Page 108 of My Last Dance

“We went golfing. I was sitting in his golf cart when a dating app notification popped up.”

He scowled. “What’d you do?”

“I wish I did something more impressive,” I said with a sigh. “But I just made his profile his screensaver.”

He grinned and pointed his spoon at me. “Atta girl.”

A stupid little dose of pride coursed through me at his praise. “It was a very awkward ride back to our cars. What about you? Any crazy stories?”

He arched an eyebrow. “What’s crazy?”

I gave him a deadpan look. “You’ve been in the NHL for years now, there’s gotta be some crazy stories.”

“Eh, I feel like all the seasons have kinda blurred together.” He placed his empty bowl on the little table. “A lot of games in a lot of different cities. In my downtime I like to hang out with Colt, JP, and Lu. It was crazier when we were younger. There were always the occasional girls trying to break into our hotel rooms. It didn’t happen to me that often. You know who it happened to a lot?”

“Who?”

“JP.”

I blinked at him. “OurJP? JP McQuaid?”

He grinned. “That’s the one. He’s got that whole quiet broody thing going on, the ladies love that. Plus, there were those pictures that leaked.”

I knew what he was talking about—right around the time he was making a name for himself in the NHL, pictures of him and Ali were leaked online. The way he stood up to the press and refused to release her name made him even more attractive and shrouded him in a bit of mystery.

“Well, I think the ladies love you just as much,” I said. “I’ve seen all those thirst traps of you on social media.”

His face spread into a shit-eating grin. “You have, have you?”

Rolling my eyes, I threw a pillow at him.

He laughed. “I’m kidding.” He studied me for a second, and I was grateful the lights were out so he couldn’t see how much my cheeks were flushing. He still had that way of looking at me that made it feel like he could see all my thoughts. He rubbed his chest, distracting me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Huh?” His eyes dipped to his hand. “Oh.” He chuckled. “I thinkyour heel got me.” He shook his head wryly. “Tried to break my heart.Again.”

I gasped. “Hey, you’re the one who—”

“I’mjoking, Piper,” he said with a laugh. “Okay, now let’s talk about the Gala. What should we skate to?”

My eyebrows tugged together, confused at the sudden topic change. “I’m not sure. I feel like I’ve done so many of these shows that I’ve used up all my ideas. You have a favorite song?”

He opened his mouth once, twice, before finally speaking. “There is one song I’ve always loved.”

“Yeah?”

He tilted his head. “It’s slow.”

“I like slow sometimes.”

“‘Thinking Out Loud’by Ed Sheeran,” he dropped. “You know it?”

I practically swallowed my tongue.Yeah, I definitely knew it.

“But…we can choose any vibe we want. We don’t have to…” I cleared my throat. “We can even do, like, Linkin Park or Blink-182 or any of the punk stuff you used to love.”

His face gave nothing away. “But I like that one.”

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