Page 42 of The Pucking Wrong Man

My heart flipped in my chest. A new donor could mean a new scholarship, potentially. With my performance the other night...maybe there would be a chance...I would just have to give the best performance of my life at the upcoming tryouts for the next showcase. With a scholarship I could maybe afford a small apartment—in the bad part of town yes—but that would be no problem. I mentally started to go over the dance I’d put together for tryouts, tuning Madame Leclerc out until a name she was saying caught my attention.

“Camden James from the Dallas Knights has taken an interest in the arts. Evidently, he was at our performance the other night and was very impressed with our work. We haven’t had this type of donor before, but I’m hopeful that it will lead to even more fruitful relationships in the future.”

The room immediately erupted, everyone around me whispering in excitement.

“He’s so fucking hot,” Alena gasped next to me, pulling at my arm eagerly.

I gaped at her, sure I hadn’t heard right. Camden James was the new donor?

And the Dallas Knights? They were a professional hockey team, right? So that meant Camden was a freaking NHL player?

The room suddenly seemed to be spinning around me.

His words the other night haunted me, walking through my head any time I wasn’t distracting myself.

“It’s just…I saw a literal angel performing the other night, and I couldn’t help but want to meet you.”

From the second I’d seen him, there’d been something about him that had made me feel safe.

I didn’t think it was possible to be just friends with someone like that, though, and as with every other person I’d had in my life—he’d soon realize I wasn’t the kind of friend anyone could ever want.

A famous hockey player…and me. That was the biggest joke I’d ever heard.

Nothing about us went together. Everything about me was broken.

It was a good thing that I’d pushed him away, just like I pushed everyone away.

It was the best thing for him.

And me.

I’d survived a million terrible things in my life, but I wasn’t sure that I could survive him.

And now finding out that he was basically a celebrity…

“As part of this new collaboration, the Company will be attending Mr. James’s match on Saturday.” She clapped again—for some unknown reason—and left the room without another word.

I didn’t think you called it a “match” in hockey—my French ballet instructor was definitely not an expert in the sport.

Not that I was an expert either…I’d seen zero games in my entire life. The only reason I even knew the name was because of the huge parade they’d had a couple of seasons ago when the Knights had won the Stanley Cup.

The whole city had gone crazy about it.

A little thrill ran through me thinking about seeing him play. He was so big…so strong. I could only imagine what he would look like out there on the ice.

But, it probably wasn’t a good thing for me to go—seeing as I’d decided to stay away from him. Considering Madame Leclerc saw me as a liability and a burden to the Company...I wasn’t going to be telling her that, though.

The class was still going crazy over the news. Girls…and a few guys practically squealing as they talked about the game. Dallon, one of the Company’s principal dancers, winked at me from across the room, and I quickly went back to stretching, nodding as Alena planned out what she was going to wear…in detail.

None of us were going to be able to concentrate for the rest of class.

If Camden James was doing this to get my attention, he’d certainly gotten it.

I just hadn’t figured out what his angle was yet.

Every person had an angle. Every person wanted something from you.

Usually, I could figure out what that was.

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