Chapter 13
Thirteen
Eloise
There’s a cool breeze at the base of the mountain that is making my stomach twist in regret. I should have listened to Taylor when she said that this was an awful idea, but no, I’m a glutton for punishment and I like the idea of torturing both of us when we’re trying to be friends.
Winnie laughed at me when I mentioned it in passing. I guess this isn’t a regular thing that the Vortex do—they’re not sadists—but something the men’s team, the Rooks, do to their rookies.
I wave to Brynn when I catch sight of her.
She’s wearing team garb, looking comfortable and ready to work.
Taylor looks miserable beside her, hair up in a messy bun but also in team garb.
She’s got dark circles under her eyes that make her look sickly, and her green eyes pop.
I smile at her, trying and failing to stop my eyes from wandering down her body.
Her thighs look phenomenal in the leggings and—fuck, no.
Bad Eloise.
You’re not supposed to be looking at her; you’re getting over her. If Winnie were here, she’d have a fucking field day watching me scramble to look anywhere but at Taylor.
“Good morning!” Brynn says, smiling. Taylor winces, and something about her being slightly miserable makes me happy.
Not that I enjoy people being miserable, but it makes her seem more human than whatever idiot she was earlier this week.
“Morning.” I turn to Taylor and give a small wave, which she catches and wiggles her fingers in response. Maybe she’s just not a morning person. “Look, are we sure we need to do this?” I ask.
Brynn snorts, “Let's just go back in our cars, eh? Jeez, you and Taylor are on the same wavelength this morning.” Her smile is malicious. “But we can do this! I love doing this trail every year!”
“Because you’re a sadist,” Taylor mutters.
“I must be if I want to be your friend.” Her retort is fast and catches both of us off guard. I smother a giggle as Taylor blushes a tantalizingly dark pink. The tips of her ears are a deep red, and wouldn’t you know it, I find it alluring.
I’m such a useless lesbian.
“Kidding,” Brynn says, sickly sweet, “but come on. I’ll buy coffee when we’re back in the city.”
The wind blows through, a frigid breeze that makes me shudder. How foreboding.
Taylor and I are wheezing when we make it about halfway up the mountain. I think I’m about to die or at least my legs are going to fall off. This is going to kill me, I swear it.
And we also have to make our way down.
Shit.
I don’t know what’s going to be worse, the rest of the uphill climb on this practically vertical staircase or the full length down. Brynn looks like she’s having the time of her life, and I wonder what demon she made a deal with being able to do this without looking like she’s breaking a sweat.
“She’s going to kill us,” I whisper to Taylor. She’s stayed back with me while Brynn has foraged ahead a few metres. I wonder if it’s a part of her “Let’s all be friends” plan, but I think that would also mean she wants us to survive this experience.
Nature’s going to kill us if she doesn’t.
“She’s such a sadist,” Taylor huffs out. It’s a little louder than I expected, and I have to stop myself from laughing. “Why are we even friends with her?”
“I can hear you two,” Brynn snaps, whipping her head around with narrowed eyes. A snort escapes me this time around, and I catch Taylor biting her lip to keep from laughing too.
“Then you know we’re dying and you’re still making us do this!” I cry out.
She snorts. “Just keep moving. We’re nearly there, you big crybabies.”
Taylor bursts out laughing, and I think that she’s going to break a rib with the way she’s clutching her sides.
The laughter isn’t what I expected from her.
It’s not a gruff laugh but something enchanting, that makes me look at her with my heart in my throat.
It makes her eyes close tightly with tears in the corners and joy radiating off of her.
I think it’s the first time I’ve enjoyed being around her without hockey and without me beating her.
I swallow tightly as she reaches for my hand and grabs it without hesitation. They’re smooth, even her callouses, or I guess, her lack of callouses. She nearly stumbles as she does and then pulls me tightly to her. Our sides brush, and something in my body is alight.
