AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tell me you’ll give us a shot.”
“Can I think about it?”
“Do you really have to? I mean, was I alone in feeling like that kiss just wrote the first chapter of our second chance?”
The elevator opens, and I hear Leah yell from the lobby door, “Come on. Kevin can’t wait all night.”
Riley pushes up on her toes and kisses my cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Rivera.” Then she all but runs to the car, with my name and number across her back.
Fuck. Me.
Friday September 6th
I woke up this morning feeling good, great, way better than I deserved, but as Coach blows the whistle, it feels like it’s coming from inside my head.
“Bring it in, you bunch of clowns!”
All huddled around him, he looks at us, shaking his head. “We’re one week and five days from our first game, a week out until mandated practices begin, and you look like a bunch of circus animals out there.” His eyes meet mine. “A bunch of monkeys holding your little monkey sticks, dragging your monkey asses all over my ice.”
What the hell is this shit?is all I can think.
His eyes leave mine as he continues, “If this was official practice and on my time, you’d be skating lines until you punks puked out whatever shit you got into last night that caused you to skate like baby baboons. Now go! Get out of my face.” He throws his arms in the air as he walks away. “I’m taking the day tomorrow to try to unsee what you fools have shown me today. You should all do the same.”
Something draws my eyes above Coach to the bleachers, and that’s where I see Evan Smith laughing his ass off, holding a fake mic as he fake sings, and then … the bastard drops the mic. Kameron? She’s covering her face, and her whole body is trembling in what I know is laughter.
I make a mental note to contact Dylan Daniels, who is not only the first female head coach in the NHL, but Smith’s coach, and ask her to make sure she’s riding his ass hard.
“Bro.” JT catches up to me as we skate toward the locker rooms. “Video from Bleachers went viral.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I snarl.
* * *
Stepping out of the shower,I notice a dozen or so of my teammates snickering as I pass.
“Know your place, little bitches,” I sneer.
“Goddamn, Rivera,” booms through the locker room.
Fucking Smith.
“This whole skating thing doesn’t work out, you should drop a demo.”
“How about I drop you on the floor?” I snap as I grab my sweats and pull them on.
“Bro, it was an epic move, and that’s coming from the guy who showed up at his coach’s house, trying to win the girl while wrecked. And you owe me.”
“I owe you?” I ask, pulling my long-sleeved tee over my head.
“Yeah, if it wasn’t for your video, Kami wouldn’t have gotten a call at six a.m. because he saw her in said video, and she and I wouldn’t be here to soften the blow.”
“Soften the blow?”
“Yeah.” He smiles then shrugs. “Well, Kami softened the blow. Reminded him that our team rocked last year when the three of us were coupled up, so he shouldn’t give you too much shit.”
I look left and see Koa glaring at his screen before taking his phone and hurling it into his locker.
“Shit,” Smith whispers. “That’s not good.”
