Page 6 of Halftime

I put it down to just the shock of being suddenly that close to Faith without warning. We hadn’t had what you’d call closure. The end of us had been a disaster, and I obviously hadn’t dealt with it, not properly. But it wasn’t going to be a shock to see her again. I knew she was here. And I knew Faith. She wasn’t going to be kissing me, either.

“What’s up, Hunts?”

Cooper was in the doorway of my room, hands stretched up to grab the lintel. His room was across the hall. He was another defenseman on the team, but I’d never had the chance to play with him. Last year, Cooper had been out all season with an injury. He’d been nice enough to spend time with me, helping me navigate and giving me some good advice, about hockey and life, and we got along well. I was hoping we’d play together this year.

“I’m picking up Holly.”

“For the party?”

I shrugged. “Nah, I’m missing this one. We’re going out for dinner. Catching up.”

Coop rolled his eyes. “Hunts, I give up on you. It’s the first party of the year, we’ve got freshmen girls coming, and you’re back with the girlfriend?”

I shrugged again. We’d debated this last year. I liked to be in a relationship, and Cooper liked one and done. We’re different like that. On the ice, I was a stay-at-home defenseman, protecting our net, while he was more of an offensive threat. It reflected our personalities. We were opposite enough to get along off the ice, and I thought that would work on the ice as well.

For tonight though, the freshmen were all his. Even Faith. If she came. No, Faith wouldn’t be interested in someone like Cooper, a player. But if Faith was coming, I needed to be gone.

“Less competition for you.”

Cooper wasn’t worried. He was much better looking than I was, so he never had a problem attracting attention.

“Are you and Holly coming to the party after?”

I froze. Should I? I didn’t want to. Not if Faith was going to be here. I just… I didn’t know how we were going to act around each other. Obviously, we weren’t going to almost kiss again, but would she acknowledge me? Admit we were exes? Could we be friends?

No, not friends.

But until I knew how it was going down, I wasn’t adding Holly to the mix.

I shook my head. “We’re going out with her best friend and her boyfriend. Maybe the next one.”

Because my roommates loved to party, and since the legal drinking age in Vermont was twenty-one, we couldn’t drink in bars. Not us lower classmen. Most of the time, we went to the Biscuit in the Basket after games, but then a lot of us couldn’t have beer. So we had parties to handle that particular need. Lots of parties.

“Okay then. You go play happy families while we have fun.”

I made sure my smile stayed in place. I wasn’t trying to play happy families. I didn’t have a good experience with families, but there was no need to share that. Instead, I checked that I had my phone and wallet and keys and went to meet my girlfriend. Parties were fun, but having someone who was there for you? Miles better.

* * *

Faith

“You promised!” my roommate Penny whined.

I’d made the mistake of telling her I’d been invited to a party at the hockey house. I’d had no idea she’d flip out about it. Apparently, being invited to one of the hockey houses was a big deal.

How did she know this? We were both freshmen.

While I’d done all kinds of research on the women’s hockey team and what happened on the ice, Penny had been researching the men’s team and the extracurricular stuff.

The male hockey players were at the top of the totem pole at Moo U. That explained a lot. Why Coach Cray was so upset with me. Why Penny had talked me into letting her go to the party with me tonight. Why things had gone the way they had with Seb a year ago. Then today, the way I’d responded, like we were still—

Nope, not going there. I was blocking everything connected to him, closing it up in a box and locking it. What happened today was buried in that box. But that didn’t mean I wanted to go to a party where I’d run into him. For all I knew, he could be living at this hockey house. He’d definitely been staying somewhere other than res last year. At least, that’s where he’d started, back when we were— Nope.

I was not facing him again. Especially not withHolly. I’d be willing to bet Holly was his girlfriend. Or a girlfriend. Or had been his hookup. Maybe even the one from last year…

Damn it all. I was not going to dwell on that, or have my life screwed up thinking about Seb.

“Come on, Faith. You said we could go. You said your teammates were gonna be there, so you had to show.”

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