Page 151 of Face Off
“Tell him his favorite son hooked him up. I don’t want you to get all the credit.”
“Boys,” Emmy calls out, and we turn our heads. “Do you want to socialize all day, or are you going to come and join us?”
There’s a weird pressure in my chest when I stare at her.
It’s almost like I can’t breathe, and it only gets worse the longer I look. The sensation expands behind my ribs and takes up all the space in my head. When her mouth curls into a small smile, it makes me wonder if she’s feeling it too.
“That’s your girl?” Hudson asks.
“Yeah.” I grin, and there’s an arrow lodged in my chest. “That’s my girl.”
“What the fuck?” I groan, throwing an arm over my face. “These should be called torture devices, not pilates reformers. It’s not natural to bend like this.”
“My abs have never hurt so badly.” Grant whimpers and rolls onto his stomach. The leather mat under him is stained with his sweat, and he’s more disgusting now than after a game. “This is cruel.”
“I swear to god I tore my hamstring doing those lunges. Who would’ve thought moving your leg out and back in would hurt so damn bad?” Ethan asks.
“I don’t see what the problem is.” Hudson puts his hands on his hips, and a bead of sweat rolls down his chest. He ditched his shirt before we started, and the fucker isn’t even breathing hard. “You lunge. You hold. You pulse. You repeat.”
“Says the suck-up who looks like he’s been going to classes for years,” I gasp, swallowing down a lungful of air.
“I have,” he says. “I also haven’t had an injury in my career. Call me a suck-up all you want, but my body loves me.”
“I actually hate you.” I groan again and climb off the machine. “Is there a hole in my shorts? I heard a rip during those leg lowers.”
“The only hole is the one in my heart. I’ve never been in so much pain.” Grant reaches for me, and I hold his hand. “Tell my sisters I love them, and don’t let Ethan take my Xbox X. Give it to charity.”
“All right.” Lexi claps, and I jump. “We’re going to get into side lying heel presses. We’ll start on our right, and I want you to remember to engage your core muscles.”
“We’re not done?” Riley is on the verge of tears, and somewhere behind me, someone sniffs. “We’ve been in here for hours.”
“It’s been thirty minutes,” Emmy says over her shoulder, and our eyes meet.
Her cheeks are red and her hair is damp. She also lost her shirt, and her bright-pink sports bra is distracting me.
Fuck,she’s beautiful.
She’s always beautiful, but when she’s showing off her athletic capabilities, she’s fucking gorgeous. Strong, fierce and determined. Reaching for a goal and going after it.
I’ve spent the entire class watching the way she moves her body. It’s exactly how she is on the ice—graceful and powerful. She did the positions that almost wiped out the rest of the team with ease.
“I’d prefer thirty minutes in hell over thirty more minutes of this.” I rub my legs and arms. Muscles I didn’t know existed are already aching, and I have no clue how I’m going to survive morning skate tomorrow. “Christ, Lexi. You’re going to create an army of soldiers.”
“Is it too much?” She frowns and looks around the room. Half the guys are sprawled out on the ground, and the other half have their hands on their knees, huffing and puffing. We’re all in the top one percent of body compositions and made of lean muscle that makes shoving someone into the boards easy, but we can’t keep up with the brunette who barely comes up to my chest. “I went too hard on you all, didn’t I?”
“No, you didn’t,” Seymour says, and besides Emmy and Hudson, he’s the least affected by the grueling workout. Even Piper looks like she’s struggling to stand. “We’re just weak as shit. This is cross training we should be incorporating into our routine. Maybe we can add it in once a week.”
“I take back everything I said. Emmy and Lexi, I’m sorry. This is not easy. In fact, this is the hardest thing I’ve done in my whole life. I’d rather spend an hour doing dryland training than sit here for fifteen more minutes,” Grant says. “But you know what? None of us are quitters, so we’re going to dig deep for another thirty minutes and finish this workout strong.”
“You really don’t have to.” Lexi pauses the music playing over the stereo system. “I don’t want to injure anyone so late in the season. Coach would be pissed at me.”
“You’re not going to injure us, Lex. We all know our bodies damn well, and if anyone is in actual pain, they’ll bow out.”
“Are you sure?” she asks, and Emmy nods.
“Positive. This is going really well, and your instructions are clear. You have Liam doing that mermaid stretch so well, it’s going to help when he’s in goal.”
Liam grunts in agreement. “True.”
