AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I grit my teeth and turn away. She’s in one of the suites, her royal-blue dress alluring and seductive and totally aggravating.
I haven’t seen her in six years, and she looks better than ever.
“Head in the game,” Jacob advises. “You told me something similar, didn’t you?”
I grunt. “She came here to piss me off.”
“Or…”
“There’s no or. She came here to make me angry.”
Because six years ago, on my last day home for winter break of my freshman year at Crown Point University, I stood outside her house and told her I never wanted to see her again. And then, when she asked me for a divorce, I laughed in her face.
Under no circumstances is Aurora McGovern to get anything she wants.
She’s not even paying attention to us. She’s sitting in front of the glass of the suite—and I’m going to find out who she suckered to get into it—with a glass of champagne in her hand. Not only that, she’s talking and laughing to someone I can’t see.
I tighten my grip on my stick and step off the ice before I do something stupid. I let Jacob herd me toward the locker room, while I spend the next fifteen minutes trying not to lose my shit. It doesn’t really work, and I play less time than I want. But every time I get on the ice, I’m not in the right headspace.
Coach knows it. Before the third period, he screams his head off at me.
And I totally fucking deserve it.
I sit on the bench with my helmet in my lap, resigned to not playing. My attention swings between Aurora and the game. Back and forth and back and forth. The game is going poorly, and I can’t seem to pin it on anyone in particular. We’re all just sucking, and my old teammates are playing like a well oiled machine.
They slip around our d-men, draw our goalie forward, and slip the puck in behind him. Or they hinder his sight by packingbodies in front of the crease. It’s fucking slaughter, and the weight of shame hangs on my shoulders.
With Aurora here to witness it all.
She’s laughing. Smiling. Not evenwatching. Although she probably doesn’t even have to watch to know how sloppy we’re playing. She’s just a distraction. A silent, judging distraction who wants me to mess up.
The horn blows, our loss echoed in the defeated quiet of the crowded arena. We get up from the bench and skate out to bump fists with my old teammates, to congratulate them for the easy kill. They offer me quick pats on the back, sympathetic smiles.
Yeah, yeah.
“Well, that could’ve gone better,” Church groans once we’re in the locker room.
Camden Church. Captain. Right wing. Objectively handsome, I guess. I’m not really one to judge either way. But he’s a good captain, a solid team leader, and he comes up with fun chirps. Listening to him talk to opponents usually brings out our smiles.
He doesn’t have much more to say right now, though.
All of us feel disjointed. Coach orders an extra practice tomorrow, which is guaranteed to be painful. And then we’re released to get out of our sweaty gear and shower, to put on brave faces. I, for one, am going to get drunk.
It doesn’t help me forget about Aurora, though, because it isn’t until later, sitting at a bar surrounded by my teammates commiserating our loss, that I accept my anger.
She can’t be here.
Denver is mine. I didn’t inform her that I was claiming it, but she couldn’t have missed the news that I was being traded to the Colorado Titans. It was everywhere. There was even an article about it.
And even if she missed it, her parents definitely would’ve heard about it. So why didn’t they pass it along?
Stupid.
As if by magic, as soon as I allow myself to sink into it—Aurora fucking McGovern walks into the bar. In the blue dress. With her auburn hair shiny and in loose waves around her shoulders. She looks more like a movie star than the girl I used to know.
Before I can stop myself, I’m striding across the room to her without hesitation. I catch her arm, ignoring the shocked expression, and drag her toward the door.
Out we go, around the corner into the alley. It’s chilly, the temperature dropping, and the wind has been picking up steadily in the last few weeks. As soon as the sun sets, the cold really sets in. It’s only October, at the top of our season, but we’re hurtling fast toward winter. And in Denver, that’s no joke—or so I’ve heard.
