Chapter 27
LIVELY
“Are you... Are you flirting with me right now?” Hailey Baleman's lips curled down with disgust, and my heart thudded against my ribcage at the sight.
I just loved any and all the expressions she made for me; angry, disgusted, disgruntled, I fucking loved them all.
My lips curved and I leaned down so that our faces were mere inches away. “Why, thank you for finally noticing, Hailstorm. Only took you about two years.” I said.
Her eyes flew wide.
My heart hammered against my ribs as I watched the emotions play across her face – shock, confusion, and a hint of something else.
Something I'd been waiting two years to see: realization.
Realization that I was really fucking serious.
Her lips parted slightly, and fuck if that didn't make my entire body tighten with want.
Two years of wanting her. Two years of pulling her metaphorical pigtails because it was the only way I could get her to look at me. Childish, I knew that, but she could get so cold and distant that I'd had no other choice.
My mind flashed back to the course; to how perfectly she'd fit against me when I caught her.
The soft gasp she'd made. The way her body had molded to mine like it was made to be there.
Christ, holding her had been the sweetest torture.
Every point of contact had lit me up like a live wire, and it had taken every ounce of self-control I had not to press closer, rock into her, and let her feel exactly what she did to me.
My cock was still throbbing at the memory, and I shifted slightly, grateful for the still early morning dimness that hid my body's obvious reaction. Shit, this was getting out of hand.
Now, Hailey's eyes narrowed, that familiar spark of challenge lighting them up.
God, she was beautiful when she was angry, which was good for me, because she was always angry with me.
But this time felt different. This time, there was something else beneath the anger, something that made my pulse spike.
She opened her mouth, probably to tear into me with one of those sharp-tongued replies I loved so much, but Coach Gunner’s whistle cut through the air before she could speak.
“Alright, everyone! Circle up! Let's talk about what worked and what didn’t up there!”
For once, I was grateful for the interruption.
Because as much as I wanted to hear what she had to say, I was also terrified.
Two years of carefully crafted interactions, of walking the line between annoying her enough to keep her attention and pushing her too far away—it could all come crashing down with whatever words were about to leave her lips.
And I didn’t think I could handle that right now.
“Come on, Hailstorm,” I said, nudging her shoulder gently. “The coaches are waiting.” I threw in a wink for good measure, falling back on familiar patterns like armor.
She scoffed, but not before I caught the flush creeping up her neck, staining the tips of her ears red. Okay, that was cute. Everything about her was cute, even when she was trying to murder me with her eyes. Heck, especially when she was trying to murder me with her eyes.
“Stop calling me that,” she muttered, but there was less bite in it than usual. Progress, maybe?
We joined the circle where Coach Hawkins was already breaking down Randy and Dani's winning performance.
I tried to focus on the technical aspects of their feedback, like communication, trust, timing, but my attention kept drifting to Hailey beside me.
The way she shifted her weight from foot to foot.
The slight tremble in her hands that told me she was still coming down from the adrenaline.
The way she pointedly avoided looking in my direction.
“And our Captains,” Coach Gunner's voice snapped my attention back to the present. “Good recovery on the Burma bridge. That could have been nasty, but you worked together, trusted each other. That's exactly what we’re looking for.”
Hailey tensed beside me. I ached to reach for her, to touch her like I had on the bridge. But we weren’t thirty feet in the air anymore, so I didn’t have that excuse.
“Yeah, but maybe next time, you can focus more on the course, and less on the flirting?” That was Dylan's wisecracking addition to the conversation, and a ripple of laughter went through the group. Hailey’s flush deepened, spreading down her neck in a way that made me wonder just how far it went.
Not that I should be thinking about that right now. I didn’t need her seeing how close my cock was to poking a hole through my pants in real fucking time.
“Alright, this was a great exercise. Well done, everyone!” Coach Hawkins stepped forward. “You have a thirty minute cool down session and breakfast at 8. And then what comes next?”
Hailey stepped forward, her expression back to that ice cold mask that I’d come to understand as her armor. I wished she wouldn’t see the need to wear that around me…but it was okay, I just needed to work harder.
“When we drafted the practice schedule, the high ropes course was supposed to come later in the evening,” she said, “But since that was moved to this morning, we’ll have a two-hour rest period,” this announcement was met with excited whoops and hollers, “After which we’ll switch the mixed scrimmage planned for today with a light on-ice session. ”
Both coaches were nodding along, and so was I. That seemed like a pretty solid rescheduling of the sessions. The ropes course was an energy drainer, too—
“Baleman, Summers.”
I stood at attention. “Yes, Coach!”
Coach Hawkins arched a brow at my military style acknowledgement before rolling her eyes. “See us at the rink for a Captains’ debrief.”
Ah. I totally hadn’t had the chance to watch my team’s performance on the course, what with my Hailstorm being right in front of me—literally pressed up against me —I really didn’t see how any right thinking person expected me to concentrate. I was just gonna talk outta my ass, then.
I caught her eyes then, and I swear all thought flew out of my skull at the way her gaze seemed to pierce through me.
She'd been watching—no, she was watching me.
