Page 26 of Top Shelf
I didn’t mind the quiet.
Warm-ups seemed to last forever, but it wasn’t long before I was skating over to the net. My stick felt weak in my grip, and my glove was ill-fitting. Or…was that just me? Was I just distracted? I couldn’t let this fuck me up. I had a whole life to live, and I couldn’t sleep on this team just because I’d signed a contract with the Bruins.
I was a rookie. I had so far to go to prove myself.
The memory of Quinn needed to live in the shadows for a while.
I crouched low when Cosmo skated up for the face-off. I saw his back moving with his deep breath. I saw the ref staring at them both.
And then the puck dropped, and my entire focus became one thing, and one thing only.
Don’t let anything get past me.
We’d won with a shutout,and it was worth it. But it had come at a cost.
“Whoa. Dude.”
I knew exactly what Myles was referencing. I’d taken a stick to the face, the edge of it slipping just under my mask and getting me right in the jaw. It hadn’t been on purpose, so my team didn’t kill anyone, but it was painful, and eating sucked.
“Game last night,” I muttered.
Myles grimaced and reached over, giving me a gentle, quick pat on the arm. “Sorry, man. That’s horrible.”
It really was horrible, and I appreciated the sympathy.AndI appreciated the company. I liked Myles a lot.
I’d met him weeks ago at a party. He’d been hanging around Colton, and I didn’t entirely know what to make of their relationship, but I was also afraid to ask. They seemed to hate each other, but also, Colton looked at him a lot like the way Quinn had looked at me, so…
And if Colton did like Myles, I could see why. He was gorgeous, and he was kind. There weren’t a lot of guys on campus like Myles.
If anyone were to ask me, I’d say he was a weird fit for Colton, but Colton needed a guy like Myles to mellow him out.He’d been a lot less antagonistic over the last few weeks, which I appreciated.
“Did you win?”
“Uh…” I set down my book next to my untouched plate of crêpes and met his gaze for a quick second. “Yeah. We won. Shutout.”
“That’s good, right?”
I shrugged. “The other team didn’t score against us.” The game itself was fairly pointless. Playoffs were a while away, but we always made it, and even if we had lost, our position was still good.
“You, uh…you got drafted, right?” Myles asked after a moment of silence.
I nodded and fiddled with my crochet hook so I didn’t start stimming the way I wanted to. The way that made everyone who didn’t know me well feel weird. “Mhm. A couple summers ago.”
“They let you finish up school?”
“They figured it was better that way. I was doing well here, and I could work on my game while finishing my degree. Better than being sent right down to the farm.”
Myles nodded. I wasn’t entirely sure if he understood what I was saying, but he didn’t ask me to clarify. “So…have you seen Colton around?”
I almost asked if there was a reason he was looking, but I didn’t actually want to know. Their business was their business. I shook my head. “Not since this morning. He left before me. He had an 8:00 a.m. class.”
Myles sighed and pushed himself up to his feet before hesitating. “You want me to stick around and keep you company?”
“No, thank you. I want to read and think.”
He blinked, then laughed. “I love the way you say what you mean.”
I wanted to play ignorant and pretend like I didn’t understand what he was talking about. But I was too tired and sore for it. “Easier that way.” I reached for my book and smiled a little when he gave me a pat on the shoulder.
