“They just got their fall drinks in. I know you love a good pumpkin spice anything.”
I took the huge cup and inhaled the familiar scent of fall. “Yes, I am that basic, and I don’t even care.” I sipped it and groaned. “Man, that’s so good. It’s really going to be fall soon.”
“You know you can get that flavor most of the rest of the year now?”
I shook my head firmly. “Nope. You can only have it around Fall. That’s the rule. You have to be disciplined about these things, or they’re not special anymore.”
Winter nodded. “I can see you’ve given this way too much thought.”
“Oh, definitely.” I looked at the rink.
The players had just started to skate out on the ice.
I spied Brody immediately. Cal skated just behind him. He was the one who spotted me first and skated over. I hadn’t seen Cal since the party; well, not properly. Standing in the dark bathroom doorway behind Brody didn’t count.
Cal slid to an impressively sharp stop right in front of us and leaned over the boards. He shoved his cage back and surveyed me with his blue-green eyes.
He didn’t speak. He just studied me, his head tilted to the side.
I nodded and wrapped my hands around my coffee, needing something to do to avoid meeting his curious gaze.
Coach blew the whistle from the middle of the ice. Cal nodded to himself once and slammed his cage back down, then turned and skated away.
“Well, that was weird.”
“He’s a man of few words,” I told Winter.
“So I hear, or don’t hear. Whatever. He’s hot. Don’t tell Asher I said that.”
“You just have a type: the silent, strong, brooding type.”
Winter laughed. “Guilty as charged. What about his brother? He doesn’t seem like the silent type.”
“He’s not. He’s not broody either, or mysterious. I feel like with Brody what you see is what you get.”
“So, arrogant, English asshole?” Winter ventured, a phrase I’d used often to describe him.
“Exactly. On the surface anyway,” I muttered, watching as the guys started their warmup stretches.
Jesus, just watching Brody stretch was threatening to turn me on. He stared across the ice, right at us. I wasn’t close enough to see if his eyes were on me, but I felt like they were.
“Just on the surface? He sure was arrogant and really fucking annoying last night when he hid you away and refused to let anyone know where you were or what you were doing. Oh, and when he kicked everyone out. Actually, that was pretty impressive. I thought Marcus was going to sue for breach of agreement.”
I sighed. I could just imagine it, and yet, I couldn’t feel bad about it. Brody had thrown me a rope last night when I was about to drown.
“So, whatdidhappen between you two last night? I want to hear all of it, every detail. Don’t leave anything out.”
I slid her a sideways look. “Promise me first that you won’t tell Asher.”
Winter held her pinkie out. “I promise not to tell him anything, unless it’s something that he could help with… like breaking someone’s skull, in your name, of course.”
Knowing that was the closest thing to a commitment I’d get from Winter, I hooked her pinkie in mine and shook.
She wanted to know, so I’d tell her.
While Brody and the guys skated different formations, blocked plays, and strategized for the next game, I told Winter a sanitized version of what had happened last night. I left out the cutting. She’d freak out. But I told her about me and Brody, and that we’d slept together. I couldn’t keep the secret in for one more second, and she was my best friend in the world.
She clapped a hand over her mouth and shot up in her seat dramatically. I quickly pulled her back down.
