Page 35 of Scoring Grey

“You’re mine, Eloise Grey. I’m never letting you go.”

“I never wanted you to.”

His mouth again finds mine, but this kiss isn’t as hurried as the first. He takes his time savoring it, and I do the same as I chase the dream in my heart, the one where he and I are end game. He does a slow spin with me tightly wrapped around him before pulling back. “Gah,” he yells, half startling me. My eyes dart between his, concerned by his abrupt reaction. “You’d do this to me. You’d kiss me today of all days.”

“If I recall, you’re the one who asked me for a kiss. You didn’t have to kiss me.”

“The hell I didn’t. You give me these”—kiss—“perfect lips”—kiss—“on the night I have to leave.” Nip. “How am I supposed to leave when all I want to do is stay home and reacquaint myself with them until they’re swollen from sufficiently being nipped and sucked?” His mouth fully covers mine, his tongue delicately dancing with mine, wholly entranced with this new level of intimacy.

This time, I’m the one to pull back breathlessly. With my hand covering his racing heart, I catch my breath. “It’s probably better that you’re leaving tonight.”

“How could you say that?” he asks, his labored breaths matching mine.

“We could use the cool down. I like this.” My hand fists his jersey as I peck his lips. “But I’m not ready for more.”

He nods in understanding as he takes long strides toward the bench. When he reaches the wall, he sets me down. “I know I already said it, but I’m glad you came, even if it was only practice.”

“Me too, even if I was coerced.” The words are out before I have time to think them through. “That came out wrong.”

He holds up his hand. “Coming here wasn’t your idea?”

Shit. The last thing I want to do is taint the moment we shared. “Cal, I wanted to come, but it wasn’t exactly on my to-do list today, is all,” I say meekly as I look anywhere but at him.

“I want to hear it, Eloise. Why haven’t you come to any of my games? I want the real truth, not the one that’s easy. I didn’t press you the other night, but I knew you were holding back. Why is watching me play so hard for you? I don’t understand it. You were always my number-one supporter. Is this because I went to college? Because I didn’t stay home with you and Adler? Eloise, you pushed me away. I would have stayed. I wanted to stay?—”

“I know, Cal! Okay… I know.” I cross my arms and look at the jumbotron overhead. “I haven’t come back because it hurts too much. The last night I was happy was the one where I looked into your eyes, and you were mine. That was the night your team clinched a division playoff seat.”

I close my eyes, and I see it all so vividly. Arlo was his right wingman that night, and the team they were playing was fighting tooth and nail for their own victory. I watched Arlo pass him the puck as he charged up the center ice and made a last-second snapshot to score the winning goal ten seconds before the clock ran out. His entire team huddled around him on the ice, but the second he was up for air, his warm eyes searched for mine. I was going down to the glass when one of his friends threw me over his shoulder and said,“You’re coming with us. We have strict instructions to see to it that you attend a very important after-party tonight.”

When I open my eyes, Cal is there. “Tell me what happened that night. We both know you didn’t leave me for Arlo, so what was it?”

I blow out a breath of resolve. Sometimes, you have to walk through the dark to find the light. “That night, I went into your dad’s study, used his bathroom, and took a test that one of my friends had given me at my locker earlier in the day… you know how my mom is. There’s no way I could have stepped foot in my house without her sniffing it out.” I try to sound lighthearted, though I’m anything but as my palms get clammy, reliving the events of that evening.

“That’s the night you found out you were carrying my baby?”

I nod, momentarily choked up.

“Why didn’t you come to tell me?” His hands grab mine. “I mean… wasn’t I the first person you wanted to tell? Eloise, I would have held you. We would have figured it out together.”

I nod in agreement. “I know.”

“Then what happened?”

I could tell him who I ran into right after I opened the door, but I don’t because while his cold-hearted father was yet another nail in the coffin, it wasn’t his nail that sealed it. “When I returned to the party to find you—you were on the couch, and Blair Wyndham was in your lap.”

11

CALLUM

After six years, you’d think this conversation would have come up by now, but it hasn’t. I never asked why she left. It all happened so fast. One day, we were together; the next, it appeared she was with Arlo. There was nothing to discuss, but hearing this is maddening. That that night and that moment caused her to leave without so much as a word. She saw ten seconds, and I lost six years.

I pinch the bridge of my nose and try not to lose my temper. I can’t change the past, but fuck I hate that we were so young and stupid. “Nothing happened between me and Blair that night or any other night,” I say, unable to keep the irritation out of my voice. I’ve told her countless times I never hooked up with Blair. Obviously, I knew she saw us together around school, but that was after I saw her with Arlo. I had no idea she witnessed that. “Damn it, Eloise. Why didn’t you ever tell me you saw that?”

“It didn’t make a difference. She was on your lap, which meant you let her be there.”

I hit the wall separating us and she jumps. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. If you had stuck around for… I don’t know, five more seconds, you would have seen that for yourself. When I walked out of my room after changing, I couldn’t even tell you how many people offered me a drink or a shot, and of course, I did them all. Blair was one of those people. She brought me a shot. After I took it, all the drinks I had done in the time it took me to walk from my bedroom to the living area caught up with me.”

I grab the wall hard as bile rises in my throat. I already detested Blair Wyndham, and now I hate her. “I sat on the couch to get my bearings and the next thing I knew, she was throwing her leg over my lap. Any amount of time she spent there was simply me being caught off guard. You know how brazen she could be. I removed her and stumbled down to the lower level, where I knew no one would find me, and passed out in the sauna. I never even got to enjoy my own victory party. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure one of the drinks I was handed was roofied.”

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