Page 36 of Daring the Hockey Player
"You don't?" she asks, turning the tables on me. She doesn't answer my question, at least not yet.
"Depends on who's doing the daring. I've been known to follow through on a few dares," I confess.
"Really? You don't seem the type," Amber says. "Always picking truth in our little game last night."
Did she forget that I chose dare? "That's not true." Although I hadn't followed through with the dare, but only because my teammates made it perfectly clear that if I kissed Amber, I'd be breaking bro code.
"Well, you didn't follow through with the dare," Amber says. She glances at me and then at the road. "It's okay. I'm not upset about it."
She doesn't sound happy, though, either, and unless I had kissed her, there was no other way around her dare that wouldn't have ended in disaster.
I don't know a lot about what women are thinking, but we were flirting, and she wanted me to kiss her. I could feel the heat between us. The sizzle of desire.
We round the corner, and I'm glad when her campus is within sight. Another block, and we'll be at her place.
"You can pick up the tickets at will-call for tomorrow's game," I say.
"Tickets? I thought I couldn't bring a friend."
"Just not Charlotte."
"And if I do bring her?" The girl taunts me. I try to do one nice thing for her, and she's already planning on how to spoil it.
My jaw tightens. It's not that I dislike Charlotte. I met her at Blue Line, but that's where the bad feeling starts to sink in, and I can't let it go. Her friend ditched her for a guy. How was Amber supposed to get home? Walk to the subway alone, at night, well after midnight?
"I'll leave you one ticket at will-call," I say. "And when the game is over, you'll come with us to celebrate our win."
"And what if the Ice Dragons lose?" she asks. "What happens after those games?"
"You don't want to find out."
* * *
"You look nervous, bro," Kyler says as we're seated on the bench in the locker room before the game.
I don't tell him it's because I invited Amber to the game. I'm not nervous about Amber showing up. I'm more concerned that she might bring her little tyrant friend and be convinced to sport the enemy's jersey. Again.
It was bad enough that she wore an Island Bruisers jersey. No, the worst of it was that she had to wear Knox Storm's jersey. The jerk. He had to flaunt that she was wearing his number. He wouldn't have even noticed her in the stands if I hadn't made such a big deal out of it by removing my jersey and giving it to her to wear.
That had been my fault, and for the rest of the game, he'd given me shit, tossing slurs and innuendos at Amber, not that she heard any of them.
But it didn't matter to me whether she heard any of it or not. Knox Storm deserved getting his ass kicked, and I made sure to do that repeatedly. It also got me tossed out of the game during the last period.
A mistake that Coach Malone made clear I wasn't to do tonight.
No repeat performances, even if we did win the game.
"I'm fine," I grumble. I wish there were some way that I could see if she was in the stands if she showed up tonight.
I'll know the minute I step out and onto our bench because the private seats that we hold are directly behind the glass where we sit. The guys all get turns letting their family, friends, girlfriends, and whomever they want use the seats.
"You really sound fine," Kyler says.
Owen glances at Noah, exchanging a silent glance. "Is this about a girl?" They're attempting to be discreet in front of Kyler, but he doesn't miss a beat.
"What girl?" Kyler quips, staring at his buddies, and when they don't answer, he's glaring at me. "Are you finally seeing someone?"
I don't answer Kyler because while, yes, I'm seeing Amber, it isn't in the traditional sense of dating. We're not boyfriend and girlfriend. We're just friends. The guys pointed out the other night that it's all that it could ever be with her, and they're right.
