She leaned her head against my shoulder again, and I felt new tears hitting my shirt.
About five minutes later, her dad came into the lobby, his stone face etched with concern. Taking in the scene, he ran out to the parking lot for the car.
She walked slowly, careful not to jostle her arm to the front of the lobby to wait for her dad.
How many times did I have to watch this same scene? I was so sick of seeing this girl get hurt.
No more words were exchanged as I helped her into her dad’s truck. As soon as I closed the door, he sped off.
Walking back into the rink, Kappy clapped me on the back. “Yeah, that’s broken as fuck.”
I shoved him off me.
“How many injuries has that girl racked up?” Colt asked.
“I thought hockey was rough,” Kappy muttered to himself.
“Shut up,” I grumbled.
“What? I’m just saying.” Kappy shrugged.
“You don’t get to say. Piper’s an ice dancer, you don’t have to worry about this kind of thing.” He wasn’t dating Piper, and they always claimed to hate each other, but I knew they shared a deep connection.
Kappy snorted. “Shows how much you know. I’ll give you a break because you’re clearly rattled from seeing your girl’s arm bent in half, but you have no clue what you’re talking about, JP.”
Behind us, Anastasia threw the rink door open and stalked toward us.
“Oof, I need to go. The Wicked Witch of the West Rink is coming,” Kappy muttered under his breath before tearing away.
Colt’s eyes were already focused on the ice where Mer was skating. He turned to me with a tight grimace. “Sucks for Lil Al Pal, man. I’ll catch you in the locker room.”
“Where is she?” Anastasia demanded.
“Your dad took her.” Took her from me. I let out a sharp breath.
Her hands flew up to her head. “She broke it? Are you serious?”
Looking at her suspiciously, I nodded. She’d never spoken more than one sentence to me. Anastasia usually viewed us hockey guys as gum stuck on thebottom of her shoe. “It didn’t look good.”
Annie threw her arms up in frustration. “I think her body is saying no at this point, but no one wants to fucking listen.”
“What about ice dance? Would she ever switch?” I asked in hope. Ice dance was easier on the body than freestyle because there wasn’t jumping involved.
Annie snorted. “Nope, she says there’s no adrenaline rush with ice dance, but that’s just an excuse. Ali hates the lifts because she’s afraid of heights, but clearly, she should be afraid of jumping and crushing her own bones.”
I swallowed hard. “You think your parents will make her take it easy?”
Lifting an eyebrow, she scoffed. “That’s a stupid question, even for you, hockey boy.” She sighed again before dipping down to collect Ali’s skates.
9.JP – CRASHES AND CASTLES
The next day, the ship docked bright and early in Cobh, Ireland. Ali and her friends had already stopped here about a dozen times, so I was content to follow her.
“Renting a car issomuch better than doing one of those bus tours,” she said as she opened up what Ithoughtwas the shotgun side door. “We have more freedom when we rent a car, ya know? I figure we’ll drive up to this really cool castle, yeah?”
“Yeah, sounds good.” I didn’t care what we were doing, so long as we were doing it together. When I popped open the driver’s side door, I stared down at a bucket seat facing the dash. My eyes flew over to her side. “Oh,you’redriving?” I asked, feeling a little uneasy.
Taking in my reaction, she let out a little giggle. “Is that okay with you? I figured I’m already used to driving on the left side of the road.”
