Chapter 56
HAILEY
I roused from sleep for the second time that day, slowly, like my body was fighting its way out of a vat of syrup. My limbs were heavy and tangled in the sheets, and the room was awash in a warm golden hue that made everything feel unreal , like I was suspended somewhere between dream and waking.
Then I blinked, my vision clearing slowly from the blurriness of deep sleep only to find Lively staring down at me with the dumbest grin on his face.
"Ah!" I flinched, jostling against the bed. "What the hell? Stop that, you creep."
He chuckled, his voice low and raspy with amusement, like he’d been lying there watching me sleep for way too long. "You look cute when you sleep," he said, then added with a smile that was all teeth, "Very biteable."
I gave him a look. Flat. Unamused. But my pulse didn’t get the memo, because it kicked up anyway, like it was now determined to do every time I looked at him.
"Damn it," I hissed, sitting up and groaning when I noticed the angle of the light outside his window. Sunset. Which meant I’d been out cold for hours, and slept over for far longer than I’d thought. "Why didn’t you wake me?"
There was a greater possibility of running into Dylan now. He couldn’t stay out all day because of me, after all. Shit. But Lively, the pervert, was obviously not in the same damn wave length as I was.
"I love having you here. In my bed." His voice dropped an octave, shameless and molten.
I opened my mouth to argue but the words caught in my throat.
Because even though I was torn between exasperation and wanting to melt into the mattress like warm caramel, it was hard to hold on to annoyance when his eyes were that soft and his voice was that earnest. God, he made it so hard to be mad at him.
My stomach chose that wonderful moment to rumble. Loudly. We both froze, eyes locked. My face burned as silence thickened between us… and then shattered completely when Lively burst out laughing.
"Oh no," he wheezed, clutching his side. "I think I fucked the nutrients out of you."
I covered my face with both hands, groaning into my palms. Ugh, so embarrassing. “Stop laughing, you asshole.” I grunted as I climbed out of the bed.
Lively, like a damn Velcro baby, got out of bed, walking around it to stand in front of me. That was when he leaned in, grinning with that shit-eating confidence that somehow still managed to look boyish.
"Guess I better feed my girl, then." The words rolled off his tongue like a promise, low and possessive, and I barely suppressed a shudder at the blatant ownership in his voice. Like he’d been waiting an eternity to say it….a truth he could now wear comfortably on his tongue.
My heart hiccupped. There was no hesitation in the way he said my girl. It was casual, so casual, but so… not .
"Your girl?" I asked, raising a brow. Half-teasing, half genuinely curious to see his reaction, and Lively's expression blanched, all the color draining from his face as his eyes flew wide with panic.
"Y-yeah?" He stammered, his face flushing light pink with panic, the color creeping up from his neck to stain his cheekbones. "I mean... aren't... aren't we...like, a couple , now?"
I blinked at him, amusement coiling in my gut. Oh, wow. Watching the panic flood into his eyes was better than any dessert I’d ever eaten. It was delicious .
I tilted my head, letting the silence stretch, doing my damn best to keep my lips from curving.
“Hey, why…” he cleared his throat once, body carefully rigid, and I could see the struggle to rein the panic in. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Hm?” I hummed, “About what?”
Lively stared at me for a solid second, disbelieving, before lifting his hand to hover above his mouth. “How... How could you, Hailey Baleman?" he gasped, eyes rounding in mock horror as his voice rose. "After everything we did!”
Wh…What the hell was he doing right now? I blinked, my amusement flickering into alarm. "Hey—"
But he had that look in his eye that told me that I was so cooked. "I even let you put your fingers in my—!"
Every neuron in my body fired at once. "Do not finish that sentence," I hissed, face burning, as I slapped both hands over his mouth so fast I nearly dislocated something. There was no way I was letting him finish that sentence, not with the possibility that his roommate could be home by now—
“Ahem.” The amused voice that floated in from behind the door doused me in mortification like a cold bucket of water. My blood turned to ice, freezing every cell in my body. I stiffened, blinking at Lively in horror.
Lively’s brows shot up with wicked glee, laughter vibrating beneath my hands.
"You little shit," I hissed through clenched teeth, "You did that on purpose, didn’t you?"
