“See you around, hotshot.”
“You’re really walking away from me, just like that?” I call.
She smirks over her shoulder. “Just like that.”
“You have no idea what you’re missing out on.”
My chest puffs out when she pauses to face me once more. I take my time dragging my eyes over every inch of her, loving that the longer I admire her, the pinker her cheeks turn.
“Let me take you somewhere.” My voice lowers to a soft rasp that drives girls crazy, each word deep and rough. “I know how to make you feel real good. So good I’ll have you screaming, baby.”
She licks her lips, cutting her gaze to the side. “I bet.”
A shadow crosses her beautiful features, there and gone in a moment. My fingers curl into my palm to keep myself from striding over to her and cupping her face until I earn her smile again.
Huffing, she props her hands on her hips and squints at me. “You know what? I dare you to try.” She lifts her brows. “I’ll never say yes to a hockey player.”
My head jerks in surprise. First she rejects me, then she throws down the gauntlet? Another slow smile tugs at my lips.
“Challenge accepted.”
The corners of her mouth curl. “Bye, captain.”
My rival’s sister leaves me alone in the lamp-lit square. I watch her until she’s out of sight with a strange burn of anticipation tickling the inside of my chest.
THREE
MAYA
My phone lights upwith another text, the tenth Ryan’s sent since I escaped him at the bar. My brother’s been blowing up my phone with countless texts and three ignored calls about the dramatic exit I made thanks to Heston’s hockey captain hauling me over his shoulder to carry me out like some dashing knight.
Not exactly my idea of a good time to rely on a hockey player, but it was the fastest way to evade my brother and Johnny.
I finish twisting my freshly showered hair into a towel and grab my phone off the nightstand ready to silence my notifications if he doesn’t leave me alone. Reagan won’t be home from her shift at the bar for another two hours.
I was planning to enjoy tonight to the fullest, celebrating that I went to my first hockey game in years without wanting to throw up at seeing my ex-boyfriend on the ice with my brother. Johnny wasn’t even playing after his accident benched him for the season.
While Johnny’s mere presence still causes an uncomfortable knot to tangle in my stomach and my heart to splinter with fractures that throb with the old ache of his betrayal, I made it through the game I used to love without my anxiety winning.
I even let Reagan and my brother talk me into going to the bar afterwards. I tend to avoid it on nights I know the hockey team takes over the place.
Another pushy text from Ryan makes me shake my head.
Ryan:Maya.
Ryan:Maya. Maya Maya Mayaaaa. Answer your phone damn it!
Ryan:Don’t think I won’t blow you up every five minutes until you answer. We both know I’ve always been better at getting on your nerves. You’ll break first.
Ryan:I finally get you to watch me play again after three years and you ditch me?
Ryan:Why did you let Easton fucking bag of dicks Blake carry you out of the bar?
Ryan:If you’re with him right now I’m disowning you as a sister.
I could let him stew for the rest of the night. He deserves it after he tried to go all overprotective on me at the bar for having fun. Sighing, I take a photo of myself in my pajamas giving him the finger.
Maya:I wouldn’t have ditched you if you weren’t being an ass. You can’t tell me what to do. You’re only like five minutes older than me.
