AllFreeNovel
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She has a point. Why is he trying so hard?
But there’s no point in wondering. I’ll never be allowed close enough to ask.
Thinking back on that conversation with my roommate, it turned out that keeping my distance from the hot hockey player with whom I shared a quick smile at a packed house party didn’t matter. Because a few weeks later, that same boy blew up my life anyway.
And now, standing next to him in the pickup line, waiting for my chai latte, brings back all those painful memories that I’ve tried to leave in the past where they belong.
I lost my partner because of his injury, missed my chance at the Olympics because of Slade, got rejected by Win, the only man I've truly had feelings for in years, and then dropped out of professional skating and college in the same week. Everything happened in the span of a few months, leaving me feeling empty, isolated, and honestly… a little depressed, which is not my usual default setting.
I gave myself three months to grieve my lost life, and the pen pal I had fallen for, and then I set myself on a new destination, making hockey my career path. Besides skating in the morning to keep a little bit of my old self intact, I'd never consider single skating, and I'll never find a replacement for the dynamic partner I had in Toby.
I've made peace with it, so the sooner I leave Serendipity’s and put some distance between Slade and me, the better.
Slade
She’s doing everything she can to avoid looking at me. I’m not used to women attempting to ignore me. I’m not used to anyone showing this much disinterest in me… unless it’s my father’s disappointing stare and condescending tone that I’m throwing my life away chasing a mindless career like hockey.
But he’s not worried about me throwing my life away. He just thinks my career path will embarrass him at his board meetings or charity events when people ask why his only son didn’t follow in his footsteps and become a doctor.
He always thought that if he pressured me long enough and required me to get a pre-med degree as part of the stipulations of my trust fund, I’d eventually see the light.
He even convinced my grandfather to draw up a document that I had to sign with the family trust lawyers, agreeing to the prerequisite to get my inheritance. But now, with my part of the deal complete, I’ll get my trust fund in two months when I turn twenty-six, just like all my other cousins on my mom’s side of the family. Since my grandfather passed away during my freshman year of college, my mom’s oldest brother controls the family trust, and he doesn’t like my dad, so there’s nothing my father can do to stop it now.
It's not that I need the money. The hefty starting contract that Phil Carlton offered me is more than enough for my lifestyle. After my dad cut me off the day after college graduation when I told him I wouldn’t be attending medical school in the fall, I learned how to live on less for the first time.
I don’t need to show off like I used to in college. The expensive condo my dad put me up in and the brand-new Mercedes G-class he’d lease me every year. None of that was for me. It was so he could show off our family's wealth.
Image is everything to my father. As one of the top cardiac surgeons in the country and married to my mother, who is one of only three heirs to a baby shampoo dynasty, my father never warmed up to the idea that his only son wanted to play hockey as a profession.
When I joined the farm team, he thought it would be my final straw—that I would give up and go to medical school to be the doctor he wants me to be. What he didn’t know was that I had offers from all the top NHL teams. I wasn’t skating on the farm team to keep my hockey dream alive; I was skating on the farm team to make it up to her.
“Penelope,” the barista making the drinks calls out, sliding the cup over in her direction on the bar.
“What makes a chai dirty?” I ask as she steps forward to take it.
I try to hide the smile stretching across my face but I fucking can’t stop smiling when she’s anywhere near.
She stares back at me, those crystal blue eyes with facets resembling cut glass. I’ve never seen a pair as beautiful as hers. I’ve waited four years to be this close again to see them in person and they don’t disappoint.
“Can I ask you a question?” she says, sliding a coffee sleeve over the piping hot drink.
“Sure… fire away.”
She can ask questions all damn day if she wants—anything to keep her talking to me.
“Is there an off switch for that?” she asks, rotating her coffee sleeve in place and not looking at me.
I shoot a look down at my crotch.
How the hell does she know that my cock twitches whenever she comes anywhere near me?
“Dudes don’t come equipped with a control panel. There’s no circuit breaker switch for that.”
Penelope follows my line of sight and then quickly looks away, transferring her weight to the hip furthest from me.
“For the love of God, Matthews. I didn’t mean that.”
I glance up to find her rolling her eyes and grabbing a coffee stopper off the coffee cart behind me to put on top of her drink.
