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West nods. “Yeah, she’ll come around. We all know you’d never do anything to hurt her.”

Mitch looks thoughtful. “Wasn’t Noah at the table with you? I bet he saw the whole thing. You have an alibi.”

“I mean, yeah. But if she can’t trust my word for it, does it even matter?”

“True,” Mitch admits with a sigh.

“I want to know who sent her that photo. It had to be someone at the bar,” West says.

We all turn to stare at him with sardonic expressions. “Really?” I say dryly. “You can’t guess?”

His eyes widen as he realizes my implication. Because Travis is the only person at that bar besides us that would have her phone number. But all I can do is stay away from him, and hope he gets sent back to the minor leagues by the end of the season. I glance across the aisle and see Travis Evander snoring away, not a care in the world. Obviously not feeling bad at all that he might’ve ruined the best thing that ever happened to me. I’d confront him, but I don’t think I could do it without punching him again. And I definitely don’t want to make a public spectacle, which could lead to me getting suspended, or even fined by the NHL. I just have to sit here and deal with it, waiting for karma to land the son of a bitch on his ass. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

The fact that I want to go over there and strangle him must be written across my face, because Remy clears his throat and shoots me a warning look.

“We need a new game plan,” Remy says, changing the subject. “You needed the other one to win the girl, now you need one to keep her.”

I scoff, not feeling amused by any of this. “There’s no game plan to earn someone’s trust, unfortunately.”

“Yeah,” Mitch says, leaning forward. “But you can show her how much she means to you.”

“And how much you love her,” West adds.

Hunching forward, I cradle my face in my hands. “I do. I love her.”

West gives me a manly pat on the back. “I know, man. I know.”

Mitch grabs a pad of paper and a pen out of his backpack. He clicks the pen and looks at me. “Alright, so how are you going to show her you love her during this six-day trip?”

With a sigh, I start making a list.

CHAPTER 39

NOEL

It’s Tuesday night, and I’m in Andie’s living room with a pina colada in my hand. The guys’ game is playing in the background and I’m trying not to pay attention. Yesterday, I managed to defer Mel and Andie’s questions. All I wanted was to sit at home by myself and lose myself in a book, anyway. But one day was all they’d give me, threatening me within an inch of my life to come over to Andie’s for some girl time. Not really, but they did threaten to give my phone number to my creepy neighbor across the hall.

“Can we please address the elephant in the room already?” Andie says after ten minutes of awkward silence. “What’s going on with you and Colby?”

Mel gives me a gentle smile. “Maybe it will help to talk it out.”

On a heavy sigh, I explain what happened, then wait for them to speak.

“Have you talked to him at all since then?” Mel asks, referring to my conversation with Colby in my classroom yesterday morning.

“No. But today he had a latte delivered to me every hour from the coffee shop on campus.” It was hard not to give in and call him after the eighth one.

The girls smile at that.

“Let me get this straight, the picture made it look like girls were sitting on his lap?” Andie asks, her voice is calm.

I nod, taking a sip of my drink to keep from crying.

“Pictures can be misleading. Yeah?” she asks.

I shrug a shoulder.

Mel scoots closer to me on the pale-yellow sofa in Andie’s living room. “Do you believe what he said about standing up right away?”