“Nothin’.” When his father obviously doesn’t believe him, Junior adds, “Okay, I guess I was talkin’ trash … and maybe I touched her hair.”

“Guess she taught you a lesson, huh?” his father says.

A lesson. The last thing Junior wants is to be taught a lesson by the goalie of his rival team. Junior watches her long, blond ponytail sway back and forth against the name YATES on the back of her jersey as she struts down the corridor to the ice. He’d never thought it was possible to strut with hockey gear and skates on, but Yates sure as hell does it … and does it well.

After Luis and his brothers exchange knowing looks, they laugh.

Luis met Nikki when he was fifteen, fell in love with her when he was eighteen, and married her when he was twenty-three. The first time they’d met, she’d kneed him in the nuts. Eyeing his son’s swollen lip and the intense reaction Junior had to the girl is a clue that there is something brewing beneath the surface that his son isn’t even aware of yet.

Passionate, intense relationships are common in their family, and the older Fuenteses know it.

As soon as Junior takes the ice, Alex pats Luis on the shoulder. “You know what’s about to happen, don’t you?”

Luis nods.

“Look on the bright side,” Carlos says. “She’s got one hell of a right hook. With her on your team, your family is bound to win the annual Panty Discus tournament.”

The three Fuentes brothers walk into the stands, proud fathers and husbands who dedicated their lives to their families.

They have no clue their mother, sitting next to their stepfather, Cesar, tears up every time her boys and their families get together. A long time ago she’d given up hope that her sons would live happily ever after. Their troubled, painful past has been behind them for a while now … … and the future of the Fuentes family looks brighter than ever.