Page 41 of The Trophy

“Bella,” I murmur when Lake and I are finally alone. “I missed you.”

Lakyn smiles, walking into my open arms. “I missed you too. I think we need to talk. I’d rather have that conversation with Blaze too, if you don’t mind?”

I don’t show my slight disappointment that she doesn’t want to be alone with me. “Certo (of course). Let’s go to my room, I’ll text Blaze to meet us there.”

BLAZE

Goddamn.

I should have listened to Lakyn and had some chicken nuggets rather than try Bay’s chili.

And now Jagger expects me to eat it every time we have a home game?

I would never throw a game for money, but believe me, I’m considering “loosing” next week to put an end to this chili tradition.

After almost an entire tub of sour cream and two bowls of rice, I manage to finish the two ladles I served myself. Thank fuck I got a little worried after Lake’s warning and I didn’t get a large serving or I would have been in real trouble.

I chug another glass of milk—I usually don’t even like the stuff unless it’s flavored or it has ice-cream in it, I’m just not a milk drinker—and glare at Jagger and Tucker.

“Fuck off. This isn’t funny, you assholes.”

Their shit eating grins widen.

“It isn’t like we didn’t try to warn you,” Jugs—like we like to call him on the ice—says.

“Yup,” Tucker—aka mother-trucker—agrees. “You should have gone to eat at your food truck. Now if we win our next game, you’re our bitch until we win the Frozen Four.”

I don’t even want to think about it.

I’m about to tell them that, when Lake steps into the dining room followed by Luca.

“Blaze,” she says softly. “Can we talk?”

A choir of “ooohs” comes from my teammates and if we were on the ice, there would be hell to pay; they get away with it with my scariest scowl, as I rise from my chair and follow my girl and Luca upstairs.

“You ok?” she asks after Luca closes his bedroom door behind us.

“Barely,” I sigh. “You were right, pretty girl. I should have listened and we should have gone to Maria’s truck for dinner. By the way, how did you get out of eating Bay’s chili?” I ask Luca.

“I didn’t,” he says with a shrug. “My father, Re Gilberto di Montebello, is very partial to spicy food. The head chef at the royal palace is famous for his pasta all’arrabbiata (angry pasta). King Charles, of Great Britain, needed rescuing last time he came to dinner. I’ve been eating the palace pasta all’arrabbiata since I could barely walk, so Bay’s chili was like a walk in the park.”

Go figure.

“So, pretty girl,” I say, turning my attention to Lakyn. “What did you want to talk about?”

A frown appears on Lakyn’s pretty face, as she exhales before looking from me to Luca.

“Ideally, I would have preferred to have this conversation just once, but Cash had some emergency at home and he had to bail on tonight’s party. I’m going to talk to him whenever I see him next. But I wanted to discuss a couple of things with you. First off, I don’t love this dare that the three of you have going on, but I understand it wasn’t your idea and you found yourselves stuck in it thanks to Topher. So I guess we need to figure out how to navigate this situation together.”

Luca and I react at the same time.

“Meno male (thank goodness)!”

“Thank fuck.”

We blurt more or less at the same time.

“I confronted Topher about this whole thing,” Lake continues. “I was going to tell Bay what he did, but…”

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