Frozen Heat

15. Jade

After the guysleft for their game, I took my time getting ready for the day. I put Noah’s old jersey back on and got dressed in jeans and my boots. Grabbing my bookbag and my keys, I drove to the campus. Even though I didn’t have class on Friday, I still usually went to the library or sometimes I used the newsletter office for my blog posts. I had an in with the editor, so she let me come in when it was slow, like on Fridays. Once I waved to her in greeting, I grabbed a computer in the back corner of the room. I popped in my earbuds and started writing a post for my sports blog.

I’d only been typing for a few minutes when I noticed a girl walking toward me. She was gorgeous with burgundy red hair, hazel eyes, and a perfectly symmetrical face. She looked like she could be a model, and she carried herself like she was strutting down a catwalk. She stopped in front of my desk and looked at me expectantly. I took out my earphones and looked at her in question.

“Are you Jade?” she asked, her voice having a melodic lilt to it.

Jesus, who the hell was this woman?

“Um . . . yeah?” I replied. Wow, completely lame. I tried to keep the wince off my face.

“I’m Ruby,” she said simply. “You live with Callum and his roommates. We . . . well it”s complicated, but we are dating. Or trying to.”

Oh, so this was the infamous Ruby. I was really curious as to why her and Callum’s relationship was so tumultuous. He was a hot hockey player and she was a gorgeous co-ed. Callum seemed completely into her, so much so he came off as kind of antisocial to me. But I only saw one side to it, so I couldn’t judge.

“Hi, Ruby. I’ve heard about you and Callum. The last I knew you guys had broken up, but I don’t really talk to him much.”

“We’re working it out. I heard you and Noah are together more or less, and you do a sports blog. Most of the guys on the team don’t have a permanent girlfriend. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out, and maybe watch the game together. I have friends, but most of them don’t care about sports. I think it would be nice to have someone who understands what dating an athlete is like and actually enjoys the game,” she said, as if she was trying to convince me. It made me feel for her. Trying to find people who cared about hockey as much as I did was hard.

“I would love to hang out, but I have plans with a friend tonight at my house. If you don’t mind another girl being there, then you can come over and watch the game with us. She’s cool. She likes hockey because the guys are hot, but she doesn’t drone on about it like most girls do,” I explained with a laugh.

She nodded and smiled. I was about to give her my address when I realized she would obviously already know because of Callum. We made plans for her to come over at five so we could make some food before the game. She sat down at one of the computers after that and pulled out a pretty serious camera. That was when I realized that a lot of the pictures for the newsletter had a photo credit with Ruby’s name. The earlier conversation Cora and I’d had about Ruby came back to me. She had said she was talented, and an artist like me. Hopefully, it was true, so I would have something more than sports to talk to her about.

I messaged Cora to let her know that we would have an extra guest for the game. She seemed a little surprised that we were going to be hanging out with Ruby. It was weird that was such a big deal, but it just went to show how little I paid attention to other people. Of course, I had a reason not to want to put myself out there. People were good at being fake, and I rarely trusted or took people at face value. Tuning out the messages, I went back to work.

Around two, I had finished writing and getting ahead on schoolwork. I packed up my bookbag and waved to Ruby as I left the newsroom. I grabbed some lunch at Subway and headed back home. I was about five minutes away when my phone rang. I was at a light, so I glanced at the screen. What I saw made my blood run cold. There was a figure crouching on our front porch, in the frame of our doorbell camera. They had a hoodie on, their face hidden in shadow, and they seemed to know there was a camera, because they weren’t looking directly at it. They were putting something on the porch, out of sight, then they stood and took off. Like they hadn’t even been there. I got a text seconds later and the Bluetooth connected to the car read the message aloud.

Noah

Please tell me you aren’t home.

Shaking my head and blowing out a large breath, I texted him back.

Jade

I’m not, yet. I was on my way home when I saw our new friend on the doorbell camera. I’m a little wary of going home.

Noah

I looked at the rest of the cameras and I didn’t see him lurking. Go home, lock the doors—all of them. Then make sure the windows are secure too. Don’t open the door until you see Cora on the camera.

I sighed heavily; I could almost hear his words as if he were speaking them.

Jade

Okay. Ruby is coming over too. She came over to me in the newsroom and introduced herself.

I was past keeping things from Noah so I made sure to tell him the new development.

Noah

I’ll make sure to tell Callum. I’m sure he’ll get a kick out of that. Be safe, angel.

Jade

Thanks, Noah. Good luck tonight!

He sent back heart emojis and kissy faces. A horn blared behind me, and I turned my attention to the road and continued toward home. Once I parked and got out of the car, I saw there was a flower and an envelope on the porch. I unlocked the door, picked up both items without looking at them, then booked it inside. Putting them on the counter along with my bag, I went around the house doing exactly what Noah told me to do. When I finished, I had time to see what my stalker had left for me, snapping a picture before I picked them up.

