“Scared me too.”
Fucking terrified me, actually. I almost lost everything in one moment. That could have been my last game in a flash. I’m glad as hell it’s not.
Coach comes into the room, his eyes falling right to me. “Good?”
“Good.”
He nods, then tells the team they did a good job and not to be late for the bus. An hour and some change later, we’re in the air, on our way back to Seattle. I ice my face the whole time we’re on the plane, and I’ve never been so damn thankful for a short flight in my life because the only thing I want to do is go home, crawl into my bed, and sleep. When we land back in the Evergreen State, my phone buzzes against my leg. I take it out, and the name on the screen makes my heart race.
Nessa.
I can’t answer it, not here with so many eyes and ears around. So I pocket it, doing my best to ignore it when it starts to go off again. Even when I climb into my car another forty minutes later, I still don’t call her back. I don’t just want to talk. I want to see her.
No, Ineedto see her.
It’s after two in the morning by the time I pull into the parking garage of my building.
“Come on, come on,” I say as I stand in the elevator, thankful Keller and I decided not to carpool tonight. I have no idea where he is, but I’m glad it’s not here. He’d know exactly why I’m so eager to get upstairs and would likely have a comment about it.
When the doors finally open on my floor, I practically sprint for my door. I punch half the code in before remembering how late it is. Is she even awake still? I know she just called an hour ago, but that was…well, an hour ago. Is she mad I didn’t call her back?Only one way to find out…
I re-enter the code and push the door open, being quiet just in case. It’s pointless. Nessa is awake all right, and based on the look on her face, she’s not happy. She stands ten feet away, arms crossed as she glares at me. She’s in nothing but the t-shirt I gave her the first night she stayed here, and I wonder briefly if she’s been sleeping in it every night I’ve been gone.
But that’s not important right now.
“Hey,” I say after a few tense moments.
One, two, three.
That’s how many seconds pass before she explodes.
“Hey? Hey?!” She throws her hands into the air. “That’s what I get? You get hit in the face with a puck, ignore my calls, and I getHey?!”
“Nessa, listen?—”
“No!” she yells, stomping toward me. “Youlisten, Gavin. I was worried sick. I saw you crumple to the ice, and you didn’t move, and my heart was in my fucking throat. I couldn’t breathe, watching you lie there. I wanted to crawl through that TV and…and…”
“What?” I ask when she doesn’t continue, taking a step toward her. “What did you want to do, Nessa?”
“Kiss you! I wanted to kiss you!”
Her eyes widen, her words hanging in the air between us. I take another step forward. Then another. I don’t stop until we’re nearly touching, mere inches separating us. Her tongue slides out against her lips, and I track the movement, my breath coming in sharper than it did when I was lying on the ice after being hit.
“You can, Nessa,” I say quietly, dragging my gaze back to hers. “You can kiss me. Any damn time you want.”
And she does.
CHAPTER 15
VANESSA
I’m kissing Gavin.
I have no damn idea what the hell I’m thinking, but I’m kissing him—hard. I can’t help myself. Not after tonight. Seeing him on the ice like that… God, I feel like my heart is still in my throat.
He lay still for what felt like years, though it was only seconds, and I was terrified. I was so fucking afraid that the last time we spoke, it was about our favorite cereals. As much as I have loved our random conversations over the last few days, that’s not what I wanted our last words to be.
Then he moved, and I finally breathed. But if I thought I was relieved then, it’s nothing compared to now, having his hands in my hair as he holds me to him, our lips moving together. His touch is so familiar and natural, and it’s like I’m floating in the clouds. Euphoric. Transcendent. My hands go to his face on instinct, and he winces.
