Page 66 of Weak Side

It washard to force the words out while standing there, looking down at her, and for once, it had nothing to do with the way my blood was pumping with desire. The second I admitted to Coach that Claire and I weren’t actually dating, nor was she a distraction, she suddenly seemed fragile. Her chin stayed level, but the color vanished from her flushed cheeks, and I was screaming on the inside for her not to believe what I was saying aloud.

But it was true, right? Our relationship was fake. It was a maneuver of good plays to favor us both in our little game. We had our own reasons, but winning was still the goal.

“Oh.” Coach was beginning to believe me, and I wanted nothing more than for him to get the fuck out of the showers so I could grab Claire by the waist and put the color back on her cheeks. “So, she means nothing to you?”

Well, now wait a minute.

Blood rushed through my ears, and I could no longer feel the water from the shower pelting me. In reality, Claire and I had been standing in the shower for maybe five minutes, but it felt like an eternity had passed while I stood there, stunned by the fact that I couldn’t say yes. Claire Bryant, my roommate and fake girlfriend, definitely meant something to me, but I had no idea what to do with it. I was suddenly four years old again, holding my hockey stick for the first time, unsure of what to do, even though I knew it felt right.

“Wolf?” Coach Lennon barked my nickname, and I quickly answered, blocking out everything I wanted to say to Claire just to get him out of here faster.

“She means nothing! Now can I please shower in peace?! I’ll be on the ice at the start of practice.”

There was this voice of reason in the back of my head that told me not to look down at Claire, but I did anyway, and the moment I did, I regretted it.Hurt.

“Yeah, yeah,” Coach mumbled. “But fair warning, Tom Gardinihimself—not his scout—is coming to the game, so make sure to tell your pretend girlfriend to be on your side. You’re smart. Having those puck bunnies around might make you look sleazy, and if there’s one thing I know about Tom, he judges your skill on the ice just as much as your character off of it.”

The door slammed, and Claire jumped in front of me before spinning around and turning the nozzle off. The stream of water that separated us disappeared, and all I heard was her low, desolate departure. “I should go.”

“Claire, wait.” I grabbed her slippery arm and turned her back around. I reached behind her, and the water turned back on. I kicked it up a few temperatures because she had goosebumps over every inch of her skin. “Don’t go.”

“You have practice.” She wouldn’t look at me and was trying her hardest to get her arm out of my grasp. “I’ll get dressed, and when you are all on the ice, I’ll sneak out so your coach doesn’t know I’m here.”

My hand slipped to her elbow when she tried to turn away from me, and I jerked back softly, crowding her space until her back was against the tile and the stream of water was at my back. “Wait,” I rushed.

When her baby blues reached me, I felt them bury themselves in my soul. The soft color of blue was sharpened, and the wall between us was stronger than before.I felt like I’d lost her, and I didn’t even have her yet.

“I didn’t mean it.” I had no control over what was falling from my lips. None at all.

Adrenaline rushed through my veins when her shaky breath hit my chest. Her hand lifted, and she patted the muscle that was beating violently beneath her touch.

“Yes, you did. And that’s because it is the truth,” she countered, smashing her lips together. The wobbling of her chin didn’t go unnoticed, and I panicked to make it right even if I knew that I was going back against everything I thought was sending me down the correct path of my life.But somehow, the NHL didn’t seem all that significant while looking down at the hurt on her face.

“No.” I shook my head.

Claire’s brows lowered, and her eyes grew glossier. “Theo, everything you said was true. We are fake dating, remember? That was your idea to begin with. It just…kinda happened.”

A single tear crept out of the corner of her eye, and although she tried to hide it, I still caught it with the side of my thumb. “Tell me why you’re crying.”

“I’m not crying.”

Both of my hands went to the sides of her face, and I bounced my eyes back and forth between hers. “Tell me right now why you are crying.”I need to hear it. I need to know that she is on the same page as me.

The look of annoyance flashed across her features, but then her vulnerability shone through, and I swore the water cascading down my back turned to ice. “Because your words hurt me, and they shouldn’t have.”

I brought her forehead to mine and peered down into her eyes. I trapped the wet strands of her dark hair in between my fingers as I cupped her face. “I lied.”

Her whisper propelled me to take a step closer, to push our bodies together. “You lied?”

I swallowed the fear that came with telling the truth and basked in feelings I’d never felt before because, to be honest, it was terrifying. For so many years, I’d thought of nothing but hockey and making it to the NHL, but now, with just one wobble of her chin, I’d forgotten all about my dream and was focused on something else entirely. “You mean something to me. I lied so he’d get out of here faster.”

“But—”

My lips grazed hers when I repeated myself. “It’s not fake for me, Claire. I think about you every second of the day. I wonder where you are, what you’re doing, how I can spend more time with you in between your busy schedule and my games…” I gripped her hips, and my knee went in between her slippery legs as my heart began filling with warmth. “And don’t even get me started on seeing you in my jersey.”

I was slapped in the face with what my future could look like the second I felt her slipping from my fingers, and the realization that I’d fallen for my fake girlfriend was humbling, to say the least.

Claire’s mouth opened, but before I devoured it, I silently begged her to say something, anything to give me the green light.

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