I can’t… There’s something that I can’t shake about her.
She wipes the tears from her emerald eyes, more jewel toned than I’ve seen before, and I’m stuck where I’m standing, looking into them.
There’s so much in them, the way they’ve brightened, the small flecks of brown and lighter green that fragments out her pupil.
The way she stares back, with a smile that I don’t think she knows is there, gracing me with its presence.
I could soak in every second of this moment, with my heart in my throat and our hands holding each other.
The tingles that I feel every time our sides brush against each other while we breathe settle into the fabric of my DNA, and there’s no escaping her.
She’s becoming more to me. More than the crush that I thought I had under control and managed.
She’s slowly becoming… everything.
Taylor pulls back slightly, hand still in mine until it’s not and the warmth is gone. Her small smile is still there, and rosy cheeks that are obviously from the exertion of the hike and not from our hands touching.
I’m feeling hot and bothered and flustered under the collar as I discreetly shake my hands off in an attempt to forget what it felt like.
It won’t happen again, that’s for sure. She won’t let it, not unless she forgets that she hates me.
“Come on, ladies,” Brynn calls out, audibly irritated, and the little bubble we were in, the last dregs of heat and joy, popped by her. I tilt my head in her direction.
“Let’s go,” I squeak out. Taylor doesn’t look me in the eye as we make our way through the last bit of the hike.
The excruciating kilometre of stairs is going to make my ass pop, but at the cost of my thighs being able to support me.
Taylor looks the same, hands on her knees as she closes her eyes shut when she tries to shake out the pain of the stairs.
Brynn looks as fresh as a daisy.
“Dude, what are you?” I ask, watching the way she jumps as if just warming up. “Part mountain goat?”
Taylor punctuates the question with a small wheeze of a laugh.
“I just like the stairs,” Brynn says. “I like the burn.”
“I don’t believe you for a second,” I mutter, watching her. “When do we have to get down to get our promised coffee?”
“Yes, coffee,” Taylor moans. “Please, Brynn, let’s go now.”
“You two are supposed to be elite athletes,” she shakes her head, “Fine, let’s go—Wait!” she shouts as we try to get up, “I want a photo of the three of us on the mountain!”
I try very hard to keep my eyes forward, but from the corner of them I can see Taylor rolling her eyes. “Fine,” Taylor says, standing up straight, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and making a grabby hand for Brynn, “Let's get this over quick.”
No, I’m not basking in the joy of her arm over my shoulders, or the heat of it. We’re also both hot, sticky and sweaty, so I wouldn’t say that this is what I wanted her to experience the first time she’s got her arms around me.
But when the three of us smile at the top of the trail, Brynn holding her phone out like an ancient Millennial, I can’t stop myself from grinning and thinking that this must be what it is to be a team.
Or at least, part of one.
“I’m sending this to socials,” Brynn says after a few minutes of posing and photo taking. “The fans are going to love this.”
“Fallon’s going to wonder what happened to us,” Taylor mutters. “You’ll have to tell xem that we died on top of this mountain.”
“You’re ridiculous. Xe know that you guys can handle this,” Brynn responds.
“Do xe?”
“Of course! Besides, I think xe’re desperate for more stuff to post, so this is perfect.
” She gives me a huge grin, and I roll my eyes.
Taylor snorts at the sight before starting to head back down the steps.
She reaches out, expectantly looking at me before I nod and we start to hurry down the mountain.
“Hey! Where are you going?” Brynn shouts.
“Last one down is a rotten egg!” Taylor shouts back.
“Don’t twist your ankles!” Brynn sounds a bit angry this time as we hurry down.
Taylor and I don’t slow down until much later, both of us huffing and laughing. “Brynn’s going to kill us,” I say before groaning. “And my favourite band’s new album comes out next week.”
“You’re going to be fine,” she says, nudging my shoulder as we walk in tandem. My heart leaps in my throat, and every breath seems a bit shorter when I realize how long we’ve been walking without her being mean.
