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I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment I’d started to think of her that way, but there was no denying that it was a sealed deal. She was my girl; she just didn’t know it yet.
She strode down the stairs in a jersey. The sight of it stopped my heart.My jersey. It definitely wasn’t the retro one of her dad’s that she’d worn to the first game. Something eased in my chest at the sight of it. A warming feeling in the cold, hollow place inside me.
Her eyes met mine, even across the distance. She pushed her hair back, the coppery strands magnificent as they cascaded across my black-and-purple colors. A smile that was nearly sweet touched her lips. I came to a stop, frozen to the spot by that look. It was the single most precious expression I’d ever seen. A willing, beguiling smile from the girl I was obsessed with. I felt unworthy and lucky as hell.
Then, she turned around, and that warmth in my chest burned to ashes.
It wasn’t my jersey. It was Josh’s.
* * *
I closed in on a tight scrimmage between a red jersey and a black and smashed through. The red player spun away while I continued, driving the Hellion against the boards with just enough strength to hurt. Josh bounced off the board and groaned. I held out my hand to him.
“Shit, you all right, man?”
He nodded, skating slowly away from the board where his body had made a new dent. Little Josh Samuels had no idea that this game was about to get much worse for him. We were ten minutes in, two up, and the only thing I cared about at this point was grinding Josh to dust.
Play started again, and once more, I found a way to make sure Josh was on the receiving end of a hard charge.
“Hey, ease up, you know the black ones are on our team, right?” Beckett muttered to me.
“If he can’t take it, he shouldn’t be on the team,” I ground out in response.
Beckett nodded. “Right, and this has nothing to do with what Lillian Williams is wearing?”
“Mind your own business,” I warned him.
“The teamismy business, and Josh isn’t a bad junior player. Stop trying to cripple him.”
“If I wanted to cripple him, it’d be done already. This is just a friendly warning to keep his jersey, and his intentions, to himself.”
“Cade,” Beckett started.
But I skated off, not interested in his words of fucking wisdom. The red veil that had descended over my eyes when I’d seen Lily’s jersey hadn’t lifted. The only thing that eased it was the sound of Josh pummeling the boards. He was just lucky I hadn’t found a way to slice his fingers off with my skate.
We were headed toward the intermission, and I couldn’t fucking wait. Lily was about to answer for her little games. I flew across the ice and checked Josh out of the way to snatch the puck from a red player.
He went down this time, and I continued on to shoot, scoring another easy goal. Fans screamed and clapped as Josh got up and came at me.
“Look, man, I’m not trying to be sensitive, but it feels like you’re doing that on purpose,” he accused.
I turned to him and put a finger to his chest. “Stay out of my face if you know what’s good for you.”
“What the hell?” Josh made the mistake of pushing me back.
I saw red. I lunged forward, and only Beckett’s huge body colliding with mine stopped my forehead from meeting Josh’s highly breakable-looking nose.
“Hey! You want Coach to come down on you like a ton of bricks? Fight with the other team if you want to blow off steam, not a Hellion, or go and take it out on Bug.”
Beckett’s advice reached through the fog, just as Intermission started.Go and take it out on Bug.
What a great idea.
Lily
My stomach achedfrom too much soda and nerves. Great, jangling nerves that had been growing in my belly from the second I’d put on Josh’s jersey, and then spread like wildfire in response to Cayden’s murderous expression when he’d realized.
The buzzer sounded, and people surged out of their seats for snacks and bathroom breaks while I remained glued in my nice and safe seat.
