Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“We’re supposed to go golfing soon,” Ham says to Lundy as he skates around me to get the puck. I steal it from him before he can get in a good scoring position. He glares. “You motherfucker. I forgot how sneaky you are with it. Do it again.”
I do. And again. And then to Lundy, who thinks he’s going to outmaneuver me somehow.
“All day,” I say and wink.
“Already showing off, Barlow?” Peter shouts from the other side of the glass as he walks by.
“Just warming up.” I nod a greeting to the coach, who laughs.
“You work on your celly yet?” Damian asks, skating up to us.
“We haven’t even played a game yet and you two are focused on celebrating.” I shake my head.
“Nah, my head’s in the game,” he says, skating away.
He slows down and does a few turns in the middle of the rink, looking up at the stands. I never played in college, but I’ve been to the arena the Blaze play in, so I know this is impressing the fuck out of him. The arena is impressive—period. It’s brand new, and they seemed to think of everything when they built it.
We keep trash-talking, and when more of our teammates join us, we introduce ourselves to the ones we don’t know and start passing the puck between all of us. After a few minutes, Coach Petey comes back with skates on and starts going over general items. While we've all reviewed our playbooks, we'd never been on the ice together before.
A couple of guys have never played professionally, and only two of us have played for Petey in the past. It’ll take time for us to learn how to play together, but that’s what this is for. And there’s always preseason. I’m confident in our coaches and I like everyone’s style, so I feel good about this team.
“You get your workout in?” Hamilton asks Damian, as we skate off the ice when we’re done with practice.
“Joss made me get up at five in the morning,” Dame says, rolling his eyes. “So I feel like I got two workouts in.”
At the sound of her name, I feel my body go rigid. I haven’t stopped thinking about that damn kiss and how she felt against me. In the shower, in bed, in the kitchen, on my drive here. I swear she’s bewitched me.
“As long as your workout wasn’t with her, if you know what I mean,” Hammie jokes.
I feel my jaw clench. I force myself to keep my eyes on the ground. I’ve always been good at keeping my emotions off my face, but the amount of rage I feel at his little joke is making me see red. As they go back and forth shooting the shit, I grind my jaw and tune them out. Josslyn’s a beautiful woman with an immense following, and that’s something that doesn’t bother me, but thinking about her with someone else is fucking torturous. I keep telling myself that I only feel this way because I haven’t had my fill of her. Maybe it is that, but after yesterday, I’m not so sure.
“That’s my sister, fuck-faces,” Dame says, pushing Hamilton.
“Fuck! I’m kidding,” Hamilton says, laughing as he hops away from Dame.
“She was a suggested follow on IG the other day,” Lundy says, looking at Dame. “I didn’t click follow. Cassie loves her posts, but she’d probably fucking kill me if I follow Josslyn’s account.”
“She posts some damn good pics,” Hamilton says.
This time, I do chance a glance at him. He’s looking straight ahead, but I swear he’s doing this to provoke me. Knowing that should encourage me to shrug it off, but the anger remains. As we walk to the locker rooms, I take a deep breath. Soon, I’ll want to cover my nose every time I come in here, but for now, I enjoy the smell of brand new.
“That was cool of you to offer to go with her to the fundraiser dinner,” Dame says to me as we start taking off our pads and walk to the bench.
“It’s no big deal.”
“It kind of is,” he says, sitting beside me and unlacing his skates. “She won’t be upset if you back out, you know? I think she’s kind of expecting you to.”
My stomach tightens. “Why would I back out?”
We both stop messing with our skates and sit upright, facing each other.
“You know why,” he says, frowning.
“The pictures will be everywhere,” Hamilton says as he sets his gear down. “Hey, maybe it’s a good time to grow up and actually try to date.”
“Date?” I scoff. “This is for a good cause. It has nothing to do with dating.”
Hamilton shoots me a look.
Dame shrugs. “I’m just giving you an out. T doesn’t mind going with her.”
A dark, amused chuckle leaves my lips before I can stop it. “I bet he doesn’t.”