Chapter 31 – Jaxon
THIRTY-ONE
JAXON
This might be my favorite day of the year.
I love media day, and media day loves me. Especially the school’s marketing team because I make their job easier. Obviously because I’m hot, but I also come prepared with a list of trending videos to recreate.
My teammates on the other hand…only a handful are willing participants in them.
“Anything else?” I ask the photographer, balancing my stick behind my back. They check in with the Delilah, the sports marketing intern.
Delilah slides her focus from her tablet to me. “Your number.”
I play dumb, spotting Jordan on the opposite side of the ice. “Eight.”
“Phone number, you dick.” Cooper’s chuckle rumbles from where he’s off to the side of the green screen. Delilah slips her phone out from her dress pants.
“Don’t have it memorized.” I start to skate from the X’s taped on the ice. The lights in the arena dimmed in contrast to the bright, fluorescent ones they had us standing under for headshots. “No need to these days.”
I earn another snicker from Cooper. He skates next to me, whispering, “Liar.”
“You’ve been chummy with her all day, man,” Chase adds, hands resting on the top of his stick. He leans in batting his eyelashes. “Let me know how else I can be of a help.”
“I can’t wait to see how the pictures turn out,” Cooper mimics.
“She might give you a special viewing if you ask nicely.”
“I wasn’t flirting; that was serious. I am excited to see how they turned out.”
“She’s single,” Chase sing-songs in my ear. “And I overheard her telling a friend in one of Elliot’s cycling classes that she thinks you’re hot.”
“Everyone thinks I’m hot because I am.” Half the team laughs, but all I make out is my favorite one, Jordan’s. “You know it’s true, Little Carmichael,” I call to her.
“I don’t.” Liar. She totally does, and we both know it. “So that doesn’t make it everyone.”
“Happy to know you can count.” She’s on deck for photos, skating by me.
Her hand brushes mine, and I quickly loop our pinkies even if only for a second.
The feminine scent of her shampoo invades my nose, but she’s already invaded every part of me.
Jordan’s becoming the foundation of my DNA, the blood pumping through my veins, and the air filling my lungs.
By the day, it’s becoming harder and harder to convince myself not to fully fall for her.
“I’m assuming I have you to thank for this.” She pinches her jersey, speaking to her brother.
Cooper shakes his head, confused. “What about—oh. Eleven? Donaldson gave up his number?”
“I would assume since I’m wearing eleven, confirmed in my bio and on the school’s online roster.” Jordan tugs her cheek between her teeth. “Coach told me when he asked which numbers I’d prefer that eleven was already taken. Are you sure you didn’t have anything to do with this?”
“Promise, Jords.” He twists his fingers in a Boy Scout promise. “Do you know anything about this?”
I shrug innocently, push my bottom lip out, and glance at Chase. He shakes his head no.
“Maybe Coach Lang threatened Donaldson with one of her heels,” I joke. “You know the super tall and pointy with green bottoms.”
“Red bottoms,” Cooper corrects on a laugh.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes,” they all say in unison.
I remember the first time Mom came home with a pair. She wouldn’t let me touch them and would polish them after each wear. Barely a year later, Mom had several more pairs and a new husband.
“What’s so special about red bottoms?” I ask at the same time Delilah calls Jordan’s name, “Carmichael, Jordan. You’re up.”
While our teammates rotate out onto the ice, we dive into my list of social media videos.
Someone takes over for Delilah, and she beelines to where Cooper and I are leaning against the boards. He taps my chest with the back of his hand.
“Give her your number,” he says through the side of his mouth. “If you don’t, I will. She’s your type.”
Was my type, I want to tell him.
“Delilah,” I greet, a vintage Greene smile plastered on my face. The color of the juniors’ cheeks deepens—works like a charm. “What can we do for you?”
She licks her lips before responding, “If I can’t get your number, can I at least know what you’re doing after this?”
“I have a girlfriend,” Cooper blurts.
I clap his shoulder. “We know. The question was for me. Yeah?” Delilah nods. Blue hair zips by. “I’m sorry, I’m busy.”
“If you want to unbusy yourself, I’m heading to the Tipsy Bear and would love a drink.”
“I’ll think about it,” I laugh out and off the offer.
“Second?” Cooper pipes up.
“Another video.”
“He’s your man.” Cooper claps my shoulder, nudging me forward before trying to skate away.
“I need both of you,” she says and Cooper groans.
“Last one?”
