Page 30 of Mistletoe Face Off

Chase pats me on my back. “Great play, Harrison.”

“Thanks, man.” I beam at him, hoping this proves once more that I'm captain material—and Lorcan isn't.

But our joy is short-lived. With ten seconds left, their star forward, Vince Turner, breaks away. Casey does his best to stretch across our goal, but it's not enough. The puck slides in,and with no more time on the clock left, the final score is 4-3 to the Vortex.

I'm philosophical about it. You can't win all the time, even if you want to.

As we begin to leave the ice, I catch Dan's eye. He nods, a silent acknowledgment, raising my hopes that maybe I'm one step closer to that ‘C’ on my jersey. But I know I'll have to keep on proving myself, game after game throughout the season, whenever I’ve given the chance.

“Check out that ugly sweater,” Casey says with a whistle, gesturing at the crowd, and I look up to see a woman in a sweater covered in red and green pom poms with a Christmas tree flashing in lights on the front.

Someone must flick a switch because the lights change from a Christmas tree shape into bold letters, spelling out our team name across eight sweaters, the ninth and tenth forming exclamation points.

It's clever.

“The whole family’s wearing ‘em,” I remark as I raise my stick in the air in appreciation. All ten of the sweater wearers begin to jump up and down, clapping their hands in glee that I’ve acknowledged their efforts.

Tonight is Ugly Sweater Night at the arena, and our fans, usually decked out in their favorite player’s jersey, are sporting all kinds of Christmas sweaters, from the cute to the downright terrible. It's one of our annual Christmas fundraising events. People make a small donation on top of their ticket purchase and all that money goes to charity. It's always popular, and this year we're supporting kids cancer.

Dan will soon be announcing the winner of the competition, who will get to join me and some of the other player volunteers in one of the corporate boxes for a post-match meal. Of course,journalists and photographers will be there to report on it—including my new sparring partner, Holly Coleman.

Not that she's there to report exactly. More to put on a show… with me.

Yup, tonight is our first fake argument, and I admit, I’m kind of excited about it.

I'm not sure how Holly feels about this whole performance thing we’ve signed up to. Heck, I'm not sure howIfeel about it. Pretending to hate someone, creating a ruckus in front of an audience? That's more Hunter’s speed than mine, only he does it for real, as we got to witness first hand tonight on the ice.

The way I see it, I want this captaincy so bad, I'll do almost anything for it. And let's face it, getting to spend time with Holly—no matter whether it's pretending to hate her or something else—isn't exactly a hardship for me. Even if right now, I'm pretty sure the fake part of hating me isn’t exactly fake for her.

She'll get over it. It's not like I tricked her into thinking I was someone else for all that long. In fact, it was really only one afternoon. And anyway, the cat is well and truly out of the bag now.

After the team debrief we hit the showers and are dressed and ready in our off-ice suits and ties for the meet and greet. The volunteers for tonight include me, Dan, Casey, Lorcan, and Chase. No surprises there, even though I know who I'd prefer not to be included on the list. But of course Lorcan volunteered. He’s after the job, too.

I check my appearance in the mirror, adjusting my tie. Some people say it's weird that we wear suits before a game and after, but personally, I think it’s important. Part of who we are. We're professionals. Sure, we’re pro athletes with a sometimes brutal job to do on the ice, but off it, being in a suit shows that we take our jobs seriously.

“What's with you and that Holly chick?” Chase asks as we make our way up to the corporate box.

“Yeah, Clarke. What gives?” Casey adds.

“Nothing,” I reply elusively.

“Are you dating her?” Chase asks. “She sure is pretty.”

“She's hot,” Casey agrees.

“He wishes he was dating her,” Lorcan scoffs. “That is one hot piece of?—”

“Shut your mouth,” I snap at him before he gets his words out. I don't want Holly talked about like that, even if all she is to me right now is someone I'm pretending to hate.

Lorcan raises his brow at me. “Touchy much, Clarke?”

“I respect women,” I reply, happily taking the high ground.

“Is that what you call it? Respect?” Lorcan replies. “I thought you two didn't get along. Or is it more of a love to hate her situation you’ve got on your hands?”

Abby made it clear that this little arrangement we have needs to stay on the down low. Even though I'm close to a bunch of the guys on the team, including Casey, Dan, and Chase, who are here with me tonight, I can't tell them about it. It could get leaked—and no one wants that.

“It was just a stupid misunderstanding,” I reply.

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