Page 45 of Arctic Titans of Northwood U: Volume 1

I did change, quickly, hiding my face from Caden who sat quietly and waited for me to leave. And when I did, I shut the door and rushed down the stairs. As I walked out of the house, my vision blurred, but I trudged on. The ground was wet from the last snow that had melted a few days earlier and the rain that had fallen yesterday, but it wasn’t so slippery that I couldn’t jog and clear my head.

But as I stepped onto the path, I saw him. The first and last love of my life. The guy who’d left me once before and made me swear off falling in love again. It was timely, in fact, that I learned this piece of information today. I only wished I had known it yesterday.

Cameron smiled at me and gestured with his chin. A silent, ‘What’s up?’

I couldn’t control the frown that broke over my face as I marched on and bumped my shoulder against his. He stepped aside quickly.

“What the hell?” he called after me as I walked off the path in front of our house and stepped onto the paved road that would take me all around Northwood. “Riley?”

I didn’t stay to hear his calls after that. I broke into a jog and disappeared into the night. I needed to cool off. I needed to sort through my thoughts. I needed to get my heart to beat in some kind of rhythm.

It was lucky that I had learned my lesson early on. You will always be left behind. It was lucky that I was so good at hockey that my future was safe. I had agents vying for my attention and the drafting period coming up. I was going to do just fine.

I didn’t need some guy to make me feel whole, even if he was the only one I had ever cared for. Those you kept the closest to your heart hurt you the worst. He would leave me. Of course he would. It was all fun and games in his room until he had a ticket out of his boring life again. I was a passing piece of entertainment, to be used however the fuck Cameron Martinez wanted. And though it was the role I had adored playing up until now, it wasn’t something I would weep over again.

I wasn’t going to let him break my heart again, either.

I wasn’t going to sacrifice my own future and leave the agents waiting for my response. Because committing now, meant accepting the reality of our future. Which was nothing. There was no future for us.

I’d baited Manning and Hawke and Richards to wait for my call because I couldn’t accept the fact that we would be drafted in a few months. I couldn’t bring myself to sign that goddamn piece of paper and have someone work to take me away from this universe.

But I was a sentimental child in all of this. Instead of using reason, I always let my heart and imagination rule over me.

No more.

I needed to accept that our future was hockey. I needed to accept that Cameron and I had no way to ensure we could stay together even if we wanted to. And if he was so willing to jump ship and head back to the West Coast, he probably didn’t give a fuck about me now any more than he had three years ago.

Cameron Martinez only thought about himself. And he was the smart one between the two of us. I should have taken that trick out of his book a long time ago.

All of this was one big mistake.

I ran like hell.

Chapter Fourteen

CAMERON

I barged into the house to toss my backpack and laptop bag into my room. As I headed across the common area, Caden Jones was leaning against the kitchen island opening up a bottle of water. He looked at me for a moment, then lifted his chin in greeting.

“Congrats, man,” he said.

“On what?” My voice was so sour that I was sure he could half taste it.

“Er…the agent. And that West Coast team.” He stretched his lips into a smile. “I know nothing’s sure yet, but that’s really good news.”

My mind raced as I stared at this guy. “You…” I blinked once and Caden froze. I dropped my backpack on the floor. “You told him about my meeting. You heard me talk to Jason Manning. You fucking rat.”

Caden’s horror was genuine, but my torment was much worse so I didn’t have time for pity. “Wh-what did I do? Oh God, what happened?”

“You ruined everything,” I hissed and dropped my laptop bag next to my backpack, then ran out of the house. I ran after him along the usual route he took in the mornings. Not nearly often enough, I had joined Riley for his morning jogs. In the mornings, you could at least see where your feet were landing.

I had always been far better at skating than running, but I did it anyway. “Riley,” I called into the dark. The lamp post shed some light over the paved street, but not nearly enough for me to see much into the distance. “Riley!”

Cold air filled my lungs as I breathed deeper and deeper, burning me from the inside as my body worked to retain its temperature. I raced like lightning and finally spotted him down the lane.

“Riley, wait!” My voice was hoarse after breathing in too much cold air through my open mouth. Dammit, running was way harder than sliding along smooth ice. “Please.”

Riley stopped and spun furiously enough that I regretted coming after him. Would it have been better if I’d waited for him to cool down? Probably, but I needed to make him understand. “What do you want? A goodbye kiss?”