Page 61 of Cold As Ice

Austin: Because I like spending time with you.

Madison: I’m not sleeping with you again.

Austin: I’m not asking you to.

Madison: You really want to be just friends?

Austin: I said I did, didn’t I?

Did I want to have sex with Madison again? Of course, I did. She was gorgeous, and now I knew how hot she was between the sheets; I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

But this was about more than sex. It was me doing the right thing for once.

I could be a friend to her. Someone she could lean on. I could prove to myself that I wasn’t the asshole everyone mistook me for.

It had never seemed important before, but everything was different now.

My sister was in love with one of my best friends. They were living together, for fuck’s sake. Connor was out for the rest of his final season with the Lakers, reminding us all how we were only one injury away from never stepping foot on the ice again. And it was less than six months until graduation.

In one way or another, everybody’s lives were moving forward.

Except mine.

I still had no real plans beyond graduation. Despite a few conversations with NHL teams in my sophomore year, I had no one chomping at the bit to sign me. There was still time, but the cold, hard truth was I didn’t know if hockey was in my future.

And if it wasn’t…

I didn’t want to think about that.

My phone bleeped again, and relief skittered down my spine. For a second there, I thought she might ghost me.

Madison: Fine. Tuesday? My parents are taking Immy for the night.

Austin: It’s a date.

Shit. That sounded all wrong. I quickly texted her again.

Austin: I didn’t mean, it’s a date date. It’s just two friends hanging out.

Madison: Austin?

Austin: Yeah, pretty girl?

Madison: Shut up.

* * *

“So let me get this straight,” Madison said as she tucked into her bacon and cheese fries. “You left for the night so your roommate could win back his girl?”

“Something like that.”

“Where are you going to stay?”

“I’ll probably just stay at the team’s frat house.”

“The team has a frat house?”

“Most of us aren’t pledges, but Lakers House is a long-standing tradition.”

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