CHAPTER TWELVE
A hockey romance
JAKE
The boys erupt in cheers and hollers, excited that finally one of us has taken down the elite trio. I join them, shouting and celebrating.
Are we overreacting a little too much?
Probably, but the look on Vanessa’s face makes it so worth it.I turn back toward the girls, who are all now standing in front of the TV.
I look down to Vanessa, and I know that I have a wicked grin on my face. “ Well, well, well, sorry, Ness but looks like I won. And you know what that means.”
She looks up at me, hatred beaming in her eyes. Oh yeah, she’s a sore loser.
“There are seven shots on the table, and I wonder if there’s a birthday girl here who would love to take them.”
Vanessa narrows her eyes on me, furrowing her brows. I’m well aware I’m pushing her buttons, and I’m loving every second of it.
“But luckily for you, I’m not that evil.” I look at Maddie and Sydney who are standing next to the coffee table. “Maddie and Sydney each get two, and that leaves the rest for you.”
Vanessa rolls her eyes at me. I’ve come to love that reaction from her. I almost purposely say stupid shit just so I can see her green eyes roll back.
“How did you do it?” she asks, reaching for her first shot.
“Oh, is someone a sore loser?”
“I just want to know how we won against everyone but you.”
I smile wide at her. “Well, if you would’ve asked me, you would’ve known that I bought my sister a switch for her birthday last year and she made me spend all summer playing games with her. I guess you could call me a Mario Kart expert.”
She sighs, I know that she’s internally cursing at herself for not asking before we started playing. I know she would’ve come up with a better game plan rather than assuming I was bad like the rest of my teammates.
“C’mon, Ness. Take your shots so we can give you your presents,” Eli shouts from the couch.
“Presents?” Her voice is laced with confusion.
“Yeah, presents. Normally you get those on your birthday,” Eli explains, as if it’s redundant.
“Guys, you didn’t have to…”
“Shut it and drink, girl.” Maddie holds two shots in her hand and immediately throws both of them back. Vanessa and Sydney follow Maddie’s lead, and all of them take their shots one after another.
All of the guys on the team chipped in on a gift for her, but I may have gotten her a little something extra all on my own.I grab the beanbag chair Vanessa and I were just sitting on and pull it next to the table so Vanessa can sit while she opens her gifts. I motion for her to sit down, and she follows my instructions. I think that’s a first. As Nate comes down the stairs, Sydney and Maddie both come back in from grabbing their presents from their car. We place the gifts on the table in front of Vanessa, waiting for her to pick one.
“I think the obvious answer is to pick mine first.” Sydney beams. From what Nate has told me, Sydney is the best person at picking out presents. It’s like she has a sixth sense for picking the perfect gift for someone.
“Okay, fine, give it to me.”
Sydney has her gift wrapped in gold paper with a green lace bow on top.Vanessa takes the gift from Sydney and slowly peels apart the paper, trying her hardest not to ruin her friend’s handiwork. Eventually she caves, shredding the rest of the paper, a smile spreading across her face as she opens the box and pulls out a cream-coloured sweater.
That fucking smile.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe you got this for me!” She tackles her friend to the ground.
“Okay, am I the only one confused as to why you’re so excited about a sweater?” Eli asks the question that’s on everyone’s minds.
Vanessa rolls her eyes at him. “You wouldn’t understand, but this is the Taylor Swift cardigan from her Folklore album.”
Yeah, that definitely didn’t help.
Nate grabs the cardigan from Vanessa. “That’s the cardigan that she wore? Holy shit, Syd, how much did you spend on that? Mom and Dad are gonna freak.”
Sydney snatches it right back from him. “No, you idiot, this is just a replica of it, but it’s Vanessa’s favorite album and I knew she’d never buy it for herself.”
Girls are definitely from another planet. A sweater that looks identical to one that one of her favorite artists has worn…what an odd gift. But with the way Vanessa is looking at it, she clearly loves it.
“Here, open mine next.” Maddie passes her gift, which is in a black gift bag and dark green tissue paper.
Vanessa slowly pulls a book out of the bag that has a half-naked man on the front cover. She immediately shoves it back into the bag, clearly trying to hide it from the rest of us.
“Maddie…what is this?”
Maddie laughs, very entertained with how red Vanessa’s cheeks are. “It’s a romance novel. You were asking for a recommendation, and I found the perfect one for you, a hockey romance.”
A hockey romance?
“I’m sorry, did you just say you got her a romance novel about hockey?” Kieran confidently asks, knowing all of us would probably just laugh and make jokes about it.
“That’s exactly what I said. Do you need your ears checked, Kieran?” Maddie sneers at him. I don’t know what it is with these two, but Maddie seems dead set on disliking Kieran. I wonder what he did to deserve that.
“I thought it would be funny since you’re working with hockey players. You might as well fall in love with a fictional one.”
Eli perks up when she says this. “Hey, who’s to say that she won’t fall in love with me? I am quite charming, you know.”
“Fictional men are always better than men in real life. At least this way she won’t be disappointed.”
I think Maddie bruised his ego.
“As long as there’s good spice in it, I’m sure I can get over the fact that it’s about hockey. Thank you, Maddie.” Vanessa leans over to hug her friend. Even when getting a questionable gift, this girl is so appreciative.
“All right, now it’s our turn.” Nate walks over to Vanessa and places the box in her lap.
