Page 88 of Wrong Pucking Jersey

Left In The Middle Of The Past

~MIKAYLA~

“Winchester. Off the ice.”

What the hell am I doing?

I’m sure that’s what Dr. Francisco is wondering with Caren with a C, but they can’t possibly be blind enough to see the way Jayce has been skating on the ice for the last forty-five minutes.

I feel like Jayce only listens to me because of our past history, but he skids to a stop, tiny shreds of snow and ice flying at my legs.

Rolling my eyes at his attempt to “show off,” I get to the point.

“Did you stretch before getting on the ice?”

“Are you my new mommy?” He counters in annoyance, but his attempt to belittle me does nothing at all.

I’m not in a good mood today.

Actually, I’m never in a good mood after my mom’s death anniversary.

I’ll admit, spending it with the guys helped a little. Made the pain less suffocating to the point of breaking down and having a panic attack, so I’m winning, but the week after, I’m always a bitch. It’s a yearly tradition that doesn’t want to go away.

I’m fine with that.

“Answer, Winchester,” I huff. “I don’t get paid to baby you.”

He narrows his eyes at me but grumbles, “No.”

“Off.” I use my head to nudge at the benches.

“The game isn’t over,” he complains. “I don’t need to be off the ice. You’re not even my nurse.”

“Correct,” I begin. “I’m not your nurse, but for today, I am because Mack got food poisoning. I wonder how that happened again? No. That’s not the right question. More like, who forced her to eat an entire platter of oysters this weekend?”

His expression screams guilty, yet he stubbornly doesn’t want to listen to me.

“I’m not getting off the ice.”

“Fine. I’ll just add it to your report once the game is done, and you can sit out on the bench for the whole week.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he practically screams.

I’m not intimidated by it.

“Off. The. Ice. Winchester.”

His murderous eyes stare into mine, which are blank of emotion.

He knows I won’t budge. He sees it. I know he does and wants to ignore what his gut is telling him.

“Just listen to your team nurse, Jayce.”

I’m surprised to see Wyatt behind me. Actually, he may have been there the whole time, and I just zoned him out.

“Fuck off, Wyatt,” Jayce snaps. “You don’t know shit.”

“I know if I race you on that ice from one end to the other, you’ll lose because your left leg is acting funny because you didn’t fucking stretch in the changing room,” Wyatt argues and adds, “Nor did you come to the mandatory workout session this morning.”

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