I need to keep my head down, do what she asks, and secure the safety of everything in that home. The house itself is important to me, but not as much as what’s inside.
The pictures, the art, collectibles, and glass work my mom dedicated her life to. Everything. That’s what I’m working so hard to protect.
Visiting the place one time ended up like this. I can’t imagine what she’d do if she found out I’d been secretly seeing Dean and Asher.
She’d probably tear my parents’ place to the ground with me inside of it.
She still hasn’t texted us yet, and it’s driving me fucking insane. Although I think that is only the beginning of my problems when it comes to losing my mind over her.
I’m focused, driven, and controlled. I don’t get distracted or let myself wander off track. But she has me sprinting in the opposite direction of everything I had planned.
I’m supposed to avoid complications, stay single, play hockey, go to school, and learn everything I can about the business before taking over after two years of pro hockey.
That’s what my father and I agreed upon. That’s what I’ve always looked forward to.
But this girl, this angel who appeared in our lives, has me rethinking everything about what I might want my future to look like.
“What’s up?” Griffin skates by, tapping me with his stick. “You seem off today, more so than usual.”
Shrugging, I catch the puck he passes on my stick, dribbling it back and forth a few times before sending it over to him. “Ehh, nothing, just tired.”
He laughs, knowing damn well I’m lying, and passes the puck back to me. “Try again.”
Rolling my eyes, I catch the puck. “You remember me telling you about that girl we met at the party?”
Griffin smirks. “You mean the one you sent a mass message to the entire school about? Yeah, I think everyone heard about her. No luck?”
“Not exactly that.” My smile lifts of its own accord, but I look down, watching the puck as I tell him more. “She met us that night, wearing her masquerade mask. But she refuses to tell us who she is. I don’t know. Something’s off. Not about her, but I think she’s scared of someone that has to be connected with my family. We gave her our numbers, but she still hasn’t texted or called.”
Griffin’s quiet, drawing my attention back up. He’s grinning ear to ear.
“Oh my God. My boys are in love.” Malik skates up next to him as he continues, “Well, let’s figure it out. It can’t be that hard.”
Asher, eavesdropping, joins us. “Harder than you’d think.”
I pass the puck to Ash, who dishes it to Malik. He picks it up on his stick and tosses it into the air, catching it on the blade before repeating it and tossing it to someone else.
Coach blows the whistle, ending our little heart-to-heart, and after a short spiel, we’re setting up to scrimmage five-on-five.
I’m already dead tired, mentally and physically. I don’t know how much more I have to give today.
But I won’t show that. I usually never do. Griffin, I think, just recognized the signs. He had a real rough patch a while back and is just looking out for me.
One of the assistant coaches drops the puck for the face-off. Our team wins it. We swiftly break into the zone, moving the defenders around and tiring them out.
Ravenwell passes to Ash, who fires away right as the puck reaches him.
It soars toward the goaltender like a damn rocket, but Finny makes the stop look easy, swatting it out of the way like an annoying fly.
He smiles at Ash through the mask, egging him on. Ash laughs, shaking his head as our opponents gain possession, breaking for the other side of the ice.
They get set up and have a good attempt at scoring. One of our new guys nearly sinks a Michigan, which would’ve been sick. But our other goalie was too quick for him.
Nearly twenty minutes goes by without scoring, and during a water break, Coach announces that it’s now sudden death.
First to score wins and doesn’t have to dosuis, or suicides—a conditioning drill used in a lot of different sports, designed to push the athlete to exhaustion.
The game heats up, but no one scores for another few minutes, and we are all starting to get gassed.
