Page 22 of Body Checked By the Defenseman

Ruby:I think your definition of slow and my definition of slow are very different.

Macklin:Patience is a virtue, and I don’t want your brother to murder me.

Ruby:Speaking of virtue. Mine is still intact.

Macklin:That’s a good thing.

Ruby:I’m horny.

Macklin:You want to kill me.

Ruby:Can’t we sneak away somewhere?

Macklin:I have a game this weekend.

Ruby:And I have a meet. Why don’t we sneak off during the day?

Macklin:What do you have in mind?

Ruby:We leave Riverside. Go somewhere where we can be alone. So you can seduce me.

Macklin:You’re giving me blue balls.

Ruby:We can remedy that.

Macklin:We need to go slow.

Ruby:Why do you have so much self-control?

Macklin:Years of experience. Be ready at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. I’ll meet you at the bus station.

Ruby:What will we be doing? Do I need clothes?

Macklin:Stop messing with me. It isn’t nice. And yes, you need clothes. Warm clothes.

Waiting for morning to come was brutal. I really wish Macklin would tell me where we’re going today. He messaged again this morning and told me to be at the bus station since he didn’t want us to be seen leaving the hockey house together. Which is why I’m waiting in front of the bus station. Only Macklin is nowhere to be seen. There’s a chill in the air and I zip up my black bomber. I’m wearing a pair of ripped jeans, and my knees are exposed, which in hindsight wasn’t such a good idea, because I’m shivering.

I text Macklin.

Me:Where are you?

He answers in seconds.

Macklin:Meet on the platform for Saugatuck.

Me:Are you crazy? That’s like 3 hours away.

Macklin: Exactly why we’re going there. I got you a bus ticket. Get moving.

Gah, he is so frustrating. I thought we would spend the day in the city, not go to some remote town on the beach in this weather.

I walk up to him on the platform, but he doesn’t look my way. He’s wearing a thick flannel shirt that looks more like a jacket and medium-wash jeans. He’s also wearing a baseball cap and it’s tilted forward over his head. It’s then I realize he’s being incognito.

He walks past me but as he does, he slips me the bus ticket. Then he waits off to the side. I understand the stakes are highand no one can find out what we are doing, but I feel like this is overboard.

The bus arrives and I get on. I take a seat next to a window and put my purse on the seat beside me. When Macklin gets on the bus a couple minutes later, he takes the seat beside me.

“I can’t believe we’re going to Saugatuck,” I tell him.

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