“But not us.”
Maybe his argument had some merit. It wasn’t unheard of for friends to get together, but I couldn’t handle pretending. Not on top of everything else. I doubted we’d fool anyone, and there was a good possibility that putting on an act like that would trick my heart into believing something real could happen between us.
I was already vulnerable, and if I let myself get closer to Alec, it would only hurt more when it ended.
Alec softened. “Promise you’ll think about it.”
“Okay.”
But I wouldn’t change my mind.
Right now, my heart was bruised. If I allowed myself to believe in a fairy tale where Alec loved me, it could end up broken.
FOUR
ALEC
I skated onto the ice, scanning the seats behind the penalty box, where Tally and my family usually sat during home games. Sure enough, Tally was two rows back from the penalty box, wearing a Colorado Dragons jacket with Wright, my last name, printed on the bottom.
My heart lifted. Damn, she looked good. Her pale cheeks were flushed from the cold, her bright eyes sparkled down at me, and her rich brown hair flowed like satin around her shoulders.
Thad was an idiot.
He’d given her up, and for what?
A little attention? Some no-strings sex?
“Making heart eyes at your girl?” Gallagher asked, skating around me and coming to a stop in front of me. “Did she give you a kiss for luck?”
I smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
If another of the team members had asked, I’d have reminded them that Tally wasn’t actually my girl, but correcting Gallagher would be like kicking a puppy. Besides, I didn’t mind people thinking she was mine. Maybe it would even aid my case when I revisited my suggestion about pretending to date.
Behind Gallagher, Mom blew me a kiss and Dad mimed taking a shot at goal and made some dramatic facial expressions. I laughed. It was only his NHL legend status that prevented him from being that embarrassing goofy Dad with the bad jokes. Not that I’d mind if he was.
Cromwell, the center who’d recently transferred, skated up and gestured for me to join him for drills with the other wing. We passed the puck back and forth for a while, practicing different combinations of passes before taking shots on goal. Our goalie, Davi, blocked almost every one with unerring accuracy.
“Do you want to actually challenge me sometime today?” he called, spurring us on.
I passed to Cromwell, headed for the corner of the goal, and when he slung it back, I tapped it in.
“About time,” Davi said, slapping me on the shoulder hard enough that I nearly tripped. “Do it again.”
By the time the game started, I was thoroughly warmed up. Cromwell won the puck in the puck drop, and he and I raced up the ice. Just as Cromwell made to pass to me, someone blasted into me from the side, slamming me against the boards.
I shoved them off, but it was too late. The opportunity had been lost.
The other team’s defense took the puck from Cromwell and sent it flying up the ice to their left wing, who tried to get it past Davi, but the puck bounced off his pads.
I skated back, keeping an eye on the situation in case I needed to move fast.
Play moved back and forth. They slipped a goal past Davi minutes before the end of the first period and then repeated the act in the second.
Going into the third period, the Dragons were fired up. Coach wasn’t happy, and unless we wanted to be skating shuttles upand down the ice for hours at practice, we’d better get our acts together.
Cromwell got the puck and passed it back to Dexter in defense. I motioned to Dexter and he skated one way then drilled it across to me. None of the defenders were close, so I made it almost all the way to the goal before they intercepted me. I flicked the puck up at the last second and it hit the back of the net.
As my teammates gathered around me, cheering, I glanced up into the stands, instinctively searching for Tally. She was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, clapping wildly. As she met my eyes, she cupped her hands around her mouth and hollered her support so loudly that I could hear it above everyone else.
