Meghan’s eyes crinkled as she smiled. “It still feels like a movie.” She turned to Charlotte. “What’s up with Logan cockblocking players on his team?”
Charlotte pumped some soap onto her hands and washed them in the sink. “Remember that whole debacle with the billet and the player?”
“Ohhhhh.” Megan’s eyes went wide. “I do.”
“So it’s true?” I said. “Players were sleeping with their billets’ daughters?”
Maybe Logan’s rule made some sense after all.
“Kind of.” Charlotte glanced around the bathroom and nodded to Meghan.
She seemed to know what Charlotte was asking and pushed open all the doors to the stalls. “All clear.”
The two of them looked like they were about to spill the secret codes for a nuclear launch. “It is true, but it wasn’t the billet’s daughter. It was the billet’s wife.”
I blinked. The Bobcat players were all in their late teens and early twenties. “That’s…”
“Scandalous,” Charlotte said. “And tonight, you pulled the new goalie from her claws.”
Leopard Print.
Perfumed hand soap wafted over me as Charlotte draped her arm over my shoulders. “If you’re not a little scared, you’re not doing it right. Go after that man.”
ELEVEN
NICK
LeavingEvie at the bar sucked, but it was necessary.
By the time I got to the end of the street, my hat was covered in snow. I brushed snow off the arms of my jacket, matching the rhythm of “Jingle Bells” that blared throughout downtown.
“Dammit.” I shook my head and squeezed my eyes. During the holidays I usually isolated myself in my apartment and watched action movies—exceptDie Hard. I hated that the Christmas crowd had co-opted that classic. Just because it took place at Christmas didn’t make it a holiday movie.
Christmas wasn’t a happy time of year for me. Most of my twenty-three years were spent alone on that day. With the exception of the few I’d spent with the good foster placement, there weren’t any stockings hung by chimneys, no puppies hidden in boxes under a tree, no mom chasing me out of the kitchen while she roasted a turkey. As a kid, I didn’t get to experience the excitement of going to bed on Christmas Eve, wondering what Santa was going to bring me. I already knew what was going to be under the tree in the morning. Nothing.
In the flower shop window, a tree made out of poinsettias glowed under display lights. Two cedar trees tastefully wrapped in ribbons and red balls flanked the entrance. They were starting to disappear under a thick blanket of snow. I plucked one of the balls from the tree and held it up. It sparkled and spun in the twinkle lights. Part of me wanted to drop-kick it across the street.
Sorrow filled my guts. Chance Rapids was beautiful and I couldn’t even appreciate it.
Instead of giving in to my juvenile delinquent fantasies, I brushed off each of the trees and adjusted the ribbons.
“Nick.” A voice shouted from behind me and I instinctively shoved the ball into my pocket. I turned to see Evie running down the street. “Wait up.” Her breath puffed in steamy clouds as she reached me.
She tugged me by my hand onto Oak Street. It was deserted, the hills created for the skijoring contest silhouetted by the streetlamp looked like mini mountains. Away from the racket of the speakers, the snow dampened all the sound around us.
“What are you doing?” I asked. It was a stupid question. She was doing what I should have done.
Her chest heaved from the exertion of sprinting down the street. I didn’t give her the chance to respond to my dumb ass question. My hands went to her cheeks, then my lips were on hers. She moaned into my mouth and pressed her body against mine. We stumbled until I was pressing her against the brick wall of the building next to the inn. “Oh Nick,” she gasped into my mouth.
Her words brought me back to reality. I was going to hurt Evie.
I didn’t want to hurt Evie.
“We shouldn’t do this…I can’t do this.” I took a step away. Cool air swirled in the space between our hot bodies.
She kicked at a frozen chunk of snow on the ground.
I cupped her cheeks. “It’s not because I don’t want to. You’re fucking beautiful.”
