Page 83 of Ice Bet

“Thanks,” I said, smiling. “I feel good. Balanced.”

She leaned in close to my ear and whispered, “Um, what are you doing wearing Graham Sullivan’s old jersey?”

My teeth sunk into my bottom lip before answering. “Just putting Gray in his place.”

Mya burst into laughter. “This is going to get interesting, isn’t it?”

I shrugged. “That depends on his reaction. But according to his texts, he thinks he’s able to get back in my good graces after what he did to me, and I’m hoping this will show him that he can’t.”

“He was an asshole. I tell him that every time I see him.”

He is an asshole. Not was.

“Let’s go. The rest of the girls want to see you.”

That was funny because not a single one of them asked how I was after I left.

After multiple awkward, stiff hugs and forced smiles, I slid down into my seat beside Mya and dropped my attention to the ice. “We Will Rock You”by Queen was playing overhead, and the dark-blue lights flashed to the beat. Instead of looking for Gray to flip him the finger and hopefully send him the right message with his old teammate’s jersey, I immediately looked to the opposite side of the rink and found the black-and-white uniforms moving up and down with their warm-up stretches.

My belly dipped when I stared at the number twelve below the nameMatthews.His head was tilted to the stands, but his legs were resting on the rink floor. I bit the inside of my cheek when he stretched forward, tilting his hips to move against the ice like he did to me a few nights prior. The arena was chilly, like always, but I gripped the collar of the jersey I wore and blew a shaky breath out.

He had been invading my head from the very first encounter we had. Only now, my thoughts were filled with dangerous temptations instead of annoyance and anger. I stopped myself from looking at him when he skated over to the glass to talk to someone, because I knew that my grip on oursituationwas full of slack, and I didn’t want to let him mess with my head again.

“Riley.” I looked down, knowing it was Gray who had said my name.Here we go.

Mya scooted closer to me, and a hush raced down the aisle.Oh, goody. An audience.

“Gray,” I replied.

His face was as handsome as ever, sporting his angular jawline and cleft chin.

Too bad he was a total power-hungry dick.

He kept a hold of my eye. “It’s good to see you. How have you been?”

I smiled, pretending that nothing was unusual. “I’ve been great.”

“You look good.” He showed off his coy grin, and I hated that I used to fall for it. He ran his eyes down my body, and I watched with amusement when his confidence veered. A sick smile curved onto my mouth. If I could have curled up in the divot between his eyebrows, I would have.

“Wait. What are you wearing?”

“Is there a problem?” I asked, tugging on his attention. His expression was no longer welcoming but, instead, fueled with hatred. If there was one thing I learned about my ex-boyfriend, it was that he didn’t like to be second-best. It was the entire reason he broke up with me. I was no longer the unstoppable figure skater with stats that ruled the entire figure skating division, so he dropped me faster than my fall on the ice.

“You’re wearing the wrong number.”

His nostrils flared.

Ilooked down at my jersey innocently. “Mmm, no. This is right.” I turned around and showed him the back, glancing at him over my shoulder. “It says Sullivan, right?”

“Sullivan? Really? Are you with him now?” Something flickered over his face. “I always knew you liked to be second-best, so that makes sense.”

That was his anger talking, and I knew that I was truly over him, because it didn’t hurt like he wanted it to.

“Isn’t that what you’ll be tonight when Bexley U beats you? Second-best?”

“Oh. She came back swinging, bro.” I waved at Elliot, who had joined his teammate on the ice. He gave me a thumbs-up behind Gray’s back, and I held back a smile.

Every hockey team had a douche, and now that Sully was gone, Gray was Rosewood’s biggest one.

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