Page 65 of Puck Princess

For a moment, all she can do is sob and shake her head.

“When did that happen?”

She swipes at her nose. “The night you saw us dancing at Pour Boys.”

“So… you went home with him?”

No.No, no.I left her with him. I saw the two of them together, and I left. I should’ve warned her. I should’ve stopped them.

“I didn’t know who he was. We didn’t even exchange names because it was just a one and done, you know? He was hot and we drank a lot and?—”

“I don’t need that much detail,” I cut her off. “I just need to know why you lied to me about it. To Owen.”

Owen saw her that night. She was at home. She said she didn’t?—

“I wasn’t going to admit to my neighbor that I had a one-night stand. I didn’t think it mattered, so I lied. Then I found out whohe was, and I…” She blinks back a fresh wave of tears. “Surely, you understand why I didn’t tell you, Cal.”

I do. Of course, I do. I know all about keeping secrets.

So, I drop to my knees and hug her. And Kennedy falls apart.

“Callie, that video can’t leak,” she sobs after a few minutes.

I know it can’t. Which is why I can’t tell a soul about what Spencer did to me. The second I do, he’ll publish that video. It would be bad for me, but it would be catastrophic for Kennedy.

So, I have to play his game.

I have to play along with him and just hope like hell the people I love don’t get hurt in the process.

22

OWEN

“This isn’t making any sense. Walk me through what happened from the top,” Dax demands, passing the puck to Heath, who slaps it casually to Lance.

We’re in a loose circle working on passes, but only barely. Coach is in a meeting and no one is feeling especially motivated today. While I was curled on the couch with Callie after our game last night, the guys went out. Half of them are hungover. The lucky half are exhausted from late nights with whoever they convinced to go home with them.

Spencer isn’t even here yet, but of course Coach isn’t around to catch him slipping up.

Instead of doing anything useful, we’re all watching Dax coax details of last night out of Heath. No one on the team is especially discreet, but Heath is as close as we’ve got. It’s not often we get to hear his horror stories.

Heath sighs. “You were there, Dax. You saw what happened.”

“I was drunk. And I had more important things to worry about than you and your complete lack of game with women.” Dax manages to catch the bullet Heath fires at him and, laughing, sends it to me. “So, you sent her a drink and she came over to thank you for it?—”

“No, she came over to let me know she hates cosmos,” Heath corrects.

“Did she throw it in your face?” Kason asks.

“No.”

“Did she give it back?” Lance asks.

“Nope.”

We all stop knocking the puck around and wait.

“She downed it,” he says finally. “Then she set the glass down, grabbed my hand, and dragged me to the dance floor.”

---