AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
Uncertainty flickered in her eyes, but she didn’t say anything more on the matter.
The lights dimmed, and an announcer’s voice boomed over the speakers to introduce the Princeton Tigers. The fans in their section whooped and cheered, jumping out of their seats to wave their flags and banners as the Tigers streamed onto the ice.
“And now, for the home crowd… let’s welcome our team!” the announcer boomed. “The Worthington Blades!”
A door opened diagonally across from us. The Blades burst onto the ice, clad in black and white gear with red accents. They started doing loops on the rink, zooming around to tap on the plexiglass and raising their gloved hands in the air to acknowledge their fans. The crowd replied with shrieks and frantic waving, along with a few flashed boobs from some girls in nearby rows.
“Now we know why Tate loves these games so much,” Michaela murmured to me, raising a brow.
I stifled a giggle and leaned forward to get a better look at the team as they circled the ice. One of them seemed to be getting more attention from the crowd than the rest of the team. More attention from the female members of the crowd, to be specific. Girls screamed and giddily jumped up and down as he passed. Some even pretended to faint when he tapped his stick on the boards near them.
I craned my neck, trying to catch a proper glimpse of him. He had his helmet tucked under one arm, but he was angled away from our section, so I couldn’t see his face. Just dark floppy hair. I couldn’t make out the name emblazoned on his jersey, either. Only the number was big enough to read from where I was sitting. Number eleven.
He lifted his right hand to wave up at the student section in the arena. Then he rapidly spun around on the ice—a cocky show-off move to impress the boob-flashing girls, no doubt—and zipped around to our section.
I finally caught a glimpse of his handsome face as he turned to bang on the plexiglass right in front of us. His ocean-blue eyes focused right on me for several seconds, piercing in their intensity. My heart instantly dropped into my stomach.
It was Paxton Cole.
My high school boyfriend… and the man who tried to kill me.
Paxton
Pulsating music reverberated throughout the arena, and whoops and screams from the crowd echoed off the walls, fueling the fire within me as our team surged onto the ice and began our usual just-for-fun laps to greet the home crowd. It was only a pre-season game, but our loyal fans had shown up in full force anyway. Barely any seats were left empty.
My pulse synchronized with the beat of the music, intensifying the rush of adrenaline inside me as I skated around, waving and occasionally smacking my stick on the boards to show my appreciation. A girl with her face painted in team colors stood and lifted her red sweater to show off her tits as I passed. I grinned and turned to share a knowing look with Justin, my longtime best friend who also happened to be one of our team’s best defensemen.
We both spun around and lifted our fists high in the air. The fans erupted in another chorus of cheers and applause. Spurred on by their unwavering enthusiasm, I did another full spin before sliding over to a section I hadn’t paid much attention to yet. With a face-splitting grin, I tapped on the glass and waved.
Wait.
Was that…?
Time seemed to stand still as I did a double-take, staring at the brunette girl in the second row. Fuck me. She looked a lot like…
No. It couldn’t be her. Sienna Holland wouldn’t dare to show up here. Would she?
I looked closer. The girl’s pretty face was frozen in an expression of disgust. Holy shit, it was her.
For the first time in my entire playing career, I felt the chill of the ice below my skates. Felt it all the way up to my chest, sinking its frozen claws between my ribs to grasp at my heart.
My lips tightened into a grimace, and I turned my face away and whipped around on the ice, smashing right into my friend Justin’s bulky back.
“Hey, man. Tryin’ to start something?” he said in a joking tone, grinning at me as he jammed his helmet over his unruly brown curls.
I turned my head over my shoulder to glance at the second row. Sienna was gone. Did I just imagine her being there? If so, why the fuck did I imagine her with a brown dye-job? The Sienna I knew always had tiny blonde streaks scattered throughout her hair.
I turned back to Justin, wondering if I should mention it to him. He knew Sienna too, once upon a time.
I quickly decided against it, not wanting to throw him off his game. It was bad enough that I’d already experienced what felt like an electrical shock mixed with a fucking heart attack when I saw that little bitch staring back at me from the paid ticket-holder’s section. I didn’t need to push that shit onto him too.
“Just keeping you on your toes,” I said, forcing a grin as I shoved my helmet on.
Justin snorted. “As if I need it.”
He wasn’t wrong. He could check guys into the boards like he was simply swatting a mosquito.
