Page 26 of Love Me Boldly

She chortled. “Right. Sure you’re not.”

“We went ononedate. That’s not dating.”

“I think the fact he said he likes you and thinks about you and invited you to his place says you are.”

“Whatever.” I shivered and grabbed my hat from my pocket and tugged it onto my head.

“Do we know anything about hockey?”

“I used to watch with my dad. Pretty sure he put it on when it was my nap time, so unless I learned through sleep, probably not.”

“My brother played. I just read books and colored and ignored everything about the game.”

“So we’re mostly screwed,” I said.

She held up her phone and wiggled it. “They hit the puck into the goal and try to win. How much more do we need to know?”

I wanted to know why Graham kept this from me. That wasn’t normal, was it? Didn’t athletes like to tell everyone how awesome they were?

A horn blared, and Tracy and I both jumped.

“Wowzers,” she whispered, pressing her heart to her chest. “That was loud.”

That horn meant something because the teams skated to the benches and cleared the ice.

A loud voice squawked through the speakers. “Ladies and gentlemen. Please rise for the singing of our national anthem, performed today by North Carolina Western University’s very own Megan Schleppe.”

As the announcer spoke, guys from both benches came back out onto the ice, this time without their sticks, and lined up, each team on a blue line, and faced the flag hanging next to a scoreboard.

The singer’s voice filled the arena, and I scanned the rink and then found her at the edge of the ice on the far end, standing right at the edge in front of a door to the rink that had opened. Her voice was rich and pure, and she sang it a cappella, which was probably more impressive than anything I’d ever seen.

When she was done, the small crowd cheered, the Lambda Nu Chi’s loudest of all. Both teams skated back to their benches, grabbed their sticks, and then stood in the doorway.

And then the announcer came back on. “Charleston University’s starting lineup…” he droned on, rattling off a bunch of names as the visiting team skated out, one by one, to the ice.

The lights turned dark, and eerie, low music came on building and growing louder. My heart rate matched the beat, thumping harder and faster as it crescendoed. Spotlights appeared and flashes of green and gold filled the area.

“Whoa,” I muttered. They were putting on a show, and it was pretty cool to see.

“And now…for your North Western Carolina University starting lineup!”

The small crowd cheered and got to their feet. Every time a name was called, a player skated onto the ice and did a lap around the rink until they landed at a specific spot on the ice.

I wished I would have gotten earlier clues so I had time to do basic research on the game. I was totally lost.

Finally, Graham’s name was called. A woman six rows away from us jumped to her feet, grabbing my attention. She was older, dressed in a thick sweater, a winter coat, and had a striped scarf wrapped at least three times around her neck. “Go Graham!”

“That must be his aunt,” I muttered to Tracey.

“And he has his own fan club.” She elbowed me in my side, but I didn’t need her nudge to know who she was talking about. The blond who had stopped me in my tracks was jumping up and down, cheering for him, louder than anyone else.

To Graham’s credit, if he heard the noise, he ignored it and skated to his spot in the center of the ice, inside a blue circle, and across from the team’s other player.

He tapped his stick to the ice, stood, and turned his head, stopping when he found me like he knew exactly where I’d be sitting. He reached up and tugged at his helmet before dipping his chin and then turned back to the opponent across from him.

But I swore, in that brief moment when our eyes met, there was a smile curling the edges of his lips.

“Yeah. If you’re not dating, fine, I’ll give you that. But after that, I’m pretty sure you’re about to be. And someone isn’t happy about it.”

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