Page 42 of Wrapped Around My Heart
Tonight’s game isn’t necessarily late, but by the time they’re done, cleaned up, and ready to meet us out, it’s going to be wellpast ten o’clock. Which is way later than the baby likes to stay up, considering I’ll be dead on my feet by eight thirty.
But still, I shrug and give him a noncommittal and half-assed answer.
“Maybe. Depends on how you boys play out there.” And with that, I leave my brother before any more guilt for the secrets I’m keeping can eat me alive.
CHAPTER 16
Dean
“Respectfully, that would be a mistake,”I tell David, the team’s assistant coach.
There’s less than a minute left on the clock and the game is tied, with five points each. We knew when coming to South Carolina that the Cardinals were going to keep us on our toes. I don’t think any of us expected for it to bethisclose, though.
Coach David shakes his head, angling his tablet more toward me, and repeats his plan for the next play. Normally, I’m the last person to ever disagree with or go against one of the coaches’ suggestions. It’s even more rare for me to speak up and feel the need to offer alternate ideas. But right now, my gut is screaming that pulling me with anything more than thirty seconds would cost us the game.
Instead of listening to Coach try to sell the playhewants to happen, I watch Landon. His brows are scrunched, and his mouth is pulled into a frown. His red hair is soaked with sweat, making it appear almost brown as it clings to his forehead. For the first time that I can think of, I notice the way his freckles curve up under and around his eyes, just like Arianna’s. Even now, with the clock rapidly ticking on our time-out, I can’t help but notice just how much he looks like his sister.
Forcing thoughts of Ari away, I try to speak up one last time.
“They’ve been slipping through the cracks in our lines all night. All it would take is one wrong turn and they would have the game.” I lock eyes with Landon, hoping to sway him to my side. “Just wait. Keep me in the net until we’re close to the final thirty seconds.Thenpull me and add someone.”
Landon stares at me for a second, but the brief dip of his chin tells me that he agrees. My shoulders sag in relief. There’s no point to me lingering, since I know he’s about to back me up on this, so I ready myself to head back to the net when something catches my eye.
Not something.Someone.
The people in the crowd never pull my focus from the ice. Any attention I do give is usually done before or after warmups.
But the glimpse of red hair and a dazzling smile are ones that I have memorized like the back of my hand. Arianna stands in front of seats that are right beside the benches, she and Lilly dancing to the music.
For a brief moment, everything else is drowned out as we lock eyes through the thick plexiglass. Her blinding smile widens, and those green eyes shimmer with excitement and something else. Then, with a sly wink, she throws her hands above her head and sways her hips as she belts out the song. When she meets my gaze again, I match her energy and decide to do a little twirl, giving her my backside before thrusting my hips from side to side.
The sound of the arena comes hurling back to me, the crowd’s laughter joining in at the sight of my antics. Still, I pay them no mind as I glance back over my shoulder and find Ari’s beautiful grin still aimed at me.
It’s a heady feeling. Knowing that in an arena full of people she could be looking at, she’s choosing to look at me.
My cheeks hurt by the time I finally make it back to the net. With one last peek at Arianna, I nod before locking in onto my teammates as they find their spots around center ice.
Like a switch has been flipped, everything that isn’t about these next sixty seconds fades. My eyes lock in on the ref that holds the puck and I lower my center of gravity.
Everything happens in slow motion.
The ref drops the puck, quickly making his escape as Landon faces off with his opponent for control of the puck. I see the exact moment the Cardinals’ player gets his in, shooting the puck to his teammate. In the next heartbeat, exactly like I predicted, he’s through the small gap between Greyson and Reid.
The player beelines for me and I track every minuscule move he makes as he approaches. In my periphery, the players on the ice approach us, but I don’t look toward them. There’s a Cardinals’ forward to my right and from the corner of my eye, I watch as he subtly signals that he’s open. But with my main focus still locked onto the player with the puck, I notice the exact second he decides to try and psych me out.
He twists his shoulders and fakes a shot in the direction of his teammate, but I’m ready for him to make his real move. Keeping the puck to himself, I brace myself for his stick to shoot. The second he does, I’m there, knocking it away.
I send the puck flying and thankfully, while my main goal was just to keep it away from my net, the fact that it goes straight to a waiting Dominik is icing on the cake. Dom wastes no time pivoting on his skates and moving the play down the ice. Away from me.
Watching closely, I creep away from my net, ready to dive back at any second. Once the play is fully in my team’s control, I book it to the bench. I dive through the waiting open door and turn just in time to see another one of our team’s forwards jointhe chaos. He fits right in, taking off and providing additional support.
Dominik passes him the puck, which he immediately catches and sets up to keep going. With ten seconds left, there’s not a single person in their seats as Landon takes control of the puck and shoots without wasting a second.
The horn blows, announcing the goal, just as the countdown clock shows two seconds left in the game. Everyone cheers. Even I’m laughing as I make my way back to the net. Sometimes I think it’s silly that we have to go through the motions of starting another play with basically no time left, but still. In this sport, we all know the value of every last tic on the clock.
When the buzzer echoes through the arena a few moments later, my eyes immediately leave the ice. The second they land on Arianna, the high from the win at an away game elevates even more.
Just knowing that she made the trip, that she’s here, staying in the same hotel with me, is enough to override the glee I’m feeling with a sense of anticipation.
