Page 42 of Snow, Ice, and Spice
“So you and Theo are running this hockey camp, huh?” the guy asks.
“Yup. We’ve been up and running for a few weeks now,” I say as I hand out orange slices to the kids. When I see that there’s a single extra orange wedge, I spin around and hand it to him.
“You lucked out,” I say.
“You angel. Thanks.” He holds up the wedge. “You know, if my coach brought such good snacks to practice, I wouldn’t be late all the time.”
I laugh. “So orange wedges are your weakness then?”
I notice he holds eye contact with me for an extra second. “You could say that. I’m Xander, by the way.”
He sticks his hand out and I shake it.
“Maya.”
“Lovely to meet you, Maya.” Xander flashes that pretty boy smile. Yup. Definitely getting flirty vibes.
He skates off and I hear a couple of the kids giggling.
“Coach Maya, I think he likes you,” Annabelle says through a mischievous smile.
“I think he just wanted a snack.”
The kids giggle some more. When they finish their snacks, they hit the ice once more to skate and play with Theo’s teammates. I grab the garbage from snack time and walk it to the nearest trash can, which is by the bathrooms. As I round the corner, I hear Theo’s voice.
“Nah man, we’re just friends,” he says.
“You sure?” Xander says. “Because I don’t wanna step on your toes. You two are working together on this hockey camp, which is really cool by the way. I don’t want to ask her out if that would piss you off.”
I take a step back, trying my hardest to be quiet despite how shocked I am. They’re talking about me…Xander is asking Theo if it’s okay to ask me out…
“I’m sure, dude. Maya’s nothing more than a friend,” Theo says.
“It’s just that I saw you two skating and you were holding hands. I guess I thought that maybe you were a thing.”
Theo lets out an easy chuckle. “We were only doing that because the kids wanted us to. There’s nothing between us, I swear.”
A weird sinking feeling lands in my stomach. I guess I was wrong about things between Theo and me. Evidently, all that hand-holding and flirting back and forth meant nothing to him.
My skin heats once more, but this time it’s because I’m embarrassed. I can’t believe I let myself get so smitten with Theo.
I hear them walk off. For a minute, I stand there and take a moment to collect myself. I have no right to feel this way, to feel so…hurt. And disappointed. It’s not like Theo and I are anything. We just live together. And work together. That’s it. There’s nothing more between us. Yeah, we’re getting along now…and yeah, things have been flirty between us lately. That’s probably why I was letting my feelings get the best of me. Maybe I was so excited not to be arguing with Theo for once that I confused that for legitimate romantic feelings.
The longer the realization sinks in, the more foolish I feel. Wow. I was acting like a smitten middle schooler.
I let out a breath and swallow back the embarrassment. I guess it was all in my head.
Chapter16
Theo
It’s hell keeping this smile on my face while I talk to Xander. But I can’t do what I really want to do, which is glare at him and threaten to kick his fucking ass if he so much as thinks about asking out Maya.
I’d look like a psycho.
And really, I have no right to feel that way. Maya and I aren’t a thing. Not even close. Yeah, we’ve been getting along really well lately. And flirting a bit. Working together has been awesome too. We’re a pretty damn good team running this camp together.
But I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that what I’m feeling for Maya is more than that.
