Page 64 of The Love You Win

“We’re starting easy,” our assistant coach, Kyle Fry shouts. “Passing and puck control drills today. Navarro and Black, in the crease.” Assistant coach Fry claps his hands, and everyone moves. Navarro holds back for a beat to hold my gaze.

“If you were anything like they said, you wouldn’t be so worried. And you wouldn’t be into an English teacher who doesn’t take your shit. I love you, Graves, you know that. So hear what I’m about to say with that in mind. Get your head out of your ass. Love is always a risk. You can run away from it, or you can play to win. No one can make that call but you.”

“I’m not in love,” I say to his back as he skates toward his goal.

“Dude.” Griffin rolls his eyes. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“I’m not.” The thing is, I could see myself getting there all too quickly.

And that scares the hell out of me.

twenty-nine

ISLA

“Oh my God,” I mutter to myself with a chuckle when I finally check my phone.

My coworker LaTonya glances at me over a stack of boxes as she wobbles into my classroom. Only her violet braids, forehead, and dark brown eyes are completely visible. I can barely see her nose, the boxes are piled so high. “What?”

I hurry over and grab half of them before she trips over a desk and ends up ass over tits on the floor. It wouldn’t be the first time. She’s brilliant with math, but as if nature was hell-bent on compensating for her intelligence, she’s one of the clumsiest people I know. “You didn’t have to bring all of this in by yourself. We’re supposed to be helping each other set up our classrooms, not throwing our backs out the week before school starts.”

“Oh please. I can handle carrying some boxes.” She rolls her eyes at me as she sets the stack on my desk, trapping her pinkie in the process. “Ouch!”

LaTonya shakes her head as I try to hide my chuckle. She set herself up for that one. But as soon as we’re both free of our boxes, she arches one perfect eyebrow and glances at my phone where it sits face down on one of the empty desks. “So what were you oh my god-ing?”

My coworkers are bound to find out about Maddox and our… whatever this is eventually, right? The assembly is about two weeks away. I suppose it won’t hurt to spill the beans now. Twisting the end of my ponytail around my fingers, I unlock my phone and open Instagram. “I got follow requests from like half of the Minnesota Rogues this morning.”

I’d met all of Maddox’s teammates at the charity dinner, but mostly in passing. So I was pretty surprised to open my phone to find follow requests not only from Maddox and his closest friends but also the rookie Jess and Nev had been chatting up—Ryder Hanson—and six other guys on the team. Has he been talking about me to them? I know they have practice today, but I wasn’t expecting that.

LaTonya whistles. “Seriously?”

I nod, holding the phone up so she can see for herself.

“Girl. Why are all those fine men trying to follow you? Don’t get me wrong, I love you, but all you post lately are photos of your lattes and a few random snapshots of pretty scenery. Did you suddenly start posting racy selfies or something? I know we don’t get paid a lot, but I have never heard of a single teacher keeping their job if the administration finds out they have an OnlyFans. Even if it’s just feet pics. So if that’s what you’re doing…” Her dark eyes sparkle, her full lips twitching as she tries to suppress a smile. It doesn’t last. Soon we’re both cracking up. The idea of me posting naked pictures on the internet is so out there that I’m trying to imagine what my angle would be.

“Oh, god. Could you imagine? It would be photos of me fingering books or something. Maybe dressing up in period clothing to look like a character out of Pride and Prejudice and showing the barest hint of cleavage while trying to make a sexy face and totally failing.”

She laughs even harder. “Do a sexy face right now. Show me what that would look like.” So I do. And LaTonya finds this so hilarious that she doubles over in laughter. “Oh girl, you look like you just smelled a fart.”

“Crap. That’s embarrassing,” I say through giggles.

It takes a minute for us both to catch our breath, then I tap the accept button on all the requests from Maddox’s team. “No porn pics. I’m kinda seeing one of them.”

“You’re seeing a pro athlete?” Both of LaTonya’s eyebrows rise, making her luminous brown skin wrinkle. “Damn, girl. Good for you. You deserve someone strong and sexy after putting up with that entitled man-child for so long.”

I cough on a laugh. None of my coworkers liked Alex. They thought he was snobbish and aloof. Of course, they all tried their best to make him feel welcome and to make me feel they accepted him while we were together, but as soon as he broke up with me, the truth came out. They hated Alex. Universally.

“You want to see a picture of him?” I ask, already knowing her answer. I’m swiping through my photos from our hot air balloon date before LaTonya even says yes.

“What’s his name?”

I hold the phone out to her. “Maddox. Maddox Graves.”

“Damn,” she says. “I don’t know a single thing about hockey, but if all the players look like this, count me in.” She flips through more of the photos. “Did this man take you up in a hot air balloon?”

I nod, grinning like an idiot. It was the most romantic date anyone had ever taken me on. And then it was the most erotic. My lower belly clenches just thinking about how Maddox played my body like he was made to do it. My cheeks are warm, and my coworker smirks.

“Oh, he took you on more than one ride that night, didn’t he?”

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