Page 96 of Merry Mayhem
That’s a fair question. I actually planned to disappear. Spending time with him, in close proximity, is way too hard.
“Fine, we can talk after.”
“I’m going to hold you to that. Otherwise, I might have to make a scene,” he says with a little half smile.
“You’re threatening me?”
“Is hearing that I’m falling in love with you and am determined to find a way to make this work a threat, Danger?”
His voice is low and gruff now, and the look in his eyes is one that I would very much like to see for the rest of my life.
I take a deep breath. It’s shaky, and I feel like it doesn’t actually give me the boost of oxygen or clarity that I need. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Trust that your sister loves you. Tell her the truth.”
“You didn’t tell her everything?” I ask. But I already know the answer. He wouldn’t do that to me.
“I told her that nothing could happen between her and me. Because there’s someone else. But I’d really like it if you’d claim me.”
His words hit me directly in the heart.
He spent two years hung up on a woman who never would claim him. A woman he changed his entire life around for. I know now that he’s happy about those changes, even if things didn’t work out with her, but she didn’t want him, even when he gave her everything.
He’s letting me take the lead here with my sister, and I appreciate that, but I know what it would mean to him if I took a risk for him.
“Are you guys okay?” Max and Mitchell have skated up to us, concerned looks on their faces.
I’m not sure I am okay, but I nod. “Yeah, we’re fine.”
“Are you sure? You’ve scored like two goals in ten minutes.”
My eyes fly to the clock, and sure enough, we only have five minutes left. “Crap.” I look at Josh. “I heard you. We’ll figure it out.”
He nods. “Okay.”
“But right now? We need to go try to score some points.”
“Let’s go,partner.”
Yeah, yeah, I get his meaning. And I want that too.
We skate quickly to where the white puck is resting, and I shoot it over to him. He uses it to hit one of the red pucks into the closest net.
I go after it, fishing it out of the net and shooting it to him again. He sends the white puck sliding into another red one, but it goes careening far left of the net. I skate after it, assuming he’ll position himself in front of the net so that I can shoot it out to him. I glance to where I expect him to be, but he’s not, which pulls my attention even further to the right. My skate catches against the edge of the net, and suddenly I’m falling.
I’m more surprised than anything and I whip my arm out, trying to grab onto the net to keep myself up.
The net simply tips over with me.
I hit the ice hard on my right hip, and the net crashes down on top of me, whacking me in the head.
“Thea!” I hear Josh yell.
“Holy shit!” one of the twins shouts.
I just lay still for a second with my eyes squeezed shut. My head hurts, but my hip hurts worse. And then of course there’s my ego. A bunch of people just saw that happen.
Suddenly, the net shifts off of me, and I take a deep breath.
