Page 4 of The Love Dare
“Chin up, Winnie,” Tyler orders with the sort of sympathy and conviction that can only come from having heard the words himself many times before. Then he drops his arm and starts past her with a soft, “I’ll be right back.”
It takes a second for the implications of that muttered goodbye to hit. By the time Winnie spins, he’s already rounding the building.
“Tyler!” she whisper-shouts.
If he hears her, he ignores it. Winnie chases after him just enough to poke her head around the bricks.
“Ty!”
She wants to yell, but it comes out as barely more than a squeak—partially because he’s already in trouble with the school, partially because she doesn’t want to draw attention to herself, and yes, partially because deep down there’s a not-insignificant part of her that wants to see exactly what he’ll do.
Tyler is across the field before Liam, Davy, and Grace even see him coming. They jump back in surprise the second he joins their circle. Winnie is too far away to hear what anyone is saying, but it doesn’t matter. The conversation lasts just long enough for Tyler to smack the phone out of Liam’s hand. The younger boy lunges for it, but before he can get his fingers around the device, Tyler snags it with his hockey stick. The second he starts twisting, Winnie knows what’s coming. She’s heard her father rave about it over dinner enough times to recognize the beginnings of the slapshot Alexandru Rusu senior is confidentwill one day end up on a plaque in the Hall of Fame. She doesn’t care much about hockey, but she finally understands what her father is always going on about as she watches Tyler lift his stick to shoulder-height, then slam it down to the grass with enough force to send the phone flying. The way he moves is like poetry in motion—grace and fury and commanding power, all held together with unyielding control, and he’s barely even hit puberty.
Winnie clutches her chest as if her heart is the thing he’s struck. With the way it blazes, he might as well have. Because all she can think as she watches that phone slam directly into a soccer goalpost fifteen feet away and shatter into a million little pieces, is screw Prince Charming.
She’s got a knight in shining armor right here.
CHAPTER TWO
tyler
11 YEARS BEFORE FILMING
“I hate that guy,”Tyler mutters as he finishes tying his laces. “You remember what he did to your sister, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Alex pleads, “but there’s nothing I can do. The acceptance letters just went out and everyone gets assigned an incoming freshman. I have to mentor him. I don’t have a choice. All I need to do is sit with him at this stupid welcome dinner next week and show him around the school for a few days in the fall, and then it’s done.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Me neither.”
Liam Fucking Reyes, Tyler thinks with a sneer. He’s hated that jerk since the second he heard Winnie label him ascute, and even though it’s been over a year since he found her crying behind the gym, that ire hasn’t cooled a single bit. He’d smash the kid’s phone again in a heartbeat. He’d smash a helluva lot more if he could.
“Private school kids are soft,” Tyler grumbles. “You know what I got on my first day of high school? A black eye.”
“Yeah?” Alex huffs, then looks at him with a wicked grin. “But what’d the other guy get?”
A smile twitches at the corner of Tyler’s mouth as he recalls the look on that asshole’s face when he realized the freshman ice hockey player he was trying to put in his place wasn’t the groveling type. The rest of the school might’ve worshipped the senior QB, but that didn’t stop Tyler from bending his arm behind his back and threatening his season, his scholarship, and his entire career if he touched him again. Needless to say, the guy steered clear after that.
“You ready for this?” Alex puts on his helmet.
Tyler does the same. “Let’s go win a championship.”
They look at each other for a moment, years of friendship flashing in their eyes—hours on the ice, hours off it, slapping a ball across the driveway, living and breathing this sport in any way they could, watching it on TV, playing video games, recounting every play until the wee hours of the night, slamming each other into the cushions as they reenacted their favorite checks. They’ve been preparing what feels like their whole lives for this moment. So yeah, they’re ready.
They grab their sticks with the rest of the team and make their way to the ice. Coach stops them in the tunnel.
“I’ve never been much for speeches,” Alexandru Rusu states simply, his strong voice easily carrying over the cheers echoing from the rink. On the other side of the opening, stands full of friends, family, strangers, and enemies await. In here, it’s just them and him. Their leader. Their god. “So I’ll just say this. I want to win.”
Some of the guys smile and swap knowing glances. Tyler meets Alex’s hungry gaze. They want this. They all want this.
“Youwant to win,” Alexandru continues. “I won’t pretend this is just another game. It’s not. But I believe in each and every one of you. And if you play the way I know you can, there’s no team in the country who can stop you. In here, you’re winners. I don’t care what anyone else sees. Not your teachers.Not your classmates. Not your parents.” The older man holds Tyler’s gaze, as if this message is meant solely for him. A balloon swells in his young chest. “I see a winner. I see a champion.” Alexandru continues down the line, meeting all their faces with a sturdy, unyielding expression. That tender emotion Tyler can’t quite place builds beneath his skin, buzzing and growing into a warrior’s call. “It’s time to show the world exactly who we are. So let’s go out there and do what we do. Let’s win.”
They holler together, pumping their chests and beating their sticks like a pack of wild beasts. Then they take to the ice, storming out to mad applause. Spotlights flash and music blares. While the other guys rev up the crowd, Tyler focuses on the scrape of his blades, the beat of his pulse, the cool brush of air as he moves.
Yes, he wants to win.
But this is about more than that. It’s about proving to Alexandru that he wasn’t wrong for taking a chance on a stray like Tyler, about repaying the man in whatever small way he can for believing in him when no one else ever has.
