Page 1 of Rival Darling

1

VIOLET

Never date a jock. It was the one rule I had when it came to boys, but apparently, I was terrible at following it.

“Jeremy’s going to kill me,” I said as I rushed across the parking lot with my cousin Mia at my side. It was my boyfriend’s first hockey game of the season, and we were running twenty minutes late. I glanced at my watch and cursed under my breath—make that thirty minutes late.

We’d been slammed by customers at the coffee shop all afternoon and struggled to get out on time. It didn’t help that my car took her sweet-ass time to start. Poor Betty hadn’t adjusted well to our recent move to Sunshine Hills, Minnesota. She’d been loudly protesting the sudden change ever since my mom dumped us here at the start of summer break.

Her tantrums only grew worse once winter arrived and the snow set in, but I couldn’t really blame her since I was struggling with the cold too. Neither of us belonged here. We were supposed to be cruising around in the California sun, not stuck in this freezing hellscape for my senior year.

As if to belabor the point, my foot skidded on a patch of ice, nearly sending me sprawling onto my back. I was even more out of my depth here than Betty, and I was really beginning to wonder if my mom hated me. I knew she was off chasing the job of a lifetime in Europe, but ditching me with my uncle in the middle of nowhere, in Minnesota during winter was just cruel.

“He’s not going to kill you,” Mia said. “He’s in the middle of a game, and I’m sure there’s a big crowd. He’ll just assume you’re somewhere among the masses of his adoring fans.”

“Maybe.” Jeremy was laser focused on hockey these days, so I couldn’t imagine him searching the crowd for my face. Not when he had a game to win. “But I’m sure one of the puck bunnies who constantly chase him around school will tell him I was late.”

There were a lot of puck bunnies at the prestigious Sunshine Hills Prep, but only one who particularly concerned me: Heather. Jeremy said they were just friends, but I got the feeling I’d well and truly derailed her plans to tie him down and become his hockey wife when I’d shown up over the summer. I knew she wouldn’t hesitate to inform him that I’d missed the majority of the game.

“I’m sure he won’t mind. Especially not if he wins.” Mia continued her attempts to reassure me as she pushed through the heavy doors of the hockey center. Even after we entered the building, I was disappointed to find a chill still lingered in the air. It was an ice rink, after all, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.

“It’s his first game of the season, and I’ve missed half of it,” I argued. “He’ll be disappointed.” We hurried along the concourse, which was deserted because everyone was already in their seats. It must have been an exciting game because I could hear the crowd going wild. “I’m trying to be a supportive girlfriend.”

“Uh, he’s lucky you’re dating him at all considering you’ve had a strict no-jock rule in place since the moment you realized boys existed.”

“I already told you Jeremy’s an exception to the rule. He’s nothing like my dad…” My voice trailed off because my father was the last thing I wanted to talk about. Not that there was much to say.

My mom got knocked up and then abandoned by a superstar football player in college. She’d thought he was her fairy tale, but instead he’d turned out to be the villain in those cautionary tales parents told their teenage daughters to scare them into wearing protection. I’d grown up being taught never to trust boys with killer smiles and strong right arms and to run in the opposite direction if a guy’s life revolved around a sport. I’d always followed my mom’s advice—until this summer.

Jeremy might have been a hockey star at my new school, but I’d never felt like he was some cardboard cutout jock who couldn’t be trusted. I’d come across plenty of them over the years, and he was different.

We’d met at the library over the break. I’d run in there to shelter from a sudden downpour and found him volunteering in the children’s section, reading books to wide-eyed little kids. I hadn’t realized he was an athlete at the time, or I never would have given him a chance. But we’d been drawn together from the start, and the universe kept throwing us into each other’s paths over the summer. I’d well and truly fallen for him by the time I found out he was the captain of Sunshine Prep’s hockey team, the Saints. Dating him might have broken my rule, but who was I to mess with fate?

“I mean, I seriously hope he’s nothing like your dad.” As always, Mia didn’t sound convinced. She was a hockey nut, so you’d think she’d be Jeremy’s biggest fan. But she’d been warning me to be careful ever since she found out we were dating.

“He’s not,” I insisted. “Jeremy’s kind and sweet and thoughtful. You know I wouldn’t be with him if he wasn’t.”

“Kind, sweet, and thoughtful are not the adjectives I’d use to describe Jeremy Hoffman. Are you sure you didn’t break your no-jock rule just to piss off your mom for ditching you here?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Because you know I wouldn’t judge you if that was the reason...”

“That’s not why I’m with him.”

“Are you sure? Because he can be such a jock.”

“He’s not that bad.”

Mia stopped and turned to me.

“Vi, everyone at school thinks he walks on water. Hell, he thinks he walks on water.”

Yeah, my cousin’s opinion of Jeremy really wasn’t good. I could tell she was only trying to look out for me though. She knew why I’d spent so many years avoiding athletes at all costs. “Technically, he does kind of walk on water,” I said. “It’s just a little frozen…”

Mia rolled her eyes but then laughed. “I’m just saying maybe you don’t know him all that well. You only started dating this summer.”

Mia was right, but we’d shared an incredible few months together, and meeting Jeremy had actually made my forced move across the country seem worth it. It’s not like I was completely oblivious to what she was hinting at though. I had certainly seen a different side to him since school started, especially when we were in public. As captain of the hockey team, he had so many people relying on him and looking up to him. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to live with the weight of a whole town’s expectations on his shoulders. Jeremy was a good guy though. Mia just needed a little longer to see it too.

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