“I promise.” Delilah extends a tiny microphone to me first, her phone held up in front of us. “What player would you not let date your sister?”
“Only child.” Sort of. “But probably…” I chew over my answer. Think through our roster. “Evander.”
“Hey!” The freshman backup goalie calls from center ice. “I’ve been dating the same girl since middle school.”
“Exactly.” I wave my hand in a duh motion. Then cup my mouth and whisper to the camera, “Plus, you should see his fashion choices.”
Cooper snorts.
“What about you, Captain? Who would you not let your sister date?”
“Easy,” Cooper says far too quickly for my liking. “Jaxon.”
Delilah’s mouth snaps shuts, gaze ping-ponging to me, I don’t falter. The same goofy, fun-loving hockey player she thinks she knows is who she’s getting. I laugh it off as if I agree, camera sweeping to capture my reaction.
Why would I care if Cooper wouldn’t want me to date his sister? Why would anyone want me to date their sister?
“I’d let you date my sister.” Dawson comes up behind us, pinching my cheeks. “You’re too cute to say no to, but definitely not Beck.”
We all turn to look at him, brooding in the corner. The vein in his neck, the one that runs through the flower tattoo peeking out of his jersey collar, pulses.
“That’s all I needed from you for the day. You’re good to go.” Delilah dismisses us with a smile, moving toward another group of players. “Jaxon,” she calls over her shoulder. “If you change your mind, DM me.”
I won’t, and for once I don’t feel guilty about it.
“Lunch after this?” Dawson asks. “Chase said Elliot and Sutton are in,” he says, as if that sweetens the deal.
“I’ll go,” Cooper says at the same time I respond, “Not hungry.”
I thought the waver in my tone was discreet enough, but Cooper catches it. Waiting till Dawson saunters off, he turns, shoulders slumping. He doesn’t like letting people down almost as much as I do. Luckily for him, he’s the golden boy.
“Jax—”
“I get it, Coop.” I don’t let him finish. He was probably going to apologize and claim he didn’t mean it. But he did. I’ve heard the spiel before. Catching Jordan’s gaze again is like another hole being poked in my chest, sinking me. “She wouldn’t want to date me anyway.”
“Come to lunch.”
“Really, I’m not hungry.”
Punching the buttons of the vending machine in the library, the metal spiral releases a bag of gummy bears. I wanted Reese’s, but found myself absentmindedly gravitating toward the buttons for her favorite snack.
I fish out the candy and energy drink from the compartment at the bottom.
“Hey.” I don’t need to see her to know it’s her. That voice is encapsulated in my ears, burned onto a CD of my favorite songs.
“Want anything?” I offer.
“To apologize.”
“Not sure they carry those in this.” I ignore her sentiment, despite it burrowing into me. Words I’ve tossed around like candy at a parade, never the one to catch it.
“Someone took the last bag of gummy bears.” She moves to stand next to me. “Can we talk?”
“Always.” I turn, heading back to the table I commandeered. Jordan follows, pulling out a chair across from mine and dropping her backpack into the one beside her.
“I heard what Cooper said. It was just a—”
“Just a video, yeah, I know.” There’s an unfamiliar bite to my tone, and I don’t like it. Don’t know how to shake it either, but I try. “Everyone will love it once they learn Cooper’s sister is on the team.”
Jordan’s shoulders slump. Head tips back, exposing the slim column of her throat.
The faint inch-long scar behind her ear from falling while climbing a tree as a kid is where my attention goes first. Moving lower, over the sensitive spot she likes kissed—the one that has her melting into my touch, the one I marked and almost caused me to lose my head with a skate to the neck.
The strap of her tank top is loose on her shoulder, tempting and reeling my gaze over her sharp collarbones and to her chest. Her pulse flares, skin going flush. Jordan straightens her head, causing the tendrils of loose blue hair to shift across her forehead.
“You looked beautiful earlier.” I hadn’t gotten to tell her yet. After media day wrapped, I showered and changed before coming here. My phone lost in the abyss that is my book bag.
“Thank you.” My attempt at changing the subject backfires. “You wouldn’t want to date me, anyway,” she explains, “Even if Cooper wasn’t my brother and being a dick.”
“That’s not true.”
“We both know it is. This…this thing going on between us, it works because we aren’t interested in each other like that. It’s just casual, right?”
“Right,” I lie.
“Good.” She snatches a handful of gummy bears. “Wanna come over? My bed is far more comfy to study in.”