Chapter 6
Carter
Willa pushes me away with a loud groan. “I’m mad at you.”
“Me? What the fuck did I do?” Besides, treating her like a complete asshole in the dining hall, I haven’t done anything to her tonight.
I ran over to apologize to her. I kept thinking about it and felt bad. She didn’t deserve my outburst, but I don’t deserve this one either.
“You were mean to me.” She points a tiny finger in my face when I come back to her. For such a tiny girl, her shove knocked me back several steps.
“That was days ago, and I was trying to apologize.” I punch myself in the chest and wince from the hit against the bruise forming under my shirt. “I didn’t do anything to you tonight.” I lean over, trying to catch my breath. The old man got me good.
“Apologize? Why?” she scoffs.
“For giving you the truth you didn’t want to hear.” I fire back at her. She’s upset that I want to apologize, then fine, I won’t apologize.
“I’m so sick of this.” She groans loudly with her arms raised out to her sides. I expect another shove and flinch, but she lifts her hand to point in my face. “I’m sick of you thinking you know me. I’m sick of my friends telling me I need to break up with Vic without asking how I feel.” Her voice cracks. “I’m sick of my parents for telling me that hockey isn’t a career for women.” She brushes her sleeves over her face. “Coach thinks I’m making a terrible mistake. And Vic…” Looking away, she sniffs back her tears. “I’m tired of defending him. I’m so tired of pretending.”
Tears slide down her cheeks as she breaks down. Trying to wipe them away as quickly as they appear.
“Come.” I motion to my truck parked in front of the house for her to follow.
I hate seeing her like this. I hate seeing any woman cry, but normally Willa is a force. She’s fierce on the ice, never letting anyone get past her and takes on women twice her size. That strong competitiveness follows her off the ice, but now it’s been replaced by a vulnerability from getting kicked down too many times.
“Do you have anywhere else to go?” I turn to face her when she doesn’t follow me.
She looks back at the party, and down the street to the direction of her house before deciding to climb up into my passenger seat.
“Where are we going?” She clicks her seatbelt in place.
“To have some fun.”
Driving through the winding roads of campus, I head out onto the small highway that takes us into Briar Creek Valley. The park is closed with the only light shining on the statue that never turns off. I have to turn off my headlights to stay hidden, but I know my way through every curve like I know every inch of my dick.
Willa’s eyes widen, but she doesn’t complain. Curiosity of where we are has gotten the better of her as she takes in the scenery outside the window.
I stop in the parking lot of the indoor and outdoor rink. Noticing Willa’s thin sweater, I grab the key I had stolen a while back from the console to get inside.
“Are we going to get in trouble?” she whispers from behind my back, inching up on her toes to see what I’m doing.
“Trouble,” I scoff. “I never get in trouble.”
Not any real trouble. I get caught, scolded, and maybe held in a cell for a few hours, but that’s the worst of it.
I lead the way in and flick on some of the lower lights for us to see better.
“What size?” I hop the counter of the skate rentals and find mine.
“Seven,” she whispers over the counter, as if someone will hear us.
“You know,” I lean over to whisper back, teasing her for being scared, “no one else is here.” I smirk at her, trying to keep it together.
“Shut up.” She pushes me back from the counter.
“Sticks and gloves,” I announce as loud as my voice can go and head to the back to grab a couple of hockey sticks and pairs of gloves for us to use. “Pucks are under the counter.”
Willa is already on the ice when I come back out. I slip on my skates and grab a few pucks we can play around with.
I used to come here all the time to get away. I’d sneak out of my house after everyone fell asleep and ride my bike through the park. The park was quiet and peaceful, freeing me from my prison. Then I’d break into the rink and work on mastering anything new I learned, knowing I’d have to really heighten my hockey skills if I had a chance to get out of here.
Willa skates around the ice to test it out. Moving backwards and doing quick footed tricks that make her look more like a figure skater than a hockey player.
“Working on your axles?” I tease her. “They say it’s good to have a backup sport.”
She glowers at my teasing, but with a tick of her lips, she skates around me, pumping her legs to pick up speed. She flies up with a jump, twirling around and swinging her leg out onto a shaky landing.
I clap and cheer as she catches herself from falling forward.
“It’s been awhile.” She takes a second to catch her breath. “My mom used to dress me in tutus and sign me up for figure skating lessons at our local rink. That’s where I found hockey and started playing with the boys.”
“I think you missed your calling.” I wink, so she knows I’m joking. That little move she did was impressive, but it’s no match for the skills she has with a puck.
“Are we playing or what?” She rips the outstretched stick from my hand and gives my thigh a light slap with the toe of the blade.
I toss a pair of gloves to her and get mine on. Willa takes a puck and slaps it between the blade of her stick and skate. Expertly making quick, short passes before slapping it down past the crease to where a net should be.
I kick another puck to her and crouch down to get as low as I can in my stiff jeans. She takes her gloves off to pull back her short blonde hair into a ponytail away from her bright big blue eyes with the short ends still falling into her face, and cracks her neck to get ready. Flicking the puck out in front of her, she comes at me as I back away.
The puck moves right to left and back again. Stick, stick, blade, stick. She keeps the puck under her, maintaining full control. I follow it, waiting for my break to take it away. I get my stick in, but she’s quick to swat it away with her own.
“Keep an eye on my hands,” she says while keeping her pace. “You’re too focused on the puck.”
