Page 56 of Puck King
“I guess that was all Everleigh. She thought that she was fixing things, but if the story about you and me gets out, she thinks it will make things worse.”
“Shit,” Alison whispered and rested her forehead on my shoulder. “We should’ve taken things slower.”
“I don’t regret it. Not one moment of it.” I wrapped my arms around her body and held her tightly. “I’d do it exactly the same if we had to do it all over again.”
Alison tensed and she pushed away from me. “What does this mean then, for us?”
“I think it means that we have to take a break.”
“Oh. For how long?”
“I guess until the playoffs are over.”
Alison looked like she was doing complex math. “But that could be…months.”
“Hopefully,” I said.
Her eyes shimmered.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Alison sighed and stepped back, but continued to hold my hand. “I know what you meant. And I hope that you win the Cup, I really do. It’s just going to be hard to work here; to see you, and not…”
“Tell me about it. I’m already hard again.”
Alison swiped at the tear on her face. “What was the second thing?” She forced a smile. The woman was the most stoic person I had ever met.
“Oh.” I hopped off her treatment table and grabbed my backpack. “I need you to do something for me.” I held out a pair of hair trimmers.
She took the trimmer from me and examined it like she’d never seen one before. “What do you want me to do with this?”
My hat was on backwards and I slid it off my head, running my fingers through my hair. “It’s the playoffs. I always shave my head at the beginning, and you’re the reason we made it.”
“I am not.” Alison dropped her hands. “You would’ve made it on your own.”
“I’m not too sure about that. Alison, you brought something to my life that I didn’t know was missing. You’ve made everything better.”
“So is fake breaking up going to reverse this winning streak?”
Shit. That was a very good question. “If I know that you’re waiting for me at the end of the season, I think it will be okay.”
Her eyes glinted in the lights of the office, and when she smiled, a tear fell from her lid. I brushed it aside with my thumb and kissed her gently on the lips. “I hate this.”
“I hate it too.” She held onto my wrists and then looked up at me. “I love that hair of yours.” She plugged in the trimmer and ordered me to sit in the chair across from her desk. The radio was playing “I Will Always Love You”, the Whitney Houston version. As Whitney hit the high notes, the last of my hair fell to the floor.
Alison brushed at the hair on my shoulders and ran her hands over top of my head. “It feels so good.”
“Tell me about it.” I closed my eyes as Alison’s hands explored my skull. When I opened them, Alison’s chest was at eye level. I wrapped my arms around her waist and buried my face in her shirt.
“Colton.” Alison’s fingers trailed over my head and goosebumps erupted over my body when she tickled my neck with her fingertips. “Can’t we just keep things on the down low? Why does this have to end?”
I sighed and reluctantly pulled away from Alison’s warmth. “Trust me, I thought the exact same thing.” Whitney had ended and was replaced with Celine. “Is it breakup song day on the radio or something?” Alison flipped the radio to another station and some twangy country song filled the office.
“So?” Alison squeezed my hands. “We pretended to be a couple. Why can’t we just pretend to ‘not’ be a couple? Who knew this would all get so complicated?”
The sounds of voices in the hallway brought me back to reality. “If it were just Everleigh making the rules, sure. I’d be the first one to break them.” I laughed. “But this is coming from my Dad…”
“Oh.” Alison pulled her hands from mine. “I see.”
