“Are you going to get the fuck off my ice, Princess?”
Oh, hell no. His fucking ice? I think not! This place is the one escape I have to myself, and if he thinks he’s giving me the boot, he has another thing coming. I start to circle around him with my body facing him the whole time and my feet pointing out on either side of me, so I’m constantly moving around him at a lazy pace. He doesn’t budge, but watches me out of the corner of his eyes, tracking my every move.
“I don’t see your name anywhere saying you own the place. Did I miss it somewhere?” I pause for dramatic effect before continuing on. “Didn’t think so. How about you stop being a douche canoe, and I’ll do whatever the hell I want. Glad we can agree on that.” The sass and irritation is clear in my voice before I’m turning my back to him to get off the ice.
I may have gone a bit overboard in the sass department, but in my defense, he deserved it. I’m so sick of people telling me how to live my life. I step through the boards doorway and walk in steady movements back to the bleachers where my backpack is. His stare is drilling holes into the back of my head, and I just know he’s following me on surprisingly quiet feet for such a tall guy.
Huffing, I plant my butt on the edge of the bleachers, not bothering to look up as I pull my skates off and tug my winter boots back on in angry, rushed movements. Heaving a sigh, I stand back up with my things and turn to him with a questioning brow. He opens his mouth, just like I expected him to.
“Don’t come back here, Princess. I would hate to tell anyone how you’re sneaking into my turf and messing up my ice after it’s already been clean,” he grumps out, and it almost makes me laugh. He has a load of cockiness in his tone.
I guess it’s time to pull out the big guns. My smile is dazzling as I shout out loud enough for my friend to hear me, “Bob, I’m leaving! See you tomorrow! Same place, same time.”
We can hear Bob yelling from the maintenance room, “Have a good one, Kat! I’ll leave the doors open for you in the morning.”
I know without a doubt my smile is smug as hell, and he doesn’t seem to like that. His eyes narrow onto my mouth with pure hate burning in their depths. I lick my suddenly dry lips and wait for him to return his gaze back to my eyes.
“Look, let’s make a compromise. You stay out of my way, and I’ll stay out of yours. Our skating schedules don’t even line up. You were obviously early today. Since that’s settled, I would say it’s been nice meeting you, Captain, but that would be a lie.” I salute him as I grab my coat, then throw it over my shoulders and practically run to the exit. I can hear him grumble in that deep husky voice just before the metal double doors slam shut.
“Jesus H. Christ.”
2
Granger
Hockey practice was more brutal than usual, today. Sweat, blood, and my useless team skating around like chickens with their heads cut off. I keep my gaze on the ground, my teeth grinding. The locker room is so completely silent, you could probably hear a penny drop. My fucked-up teammates decide to keep their mouths shut, which is for the best. We used to skate like we were one, linked together through the sole purpose of winning and being the best goddamned team in the league. That was months ago, and everything has changed since then. It sucks to get yelled at by the coach for hogging the puck the whole time today,which wasn’t right on my part, but for the life of me, I can’t trust these assholes.
“She’s cheating on you. Apparently has been for some time now. I don’t play into the gossip shit, so that’s why I just heard about it. She’s been playing you, man, right from the beginning,” Beast tells me, while passing me a beer as I sit frozen on my couch, feeling like I just got hit by a freight train.
“I was going to break up with her a month ago, but the news of the baby stopped me from ending it with her… Who the fuck is she cheating on me with?” I almost snap the neck of my beer bottle when he tells me.
Fucking Jeff. Fuck my teammate.
It’s been almost two months, and I’m still playing like shit on the ice, letting rage and hurt rule my life.
I did have an unpleasant distraction during practice—I kept thinking about her, the girl with the wild pink hair and piercing blue eyes. I’ve never seen someone move so gracefully and with passion. She moved with the music, but it was like she owned the ice, and time