Or rude.
Or… Jeez. I need better taste.
“What band?” she asks. I turn to look at her, just for a moment, because looking into her eyes. The sun is shining, warming up the place as we walk down, giving her hair a small halo when I step down before her.
Oh.
Yeah, this is why I’ve got a crush on her.
“Oh, they’re a tiny Canadian band. You wouldn’t know.” Her eyes narrow, and I think I could count every freckle and mole on her nose.
“Wait, are you talking about Les Forks?”
My jaw drops. “How do you know about them?”
She slaps my arm excitedly. “I saw them when I was back home for the summer! They played in a tiny little venue in Hamilton!”
The squeal I let out is involuntary. “No way, I saw them in London when I was hanging out with the Harringtons at their family farm! We went to Rock in the Park. They were so good, and they played Torched, which was phenomenal!” I gasp at the memory, the way the drums washed over me and the bass.
“You were hanging out with the Harringtons?” She raises an eyebrow. “Kenz and Blake?”
“Yeah! Who else? Kenz, Blake, and I went to the same high school. Whenever I play in Toronto, I try to connect with them for dinner, so we’re pretty close,” I shrug.
I should let Kenz know that Melody and I broke up.
I don’t think I’ve done that yet, although she’s probably already seen the rumours on Instagram if Melody has added anything to her account recently.
She nods. “But you guys hang out outside of the season?”
I nod. “Of course. Hockey is such a small world, and women’s hockey even more so.” I shrug, “Better to be friends off the ice than enemies, right?”
I bite my lip when I realize what I’ve said. She sighs. “I’m working on that thought process,” she mutters, “But yeah, I guess you’re right.”
We’re silent as we continue our adventure back to the cars. There are a few birds singing, and the wind rushes through, making the remaining leaves on the trees rustle. It’s the crisp air that has my soul singing. I’ve always been a fall person, and today is the epitome of why I love it so much.
“So, you like Les Forks too?” I ask when the silence is a bit too loud.
I catch a smile from the corner of my eye and have to smother my own.
Her smile shouldn’t be this contagious. “Of course. Thanks for reminding me of their new album. I can’t wait for it.
” Her smile is getting bigger. “I may play it loudly for Brynn at midnight as payback for this.” We’re a few hundred metres from the entrance of the hike and my knees shake at the thought.
“Play what for Brynn?” We hear her shout. I whip my head around and watch her come barrelling down the path.
“Run!” I shout, pulling ahead this time, grabbing Taylor with me. She shrieks as we rush, Brynn’s panting getting louder. A few other hikers stare at us running past. When we make it down without destroying our ankles on a divot, we nearly collapse into a heap by the car.
“Tay! Eloise! That was so mean!” Brynn pouts. “You left me all alone.”
“Well, you’re the rotten egg,” Taylor teases, “We had to get you back for this somehow.” Brynn crosses her arms.
“You did not,” She sticks her nose up in the air and pouts, “See if I buy you two coffee now.”
I let out a loud gasp in response. “You would dare do that to us?”
“You don’t deserve it,” Brynn says with closed eyes and red cheeks. Taylor playfully rolls her eyes, nudging Brynn. Their casual ease with each other is comforting, like that’s something I’ll be able to build with the Vortex.
“We all survived the hike, so I think we earned that coffee,” Taylor says,“Let’s get to Oatalicious; they’ve got some of the best brunch snacks.
” Brynn huffs out a laugh but nods in agreement.
Taylor’s eyes meet mine, and for a split second, it feels like they’ve softened when she looks at me.
My heartbeat is thudding, and if it’s from the crush rather than exertion, I won’t tell.
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll meet you there?” I ask. Taylor nods before Brynn unlocks her car. I make my way back to mine, sitting in the driver’s seat but not starting the drive just yet.
This feels like a very positive turn of events. I can’t wait for the start of the season.