Page 56 of Chase
“It’s been coincidental,” I politely respond.
“It’s serendipitous don’t you think?” he says with a wolfish smile.
“I bet you have no fucking idea what that word means,” Edi grumbles.
“It means having good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries and perfectly describes Sloane and I,” he offers and Edi rolls her black eyes and adjusts her beanie hat. He doesn’t notice, he hasn’t stopped looking at me. It’s like he’s expecting me to agree with him. Should I be?Is he the fresh start?
“I’ll let you eat,.” He reaches up to finger the ends of my hair before I move my head away. There’s no exciting zap with his touch. It’s actually the complete opposite and leaves me ice cold. “I’ll text you, beautiful.” I politely smile in response and then he’s gone.
“What happened with you and Evie’s brother? The one who isn’t a dickhead,” she asks while wrapping up her cookies in spare napkins and gathering her hand fruit.
“Nothing happened.”And ain’t that the truth.
“Are you going to go out with that guy?” She uses her chin to point to where Will walked off. “He looks like the kinda guys I went to high school with. Pretentious fucks.”
“It’s just a frat party, he’ll lose interest as soon as he realizes I have no plans on sleeping with him.” He may be all smiles and swoony lines, but he’ll stop once he gets the hint.
If he’s really the fresh start I keep hearing I need, he’ll stick around. Either way, I need to move on and this party will be the start of me doing just that.
Chapter Twenty-Six
ICROSS-CHECKEDa left winger who looks like that asshat who was talking to Sloane earlier, and now I’m sitting in the sin bin. Every player on the ice is in my fucking way. I’m plowing right through them, throwing up elbows, delivering hits, and skating hard.Well, harder than I’ve been.
I’m grinding my teeth against my mouth guard watching the power play and listening to the devil on my shoulder who is adamant that the guy she was talking to is the same asshole whowas sitting behind me last night. I wanted to throttle him when he was shooting off his mouth about laying claim to Sloane. No fucking way.My song, my Birdie.
I fly out of the box with just enough time left in the third to try to make something happen. We’re tied 2-2 with Max and A throwing up points against the freshman phenom goalie who’s ranked the best in the country. I don’t give a shit how good he is, I’m coming for him. I fucking dare him to get in my goddamn way.
Every single guy out on the ice might as well have a douchey scarf with embroidered Greek letters hanging around his neck. None of them are safe. I haven’t played with this much hostility since the tournament. I’m not usuallythisaggressive. I focus more on finesse and finding the back of the net.
Tonight is different though, I feel re-energized and ready… ready to take my life back.And win this damn game.
I push off on my skates and fly around the ice. I’m determined as fuck to make up for lost time.And, holy shit have I wasted so much of it.Time with her. Time out here. Minutes I’ll never get back. Moments that’ll never breathe. Memories that could’ve been.
My body burns with regret and a painful roar rips out of me when I snap the puck toward the net. That goalie never stood a goddamn chance. As soon as I knew that it was a sure thing, I turned to where B was sitting to check if Sloane had magically appeared. That if I wished hard enough my dream girl would be here. She wasn’t.And that’s on me too.
“I might just kiss the motherfucker who pissed you off tonight,” Monroe happily shouts, and bear hugs me to celebrate my game-winning goal.
“Fuck that, give me your goddamn head,” Jake pulls my helmet toward him and kisses the top of my covered skull. “You fucking came back to us, man, I knew you would!”
“Fuck yeah!” Max screams in my face, knocking my helmet with his, and asks me the same question he did during the tourney game. “That for her?”
“They’re all for her, man.”And they are.
“Missed your ass out here,” A says while pulling me into a hug. “Glad your back, C.”
We skate off the ice and Coach pulls me into a handshake hug that feels real good to have earned.
“Keep this up, and I’m not just talking about whatever lit a fire under your ass tonight. Stick with the therapy, Wilton, you looked like you again and it was damn good to see,” he tells me and claps my back. “You been running?” he asks and I nod my head yes. There’s no use in hiding any of this anymore.
“Therapy will teach you other ways to cope. You can turn this all around, son, I know you can.” He’s made it crystal clear he believes in me and I don’t want to let him down.I’m all in.
I walk into chaos, the locker room wild after our win and the boys shout my name while I walk toward my cubby. I pull my gear off and feel damn proud of myself for doing my part tonight.
“You after my job or something?” Monroe jests while throwing his arm around my head and pulling me into him when I take a seat, “I thought I was the enforcer around here.”
“Your job’s safe and sound, I was just letting off some steam,” I assure him and pull out the game sheet on tonight's opposing team.Number one goalie in the country my ass.
“Gimme your game sheet, I need it for something,” I nudge him and he fishes it out of his cubby before handing it to me. He yanks it back right before I can snatch it outta his fingers.