His eyes twinkled with unrepentant glee. “I don’t know what you mean, Hailstorm," he said, all feigned innocence and honeyed smugness.
I glowered at him. A full on, frostbite glare. If looks could kill, he’d be an ice sculpture right about now. But, of course, Lively, being the cocky bastard that he was, had the self-preservation instincts of a fucking goldfish, only grinned wider.
“You asshole,” I grumbled, “You’re not nearly as cute as you think you are," I told him, biting the words between my teeth.
He leaned in just a little, his voice still perfectly loud enough for whoever was outside his door to hear. “Hm, methinks the lady doth protest too much. I know you’re definitely thinking about kissing me right now.”
That much was proven true when the voice came again. “A-HEM.”
Shit. This asshole. Didn’t even look the least bit embarrassed. He even had the audacity to wink at me.
As I was gearing up to punch him right in the nose, my stomach chose to growl again . Of course it did.
And now I had to face whoever was out there. It was definitely Dylan. Why the hell was he even hanging around in front of his roommate’s room anyway?
Now, you’re just making excuses. Yes, damn it. I would combust from embarrassment, otherwise. But I also knew that I couldn’t hide in here forever. I was going to have to leave here sooner or later. And it had to be sooner because I wasn’t a damn coward.
So, I turned toward the door, fully intent on getting it over with, when Lively caught my wrist and reeled me back against him. I felt every inch of him pressed against my back, the heat of his body searing through the shirt I wore— his shirt.
“What?” I snapped at him, the idea of punching him becoming more and more fascinating with each second that passed.
“You can’t go out like that.” He said gruffly, and I realized that I really was wearing just his shirt.
My brows slashed downward even more, but when I turned to look at him, he had a shit-eating grin on his face, the kind that made me want to simultaneously kiss him and strangle him, as he held up a fresh pair of sweatpants.
The gray fabric dangled from his fingers like a peace offering, though the smirk on his face suggested anything but peace.
Eyes still narrowed, I snatched it from him and put it on, the soft cotton sliding over my skin as I fought to maintain what little dignity I had left, before stalking to the door.
I didn't give myself time to think about what I was about to do, didn’t even count to three. I just flung it open.
Pop!
I reeled back as a burst of confetti nearly smacked me in the face. I had to blink through the shimmer, and my eyes widened at the view in front of me. The hallway—no, the whole goddamn front of Lively’s apartment, was crowded .
The combined forces of both the Rink Runners, and my own teammates, the Blizzard Belles, greeted me.
They were all wearing shit-eating grins even more annoying than Lively's had been, their faces lit up with the kind of gleeful satisfaction that came from catching someone in a compromising position. That someone being me .
The flurry of confetti floating in the air around me caught the light from the hallway fixtures, creating a rainbow of colors that danced in front of my face, and I realized that the popping sound I'd heard had been from the party popper in Matt's hands.
Click! Shutter! Click!
That was Dylan, smug as hell in a backwards cap and hoodie, holding a DSLR camera pointed right at me. The shutter clicked again, a shit-eating grin slashed across his face.
Mortification molded my joints together and my eyes were even wider now, taking in the scene before me like I was watching a train wreck in slow motion, even as they all continued to whoop and holler and clap like I was walking a red carpet. My blood pressure spiked.
Because I, Hailey Baleman—Captain of the Blizzard Belles, professional keeper of her shit together, was currently standing barefoot in Lively’s apartment, wearing nothing but his oversized t-shirt and borrowed sweatpants, in front of the literal last group of people I wanted to see right now.
My entire team. His team. Dylan with a camera. Con-fucking-fetti .
Shit.
"What the hell is this?" I growled, the question ripping from my throat.
Zoe beamed at me like a feral gremlin. "We’re celebrating your first day!"
"My what now?" I blinked rapidly, now even more confused, my brain struggling to process the chaos unfolding before me.
Gina chuckled at the look on my face, and said, "I mean, we're just so happy that our Captains have finally made up."
My stomach dropped straight into my ass.
"Hell yeah," Logan drawled, his eyes twinkling with the kind of satisfied amusement that came from watching drama unfold, "Practice has been fucking hell these past few weeks. Felt like we've been skating on thin ice."
Dani snorted, “I mean, I get that we’re hockey players, but man, was the rink ice cold.”