Page 102 of The Trophy

“I know, Blaze. I trust you.”

I pull slightly back, my gaze lost in the blue depths of Lakyn’s eyes.

“I love you, Lakyn.”

The words slip out easily, as if I’d said them a million times before.

“I love you too.”

I almost don’t hear her reply over the roaring of my ears and the wild beating of my heart.

“You do?” I ask, struggling to believe that this incredible woman wants me just as much as I want her.

“I think I loved you from the moment you walked out of this same arena on our first date,” she admits. “When you gave me that helmet and took me on my first ever bike ride. We’re so different on the outside and yet we both love reading the same things. You aren’t just hot, you’re kind and a real gentleman. You lost a dare on purpose not to show my panties to your whole fraternity and half our school. You’re sexy and our chemistry is off the charts, in and out of bed. I’d be crazy not to love you.”

I close the distance between us, stopping just short of kissing her. “I can’t even start telling you all the reasons why I love you, Lake. You’re… everything.”

CHAPTER 20

PAPARAZZI

LAKYN

Between finals, two away hockey games back to back and my job at the library, I haven’t seen my guys for days.

I can’t believe tomorrow morning I’ll fly back east to spend the Christmas break with my parents.

I’m relieved to be done with all my finals and all that’s between me and a date with Luca tonight, is a shift at the library.

My roommate Tasha is leaving this afternoon, and we said a tearful goodbye when her Uber to the airport showed up at our apartment.

As I head to the door, ready for the short walk to campus, my phone pings with a weather alert.

Heavy showers and thunderstorms are expected at the end of the afternoon and well into the evening.

“The sky seems clear,” I say, lifting my face to look up at a cloudless blue sky.

However in the almost three years I’ve come to school in Star Cove, I learned that the weather of this small Northern California town can be pretty unpredictable.

I’m over halfway to the library though, just passing the student center on campus, so at this point if it rains, I’ll have to either wait it out, call a cab, or see if there are any umbrellas in the lost and found; if I went back home to get my umbrella, I’d be late for my shift.

One thing I can have time for though, is to stop for a coffee at the Bean Deep, the coffee shop on campus.

The lunch hour rush has ended, so there are just three people in line at the counter.

I quickly study the board with the specials, feeling a little adventurous and looking for something other than my usual latte.

The candy cane mocha looks appealing and I decide to buy into the festive cheer that reminds me that Christmas is just a couple of days away.

“Next customer, please,” the barista calls out and I begin to tell him my order.

“I would like a candy cane—oh, hi.” I stutter when the person in front of me turns to leave.

“I—I swear I was here to get coffee, I wasn’t following you.” Jon says, running out of the coffee shop as if he had the devil on his heels.

Now don’t ask me why I follow him, forgetting completely about my caffeine fix, but I do. My anthropology professor would probably say it has something to do with an ancestral instinct to chase our prey; an innate need to procure your next meal from when we were hunters and gatherers.

Whatever this is, my ex rushes out and I take chase.

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