Page 55 of Icy Pucking Play

I look at her—cheeks flushed, hair messed up from my hands, still wearing my damn practice shirt—and I’m happy she wants me to stay for a while longer.

"One more movie," I agree. "But I'm picking the next one. Something without basement-dwelling demons."

"Deal." She settles back against me. "Though I should warn you, the next one has hockey masks..."

"Of course it does."

But as she curls into my side, chattering about horror tropes, I realize something: I'm not scared anymore.

Well, maybe a little. But not of this. Not of her.

Because Sophie Bennett might be dangerous to my carefully constructed walls, but maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Maybe some walls need to come down.

My phone buzzes.

Julia:For the record, she still hates mushrooms. But that was never really the question, was it?

I look down at Sophie, who's already half asleep against my chest, and type back:No. It wasn't.

Because some questions answer themselves.

Like why I'm sitting here watching terrible horror movies instead of running away.

Like why, for the first time in years, I'm not afraid of letting someone in.

Even if that someone is a reporter with a penguin onesie hanging on her bedroom door (I can see it from here, and we're definitely discussing that later) and extremely questionable taste in movies.

Chapter 15

Sophie

Three days, fourteen hours, and approximately twenty-seven minutes.

That's how long it's been since Evan Daniels fell asleep on my couch watching terrible horror movies. Since I woke up with his arms around me and his heart beating steadily under my cheek. Since he kissed me goodbye at my door like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Not that I'm counting.

“I can hear you mooning from here!” Brad calls from his cubicle.

“Oh my freaking—you cannot!”

“Yes, I cannnn,” he sing-songs. “You’re the only person I know that sighs while staring at game footage."

I minimize the video of Evan's latest practice save. "I'm analyzing technique!"

"Sure." His head pops up over our shared wall. "That's why you've rewound the same clip twelve times."

"It's a complicated save!"

"It's not the save you're studying."

He's right, of course. But I can't exactly tell him that I'm replaying the footage because it shows Evan the way I see him—focused, powerful, completely in his element. The way he huffs and double downs on his focus when Ryland scores on him. The way he automatically checks on Natalia in the stands every few minutes.

The way he sometimes looks directly at the camera like he knows I'm watching.

"Earth to Sophie!" Brad waves a hand in front of my face. "Lexi's looking for you. Something about the feature?"

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