Page 16 of Caught from Behind

The car.

The kiss.

The invitation.

And the firm refusal.

No.

I shudder, throat growing tight, embarrassment eating away at my insides.

Dumb. I should have let sleeping dogs lie, but the mules and the snow, the mistletoe and the way I caught him looking at me over and over again, not just on Christmas but before and…

I was dumb.

Spending time with the friends who I consider my family, since Knox and I are the only two Adlers still alive.

I’d gotten romantic. Needy.

Dumb.

Nearly ruining all of the goodness I’d found with one scorching kiss and?—

I need to tuck that away, focus on what’s important, on what I can have, can do.

Helping the people I love.

Spending time with Nova, with Knox. And that’s going to involve watching my brother play hockey, watching Lake, and…watching Riggs. It’s going to involve sitting in this discomfort because it means that I get to spend time with my bestie while she moons over the love of her life.

Even if it’s impossible to ignore the embarrassment churning in my belly.

Even if it makes me want to pick up the drink sitting in the cup holder at my feet, and down it.

But that’s something else Riggs doesn’t like about me.

He thinks I drink too much.

And maybe I do.

Maybe I drink so I don’t have to think, to feel?—

Tap. Tap. Tap.

I jerk and look up from the tempting cocktail, seeing that Lake is standing in front of the glass, smiling at Nova, who—swear to fuck—just seems to blossom under his gaze.

Bright and beautiful, showing the world the gorgeous person she is inside.

She lifts her camera and fires off a couple of shots, causing Lake to wink before he skates off to finish his warm-up.

My brother is now on the far side of the ice, stretching and stick handling, getting ready for the game with a sure-minded focus that he doesn’t have in many other places. Minus giving me a hard time, they all involve hockey—off-ice training, studying tape, hitting the gym to be strong and explosive, never missing a practice, spending loads of extra time on the rink.

I’ll get my goofy Knox back after the buzzer goes in the third.

Right now he has laser focus.

“I’m going to sneak up to the bathroom,” Nova murmurs a few minutes later, after I’ve struggled to keep my eyes away from a certain bearded hottie.

“I’ll hold the fort,” I tell her, forcing my tone to be light, and getting a smile in return.

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