I try again, ignoring her advice.
“One. Two.” She counts it off, leans left, then a quick right. “Three.”
I stumble as she slaps the puck between my legs and skates around me to pick it up and score it past the goal line.
“Shit,” I grunt, and pick myself up.
“Don’t go easy on me.” She slaps my stick with her own.
“I wasn’t.” I shake my head, embarrassed that she just whipped my ass. Willa is an amazing hockey player, but I should’ve been able to hold my own better than that. “I’m not good on defense.”
“Let’s switch.” She goes on defense and stops me from getting past her each time, giving me more tips to improve.
I make it past her once. I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve run through, switching places until we’re slacking off and doing tricks with the pucks and sticks.
Her stick comes high and I grab it under my arm.
“Holding!” she screams with a high-pitched squeal and tries to get it free.
“High sticking. You deserved it.”
She laughs as she tries to kick the puck away with the blade of her skate. Still holding her stick, I spin us around and shoot the puck behind me to score.
“Goal!” I shout and slide onto the ice in a canoe celly. Planting my ass on the ice with my legs out in front of me and using the stick as my paddle. I don’t make it far in my jeans.
“Cheater.” Willa sticks her tongue out and laughs at me, trying to row myself across the ice on my ass to celebrate my goal.
I’m sweating in my fleece from the workout. Willa skates off to the side and hops over the boards, done with our game too.
“How’d you get a key to this place?” She puts the skates on the counter as I return the gear to the rental area.
“I stole it.” I shrug.
“Carter,” she gasps. “Seriously, how much trouble can we get in?”
“Did we get caught?” I laugh at her. We’re getting ready to leave, and now she’s worried? “Relax. Even if someone catches us, they can’t do anything. I can get away with fucking murder around here.”
“You can.” She glares at me. “Not me.”
“You can too, by association.” I lean over the counter to get closer to her. “Do you think I’d let them do shit when I’m the one that took you here?” They’ll be pissed about the fresh marks on the ice, but it’s nothing they can’t easily clean up.
“So, what?” She stands with her hands on her hips, huffing out a breath to blow a wavy strand of hair away from her face while I close up the rink. “Do you take all the lucky ladies out here to show off your skills before fucking them in the park?”
“Is that a special fantasy for you?” I grin at her over my shoulder. “To be fucked in a dark and empty park.”
She flips me off.
“Considering you just wiped the ice with my ass. I think it was you that did all the fucking,” I say, gaining an eye roll from her. “But no, consider yourself the only lucky one.” I hold the door open for her to leave before I lock up behind us.
After climbing in my truck, I give her a serious answer. “I come here to clear my head, and blow off steam. You looked like you could use the same.”
She nods and looks away.
“Before I got a key, I used to break in a lot. Rick, the owner, is a friend of my chief at the fire department. I stole the key from him a long time ago, but I think he knows I have it. If I get caught in the park this late, it’ll become apparent that I’m up to no good, and I don’t feel like dealing with that shit.” If my dad found out, it’d be another thing he can use against me.
Willa is silent as we drive back through the park and onto the highway back to campus.
“I tried talking to Vic about our future,” she utters quietly that I have to lower the music to hear her. “I asked him what his plans were after graduation and it turned into a huge fight.”
“Why do you think he got so upset?”
Her head snaps from the window to look at me. There’s a brief awkward silence and I’m not expecting her to answer when she does.
“There are a few reasons I can think of, but I just wanted to prove everyone wrong. And he proved them all right.” Her head goes back as she lets out a long breath. “He’s cheating on me. He does it all the time, and I keep giving him passes. I keep pretending I don’t know.”
Anything I can think to say isn’t something she’d like to hear. I want to shake her and convince her she deserves better. But that hasn’t worked for anyone else, and it won’t work for me to do it either. I’m the last person she’d take advice from.
“I love him, and I know the cheating will stop after we graduate. He’s partying and living that college frat boy life.”
Fuck that.
There’s no excuse for cheating on your girlfriend. No matter if you”re a drunk college student or not.
“I’m going to talk to him.” She doesn’t sound too sure of herself. “I need to stand up to him and tell him this is it. If he can’t change his ways, then I’m done. I won’t follow him to Utah. I can have a pick at a better team.”
The more she talks, the angrier I’m getting, but I bite my lip to stop myself from saying anything. She’s too good to be slumming it with a horrible team just to be close to her boyfriend, who treats her like crap.
If she doesn’t stand up for herself, she’s going to ruin her life.
“When he gets back, I’m going to have a serious conversation with him.”
“I hope it goes well,” I encourage her while biting my tongue to stop what I’d really like to say.
“I hope so too.”
Her house is quiet, but still lit up when I park the car to drop her off. The Hockey House will still be in party mode. I’ll end up sleeping in my car out in the parking lot down the street to avoid it.
“If you need me to kick his ass, let me know. I’d be happy to do it.” I joke and try to lighten Willa’s mood again.
“I’m sure you would.” She punches my arm. “See ya around, dick.”
“Later, prude.” She looks back at my nickname for her. “Any other time I’ve been out with a girl, they’ve put out.” I shrug.
She flips me off, yet again, as she heads for the door. Waving me to go with a gleeful smile spread over her face.
I did what I sought out to do. I made up for being a total jerk for kicking her when she was already down. My good deed for the year is done.