It was ironic. Being hard to get was part of Shiv’s appeal early on. While so many other girls tried to land Ward by any means possible, like nudity or offering up blowjobs, Shiv wasn’t one of those chicks who liked the idea of landing a hockey player.
I understood the intrigue. I liked that about Bailey too. Being wanted for what I was rather than who I was had gotten old fast. But months later, Dallas only sort of had Shiv, and it wasn’t enough. I could see both sides. On the one hand, it was just a label. On the other, the label was kinda nice.
“Has she said what her issue with that is?”
“Something about her ex,” Dallas muttered. “Turned psycho and got possessive. She won’t give me any details.”
Bailey had sort of alluded to that too but hadn’t gotten into it. All I’d gathered was the dude was worse than Morrison, which meant he must be pretty fucking terrible.
“That’s rough.”
“Sure,” he agreed, stepping into his skates and lacing them up. “But obviously she knows I’m not a psycho by now.”
“Except when it comes to video games.”
Dallas made a face. “Ha ha. Fuck off.”
“Doesn’t really sound like a you problem.” Which meant he couldn’t fix it, but telling him that wouldn’t be helpful.
“I know, but how long do I put up with this? It’s been, like, five months. Almost six.”
“What’s the alternative?” I gestured. “Come on, man. Are you really going to end things with Shiv because you like her too much? You realize that sounds fucking stupid, right?”
Behind Dallas, Tyler snorted.
“Thanks, Ty.” Dallas drew in a breath. “And your brutal honesty is refreshing as always, Carter.”
Pulling on my shoulder pads, I shrugged. “I’m just saying.”
“I like that you’ve had a girlfriend for like, twelve hours, and suddenly you’re a goddamn relationship guru.”
“To be fair,” I said, “I’ve been calling out your stupidity for years.”
Dallas rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I gave up on yours. That shit would be a part-time job.”
“I’ll have you know I haven’t done anything stupid in at least a month or two.”
Admittedly, the summer had been rocky, and I’d made more than a handful of regrettable decisions. But fall had been smooth sailing. Mostly because of Bailey. Okay, solely because of Bailey.
“Pretty sure that’s a record,” he said, pulling his red captain’s jersey over his head.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Pretty sure it is.”
I was amped up on testosterone and refueled sexual frustration during practice, which meant I had no shortage of energy. Yeah, I was frustrated again. It would take a while to work that out of my system. A long while.
“Carter!” Dallas shouted.
I snapped back to reality in the middle of the rink. “What?”
“The puck?” He gestured. “Go get it. We’re done for today.”
“Oh, right.” I skated off to the side and retrieved it before hopping off the ice.
One would think finally having sex would temper some of my horniness, but instead, it fueled it. Now I was thinking about James twenty-four seven. That part wasn’t new, but the scenarios had heated up significantly.
Though I was still trying to reconcile what she told me at XS with how she was in my bed, because they were like night and day. Seemed like actually paying attention to her needs went a long way.
Christ. I felt sorry for chicks. Sometimes I wanted to mail a map of the clitoris and a fucking clue to other guys.
On the plus side, it made me look good in comparison.
After hitting the showers, I got dressed quickly and headed for Coach Miller’s office. I’d hoped weekly check-ins would go to the wayside now that my probation had ended, but I still had the pleasure of seeing his shiny bald head and stern, cranky face for one-on-ones every five to seven days.
“Hi, Coach.” I set down my bag, flopping into the seat across from him.
Hopefully, this would be another in-and-out meeting so I could go do literally anything else. Maybe hit the library before my last class to write my economics paper or text James or think about James instead of writing my economics paper. Ooh, James as a sexy librarian…goddamn it.
“Carter.” Coach Miller tented his fingers, furrowing his brow. “I’d like to talk to you about the game the other day. Tell me about the hit you made on that Morrison kid from Callingwood. The one where you got a charging penalty.”
Well, this wasn’t good. Last thing I needed was to get benched for our next game against Callingwood because Miller thought I was a liability.
I mean, I probably was. But I didn’t need him to know that.
I kept my expression neutral, my tone to match. “What do you mean?”
Dodging the Bullet 101: When sensing trouble, keep the other person talking to determine what, exactly, they know. Thus avoiding incriminating oneself.
Learned this one the hard way. Several times.
“You’re lucky they didn’t call a major penalty on you for that,” he said. “You went way out of position to hit him. Why?”
“Got carried away, I guess.” I shrugged.
“You never get carried away.” He narrowed his eyes, studying my face with the intensity of someone reviewing game tapes. “Don’t think I missed your verbal altercation with him beforehand. That hit was clearly personal.”
“Off day,” I said. “Won’t happen again.”
The lie detector determined: that was a lie.
He harrumphed, leaning back in his reclining desk chair. “Make sure you keep your head on straight out there. Your game was a little uneven too.”
He wasn’t wrong. The rest of the team wasn’t pulling their weight, either, but that didn’t excuse my lapse in performance.
“Noted, Coach.”
OceanofPDF.com
BAILEY
After the night with Chase, I spent the following day in a total daze. I’d phoned it in for my classes, squealed over the new developments with Zara and Noelle at the Callingwood Daily office, and thought about him way too often.
Then I had to meet Siobhan to discuss which apartment to go with and pretend like I had my brain together.
I did not.
And like I’d thought about apartments.
I had not.
Roughly speaking, I was about 90 percent ecstatic and 10 percent terrified. I had no reason to be terrified. No excuse for feeling that way. Things had been nothing but amazing. And that’s what scared me.
Being so high meant there was so much farther to fall.
“So,” Siobhan smiled at me expectantly across the table, “how are things?”
Heat creeped up my neck. Suddenly, the cafe felt like a sauna.
“Good.”
“Things with Chase, I mean.”
“Really good.”
She grinned. “Dallas wanted to bring people back to the house last night, and I told him no way.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, hiding behind the menu to conceal my blushing. “The alone time was nice.”
“Did I hear him call you his girlfriend before you guys left?”
I broke into a grin. “Yeah, he sure did.”