Fake Skating(96)
“Y’know, even with my dad showing up unannounced, I am incandescently happy right now. His… whatevercan’t even ruin this.” She turned back to me, full-on grinning, and said, “By the way, I don’t know if you’re interested since you’re not a party person anymore, but I grabbed this just in case.”
She pulled a bottle of champagne out of her purse and added, “Even if we only take one sip and throw it away, I think we should toast the night that you had.”
“The night we had,” I corrected, because it didn’t feel like my night at all. It was the team’s night, it was Southview’s night, it was Dani-and-fucking-Alec’s night.
“Yeah,” she whispered, her voice going soft. “I want to celebrate us and forget about everything else.”
Her eyes held a hint of sadness, and it was killing me not to ask if she wanted to talk about her dad and the fight we’d overheard, but I could tell she was trying to forget.
And I was perfectly fine drowning in ignorance with her.
“Come here, wiseass, and let me toast you.”
My heart was in my throat as she took a few steps toward me, looking so damn pretty with her dancing eyes and fistful of bubbly that Alfie Jukes’s lyrics hummed through my mind.
I’m loving you more
Than I have before
To see you with those eyes wide
I took the bottle from her hand, grabbed the cork with one hand and the bottle with the other, pointed it away from us, and boom—it popped.
“Holy crap,” she said, eyebrows raised as she grinned. “That was impressive.”
I looked at her twinkling eyes and the Packers jersey I could see underneath her coat, and I just wanted to freeze the moment.
“Drink up, Collins,” I said, feeling like I was going to explode if I didn’t kiss her.
Like, immediately.
Her eyes stayed on mine as she lifted the bottle to her mouth and drank, and dammit—I couldn’t wait. I took the bottle from her hand the second she lowered it, dropped it on the ground, and then I was sipping champagne off her lips, sliding my hands up the curves of her face while my tongue got drunk on the taste of her.
She made a noise when I kissed her, it might’ve been my name or it might’ve been a sigh, but I felt it crawl up my spine like a shiver. I forgot all about charm and finesse and just kissed the hell out of her, diving into her sweet mouth over and over again as she grabbed both sides of my jacket like she needed something to hold on to.
Yeah, I’ll fucking be that for you. Hold on, Collins, and never let go.
It felt like we were trying to absorb each other, like Dani and I were in a race to consume as much of each other as we could in the shortest amount of time.
It was too intense, too good, and I wanted to stop time and stay in this moment.
“They’re here,” she whispered against my mouth, still kissing me back like she didn’t give a shit.
“Boo,” I said as I heard voices outside, regretting that we’d told the guys where we were going. A car door slammed, but I didn’t care enough to pull back and deny myself the intoxicating slide of her bottom lip against mine.
“Fucking perfect,” I breathed, then did it again.
But when the door flew open, it wasn’t my friends who were standing at the threshold of the crumbling shed.
No, it was fucking Benji Worthington.
Ben walked in with three St. John’s guys: their goalie, Adam; their forward, Cody; and Austin Clark, the coach’s son.
I swear to God I heard a roaring in my ears as I watched them enter ourspace.
What the fuck were they doing there?
“Benji?” Dani said, sounding shocked to see him.
The goalie snorted. “Did she just call you Benji?”
What the fuck were they doing there?
“Are you ever going to remember to call me Ben, honey?” Benji said with a smile that made me want to kill him.
What the fuck are they doing here?
“Did you seriously just call me honey?” Dani said, but she didn’t sound pissed. She sounded confused, like she didn’t know why the little douche had that much nerve.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked, keeping my cool.
“We happened to see your unmistakable car drive by when we were getting gas on Concord, so we thought it’d be entertaining to see what Zeus and the boys were doing to celebrate the win.”
“You followed us here?” I asked, my cool going from blue to instared. “You’re such a fucking loser, Worthington. Get a life.”
“I have a life,” King Douche said. “But I suspected Dani was in your car, and I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
“Of course she’s okay,” I said, wondering where that little fucker got off. That was the second time he’d acted like he needed to check on Dani when she was with me. “What the hell does that even mean?”
It’d been a great day, and I was not in the mood to deal with Benji’s bullshit. I needed him to disappear.
“It means you’ve always been a prick who’s prone to violence—”
“Come on, Benji,” I said, glancing at Dani because that was such bullshit and I didn’t want her to listen. “Kicking your ass for being a cocksucker doesn’t mean I’m prone to violence. It means I couldn’t take your bullshit anymore.”