Page 22 of The Trophy

She looks away, taking her hand out of mine and nervously twisting her fingers together.

“But what?” I ask as gently as I can.

Lakyn’s blue eyes sweep over each of us again. “But I would be really sad if that happened. I know it sounds crazy, but I like each of you so much. That’s why I’m having trouble choosing. Are you here to give me some kind of ultimatum or put pressure on me? Right now I really don’t have the answer you’re looking for. I have no answer.”

Luca advances, taking Lakyn into his arms. “No, bella. We don’t want to give you an ultimatum but we wanted to know how you felt about our situation. There have been some new… developments and we wanted to discuss things with you.”

“Yeah. Something happened and we wanted you to hear this from us before things could get out of hand.”

I shake my head.

Talk about things getting out of hand. Now there’s no way out of it. We have to tell her.

“What happened?” she asks. “You say you aren’t breaking up with me, but you all look like someone put toothpaste in your helmets and dulled the blades of your skates or something. You’re worrying me.”

As a goalie, I have nerves of steel. I have to give it to my teammates though, they handle this situation with way more composure than I feel right now.

“I guess this is kind of my fault,” Luca begins. “Coach surprised us with an extra practice when we arrived on campus yesterday morning. It was clearly a punishment for the shit Topher pulled during the game with USC. We were all tired and still pissed at him. I might have said I couldn’t wait to get out of the ice rink, so I could ask you out for dinner.”

Blaze comes to his aid. “I said I was planning to do the same and?—”

I guess it’s my turn to fess up. “I told them they were too late because I already asked you. We started arguing and Topher started ribbing us about trying to fuck the same girl.”

Lakyn rolls her eyes. “What a douche. I seriously don’t get what Bay sees in that guy.”

If I didn’t know how sweet and generous Bay is, I would probably say that she sees Topher’s important name and all the nice things old money can buy, but that would be unfair. “Yeah, I think he manages to hide his worst side from your sister. Yesterday morning he was at his worst, egging us on to see who could seduce you. He suggested the one who got to sleep with you first, should be named team captain.” I don’t have the balls to look at Lakyn after that admission.

Luca nods. “That’s where I fucked up. I told him to shut the fuck up and that that ship had sailed. That all three of us had been with you.”

“You did what?” Lakyn gasps. “You talked about me in the locker room?”

Blaze is the first to react. “It wasn’t like that, Lake. We weren’t bragging about you being a conquest or going into detail about what happened in your hotel room.”

Shock is the main emotion in Lakyn’s eyes, but it’s the flicker of hurt and doubt that spur me into speaking up.

“It’s the truth, baby. We didn’t even start with the intention of talking about you. It was my fault, I was taking too long to get ready because I was texting you. Blaze and Luca realized I was asking you out and things got out of hand from then on. Next thing I know we started arguing about who had dibs like a bunch of twelve-year-olds and Topher caught wind of the fact that we all were into you.”

She stares at the three of us without uttering a word.

“Bella,” Luca pleads with her. “Cash is telling the truth. We were arguing about who had priority to take you on a date last night and Topher sensed a chance to be an asshole.”

“Like a shark that catches the scent of a drop of blood in an entire fucking ocean,” I add, incensed all over again by the malice in our frat president’s eyes when he proposed that bet. “He’s salty that Coach decided he isn’t captain material and that’s why he’s doing that.”

She still looks at us without speaking, her fists clenched tightly at her sides.

CHAPTER 5

NOT YOUR PUCKING BUNNY

LAKYN

Idon’t even know what to think.

I look at the three men I’ve been dating, trying to make sense of what they’re trying to tell me.

They nervously scramble to explain, almost talking on top of each other.

“So let me understand,” I finally say. “You were arguing about who was gonna ask me out first and Topher got involved. Did he say that who would get to sleep with me first, was gonna be captain?”

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