Page 50 of Home Ice

"You can try." I carry her down the stairs to the sofa. Her face is red, but it's from laughter. I give her the run through of where everything is. It's a short day today for me and I hope I'll be back before she needs anything, but I want her to feel comfortable helping herself while I'm gone. Once she assures me, again, that she'll be fine, I set the crutches beside her, and I run up the stairs to slip into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. When I head back down, I grab Silver's leash and lead him out to the car. I figure she doesn't need to worry about him today, so I'm taking him to the arena with me. He can watch practice, and I'm sure one of the trainers or someone from the office will take him out for a bathroom break halfway through.

As soon as I walk through the door to the dressing room, everyone looks up at me, demanding an update on Lily. Then they all turn to Silver, and he laps it up. I drop his leash, and he struts from stall to stall getting pets and love from one person before moving on to the next. It reminds me of a king visiting his subjects and expecting them to adore him. Everyone does.

"Hey, is it alright if I take Lily's dog out real quick?" The Princeling asks once Silver has made the rounds. "He might need to use the bathroom, you know."

"Dude, you're already dressed," Kayden says. "And we have to be on the ice in like thirty seconds. Besides, as captain, I should be the one who gets to spend time with Lily's dog."

Elijah finishes helping me stretch, and I lean back against the concrete wall. "You're both idiots," I say. "We all need to be out on the ice. Elijah?" I hand the leash to him. "Would you take care of Silver during practice? He just went potty before we came inside, so he should be good."

He beams like I gave him an award, and then he takes Silver outside like he didn't just hear me.

The rest of the team grumbles because I didn't pick them, but one by one they head out to the ice until it's just me and Kayden. I finish strapping on the last of my pads and look up. He's standing over me, so I know he wants to say something. "What is it?"

"Just never seen you like this before."

"Late to practice and slow to get on the ice?" I shouldn't have gone back inside to give Lily one last kiss goodbye after I loaded Silver into my car.

"Happy. You were humming as you laced your skates. Does this mean what I think it means?"

My cheeks burn, and I wish I could pull my mask down without that making it even more obvious. "Kayden," I warn him off with my growl.

"Holy fuck, dude!" He grabs the front of my jersey and shakes me. "You and?—"

"Shut up! I mean it, Kayden. She could lose her job if the wrong person found out."

He shakes his head. "You know she wouldn't. No one here would care. We're not like that. But I won't say a word. If you don't get that stupid ass smile off your face, though, they'll all know whether I tell them or not."

Fuck. I try to make myself scowl. It takes more concentration than it should, and when I look at Kayden to see what he thinks, he just laughs and heads out to practice.

CHAPTER 33

STOOL SAMPLES ARE ACTUALLY REALLY IMPORTANT

LILY

By the time Brant leaves for practice, my bladder is so full it’s crowding out everything else inside me. He's been so great. He's been beyond great. But damn it, I just want to go to the bathroom in peace. And if I want to sit on the toilet and relax for a minute after I'm done peeing, I want to do it without him knocking on the door to make sure I'm okay. So as soon as he's gone, I'm on my crutches and hustling to the bathroom. It's amazing how fast I am on these things. Especially since I barely left the couch last night. But when a girl has to go, she has to go.

And go.

But finally I make it back to the couch for another exciting day of, oh let me check my schedule, couching. It's not like I'm one of those people who has to constantly move, but this is ridiculous. And we didn't even win the competition thanks to Brant making me quit. I could have finished, and maybe we would have still gotten first place. Bridges could definitely use the money.

Thinking of Bridges makes me think of Chloe again. It's been a couple of days since I heard from her, and that's probably fine. She's a teenage girl, and I'm someone she barely knows really. But I'm still worried. Maybe it's because of my mom, but I don't trust parents who abandon their children. Her parents say they want her to be home with them, but they've already kicked her out once. People don't change. Not like that. Even though she's probably in school, I text her again. And then I text Michael to see if he's heard anything. When neither of them answers me right away, I text Em.

Me: I'm so bored. Call me?

I wait for the three little dots to appear, but after a couple of minutes, I give up and lie back on the couch. With nothing else to think about, my mind winds back to yesterday. To his mouth on me. No one had ever done that. Tyler certainly made his feelings clear about it, but then he still expected me to give him a blow job anytime he wanted one. I wanted so badly to do that for Brant last night. But just resting and feeling his body against mine did feel pretty good. I hope it did for him too.

My ringing phone interrupts my thoughts. "You know some of us work Monday mornings," Em starts before I even have a chance to say hi.

She looks cute today with her red hair pulled back. She's wearing kitty earrings, and her makeup is perfect. Like always. I wish I knew how she did it. Or how she found the time to even try on a workday. "Sorry to interrupt your busy morning of examining stool samples, but I wanted to talk."

"Stool samples are actually really important, you know. We find lots of worms and other infections that way."

"Mm-hmm. Sounds like a pretty?—"

"Don't say it." She rolls her eyes. "You're better than the same old shitty job joke that literally everyone makes. But speaking of jobs, shouldn't you be doing yours instead of interrupting my extremely valuable and highly appreciated work?"

Em works for her dad's veterinary practice. She thought once she had her degree, she could split the patients with him. But he still has her doing the same things she did before she graduated. She knows they're important, but it's not why she spent all those years in school.

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