But fuck me…
She looks around the crowd, eyes scanning like she’s trying to find someone in particular. I open my mouth to call out to her, to bring her over to introduce to my family, when a guy scoops her up and spins her around. His hands cup the ass that I was just admiring, and when he sets her back down, he doesn’t waste any time before capturing her mouth with his.
Her name gets lodged in my throat like a stale piece of bread, and I cough, a sad attempt at a recovery. Who the fuck is that?
He touches her the way my own hand twitches with the desire to but can’t. As his lips lock with hers, jealousy singes the back of my neck, and I force myself to look away. My heart rattles against my chest, wanting to be set on fire as I swallow the harsh reality I’ve been avoiding.
She’s not mine.Not to have, not to touch.
She didn’t mention that she had a boyfriend. Is it her boyfriend? Something flickers in my chest, an ember slowly dying, as I peek back over at them. The guy looks to be about her age, with flowing hair and a Haulton Hockey hoodie. A few more guys surround Lennon and other girls on the team, and I realize they must be on the boy’s team here. Another one wraps his arms around Grace, and she snuggles into his side.
Of course Lennon’s dating a guy on the boy’s team. That makes sense. They look good together as they laugh with their little group, the sound of it mixing together and granting me a pounding headache.
“Luke?”
That jolts me out of my stupor, and I quickly check my surroundings, making sure no one noticed me staring. “What?” I ask Sebastian.
“Dad asked if you know where Alice is. He wants to say hi.” He frowns at me, then his eyes jump to Lennon over my shoulder and then back to me. If I give him enough time, he’ll piece together the change in my mood with the appearance of her and jump to conclusions that aren’t even true. Can never be true.
“Yeah.” I clear my throat and fiddle with my keys. “Let’s go find her.”
I lead my family away from the crowd, away from Lennon, away from bad temptation and a choking feeling that I do my best to ignore.
But call me a masochist, I can’t help but take one last look at Lennon and herboyfriendbefore we leave. Just to remind myself to keep my head in check. To burn into my memory the next time the gleam in her eyes makes the dormant spark in my chest burn a little brighter.
I’m just her coach, and I need to keep my focus on my fucking job.
20
Lennon
I’m riding the high after our win and my shutout this weekend. The team is really coming together, and I can feel that same thrum of energy that we had last year in the locker room. Everyone likes the direction we’re heading in and is putting in the work to keep us on track.
I have an exam in one of my Economics’ classes first thing this morning and walk away from it feeling pretty confident. It only took me forty of the allotted sixty minutes, so I get a head start over to the library for one of my tutoring sessions. At this point in the semester, more and more students are joining as final exams are looming mere weeks away.
The session is so full that we have to move to a different room, and I sacrifice my lunch hour for the day to stay longer with a few students to help walk them through exchange rates step by step. Once we wrap up, I grab a quick coffee from the café, say hi to Krista, and head off to my afternoon classes.
The sun has already set by the time I’m finished with my last one of the day and walk over to the rink. When I get in the locker room, a few of my teammates are already there getting changed.
Charlotte gasps when I walk in, and I stop in my tracks. “Did you hear?” she asks.
“Hear what?” I glance around nervously. Is this about Luke? Did someone find out I stayed over at his place?
My fears are quieted as Maria cuts in. “Sydney broke her ankle, and she’s out for the rest of the season.”
“Holy shit.” I gasp, my mouth dropping open. “When?”
“Last weekend in their game. Guess she was carried off the ice.”
Sydney, one of Remington’s star forwards and the one who taunted me earlier in the season, rubbing in their Frozen Four victory last year, is out for the fucking season…
I hang my bag up in my locker and shrug off my coat. “That sucks she’s hurt,” I say. You never want to see someone go out with an injury like that, especially not someone who is such a good competitor. But…
“Sucks for her, good for us,” Aubrey pipes in cheerfully. Of course she’s not going to empathize at all with anyone from Remington. Can’t say I really want to either.
“That doesn’t mean they’re not still going to be the one to beat for us,” Maria adds quietly, braiding her black hair into two pigtails. “Their lines are deep.”
I nod, knowing she’s right. It’ll be a blow to their team, but they still have months until the tournament to figure out how to compensate for her loss.