The excitement must have fried all of my brain's circuits because I blurted out the first words to come to my mind without thinking them through:
“We can do it now,” I said, definitely a little too quickly. “Get it out of the way.”
Now, she was definitely staring at me rather openly, her gaze promising some kind of retribution.
But there was another look underneath that, one that was equal parts suspicion and something else—something that made my stomach flip.
It looked a lot like awareness, and I literally couldn't get enough.
“Fine. Let's just get it done.” When she agreed, I barely stopped myself from fist pumping like some teenager scoring a date. Because this wasn't a date. It totally wasn't.
But even though I knew it wasn't a date of any kind, I also knew that it was more time with Hailey. More time basking in the fact that I was completely, utterly fucked when it came to her. Heck, I was beginning to accept that I might just be as much of the freak my buddies said I was.
“Then, we’ll see you in an hour.” Coach Gunner nodded to me, Hawkins already walking back towards the mouth of the woods.
“Yes Coach.” We both replied, even though I knew I was probably fucked.
But it’d be so worth it.
As the coaches disappeared down the path, anticipation thrummed through my veins like electricity.
I turned towards her, itching to say something—to see if she had something to say to me, too.
I needed to know if she’d even been a little bit affected by what had happened on the bridge, or if I was just projecting my own desperate wishes onto her reactions.
But before I could even open my mouth, a swarm of Blizzard Belles descended on her like a flock of particularly determined birds, their voices overlapping in excited chatter.
“Holy shit, Cap! You okay?”
“Thought you were going down for sure—”
“Did you see how fast Barnes and Ferguson cleared that zipline?”
“I say they cheated.” That was Zoe, no doubt.
“You’re such a sore loser, Zoe.”
“Fuck you!”
“Fuck you too!”
My heart clenched watching her get pulled away, her dark ponytail swinging as she moved.
The way her shoulders tensed slightly when Gina threw an arm around them before relaxing again, like physical contact was something she barely tolerated.
The rigid set of her spine that somehow made her look both untouchable and achingly vulnerable.
I wanted to see it soften in my arms. I wanted to see her soften in my arms.
I had it so goddamn bad it surprised me.
“Be honest,” Dylan's voice cut through my Hailey-induced trance as he sidled up beside me, arms folded across his chest. “You enjoyed feeling her up a little too much, didn't you?”
I rolled my eyes, turning to face my best friend, who was being a total bastard right now. “I didn't feel her up, man. You need to get your eyes checked.” The words came out defensive, though we both knew damn well what had happened up there.
My hands still burned with the memory of her body pressed against mine—the curve of her waist, the solidity of her against my chest, the way she'd stiffened and then, for just a fraction of a second, relaxed into me.
Dylan scoffed, clapping me on the shoulder with enough force to make me stumble slightly. “Oh, my eyes work perfectly fine. I sure hope you didn't scare her with your boner.”
Heat suffused the entire surface area of my chest before spreading down into my belly. I couldn't even deny it. Having Hailey Baleman in my arms—feeling her breathe against me, hearing that little gasp she'd made when I caught her—yeah, my body had reacted exactly how you'd expect.
But I laughed instead, the sound rough around the edges. “Fuck you, man.”
“Sorry, Cap. I'm into women,” Dylan shot back without missing a beat.
The team moved ahead of us down the path, voices carrying through the trees. Randy was at the center, being swarmed by the rest of the guys trying every bargaining tactic to get a share of his prize.
“Come on, man, just one meal?” Logan was saying, his arm slung around Randy's massive shoulders. “I'll do your laundry for a week.”
“That's a terrible offer,” Matt scoffed. “Your laundry's a biohazard. I'll give you my desserts for the whole camp.”
Randy's low rumble of laughter drifted back to us. “You guys are pathetic.”
It must have shown on my face that my thoughts had nothing to do with the commotion happening in front of us, and everything to do with the Blizzard Belles’ Captain whose behaviors were confusing me as much as they were intriguing me, because Dylan said,
“You're so fucked, man,” he said it softly, something almost like sympathy coloring the words. “You know that, right?”
Yeah. I’ve known that since freshman year. So, I didn't even bother denying it anymore. “I know.”
He sighed. “Just... be careful, okay?”
That made me look at him— really look at him.
And the genuine concern in his expression hit me like a sucker punch.
Sometimes, I wondered what he saw in me, and why he still chose me, despite the fact that I wasn’t all that interesting outside being Captain or a rich kid or whatever.
Most times, I tried not to think about it.
“I'm serious,” he continued, lowering his voice. “If this goes sideways, it's not just you who’ll get hurt. We've got the upcoming season to think about.”
He was right, of course. But it was too late for caution.
Had been too late since the moment I first saw Hailey Baleman in that hospital corridor two years ago, eyes warm with genuine joy, her lips curved into the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen.
I'd been lost since then, circling her like a planet trapped in orbit, unable and unwilling to break free.
“I've got this,” I lied, the words hollow even to my own ears. Dylan just snorted, clearly not buying it for a second. But he let me be.
But we both had to believe it. I’d been playing the long game for years now and it was starting to look like my patience could be paying off, even though I couldn’t be totally sure yet. I was just going to have to be a little more patient.