“Not really your business.”
“He walked her to practice and kissed her a couple of times,” one of Lana’s friends says.
“Everything is everyone’s business at Kingmakers Prep,” Lana informs me. “I’d get tested if I were you.”
“You were talking about hooking up with him the other night,” I remind her. “But sure.” I look her up and down, even though I believe Luke when he says they never did anything. The rest of the Ice Crew seems to think otherwise. I guess Luke never bothered to set the record straight, or maybe he never heard the rumors. “He really should.”
I hear a few small, muffled laughs. Lana’s eyes narrow on me murderously. She proceeds to step toward me. I don’t retreat.
“Lana,” I warn, “your nose is still pretty new. I’d be careful.”
“Is that a threat?” Lana doesn’t deny the nose job. Honestly, I just guessed, but her surgeon did a great job.
“It’s a warning.” I’m not letting her push me around. If you give an inch, people will take a mile.
“Ladies,” Dean Locke calls out. Everyone turns to look at him. I cringe inside, worried about what he might have overheard. He looks at me for a moment before speaking again.
“Coach Murphy isn’t coming today,” he says without explaining why. I realize now why he looked at me earlier. Hewants me to keep quiet since I already know she’s missing. “I’m sure you can handle practice yourselves.”
“I can lead it.” Lana gives the dean a sweet, fake-ass smile. Great, now Lana gets to boss everyone around, but that’s pretty normal. “Everyone on the ice!” She claps at us. Kory and I share a look.
I never told her about Coach Murphy lying about the votes. I debated it, but I’m sure as hell not telling her now.
We warm up, and then I run routines on autopilot, my head not in it today. When the whistle blows, I’m ready to get the hell out of here. Both my mind and body are exhausted.
That’s when I spot Luke up toward the top of the stands, watching us. How long has he been up there? Kory slides over next to me and follows my line of sight.
“So it’s true.”
“I don’t know.” Which is the truth.
“Be careful, Maddie. He’s one of the boys we were warned about.”
“No,” I say quickly, defending Luke before I even realize it. “Luke is honest about who he is. It’s the ones who pretend to be good guys that we should really worry about.”
“Good point, but I just had to say it once at least.” I nod in understanding, and she skates off. I do the same, heading for the locker room to change. Thankfully, I don’t see Lana again.
When I leave the locker room, Luke is waiting for me. He’s changed into black sweats that fit him just right and a hoodie. His right hand is taped, and a small bruise is starting to show on his cheek. Somehow, that just makes him look even better.
“You going to kiss me, Buttercup?”
I glance around. “No one is here.”
We don’t need to pretend, but clearly Luke doesn’t care because he clears the space between us, his hand cupping theback of my neck to pull me into him as his mouth comes down onto mine.
When he pulls away, he gives me one of his lazy smiles. “Caleb was the one who started that bet shit about hooking up with the new girls.”
“Oh.” Shit, he went after Caleb because of me. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“You’re my girl, so yeah, I do.”
“You’re really selling this.” I laugh, but he just shrugs and doesn’t answer. It’s a little disappointing. What did I expect him to say? That he isn’t pretending? I know he likes me, but is he just acting, or is this how he’d be if it were real?
“Come on.” He throws his arm over my shoulder and starts to walk. I have no choice but to go with him.
“You walking me home now?”
“I plan to, but not yet. I was thinking,” he says, glancing down at me. “Should we check out Murphy’s office?”
