Page 29 of Hockey Halloween
“And?” Where’s she going with this? Where is it stemming from?
“It’s usually the opposite.”
“Like people criticize you for being smart?” Assholes.
“They think I’m showing off. But not you,” she adds quickly, to cover up the nerves trying to peek through.
“Delia, why would you waste time on people who are jealous of the way your mind works?” She shifts from one foot to the other as we stand in line to enter the house, a shocked expression blanketing her face. “What?”
“You called me Delia. Not Weidman. It’s weird, and a bit . . . unsettling?”
“Did you think I didn’t know your name?”
“I’m not questioning that. You’re not oblivious to your surroundings, and my name gets tossed around enough in class, you’d literally have to have the IQ of a rock not to know it.”
“I was unaware rocks had IQs,” I deadpan. I might be trying to curb the habit of not running my mouth, but her comment begged for a rebuttal.
She stares at me, her eyes unblinking. After an awkward minute of silence, one side of her mouth tips up into a smirk. “Good one. Glad your brain understood my analogy. The dumb jock role must get tiring after a while.”
I’m uncertain how she’s got me pegged, but damn if she’s wrong. I’m not smart like her, but without my intelligence, my application to Aspenridge would have been denied, no matter how much pull Coach Ferguson had in getting me in.
I knock my hip into her, careful not to send her off balance. “Don’t go spreading my secret around, yeah? ‘Cause if you do, I’ll be like a terrier on the scent in uncovering yours.”
“Code green,” she mutters under her breath, so low, I barely hear it. And even then, I have no clue what it means.
“I’m going to need a little more than that.” I rest the pumpkin head on the stone wall. She stares at the ground, and with a gentle finger, I lift her chin, regret swimming among the blue orbs. Red stains her cheeks, and it’s not from the cool air swirling around us. Despite how she’s feeling, all I want is to kiss her. To smack my lips to hers, erase the guilt from her expression. No matter it’s not my place, I want to make this better for her.
Delia Weidman has my head twisted, my heart scrambled, and she doesn’t even know the half of it.
Her shoulders drop from her ears, and she blows out a breath. “At my first hockey party, my only party, hockey or otherwise before tonight, I got so wasted, I puked all over the floor. I was so out of it, Cody and Liliana brought me home, and I don’t remember any of it. Just waking up in my dorm, my stomach revolting, needing to get all the contents out of it, my head pounding like a train barreled through it.”
It’s not the words but how she voices them, the remorse in them, that makes me bend down to her level and press my mouth to hers. I’m gone instantly, lost in the feel of her mouth against mine.
Until she rips her mouth away and puts several inches of space between us, the shock of my actions written all over her face.
“Xavier,” she hisses. “What are you doing?”
I can’t tell if anger hides under her confusion, but it’s not in her words.
“Kissing you.”
“Why?”
I run a hand through my hair, prepared to have her walk away angry, find a way back to the hockey house, and leave the party. Sure, she’ll have to deal with me in class, but she’s professional enough to separate the two.
I’m not sure I am.
“Because I wanted to. Possibly ever since you corrected the professor last year about his take on social media. And every day since.” My heart in my chest, I admit the truth. My mouth gets me into trouble often, and if this time is no different, so be it. The pressure of not kissing her, of not knowing what she tastes like, got to me.
“Why now?”
“Why not now?”
“I was talking about puke, reliving my worst nightmare, and youkissedme.”
Her innocence so adorable, I chuckle. “To take away the memory.” I don’t pose it as a question, though it is one. “Besides, it’s notlike you’re going to puke now.” If I’m honest, she looks a little queasy. Which is probably my doing. “Wait, are you?”
“I mean, I might. You kissed me without my permission. Who said I wanted to kiss you? Maybe I think it’s gross. Eww.” She shudders, playing the part well.
