Page 31 of Icing Hearts

If only it could be me…

But it can’t be. Because of two. Major. Barriers.

Our fathers.

“That’s it?” I ask. “Hang out?”

Vince shrugs, pulling his jersey over his pads. “Yeah. I’m not really looking for a girlfriend. It’s my senior year. Been there, done that.”

“Why wouldn’t I be cool with that, Vince?” I quickly strap on my shoulder and elbow pads, the sound of Velcro echoing around the now empty locker room.

“Because you guys have some weird thing going on that I won’t even attempt to understand.” Vince gestures side to side, miming an unbalanced scale. “Like, she flirts, but it seems like a joke most of the time. And you flirt only sometimes but it never seems like a joke. I mean, she’s wearing your jersey for crying out loud.” He cusses softly under his breath as he laces up his skates.

I respond solidly, “That’s not going to change.”

He gives me an odd look. “The flirting or the jersey?”

“Both.” My voice is firm, leaving no room for argument as I tug my white jersey over my head.

Vince wraps some tape around his socks, just under the knees and tosses me the roll. “Whatever. I’m just letting you know ’cause I don’t wanna step on your toes or anything.”

“Yes, you do,” I shoot back as I catch the tape. I lace up my skates rapidly so we can walk out to the ice together.

He looks at me, dumbfounded as he stands, grabs his helmet, stick, and gloves. “What do you mean?”

“That’s exactly what you want to do.” I don’t bother looking up as I finish lacing up my skates, then set about wrapping the tape around my socks.

“Amato, I—”

“It’s fine, Culbs. Go ahead. You won’t be offending me at all. Pursue her to your heart’s content.”

“Really?” His eyes light up, and he’s all excited. For a fraction of a second, I fight the nausea welling in my stomach, but the feeling fades, and I commit to not being a total dick. At the very least, Vince’s pursuit of Clara will take any heat off me while I secretly do the same.

“Absolutely.”

Vince smiles warily. Maybe he’s not as thick-headed as I thought. Either way, he’s wise to doubt me. “Thanks, Amato.”

I give him my best Boy Scout grin back. “Don’t mention it.”

“Hey, does she like being called Charity?” he asks, furrowing his brows.

I grin widely as we peg walk on our skates out of the locker room, hockey sticks tapping the floor. While I can’t do anything to stop Vince from pursuing Clara, I’m not above a little sabotage. I’m only human after all. “Loves it.”

“Wow, man. I thought this was gonna turn into some weird competition.”

“Competition? No, Vince, it’s not a competition at all.”

For it to be a competition, my opponent would have need a fair shot. And Vince, decidedly does not. Regardless of the feelings that may or may not develop between Vince and Clara, he won’t stand a chance against me. Especially not while I’m benefiting from him acting as a human smoke-screen to keep the chief and my father’s eyes off of us.

Vince and I catch the tail end of warm-ups. I’m tempted to hang near the bench, near Clara, but I need to focus. My conversation with Vince threw me. Maybe I’ll finally be having an off-game, both on and off the ice.

Chapter 20

Clara

We won the game, no thanks to Tory. He was just…off. When Coach benched his line for a few shifts Tory didn’t even seem to notice. He parked his behind beside me and barely watched the game. We joked around and laughed a lot.

Tory doesn’t laugh enough. Not his real laugh. He has two laughs. One laugh is for others, I think—cursory and polite. Sometimes loud, but never full—the laugh of a movie star being interviewed. It’ll win awards and hearts, but not the right ones.

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