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Wy ran shaky fingers over my lips, then leaned in and attacked my mouth with his warm, sweet one. I battled with his tongue before slipping mine deep into his mouth. With a growl, I clutched the back of the new jersey, hauling him close. He moaned. A loud horn thundered in the arena and the crowd laughed again.
The sound of a door slapping open allowed the pandemonium of whatever was happening in the rink, along with some jaunty music, to flood the quiet space around us.
“Guys, come on. You’re out of time!” Rain shouted.
“Shit,” I said.
“Yeah.” Wy laughed, and I helped him up, letting him lean on me instead of using the crutches, which I carried for him. We were able to move much faster out of the locker room as a team. He pressed a kiss to the point of my jaw before we got out into the rink. As they began to announce the Lansing Lasers from Michigan, I led Wy right to the edge of the ice, and a bunch of the guys came skating over and helped me hoist Wy into the air. We skated with him that way toward the box where Coach sat laughing and shaking his head at us.
“And that would be the co-captains of the Polar Storms. Finch, who is still out with an injury, and Frosteson, number two.”
There was a burst of cheering from the audience, and I wanted to kiss Wy again because his face went a shade of pink that made him look like he needed my lips on his. He glanced at me and laughed as we finally set him down gently in the box. Coach Hill helped him walk over to the bench and handed him his crutches as they were passed along.
After all the excitement, I couldn’t keep my eyes off Wy throughout the game. He cheered, shouted, and waved his crutches in irritation when he thought we were doing something stupid.
The Lansing Lasers were no joke, and after the second period we were tied. It was the type of game where we were always skating two seconds slower than we wanted, and at one point, Nikolai Lovely pushed someone up against the boards and got belted in the stomach hard enough to drop him to his knees.
Of course, the ref was blind to what went on and the crowd screeched and booed.
“Get that fucking puck in the goddamned net!” Wy screamed at me with only fifteen seconds left on the clock before this would turn into a real clusterfuck, and with his words ringing in my ears I passed it to Morin, who finally sank our winning goal with seconds to spare. The roar in the arena was louder than a bomb going off. My head rang with the sound of the buzzers that echoed and the stamping of feet. Drunk guys in the front row pounded on the glass and danced around, and I skated by, slapping at their hands on the glass.
With my heart racing and sweat sliding down my temples and the back of my neck, I skated to where Wy stood on his crutches grinning at me from in the box. I hopped inside and hugged him, being careful of his knee.
“Good job,” he shouted so he could be heard over the madness. He nuzzled against my neck instead of kissing me because being out to the team was one thing, but we were still being a bit careful. Hockey was changing, but slowly. Even with this, people would talk.
Someone came and opened the door to the box that led out into the stands, which almost never happened unless it was my dad. I blinked in that direction in confusion, though, because I didn’t recognize the short man standing there. He was cute and older with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Wy froze in my arms and leaned heavily against my chest, and I kept him upright.
The man walked in like he belonged here, and Coach was too busy talking to some of the guys to say anything to him, though his gaze shot to the man as well.
“Who are you?” I asked, instinct making me want to put myself between Wy and the man. Wy’s face had drained of color and his mouth was a hard line.
“Hey, kiddo!” The man smiled at Wy before shooting a nervous grin at me. “Good job out there, Frosteson. Why aren’t you playing?” He directed that question at Wy. “You gave up the Olympic dream for this, and you’re sitting on your ass on the bench?” His tone turned snarky, and I thought about smashing his face off the glass.
“None of your business,” Wy snarled, straightening. He’d dropped his crutches when I’d grabbed him, and I picked them up and carefully put them in his hands. I didn’t like the way Wy backed up because he wasn’t the type of person to lean away from a challenge, so something about this person must really be bad news.
The man shook his head. “I would’ve thought you would be happy to see me. You always were ungrateful,” he said, eyebrows diving.
“Hi, Dad,” Wy snapped sarcastically, and my spine straightened. “Haven’t seen you in what? Four years? What do you want?” he bit out.
Some emotion I couldn’t name crossed the man’s face, and then he scowled. “You’ll find out when you talk to me with some respect.”
Wy looked ready to cry—and not in a way that made me feel good. A surge of emotion powered through me. I’d never thought about actually killing someone, but in a heartbeat I knew that if Wy asked me to take this asshole out, I would do it and look for a place to bury the body without question.
“Just say the word,” I told him.
The smile Wy gave me was slightly evil and a lot relieved. Fuck, I wanted to kiss him all over and make this better for him, but for once, I would wait for him to lead. This wasn’t my call to make.
26
WYSTAN
It’d been toolong since I’d seen my father. I hadn’t expected him to ever show up to one of my games, yet he was here now. Hatred I didn’t know could exist within me clawed sharply in my stomach. I stared, jaw tight. With Atlas at my side, I felt strong, like I could level the world, so taking on Dad should be an easy task.
I raised my chin. “Why are you here?”
Dad’s eyes darkened, and I stared at him, not quite surewhoI was looking at. This wasn’t my father, the man who had shown up to my figure skating competitions and told me he was proud. No, this was a stranger. Dad had disappeared all those years ago, leaving me and Mom alone. He was a ghost who’d haunted me for too long.
“I came to support you. I heard you were on a hockey team now. Why the fuck aren’t you out there?” He waved his hand impatiently at the ice, and I didn’t have to look tofeelthe team behind me, offering their support if I needed it. Atlas laid a hand on my lower back, and I shot him a small smile of appreciation.
