“We hung out in high school.”
“You fought in high school. Then, you’d hook up. Then, you’d fight again. Obviously, you two have chemistry for days, but you couldn’t handle it when you were young.” She puts her hand on my arm. “Maybe it was too big for teenagers to process, you know?”
“Hunter is a force of nature,” I admit. “He could light a place on fire with his energy.”I think maybe that scared me. It still does.
“And you take over a room full of people with yours.” Charly laughs. “You two are so alike, actually. You’re used to being in front of thousands of people, but you fear intimacy.”
I’m not sure what to say to that. I’m actually not comfortable in either situation.
I turn to Charly, deciding to ask the question that’s been on my mind since I moved back home.
“Do you think the police will ever re-open Mr. Storm’s murder case?” I ask Charly.
“Not without a lead. Some criminals are never caught.”
No. Sometimes they’re not.
But sometimes, the stars align. Even if you weren’t the one who turned them in, sometimes the bad guy does have to pay for what he did.
I wonder if Hunter’s bad guy will ever have to suffer the way he made the Storm family.
“You okay?” Charly gives me a closer look.
I nod quickly. “Fine.”
As I watch Hunter steal the puck away from a defender and take off down the ice, I forget everything but him.
He passes the puck to Liam, who pulls up on the left wing close to the goal. He maintains possession of the puck with two players between him and the net. I lose sight of Hunter until all of a sudden, he appears from behind the net just as Liam flicks the puck over to him, and Hunter slots it in with his stick.
The puck moves so fast I don’t realize it’s a goal until Liam and Hunter start cheering and getting mobbed by their teammates.
My throat burns as I scream. Simon kisses Charly, Ashley and I hug each other, and the entire arena stands and cheers as time runs out.
Charly’s right. I haven’t had this much fun in ages.
“Let’s go wait for Hunter and Liam so we can congratulate them,” Ashley says.
Charly and I look at her. “You mean, so you can say hi to Murph,” I tease her.
She flushes red. “Murph and I are just friends.”
Charly snorts with laughter. “Right.”
Ashley grabs my hand. “Come with me. Unless you want Hunter to be surrounded by puck bunnies instead.”
I flush with heat. Jealous? No doubt.
“Okay,” I say. “Let’s go wait for them.”
Chapter 9
Ashley wasn’t kidding about the puck bunnies.
The line-up of women waiting for the New Orleans and Montana players to come out of the locker rooms takes up the entire width of the corridor and spills down the hallway.
Charly and Simon take one look at the crowd of people and decide to go home.
“They were smart,” I say to Ashley as we stand at the back of the pack. “What are we doing here again? I can just see Hunter at home later.”
