Page 161

“Holden,” Toren says sharply. “Stop him.”

“Why?” Holden laughs. “I might hit him, too, for good measure.”

“Do you want to play the rest of the game without a coach?”

Holden sighs and lets Harris get in another punch, before he carefully, with Rhys and Freddy’s help, pulls their head coach back.

“You rotten fucking piece of shit,” Harris snarls. The entire room is silent, most of the team and other coaches watching wide-eyed and slack-jawed. “You’re not worth the shit under that kid’s shoe. I wish I’d done this so much sooner—you’re fucking fired.”

“Harris—”

“Don’t say another goddamn word.”

My dad fumes, his hand pinching his nose trying to stop the bleeding. It looks crooked, and I wonder briefly if Harris broke it.

My dad’s eyes flit to me then, his mouth opening, before Harris grabs his collar again.

“You so much as look at my kids again, I’ll lay you out right now.”

My father finally stalks off, fuming mad, but finally—finally gone.

Harris spins back to Toren then, his expression still heated as he looks us over.

“I don’t think I even want an explanation right now. We’ve got maybe ten minutes or less before the next period.”

Toren starts to scoot off the table, but Harris stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m finishing the game,” Toren says, rocking to stand on his skates. Harris shakes his head, but Toren continues, “You have to let me play. I’m fine—the trainers said I’m fine, just to be careful. They’re going to wrap me up tight. Please. Please let me play.”

Everyone waits quietly for too long a moment, before Harris finally nods.

“All right, son. Let’s go finish this.”

Chapter 62

Toren

We fucking won.

And this time, it’s so much better.

“Frozen Four champs, baby!” Freddy shouts, popping a champagne bottle from the bar top of the Hockey House, spraying a bunch of gyrating upperclassmen coeds, before pointing toward Holden’s open mouth.

They’ve already done a rendition of “Cupid’s Chokehold” with full fucking choreography on the bar top, which inevitably ended with Matt Fredderic nearly fucking his girlfriend on the counter.

Freddy and Ro disappeared upstairs for a bit, but he’s back with another bottle and the music turned up somehow louder. Another typical frat party song thumps, as Freddy and Holden sing every word and I smirk.

Lily is in my line of sight easily, right at the stage, Holden paying extra attention to her—and to the big brunette lacrosse player to her right. He and Holden have been eye-fucking each other all night.

Holden tips the champagne bottle to give each person a sip, Lily eagerly opening her mouth for a pull of her favorite liquid, before she flips her head toward me with a big, happy grin, her high ponytail growing messier.

I raise my beer to her like a silent cheers. I’m just happy she’s having fun.

At first, she’d been a little anxious, partially the crowd and the music—enough that she’d slipped her hearing aid out and into my pocket so I could hold on to it for her.

But mostly, I was pretty sure, she was frustrated with the amount of attention we were getting. She snapped at an innocent girl who attempted to make a pass at me, shouting “Mine” as she bit my biceps and tugged me along.