Page 29 of Love Me Boldly

“Warming up as quickly as possible is the only thing on my agenda.”

Graham laughed, bold and loudly, and it garnered attention because somebody stepped next to me, and the next thing I knew, I was shoved to the side and down a step.

“Hey!” Graham called and reached for me, but since I was above him, he couldn’t do much. I grabbed the railing and steadied myself.

“Awesome game, G,” the new person said.

I didn’t have to look to know it was the blond.

“Thanks, Piper,” he said, but he hadn’t looked at her. Instead, he scooted to his left so he was in front of me again.

“Doing anything later?” she asked. “We hear the team is having a party.”

Without taking his eyes off me, he replied, “Hoping to have a quiet night in. You in, Holly?”

Next to me, the girl—Piper—at least I now knew her name, scoffed. “Come on, Graham. You haven’t had a hat trick in years. Come out with us. We’ll make sure you have a good time.”

He glanced at her, a slight frown tugging down his lips. “Not interested, but thanks.”

He couldn’t have sounded any less thankful.

When he turned to me, he was no longer looking amused at all. “What do you say? Dinner and a movie in? I need to shower and clean up, but I can meet you at my place in an hour?”

“Um. Sure?”

“Great.” He grinned and skated off, leaving me alone with Piper and a gaggle of blonds behind her.

“He’ll get bored of you. I’ve known him practically my whole life, and you’re not what he’ll want for anything long-term.”

She wasn’t saying anything I didn’t already know, but the words, said with such nastiness, hurt more than they should have. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

I turned and hurried to where Tracey was standing near the bottom of the bleachers.

“Sorry, so sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think the girls would approach him with you there or I would have come with you.”

“No worries.”

“What’d she say to you?”

I rubbed my gloved hands together and then buried them into my coat pockets. “Nothing I didn’t already know.”

EIGHT

HOLLY

“So, you’re some hotshot hockey player.”

I was standing in the doorway to Graham’s apartment. He had the door open wide, his arm straight out. His hair was wet and curly, and he was dressed in a pair of flannel pants and a long-sleeve NCWU hockey shirt. No socks, which somehow made me feel overdressed in my coat and gloves and everything else I’d layered on for the game.

“Not sure about hotshot, but yeah, I’m on the hockey team.”

“You didn’t mention that before.”

“I didn’t think you’d stick around if I did.”

Would I have? I wasn’t anti-athlete. Sure, there were stereotypical athletes that were all about beingjocksand using that to get girls, but logically I was aware not all were like that. A few football players were in my finance classes, and they carried small Bibles with them and had started an on-campus Bible study for athletes. So yeah, not all were bad. On the flip side, attention seemed to follow athletes wherever they went, and I tried to stay out of the limelight. Case in point,Piper.

“If you’ve noticed, I haven’t stepped foot inside yet.”

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