Stephanie
When I got home from my ride along the coast, I was ready to head straight over to Avery’s and tell him about everything. I have nothing to be ashamed of. My past is far from perfect and I have made a lot of mistakes, but I bounced back and I am who I am today because of, not in spite of, what I went through. If Avery is the person I think he is, the person I’m falling in love with, then this won’t be a big deal.
As soon as I walked in the door, Maddie ran at me squealing and holding her phone in my face. She couldn’t seem to get a word out other than a high-pitched “Oh my God!” and “You’re official!”
I didn’t understand so I grabbed her phone. She had Avery’s Instagram account open; the picture he took of us this morning was up on the screen. I grabbed the phone from her and read the caption ten times before it sank in what he’d done.
Emotions started to whirl—shock, fear, and even a little happiness formed a tornado inside me. And then I did the stupidest thing ever. I started to read the comments.
A lot of them were just emoticons—everything from smiley faces to shocked faces to crying faces from women who obviously had a crush on him. But some of them were words and they weren’t that nice. Someone called me cute, but someone else wrote “You can do better.” Ouch. And then there were a couple comments asking what had happened to the blond girl and someone even called him a player.
I scrolled through the rest of his photos and realized Avery had deleted the one of Liz that Kate had put up recently. Ugh. Doesn’t he know you can’t delete anything on social media without looking guilty of something? This is not good.
I handed Maddie back her phone and turned to the door to head to Avery’s. “He went out for pregame food with Ty,” Maddie explained. “And believe me, you don’t want to see him right now. He’s in a mood.”
“Why?”
“I guess the restaurant where he gets his pregame meal delivered the wrong thing.” Maddie rolled her big blue eyes and scrunched her nose. “It was just chicken piccata instead of chicken parm, but you’d think it was laced with arsenic the way he was freaking out.”
I smiled despite myself because it reminded me of the chili night he insisted on doing back in Seattle because they’d done it before their successful Cup run years earlier. He was obsessed with wanting every single thing to be the same. “I guess I’ll see him at the game, then.”
Now we’re sitting in the Saints arena watching the jubilant crowd start to filter out. San Diego won, which is great because they need it. It’s also great because Avery scored and played well, which he always says he doesn’t if his pregame rituals get screwed up. So maybe now he will calm down on the superstitious stuff.
I watch Maddie bounce up excitedly. “Let’s go down to the lounge so we can see the boys and check on Alex.”
Alex was slammed into the boards near the end of the second period and didn’t play the third. I stand with her, but with much less bounce. I have to have a talk with Avery about everything, and I still don’t know how I am going to start that. I feel like I have a lot riding on this, like my heart, for one thing.
We start to inch out of our aisle and head to the ice level instead of up to the plaza. After flashing our badges at the guard, we make our way down the concrete hall toward the lounge.
Avery’s standing at the end of the hall, still in his skates and helmet. He’s talking to a trainer or doctor or someone, and I wonder if it’s about Alex. Our eyes connect, and he motions me over. We’re not supposed to be in that area right after a game—it’s players and media only—but I tell Maddie I’ll meet her in the lounge and I make my way over.
Avery, his gloved hand on my lower back, guides me past the locker room and the rush of reporters pushing their way in. He turns me down a hall with a bunch of closed doors and stops. Moving his gloved hands to my shoulders, he turns me and presses my back to the wall.
“How’d things go with Seb?” he blurts, letting go of my shoulders.
“Good. I don’t think he’s going to try decapitating you next time you play him,” I joke, and Avery smiles. “But I need to talk to you. Can we go somewhere, just the two of us, after you’re changed and everything?”
“I can’t, Steph,” he says quietly. “We’re heading straight to the airport tonight for the East Coast road trip.”
“Oh. Right. You mentioned that, didn’t you?”
“I did. Last week.” He nods, but his thick, dark eyebrows pull together under his visor. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
He leans in and if it wasn’t for his helmet, I get the feeling he would kiss me. His hand is around my lower back again, pulling me closer. I can smell how hard he was working on the ice but I don’t even care. And that’s the problem. My attraction to him overshadows everything, even common sense.
I put my hands on the front of his jersey and take a step back. “I have a GED.”
“What?” He blinks.
“I dropped out of high school and I got a GED instead.”
Avery’s dark brow pinches and his mouth goes slack, his panty-wetting smile gone. “But you went to Catholic school. I saw the uniform.”
The smile is back, but I’m too sick with worry to return it. I twist my fingers nervously. “Until I was sixteen and then I dropped out. It was a horrible place, and I was in a horrible place.”
The smile falters again. “Okay. Why are you telling me this right now?”