I noticed the flower was a rose, but it looked wrong, and it smelled faintly of smoke. When my brain finally caught up, I realized that it was singed and had singe marks. Someone had lit the rose on fire and let it partially burn. I scrunched my nose. What a wack job. I opened the letter and was confused to see pictures stuffed inside. One was a picture of Noah and me kissing and written in Sharpie it said: I KNOW. Then the other picture was a candid shot of my parents outside their home that had another message: BUT DO THEY?

I dropped both photos on the counter and threw away the flower. What the hell? This was starting to get too creepy. They were watching me, and they knew who my parents were and where they lived. God, this was so messed up. I wanted to tell Noah, but it would just fuck with his game. I would tell him after it was over. I texted Cora, then paced in the kitchen as I waited for a reply.

Within a few minutes, she called me. I swiped the answer button with shaking hands and put her on speaker.

“Jade, what the hell is that?”

“That was on my porch when I got home.” I sent her a message with the flower and pictures. “I got a notification on my way home, and my doorbell camera picked up someone putting these on the porch, but of course, there was no good image of their face. Noah called me so he knew someone was here, but he doesn’t know about the flower and pictures.”

“Yeah, it’s probably best to wait until the game is over before bringing that up to him. I’m almost at your house. Let’s talk face-to-face when I get there.”

We both said our farewells, and soon, my doorbell camera was showing on my phone. I saw Cora standing there, and immediately, I let her in. She took one look at my face, and after shutting the door, she pulled me into a hug, giving me a small amount of the comfort I needed at that time. She followed me to the kitchen, and I showed her the pictures that were left. Her brows furrowed as she looked at them and read what was written on them. “Why is there a picture of your parents?”

I sighed and leaned against the counter, crossing my arms across my chest. “I think they are alluding to my parents finding out as a threat. They won’t be happy about Noah and me being together.”

She grimaced and set the pictures on the counter. “Jade, is it?—”

I shook my head and cut her off with a raise of my hand. I knew where she was going before she even said his name, because I had thought the same thing—my ex.

“I already checked. He’s still an active inmate. He doesn’t have a parole hearing scheduled anytime soon. And it would have to be someone who can get out and move around. They’ve taken pictures of Noah and me. They know where my parents live.”

“What about Jacob?” she suggested.

I shook my head again. “He is too scared of Noah and his teammates. This person is bold and isn’t intimidated by the fact that I have huge hockey players around me. I have no idea who it could even be. I couldn’t see any real features of the person who was lurking around, but they didn’t look like a college student.”

She threw her hands up in exasperation. “So, it could be anyone.”

“Hence my freakout. They can’t tell my parents. Not only do I not want to deal with them knowing, but also, it could completely screw Noah. It’ll get out and even though we are stepsiblings, and we aren’t remotely related, people see it as a taboo thing. The NHL won’t want to deal with a scandal with a brand-new player.” I shrugged.

“Fuck.” She breathed. “You sure you don’t want to talk to Noah about this, Jade? This is pretty serious.”

“I do want to tell him, but I’m not going to do it before his game. I can’t do that to him.” My phone pinged and I looked down at it, opening the message. “Fuck. Ruby is on her way over right now. We need to act like none of this happened. She just wants some friends who like hockey like her, and this stalker shit doesn’t need to spread.”

Cora nodded, and we pulled together some dips, cut veggies, and chips that we could eat as snacks while we watched the game. Then I called in an order for pizza and garlic cheese bread to eat shortly after Ruby arrived. I was determined to put this all out of my mind for now.

The Lake Michigan Wolves won the game 3-2. It was an insanely close game the entire time, and our team pulled out another goal at the last minute to win the game. Ruby, Cora, and I yelled so much we were almost hoarse. Needless to say, it was eventful, and Ruby ended up being pretty cool. I had worn Noah’s jersey, she had worn Callum’s, and Cora had purchased one of Oli’s at the school spirit store.

Ruby stayed over and slept in Callum’s room after she called him, and he told her to stay in there. We didn’t have a guest room, so Cora opted to stay on the couch. I fell asleep almost the minute my head hit the pillow. I had tried to call Noah after his game, but I figured I probably wouldn’t get a hold of him. The school they had played at was only an hour and a half away, and they were headed back tonight, so they were probably busy getting changed and packed up. I figured I would talk to him when he got home.

It felt like I had just fallen asleep when I felt a hand slide up my ribs, brushing against the side of my breast. It continued to move up, making its way across my neck and into my hair.

“Angel,” I heard a voice whisper. A part of my brain knew it was Noah, but the larger part of it was confused by the fog of sleep I was in. My subconscious brain was warring with my conscious mind. I told myself to open my eyes over and over, and finally, the darkness of Noah’s room registered with me, and his face came into view.

“Noah,” I breathed, smiling automatically. It was weird, but in such a short time, he became my safe space.

He grinned back at me and pressed his lips against mine before pulling away minutely. “Hey. It seemed you were having a good dream.”

“If I was, it surely involved you,” I whispered. Everything that had happened before his game came back to me, and I sighed. I really didn’t want to tell him what had gone down, but he had already told me that keeping things from him wasn’t an option.

“I need to tell you something, and I don’t think that you’re going to like it,” I started, preparing for the eventual blow-up that was coming.