Most of the guys suck at gift wrapping so Nate took it somewhere to get professionally wrapped. After I told him about her situation, he wanted to make sure that Vanessa got everything and more for her birthday. There’s nothing worse than spending your birthday alone.
The fact that her parents could just leave her and not feel guilty makes my blood boil. If my parents ever did that to me or my sister, I know that we wouldn’t have a relationship at all. That’s not how families are supposed to be.
Vanessa opens the box and pulls out the custom jersey we had made for her. Coach had a couple extra jerseys in his office, and he didn’t mind donating one for Vanessa. She holds it up in front of her, putting it on display for all of us to see. It’s styled just like our home jersey, dark red with white bold writing and a lone wolf in the center. On the back we have her last name printed.
“Guys…this is…” She goes speechless, taking a moment to look around the room, eyes watery.
“Oh no, please don’t cry.” Nate huffs from the couch.
Sydney smacks her brother’s arm, getting him to shut up.
“This is so sweet, thank you. All of you.”
She stands up and hugs each and every one of us, showing how grateful she is for today. Vanessa is so tiny compared to the rest of us, it’s almost comical.
“Hey, Ness, I forgot I have a gift for you, but I left it upstairs.” I’m not embarrassed to give it to her in front of the guys, but it’s something I’d rather give to her in private.
“Please tell me it’s not your dick.”
Ouch. It’s not, but would it be so bad if it was?
“Ha-ha, y’know you really know how to boost a man’s ego, Ness.” I put my arm around her shoulders and start to lead her toward the stairs. “C’mon, follow me.”
I yell behind me to Levi and ask him to grab the ice cream cake from the freezer, so it’ll be ready once we come back down. I lead Vanessa up the stairs to my room, passing by Kieran’s along the way, I hear Vanessa scoff at the state of his room. I swear Kieran is so anal about having a clean house or car, but when it comes to his room, it’s a complete disaster of thrown blankets and drawings scattered everywhere.
We get to my room, and I go to the top drawer of my desk and pull out the small box.
“You’re not proposing or anything, right? I mean, Jake, I love that we’re becoming friends, but I’m nowhere near ready for any sort of commitment.”
She thinks she’s so funny, turning me down all the time. Normally girls beg for me, but no, not Vanessa. Never her.
“Don’t worry, angel girl, I’m not a commitment kind of guy.” I walk back over to her, standing in the middle of my bedroom. “Here, open it.”
I pass her the black box I’ve kept hidden from my roommates. It’s not anything super sentimental, but I definitely put some thought into it. She opens the box and pulls out the custom camera strap I got her. It’s dark green and embroidered with flowers and vines. The girl I hired to make it charged me double her rate because it was last minute, but that didn’t matter to me as long as Vanessa likes it.
“Jake, this is gorgeous, where did you get this?”
I shrug. “A girl in my astronomy class does embroidery as a side gig. I had her put flowers and stuff along the lead ’cause you said you enjoy nature photography the best.”I sound like I’m pussy-whipped and we haven’t even had sex. I should just tell her I got it because I think she’s really fucking cool, and I wanted to make her smile.
Oh, and I can’t stop thinking about her.
All right, now is not the time to confess any sort of emotion. Keep a blank face, neutral . This day is all about her and I don’t want to freak her out if I say anything else. This is just a nice gesture that I’m doing for a friend. Nothing else.
Well, maybe I want a little more than friendship with Vanessa, but she’s made it so evidently clear that that is the last thing on her mind.I don’t know how to deal with any of these emotions. I’ve never felt this way about someone before, wanting to be near them, hear their voice, make them happy.Before, all I cared about was playing hockey and fucking almost any girl who threw herself at me. Vanessa is the first girl who’s tested me, pushed me, let me into her life, and I’m weak at the knees for her.
Before I can sink any further into my own thoughts, she kisses my cheek. Her lips are so soft and plump, I want them all over me. Trailing down my stomach, going down even farther where I can wrap my hand around her pretty hair as she takes me into her mouth.
Fucking hell. There’s no hope for me.
“You’re sweet.” She stands back and looks up at me with those big gorgeous green eyes, “But why didn’t you want to give it to me in front of everyone downstairs?”
That’s a great question.
Why? Well, it might have to do with the fact that Kieran would say that I’m whipped and that could cause me to punch him in the face and start a whole brawl over a small gift. It could also be because I was nervous she wouldn’t like it and having her reject me again might be detrimental to my ego.My brain is malfunctioning on how to respond.
“I forgot it up here and thought you might like to take a minute away from everyone and the shock from tonight. I know surprise parties aren’t really your thing, but we wanted to make sure you had a good birthday.” I wanted you to have the best birthday.
“Oh, well that’s very thoughtful of you. I wasn’t expecting this, so yeah, I guess I was a bit overwhelmed downstairs.” She smiles up at me, readjusting her glasses. Fuck, she is so adorable.
She looks around the room, lingering in the silence that’s settled between us. She looks up to me, as if she wants to say something more but stops herself. I stand in front of her, watching her fidget with the camera strap in her hands, waiting for her to say something.
She shifts back and forth on her feet until she decides to break the silence. “I’m gonna use the restroom then head back down, meet you there?”
“Uh, yeah, I’ll meet you downstairs.”
I head out of the room and down the stairs to rejoin the party.
Why do I feel like there’s something else I missed? Something else going on in that pretty little head of hers that she’s just not willing to share with me yet.