good to see from a guy who isn't known for putting big numbers on the board.

When he meets up with Brady and Josh outside the locker rooms, that's the first thing Cole notes. "You look like a whole new man out there," he observes, which makes Josh laugh. "Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if you really do drop the gloves one of these days-you've got the confidence for it."

Nick appears behind Cole, bringing a hand down on his shoulder as he greets Brady and Josh. "You sure we aren't intruding on you guys by tagging along for drinks?" Josh asks, always the last to do wrong.

Cole nods. "I texted Frey, and they're gonna meet us out by the cars." He starts that way, leading the others all the way to the players' exit, where their friends are waiting in a group. When Cole catches Freya's gaze, he feels a little tremble slip into his breath. Why is he nervous? It's not like this is his first time seeing Freya, though, admittedly, she gets prettier every time he does see her.

He goes to her, threading his arms around her neck and pulling her forehead to his lips. "Hi," she breathes against him. When she pulls away, Cole keeps their fingers intertwined. "Brady," she greets, "It's good to see you."

Brady nods and replies, "Glad it's under better circumstances this time," he adds.

Freya smiles at Josh, who lifts his hand in a little wave. It's Jess who steps forward to shake the guys' hands, introducing herself. "Thank you for taking care of my love in Florida," she remarks. Cole feels Freya's fingers tighten around his, and he turns to kiss her temple gently.

Awkwardly, Tate greets Brady and Josh, pulling each of them into a hug. Cole can't help but furrow his brows-he hasn't known Tate terribly long, but he knows she's not a hugger. When he shoots a glance down at Freya, she, too, appears more than puzzled.

Still, they shake it off, heading down the block as a group until they arrive at the bar Cole had suggested. Cole keeps his hand on Freya's leg all night, trying hard not to let his anxiety show.