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“Yeah, that’s her,” I replied, smiling in her direction as I raised my stick to return her greeting. I was genuinely excited to see her, but slightly nervous too. I’d enjoyed our tactics meeting far more than I should have yesterday, and the little golden rule she’d thrown in at the end had me worried. She didn’t want any feelings involved, but I was already well on my way to breaking that crucial part of our agreement.
“Dude, you are such a goner.” Matt laughed, and I realized I must have looked like a total loser waving my stick in the air at Violet. I shoved my shoulder into him as I went to skate off, but it only made Matt laugh harder.
I hadn’t told anyone the truth about me and Violet and how our relationship was fake. Not even Grayson, and I usually told him everything. I think a part of me just didn’t want to admit it out loud. Matt was right. I was a goner—and I had been ever since I’d seen her swing her foot at her car.
The guys were all grilling me about her in the locker room before practice. We’d made quite a scene with our kiss on Saturday night, so everyone was understandably curious. Even at school, people had been asking me all day about the new girl from Sunshine Hills, and I’d been more than happy to tell them she was my girlfriend.
Matt, especially, had been asking a lot of questions about her. It was fair enough considering I hadn’t shown any interest in dating since freshman year, and suddenly I was going out with our biggest rival’s ex-girlfriend. It had all happened so fast, and Matt seemed to realize something didn’t quite add up. Surely, he’d never guess our relationship was a complete lie. I could barely believe it myself.
Coach barked at us to grab a quick drink, so while the rest of the team headed over to the bench, I skated across to Violet.
As I approached, she greeted me with a slightly anxious smile. She looked cute tonight with a large jacket that seemed to swallow her whole. Every time I saw her, I swore she’d become smaller. Either that or her clothes got bigger. I couldn’t deny that winter in Minnesota was cold, but I’d never seen anyone layer on jackets the way Violet did.
“Having fun?” she asked, nodding in the direction of the ice.
“Always.” I pulled my helmet from my head and grinned at her. “But I think the more important question is: are you?”
She shrugged. “I only got here a few minutes ago, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.”
“Are you talking about me or the hockey?
“Uh, both?”
“So, what you’re saying is, you’re not all that impressed by my hockey skills.”
“I didn’t say that. It seems like you know what you’re doing.”
“Jeez.” I ran a hand through my hair. “That’s like the nice way of saying I’m simply adequate.”
“Well, I meant it in a good way.”
I couldn’t hold back my grimace.
“Okay.” She slowly started to smile. “What I meant to say is I’ve never had my breath taken away quite like I did when I first saw how you handle that stick. I’ve been swooning ever since…”
I burst out laughing. “Yeah, that’s much better.”
She rolled her eyes, but there was still a playful smile on her lips.
“If you want to be impressed by someone’s stick skills, you should have been watching me,” Parker said as he attempted to shoulder me out of the way and take my place. The little shit.
“Hey. Parker, right?” she said.
“The one and only.” His broad shoulders straightened with confidence. “It’s nice to see you again, Violet.”
“Yeah, you too.”
“So, what do you say? Want me to show you my skills?” he asked.
I really struggled not to shove him out of the way. The only reason I held back was because I didn’t want him to know how much he was getting to me.
“We better still be talking about hockey,” I warned.
Violet didn’t seem nearly so bothered by him though, and she released a bright laugh. “I’ll keep an eye out for you,” she replied.
“Well, in that case, I might just have to show off a little bit,” Parker replied as though he didn’t already spend every minute he was on the ice doing just that. “So, what brings you to our practice tonight?”
She shot me a cautious glance, and I realized she was probably wondering how much of the truth I’d told my brothers.
