My body craves his touch, his warmth, his skin on mine.
I’ve missed him. Missed this.
Ashton pulls back, staring at my lips, before leaning in and stealing another kiss. “We still have our date at the Arboretum,” he whispers, slowly pulling back, his mouth against my cheek and then my ear. “Unless you want to skip it?”
“An afternoon with you at the Arboretum? We are not missing it. The leaves are going to be gorgeous this time of year.” I stand and grab his hand, pulling him up with me. “Come on, boyfriend.”
“Gosh, I’ve missed you.” Ashton grins and kisses me again, my world spinning wildly, happily, as I melt into him.
“I’ve missed you too,” I whisper, leaning my forehead against his. “The concert tickets, the trip to Spain, it’s all too much.”
I’ll have to pay him back, at least my portion of the expenses.
“Consider it an early Christmas present.”
“Ashton.” I glare at him playfully.
“Trust me, the concert tickets and the trip to Barcelona are cheaper than the second-hand market.”
I grumble under my breath, knowing that it still cost him a fortune. “I’m not letting you get away with paying for all of it. I will pay you back.”
Ashton steals another kiss, the corners of his lips quirking upward. “I can think of a few fun ways.”
I smack his arm for even suggesting such a thing. “Jerk!”
He chuckles and wraps an arm around my waist, “I know, but you still love me.”
Thirty-Two
Luca
It feels good to be on the ice, like nothing else matters in the moment while I’m playing hockey. My mind is clear, my thoughts are solely on scoring and winning the game.
But every so often, I glance in the stands at Harper and Zeke. She’s sitting with Nova, Kensley, Sophia, and Bristol. It’s a packed house tonight in the arena.
Zeke has those ridiculously adorable headphones to block out the loud noise. He was better at keeping them on a year ago when we played.
I can only imagine the fight Harper has to deal with when trying to keep him distracted while keeping those things affixed to his head.
Okay, maybe my mind is more on Harper than it should be right now, but I’m glad to have her support.
Ashton manages to knock the puck away from the Tigers and shoots it to me just as the rival team comes closing in.
I’m still ahead, by only a few seconds, but it’s enough.
I shoot for the goal, but it bounces off the goalie toward Liam. He loses the puck within seconds when their right defenseman slams into him, knocking him into the boards and blocking him from going for the puck as he shoots it to his right wing to take it down the ice.
Fucking assholes.
Liam shoves Nichols off him, which only seems to incite a riot. Nichols lands an uppercut and his teammate Peters is racing to defend his buddy. All bets are off. Ashton and I are on Nichols, yanking him off Liam and Peters yanks Ashton backward.
I swear the referees enjoy the show a little too long before they finally intervene.
Nichols gets sent to the penalty box right before the second period is over. The score is an even match, with no one having put any pucks into the goal.
Coach harps on us to do better when we’re in the locker room during intermission.
“I’ve seen you play better,” he grunts at us.
