Page 122 of Pucking Strong

“Okay, rude. I talk about you with Tracy all the time. By the way, she agrees that you’re hopeless—”

“Not fucking helping!”

Karro keeps waving, trying to get Henrik’s attention. But he onlyhas eyes for me. And the feelings behind the look he’s giving me are clear as fucking day: hurt and betrayal.

Oh, this is so bad.

“I thought you said he wanted to take things slow?” Colin says as Henrik skates off, called away by the whistle to return to the bench.

“He did.” God, my mouth is suddenly as dry as a desert. I set Karro back down, hiding the rest of the cotton candy in the backpack. When I right myself, Colin is glaring at me. “What?”

“Seriously?”

I groan. “Col, if you’ve got something to say—”

“Did that look like the face of a man who wants to take things fucking slow?” He points down at the ice.

“I—”

“Christ, Teddy! If he catches me touching you again, he’s gonna abracadabra that fucking glass, charge up here, and kick my ass!”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?”

“Fix it!”

“How?”

“Seriously?” He grabs at my lanyard, pulls up my arena pass, and flashes it in my face. “You work for the team. This period is almost over. Go down there and set him straight.”

I gasp, jerking my lanyard out of his hand. “I can’t just go down there. I can’t distract him like that—”

“You’ve already distracted him. He’s not gonna be able to think about anything else until you fix this. Dragging it out, waiting till the end of the game, it’s just cruel, Ted. Go to your man. Let him sweep you off your feet.”

“But Karro—”

“I’ve got the kid. She’ll be fine without you for five minutes. We’ll split a beer and some jalapeño nachos.”

“I—”

“Go, Teddy.”

I let out a breath, heart racing in my chest. “Colin …”

His eyes widen. “Ohhhh. You’re scared?”

“Duh!”

“Well, that’s fine. Go do it anyway.”

Tears sting my eyes as I shake my head. “If he rejects me …”

“He won’t.”

“How can you be sure?”

Laughing, he grabs me by the shoulders and turns me around, giving me a shove towards the aisle. “I can’t. So why don’t you just go see for yourself?”

This is crazy. This is such a bad idea. Why did I let Colin talk me into this? I should go back upstairs, get Karro in the car, and drive until we hit Canada.

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