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We shot onto the ice before the game and started to warm up. My muscles burned as I pushed myself, forcing blood through my tired body. Ever since that night on the cliff top, I had barely slept. Now, it was finally time to get into HHU, the goal I’d come to Hade Harbor with, and I was distracted. The cause of my distraction was sitting on a plane, moving farther and farther away from me with every moment.
When the first buzzer went off, I quickly saw that this wouldn’t be an easy game. The defensemen made for me, quickly blocking me off. I was clearly the target to watch in this game, and usually that would only fire me up, but my distraction pulled my attention away. Not only that, but every time one of the hefty defensemen slammed me into the boards on my wounded side, all the air left my lungs. Josh was also playing, which was yet another distraction. The fucker hadn’t dared look me in the eye since the cliff top.
We played well, but it was a fair fight, and I wasn’t at my best. By the end of the first period, we were down two.
The first intermission flew past, and we were into the second play. I was banged into the boards more often than I could count and was flagging. There was too much riding on the game. The pressure was getting to me, and I was choking. Or maybe it wasn’t just the pressure but the thought of losing the little redhead who held my battered heart in her small hands. The pain in my side was also getting worse. Gratefully, I skated off for a shift change at my turn and lowered myself to the bench. Josh followed and had no choice but to sit next to me. We hadn’t spoken at all about that night at Black Lake trailer park.
“The way I see it, I can run interference on their left defenseman. He’s a big bastard. They won’t expect that, and it’ll give you a window to break through,” Josh suddenly said to me.
I turned to him, surprised by his words.
He was nodding, studying the game. “It’ll work, and as soon as we even the score, we can change the tide.”
“What, you want to win that badly? You know the scouts are here to see me. I’d have thought that losing tonight would suit you fine.”
A muscle clenched in Josh’s jaw, and he shook his head. “That’s not me. It’s not who I want to be, anyway…and I’m no good at apologies, and I sure as hell didn’t owe you one when I started all that shit, but I owe you one now, and this is it. If you want it, that is.”
He turned to me and met my eyes for the first time since that night at Uncle Jack’s.
A new respect for the guy grew in me. Sure, I was still mad as hell, but Lily wanted it to stop, and the fucker was basically apologizing.
“I want it. Let’s do it,” I replied finally.
He grinned. He looked like a kid when he smiled.
“Come on, then. Seems like there’s someone in the audience who came here to see you win, not lose.”
“You’re wrong. She’s not here.”
Josh gave me a grim grin. “Isn’t she?”
Something dangerously hopeful shifted in my chest. I twisted around, but I couldn’t see from where I was sitting. My leg bounced, my skate cutting into the ice as I waited impatiently to get back out there.
When our shift came, we shot onto the ice. I turned and looked behind the coach’s bench. Brilliant red hair met my gaze, sending my heart thumping hard.
She’s here. She’s come. She isn’t in California.My thoughts jumped around like live wires in my head.
She’d just arrived and was in the act of taking her jacket off, standing and easy to make out. She stilled when her eyes connected with mine. Even from a distance, I could feel the moment she sensed my gaze on her. Suddenly, she dumped her jacket off her shoulders and twisted around. She was wearing a Hellion jersey.
It only took a second for the number on her jersey to register with me.
It was my number.
My girl had on my number, and she didn’t come here to see me lose.
I was Cayden West, and there was no way in hell I was losing with my girl watching.
No fucking way.
Lily
I’d madeit all the way in to the airport before my feet stopped working. We’d parked the car and made it inside the terminal. My mom was rushing ahead, wheeling both our suitcases, while I slowly walked behind her.
My mind was on HHH and the game tonight.
It was on that journal and those haunting words that had burrowed inside my heart and taken root.
It was with my best friend, who desperately wanted me to be by her side through college.
