Page 13 of Crazy Pucking Love
“Misty. Want a beer?”
“Definitely,” she breathed more than said. I filled a cup from the keg and handed it to her. She took it and leaned closer, so that her body was pressed against mine. “That’s not all I want, though.”
I knew she’d cycled through several of my teammates, and I think that not sleeping with her the night I slipped and kissed her gave her some weird goal to get me into bed, no matter what, because I’d never been so blatantly groped in my life.
I maneuvered away from the hand cupping me over my jeans.Let’s see. How to put this nicely…?
I certainly wasn’t going to admit to not sleeping with anyone in months, as that’d probably only make her even more determined. Not to mention, it wasn’t something I spread around. In fact, not even my roommates knew, although Hudson probably suspected something was up—his constant distraction with Whitney worked in my favor. I didn’t want anyone to know how affected I’d been by past crap that I was still working through. Before I’d examined all my shitty choices, I’d thought Ihaddealt with it, and it sucked that lately it was coming up more than ever.
Luckily a large group moved into the kitchen, giving me the opportunity to dodge Misty without having to hurt her feelings. I headed over to Whitney and Hudson, figuring they’d had enough time to get reacquainted that I wouldn’t be interrupting too badly.
“Bro, almost all of the cups we bought are gone,” I said. “So much for everyone claiming they weren’t going to really drink tonight since school starts tomorrow, because I highly doubt most of them are drinking water.”
Hudson eyed our teammates, spread throughout the room. “I swear if we have to do extra drills because these guys can’t hold their liquor and are hungover at practice, we’re never hosting one of these parties again.”
Since we had the townhouse set up and our neighbors were other college kids who wouldn’t call the cops, we’d been volunteered as the hosts. Our other roommate, Ryder, had jumped onboard, which was odd for him—usually he needed extra convincing when it came to anything that didn’t include the gym or the rink.
I inwardly groaned at the thought of Coach’s favorite conditioning drill. The Michigan Mile involved speed skating with push-ups, and I had no doubt we’d be doing several rounds tomorrow.
“What’s the deal with you and Misty?” Whitney asked, and the wrinkled nose made it clear how she felt about it.
“There is no deal. She cornered me in the kitchen and I escaped as quickly as I could.”
Hudson wrapped his arm around Whitney’s shoulders and curled her close. “Baby, give Dane a break. He’s having a bit of a dry spell and might have to take what he can get.”
“Very funny,” I said, adding a middle finger to the statement, and Hudson laughed.
“If you need help, or maybe advice—”
“I don’t need either, especially from you.”
“Hey, don’t knock settling down until you try it.” Hudson grinned at Whitney. “It’s way better than I ever imagined.”
“And you can do way better than Misty,” Whitney said. “I know some nice girls who—”
“What is it with couples and the need to set you up? I’m focusing on hockey this semester, and a group date—especially a pity one—is the last thing I want to suffer through.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught bright pink pants, and my focus on anything but Megan went to shit.
“Hey, Whitney.” Ryder burst into the circle we’d formed, cutting off my view. “Did you invite your coworkers from theHeights?”
“Yeah,” Whitney said.
“Well? Did any of them come?”
Whitney gestured toward the corner of the room with her cup. “Will’s over there.”
Ryder released a giant sigh and walked away without another word.
“What was that about?” Whitney asked, watching the massive dude push his way through the crowd—Ryder “Ox” Maddox was not only the youngest starter on our team, he was also the biggest. “Does he not like Will?”
I suspected it was more who hedidlike than not liking the British techie who worked at the school’s newspaper. I’d seen Ryder eyeing up Whitney’s editor when we burst into the newspaper office to “kidnap” Whitney, and when Lindsay threatened to call the cops, his expression held more attraction than fear. “Maybe you guys should turn your matchmaking skills on Ox.”
I didn’t want to out his crush on Lindsay, but he needed to get over it, because he had about as much chance with her as I did at getting Beck’s blessing to make out with his sister.
Speaking of, Megan was finally walking my way, a few footsteps from an inevitable meeting, and my pulse thrummed in my ears.
She looked up and saw me, then quickly changed direction.
