She bites back a grin, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I’ll call you.”
Four days since I finally kissed her.
My brows lift and I breathe out a laugh as I pull her back to me. “This is fun for you, isn’t it?”
“You started it.” She pushes up onto her toes, her lips finding mine in a soft kiss before she swiftly pulls away. “Two can play this game, Playboy.”
Four days since I asked her if she wanted me to fuck her.
I release her, a smirk tugging on my lips. “I’ll win.”
“We’ll see.” She winks, closing the door before I get the chance to slip back into her apartment.
And I can’t stop replaying that night on repeat in my mind.
“Wake the fuck up, Ford!” Cross barks from behind me as I fumble an easy pass in the neutral zone. I shake my head, mylegs pushing. I am awake, that’s the problem. I’ve realized every fuck up I’ve had on the ice all game. It’s been four days and I haven’t heard a single word from Jade.
I can’t text her, not when she said she’d call me. I didn’t think she’d actually call, but I didn’t think it would be radio silence.
I didn’t think I’d be this damn affected by it, either.
I’m a step behind when I get possession of the puck again. I lose control of it at the blue line. It does a weird bounce move, flopping over the blade of my stick and the winger on the other team grabs it and starts racing toward our defensive zone.
“Fuck!”
My blades cut into the ice as I quickly stop and push off to head after him in the opposite direction. I lose an edge and fall a few strides behind him. Cross and Volkov are both beat. The shot flies past our goalie and they score. They celebrate, we deflate. The energy feels like it did when we were on our losing streak.
The horn feels louder than normal. The sound rings inside my ears as I skate back over to the bench, filing on after Theo and Shaw.
“The fuck you doing out there tonight? Are you trying out to be a figure skater or something?”
I cut my eyes at Theo. “Fuck off.”
“No, seriously,” he presses, lifting his eyebrows. “You pulled a little twirl move in the zone. Judges gave it a 9.2. Impressive and artistic.”
Cam shakes his head, leaning forward. “I don’t know. The technical score might put it lower than that.”
What the hell is this?I cut my eyes at both of them. “I lost an edge.”
“Hence the 9.2 score instead of a 10,” Theo muses, rolling his eyes.
“Still feels like too high of a score,” Shaw chimes in.
My lips part, my rebuttal on my tongue with anger simmering when Coach cuts in.
“Ford,” he barks my name. I meet his eyes and he looks less than pleased. “Get your head in the fucking game.”
I give him a curt nod, feeling his disappointment mixing with my own. I prop my elbows on my knees, dropping my face down into my gloves. I can’t get my head in the game because it’s still in Jade Wilson’s apartment.
Shaw elbows me on my other side. “You heard him. We need you.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Theo shrugs. “You’re overthinking shit again. I thought you were past this?”
Yeah, so did I.
Jade’s supposed to be a calculated, controlled distraction. Not one that’s derailing my ability to perform on the ice.