“She thinks we should make a public appearance to make this seem legit.” I shuffle my feet, trying not to count each individual strand in the carpet before I spiral completely out of control. “I wanted to do this right and ask you if you’d like to go on a date. With me. We have an off day in Dallas this week.” Her brows furrow. “You’ll be there, too, since it’s between away games, so I thought maybe that would work…”
My stomach dips after I finally word vomit everything out in what seemed like one long thought.Deep breaths, Jordan. It’s only the woman of your dreams. We’re fake dating, so shecan’tsay no. Right?I didn’t know my pulse was even capable of reaching this speed. I glance at my watch, waiting for some sort of alarm to go off as she thinks. She has to say yes, right?
“Yeah.” She leans against her doorframe. “I mean…I guess we’re fake dating, so we should go on a fake date.”
My heart feels like it’s going to shoot like a rocket out of my chest.
I put a death grip on the seam of my shirt to keep from smiling like a psychopath and try to focus on forming some sort of coherent response.
“There’s a place in Dallas where all the big athletes dine when they are in town. Hannah suggested it, saying it would be good to go there just to make this seem legitimate. There will be media out front, like always, and she’ll tip them off to make sure they’re looking for us. Is that…” I swallow, “would that be okay with you?”
She slowly nods. “I guess if we aredating,”—she air quotes— “we’d better act like it. Let me know the details, and I’ll be there.”
She’ll. Be. There.Ohmygod, ohmygod!Flipping my thumb against all my fingers, I try to stay calm, but my excitement is fighting to get out like a rabid dog who hasn’t eaten in days.Breathe, Jordan.
“Okay. This is…it’s gonna be great. We’ll go to dinner, be boyfriend and girlfriend…all fake, of course.”Not fake to me, though. This willneverbe fake to me.“Oh! Did you pack anything other than pilot clothes? You know what…it’s okay. Hannah can get you hooked up with something to wear if you need it. I’m sure you look just fine in jeans and a T-shirt, that’s just not the vibe of the restaurant, but if you need anything else, just?—”
“Call Hannah,” she interrupts, her lips pursing together as her eyes narrow. “Got it. I’ll figure it out.”
“Right. Yeah. Okay. Well, I’d better get going. Hope things calm down with your notifications. Okay…well…bye.”
“Have a good practice or morning skate or whatever…” she trails off as she closes the door.
“Morning skate!” I shout at the wooden wall between us.
My shoulders slump.Great.I’ll just go to the arena and make it seem like my every hope and dream isn’t right here and obligated to go on a date with me. This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I drop my head against the door.
No big deal.
“Yo! You and Kennedy?” EJ yells from across the locker room as he laces up his skates. “Why didn’t I know about this?”
“Once again, EJ, if you’d pay attention to things outside of yourself every once in a while, maybe you’d pick up on things like this,” Tay snaps as he tapes his stick, quickly looking to me with a very bizarre side-eye.
My stomach clenches.Oh fuck. Tay knows.Goddammit—I’ll deal with that later.
“Bruh, you’re dating Kennedy?” Mac chimes in with one brow raised. “The hot-as-hell team pilot? I saw the picture online of you two holding hands. What the fuck does she see in you?” He smirks as he tightens the strap on his pads.
I grit my teeth. “Funny, Mac. The only thingyourhand is holding is your lonely dick. And yeah, she’s my girlfriend. If you refer to her as being hot again, you’ll be the first one going into the boards tonight; screw the players from Columbus.”
“You can’t slam a goalie into the boards.”
I narrow my eyes. “Watch me.”
“Enough!” Zack silences the room as he’s lacing up his skates. “This is not the time or place for this. We are here to practice. We win this game tonight? We win the division. Save the Bougie harassment for when we’re celebrating. Got it?”
Murmurs and mumbles fill the locker room, everyone disappointed that their chance to tease me evaporated with a single word. I drag my hand down my face at the way everyone found out about this. I’m not sure how I thought itwouldgo, but it wasn’t some photo being leaked to the media. My gut twists.Fuck. I need to sell this.If I sit here angry and pouting, my entire team will know something’s up.
“It’s fine, Z.” I stand at my shoebox of a cubby in the visitors’ locker room. I swear these things suck so bad.If I ran a league, every team would have locker room equality.“It’s true. We’ve been trying to keep it under wraps, especially from the media, but now that it’s out…” I don’t even try to contain my grin, “Yes, we’re dating. It’s new, but she’s the best freaking thing that’s ever happened to me. We are, in fact, the new celebrity ‘it’ couple. So chirp all you want! I scored the hottest girl in the world, and you can all suck it. In fact, to honor my new relationship being public, I’d like to recite an original poem?—”
I barely get the words out before the entire room erupts with groans, and balls of wadded-up tape slam into my chest.Works every time.Though, if I do say so myself, my poetry game is top-notch.
As I sit back down to finish getting dressed, I see Vladi staring me down from his locker.Shit.He knows this couldn’t have happened this fast.It’s gonna be a fun plane ride home after the game tonight with him grilling me.Fuck we need to let Maggie know about this, too, since she’s thereason we met.
I pull the laces on my skates tighter than usual. This fake dating thing just adds more things to keep track of in the Jordan Boucher Public Persona Facade.
Everyone grabs their gear and heads out to the ice. Pushing my shoulders back, I put my gloves on and reach for my stick, ready to slip into a mask that feels more comfortable. As I turn to walk out the door, someone grabs my arms and pulls me to a stop. When I look up, Vladi stands before me. My eyes widen. My pulse races. He doesn’t say a word, just stares into the abyss of my soul, and it’s scary as hell. I swallow hard, afraid he’s going to use his wolf claws to rip me to shreds.
“What?”
