Page 73 of ICED
This is something real.
And it’s already changing everything.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
JACKO
I’m still smiling when I step into the locker room the next morning.
Not the cocky, post-fight kind of grin. Not the lopsided “Jacko took down another six-foot-four winger” kind either. No, this one’s quieter. Stuck beneath my skin. Like a secret I’m not ready to let go of yet.
Because last night…God. Last night was something else.
I can still feel her against me. The weight of her arms around my neck. The sound she made when I kissed her like I meant it. The way she whispereddon’t stoplike it wasn’t just about the kiss, but the whole damn thing; me, her, this thing between us that’s growing roots.
And then Lila. Padding in with her bunny and her big sleepy eyes. Like the universe’s most adorable cockblock.
I’m still chuckling when Ollie throws a towel at my head.
“Alright, Romeo,” he says, grinning as he drops onto the bench beside me. “You gonna tell me what’s got you smiling like you just wonBake Offand the Stanley Cup, or do I have to guess?”
I shake the towel off, still grinning. “Guess.”
“You finally found your missing skate guard?”
“Nope.”
“You and Dylan got matching socks?”
“Nope again.”
His eyes narrow. “This about the bakery girl?”
I pause. Let the grin give me away.
“Oh ho hoshit,” Ollie says, pointing at me. “Itis.”
“Her name’s Maya,” I say, untying my trainers.
“Alright, alright,” he says, hands up. “Maya. Bakery girl. Cupcake queen. The one you’ve been pining over like a bear in mating season for the last month and a half.”
I huff out a laugh. “Shut up.”
“So? Spill.”
I hesitate. Not because I don’t want to tell him. But because I don’t know. Itmatters. More than I thought it would. And I don’t want to cheapen it with locker room jokes or some braggy one-liner.
“She kissed me,” I say finally.
Ollie’s eyebrows shoot up. “No shit.”
“In her kitchen. After she put Lila to bed. It was…” I trail off, rubbing the back of my neck. “It was real.”
There’s a beat of silence. Then Ollie bumps his shoulder against mine.
“Good for you, man.”
“Thanks.”
