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Halfway home, the lure of caffeine had struck. We’d been baited into the apparent wilderness on the promise of some sort of rest stop, and after turning around, we’d apparently missed the on-ramp.
“What made you think I’d ever ride back with Sherry and Denise?”
“Are you kidding?” I laughed. “They’re absolutely gorgeous. Not to mention they rode all the way to Calgary to see you play hockey.”
“To see us play hockey,” he corrected me.
I rolled my eyes dramatically. While the rest of the team — including Kyle Spinelli — did well with the ladies, Axel knew full well who the majority of the puck-bunnies came to see. His denials never came off as facetious, though. They were almost annoyingly humble.
“If you rode back with those girls,” I pointed out, “you’d be having a lot more fun than this,” I smirked, gesturing to the shadowy rows of snow-whipped pines on either side of the road. “We’re talking about take-an-extra-day-to-get-home fun. Threesome with two cousins type of fun.”
With his long arm still resting casually on the wheel, Axel shot me a wounded glance.
“Sherry and Denise aren’t cousins.”
“No,” I conceded. “But those two girls from last year sure were.”
Axel continued staring at me for a moment, before returning his eyes to the road. “That’s nothing but a rumor.”
“A true rumor?” I pressed.
It had been common knowledge, at least back then, that Axel had taken home two girls who’d turned out to be cousins, and spent the weekend with them. Down at the rinks, the story had cemented his already near-legendary status.
Back then I’d been curious. Like everyone else though, I’d always assumed the rumor to be true. And right now, his silence certainly wasn’t changing my mind.
“Hey, no judgment here” I said, poking him. “More power to you. But you know you could tell me, right? I mean, I am one of your closest friends.”
“Closest?” he said, sounding legitimately wounded. “Try more like best friends.”
“Fine. Best friends.”
“You’re goddamn right,” he nodded.
He drove us on through the darkness, plunging my little car though the endless black corridor of swiftly-falling snow. I noticed absently he had two hands on the wheel now. And they were big hands. Strong, manly hands, attached to a pair of long, powerful arms. Arms that had always felt good around my waist, or over my shoulders, or—
Easy.
Visions floated to mind; recollections of our ‘date.’ The feeling of Axel’s body pressed against mine wasn’t something I’d forgotten about. Nor had I even tried.
Stop it, Ariana.
I’d noticed my friend a thousand times of course, but maybe I hadn’t looked looked. Physically he was a complete and total specimen. Axel had everything going for him: athleticism, genetics, and heartbreaking good looks. Those blue eyes alone would explain the crowds of women pouring in to see him. Not to mention those broad, steel-like shoulders. That chiseled, stubbled jaw…
“Anyway,” I kept going, “in that case you could tell me. About the cousins, I mean. Because best friends can always kiss and tell.”
“Right,” Axel smirked again. Inhaling slowly, he let out a sigh. “They just don’t kiss.”
“What?”
“Best friends never kiss,” he explained simply, adding the wave of one big hand. “They—“
“AXEL LOOK OUT!”
The corridor of darkness had been pierced by something swift and brown and—
A deer. It’s a deer…
—moving so quickly there was barely any time to react. But Axel did react. He’d made a career out of reacting, and his reaction time was unimaginably good.
