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I knew he was baiting me, but I was still struggling to keep my cool.
“Don’t talk about Violet.”
“Aw, don’t be like that.” Hoffman’s eyes lit with glee. “I’m just worried about her is all. She looked so upset when I spoke to her the other day.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, just the little chat I had with Violet on Monday before practice. I thought it was time someone told her why you’re really dating her.”
Monday before practice? That was exactly when Violet had ended things with me. "What did you say to her, Hoffman?”
“I told her you’re clearly just out for revenge, like you have been ever since Natalie picked me over you.”
“That’s not what happened, and you know it.”
“Isn’t it?” He smirked. “Well, that’s what I told Violet.”
“So, you lied.”
He shrugged. “I don’t think the finer details really mattered to Violet. Not when she realized that your obsession for revenge had led you to go after the one thing—the one person—that would get to me the most. Her.”
"That’s not true.”
“That’s not what Violet thinks. No, she thinks these last few weeks have all been about one thing for you—throwing me off my game so you can win today.”
I had no idea how I didn’t lay him out right there. My vision blurred with a red haze. The amount of anger radiating through my body right now couldn’t possibly be healthy. After Violet ended our fake relationship, I was convinced it was because I’d come on too strong. When I’d revealed my feelings to her and kissed her on the ice, the connection between us had been unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and I thought that had sent her running scared. But it seemed Jeremy was the one to push her over the edge by telling her I was exactly the kind of guy she wanted nothing to do with—a hockey-obsessed jerk who only cared about the game.
Jeremy seemed to realize how much he was getting to me because he started to smile.
“I don’t need to date a girl to beat you, Hoffman,” I said.
“Perhaps not,” he agreed. “But she did seem quite convinced when we spoke. It kind of makes me feel like I’ve won today no matter the result…”
Hoffman waited a moment, as if he were hoping I’d lose my cool. He seemed disappointed when I didn’t react. Clearly, he’d been doing his best to get me banned for the rest of the game—if not the season. I was angry, but I wasn’t stupid.
“It doesn’t matter what you said, Hoffman. I’m still going to win both the girl and the game today.” Based on the way I'd been playing and everything he’d just told me, that was going to be easier said than done. I just desperately wanted to wipe the self-satisfied look from his face. However, my remark only seemed to fuel it.
“Except you can’t win both.” Jeremy couldn’t have sounded more delighted. “If you beat me, you’ll only prove to Violet I was right. She’ll know for sure you only care about the game, and you’ll lose her for good.”
“It’s not as simple as that.”
“Isn’t it?” He was far too pleased with himself as he skated away from me to take his position at center ice for the face-off.
Normally, anger and rage only fueled my performance on the ice, but I could feel the seed of doubt Hoffman had planted growing into something ugly beneath my skin. He was just trying to get in my head. I knew that. I only wished it wasn’t working. Would I really lose Violet forever if we beat the Saints today?
Now I knew what Hoffman had told Violet, surely, I could just go to her after the game and talk to her. Regardless of whether we won or lost, I’d just tell her that everything she’d heard from her lying ex-boyfriend was false. But what if that wasn’t enough? I’d tried to talk to her the day she’d ended things with me, and she hadn’t listened. And she’d been avoiding me all week. There had to be a way for me to show her that she was the most important thing to me. Not hockey, not petty rivalries. Only her.
As I slid into position opposite Jeremy, a sudden burst of awareness tingled the back of my neck. I looked up into the stands, and my eyes were immediately drawn to Violet.
My heart stopped beating. It was as if she were the only one in the crowded stands.
She was here. She had come. And as I stared into her bright blue eyes, I knew what I had to do, how to show her what she meant to me. If there was a choice between winning the game or the girl, she needed to know I’d choose her every time.
Even if it spelled the end of the Darling Devils.
28
VIOLET
