Page 39 of Skating to Him

“Sure.” He gave me a broad smile.

After watchingan action movie and cuddling with Rowan on his couch, I’d given him a long kiss goodnight and successfully refrained from pinning him against his wall or couch again. Now I was walking through the front door into the squad house with the feel of Rowan’s soft lips and sexy-as-hell body on my mind. I shut the door and turned around.

“Would you look at what the cat dragged in?” Ace, video game controller in hand and sitting in the corner of our sectional, laughed and paused the NHL game on the television.

Myles set his controller on the couch and beamed at me. “Someone looks satisfied.”

“Ha-ha. I got all my assignments done.” I stepped inside, set my backpack on the floor by the sectional, and ambled into thekitchen to grab a Gatorade from our refrigerator. “Can either of you say you’re all caught up?”

“Yes.” Myles scoffed. “You spent the whole night over at Rowan’s, and all you did was study?”

Ace held out his hand. “Hey, can you bring me one of those, please?”

“Sure.” I snatched another one and waited with the refrigerator door open. Myles was sure to pipe in at any?—

“While you’re there, can you get me one too?” Myles asked. “Pretty please?”

“Of course.” I pulled a third bottle out, strolled to the couch, and handed out the drinks. After twisting off the cap, I sank into the end of the sofa and close to Myles. “Rowan’s a nice guy. We hung out a little bit. Had some pizza and watched a movie.” I could tell them that part of it. It was up to Rowan to let me know when he was ready for me to say more.

“Sounds like a lovely evening.” With a smirk, Ace drank his Gatorade. “So, I guess you two are going to play well on Friday and not make me work so hard for a shutout?”

“We always play well together.” I huffed. “Last Saturday was an off night.” I’d never live that down.

Ace leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and pointed at me. “Whatever was off was something between you two. It was obvious the whole way home.”

“And at practices until yesterday, eh.” Myles sipped his drink.

I pressed my lips together. They were right, and they were my best friends. Of course they’d have noticed. “We’re all good, okay? Let’s leave it at that.” I glanced at the paused game on the television. Of course Ace had made Myles play goalie, but Myles was winning. “Looks like Myles could teach you a thing or two about defending the goal, huh, Ace?”

With a scoff, Ace flung backward into the couch. “He’s just been lucky tonight.”

Myles smirked at Ace. “Right on.”

“Yeah, okay.” I shook my head and drank more Gatorade. It was late. “I’m heading off to bed. You guys should too. We’ve got a game tomorrow, remember?”

“Yeah, about that.” Myles glanced at Ace. “We were thinking about hitting the gay bar after for our celly shot since Coach decided to try not having a morning skate tomorrow.” He lifted his brows. “Zoma is coming with us.”

Would Rowan want to go with us? “Yeah?” If he did, how would we hide our feelings in a place like that? “I’ll talk to Rowan and see if he’s up for it.” I stood and ticked my head at each of them. “See you in the morning. I’m going to bed.” Before they could ask any more questions about Rowan.

The next night,we were playing Providence and Ace was well on his way to earning his shutout. We’d scored two goals, and it was the third period. I hit the ice with Mackenzie and raced toward the puck while Cummings and a Providence winger battled for it against the boards in our D-zone.

As I sped toward the boards and Cummings, my periphery caught a flash of motion and I swiveled my head.

Mackenzie flew off his skates onto his back and rolled around in obvious pain.

“Fucker.” Mackenzie wasn’t even close to the puck yet. With heat swarming my chest, I set my sights on the asshole who hit him. “Hey, hoser, gotta play dirty to get anything done out here?” I skated in front of the guy, a Providence winger named Knight, putting myself between him and the puck, which Cummings made off with down the ice. If I wouldn’t get a suspension, I’d have decked him.

“Get out of my way.” Knight sneered at me. “Mackenzie had it coming.”

“Why is that?” I glanced behind him at Mackenzie, pushingonto his skates. Good, he was okay. Skating backward, I swayed in front of Knight.

“We have a history. He had it coming.” Knight glared toward Mackenzie, twisted around, and took off behind the net.

“What the fuck was that?” Shifting on the edges of his skates, Ace kept his eye on Knight.

“Don’t know.” I skated toward Mackenzie, now on his feet. “You okay?” I patted his arm.

Flinching, he nodded. “Yeah.”

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