AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And you never gave me any indication that—“
“Remember when the others were away at college,” she interjected abruptly, “and you played sit-in goalie for all those bottom division dek hockey teams?”
Now it was my eyebrows that knit together. “Of course,” I answered. “Sometimes, when someone’s goalie doesn’t show up, I still do.”
“Right,” she went on. “And remember that game when you were shutting out the other team until the very end? And then all of a sudden a rabbit jumped onto the dek?”
It took less than a second to call up the memory. My face broke into a smile.
“That was against the Malakas. The rabbit distracted me, and I gave up a lucky slapshot before the ref saw it and blew the whistle.” My eyes narrowed. “We had to go to overtime, and we lost. All because of a stupid—“
“Remember being so pissed that you threw your helmet?”
Ariana and I were staring at each other again, eye to eye. I blinked.
“Wait… you were there?”
I couldn’t believe it. The dek I subbed at was clear on the other side of town. It was old and decrepit and falling apart even worse than GreatSkates. There was no heat. No air conditioning. No running water.
“Actually, I came to a lot of those games,” she finally admitted. “But that day you threw your helmet, you looked so furious I just took off. I didn’t want you to think I was spying on you, so I drove away.”
“Holy shit!” I exclaimed. “Why would you—”
“Because I came to the game that night to tell you I liked you.”
It took an extended moment or two for her words to sink in. When they did, I froze up like I’d been hit with a stun gun.
“I came to tell you that I wanted something more,” she went on. “That I wanted you and I to get together. To maybe try…”
“YOU DID?”
Ariana’s words stunned me to the core. I leaned on the counter in shocked silence.
“Yes,” she acknowledged quietly. “But I left before I could say anything.”
I thought back to the night in question. I saw the rabbit, skidding across the surface of the dek. I saw my helmet; flying end over end, as I screamed at the ref.
She was there!
I had no idea. No clue. Because if I had—
“I wish you would’ve stayed,” I told her. “I wish my anger didn’t scare you away.”
“Yeah,” she chuckled. “But on the other hand…”
I squinted. “On the other hand, what?”
She paused and raised an eyebrow.
“Want the truth?”
“Of course.”
Ariana’s already pink hue deepened to an almost crimson color. But it was too late to go back.
“All that rage,” she began slowly. “All that passion and fierceness I saw in you, as you flung your helmet across the dek…”
She shrugged sheepishly.
