2. Avery
Chapter Two
AVERY
The tension was palpable. Every muscle in my body burned. My mouth was dry. I held my breath while the crowd’s cheers and boos increased. As the final minutes counted down, I was ready for a tie.
Heading for me was their captain, Grayson Reed.
He sent the puck viciously to the left Breaker and attempted to avoid me.
His eyes on the puck betrayed him. He was going to bait and switch, then take the puck.
And as he neared me, he lifted his gaze in a surprise move.
He looked right into my eyes as our bodies collided and I carried him off toward the boards.
I slammed into him, holding him just long enough that he had no chance of retrieving his momentum and his position.
We were locked. “Ah, fuck,” he scoffed as he crashed. “That’s…rough.” But in the next heartbeat, I was turning away from him. I watched Beckett snatch the puck from their left player and Caden blazed after him.
It was possible that every last person who filled this rink, including all the Arctic Titans, Blizzard Breakers, Coach Murray, and Beckett Partridge himself, were shocked at that moment.
Even I could hardly believe it. The two played off each other almost like they had been hockey partners for ages.
My heart stopped as we all froze and watched the last seconds tick away. The puck flew between their goalie’s skates.
Since Beckett had taken over the captaincy following Riley’s graduation, we had been on a losing streak.
It wasn’t the guy’s fault. He had been overwhelmed with the weight of the responsibility — a thing I never would have wished to have placed on my shoulders.
And if that wasn’t enough, one of our finest players had decided to protest Beckett’s captaincy by making himself pretty useless out here.
The team had been forced to make an impromptu intervention for Beckett and Caden a while back. We’d given them an ultimatum. Either they would cooperate, or they would both be off the team. We couldn’t afford a losing streak because of the discord within the team.
And for a change, we finally won. Traditionally, we kicked the Breakers’ butts every season.
They were a good team but never great. Last year, they had upped their game but still fell short of taking us down.
This season, however, was a whole different story.
Their freshly appointed captain, a sophomore student with his eyes on the prize, had shaken things up for the Breakers.
Where Beckett Partridge struggled to keep the team together, Grayson Reed seemed to easily weave all his teammates into a single-minded focus on the ice, following their coach’s direction to a dot and winning two friendly matches against us. Not the third, though.
Our luck was turning around. I could feel it.
Madness consumed the rink. Nobody had expected this victory, and even Beckett shouted and cheered from the top of his lungs.
I scanned the ice. Ahead of me, my Titans celebrated.
A tickle of joy passed through me. My face was hard as stone, but I knew that my eyes twinkled.
The corners of my lips quivered as my friend and our goalie, Sawyer Price, skated over and clasped my shoulder.
“Look at you. You’re positively ecstatic. ”
“Am I?” My eyebrows rose as I pulled my helmet off.
“No.” Sawyer threw his head back and laughed out loud.
I wasn’t sure why. He tended to laugh at most things when talking to me.
I had learned quickly that he wasn’t mocking me, just having fun.
The truth was, all the guys were quick to laugh, and the jokes seemed to fly over my head — or, more likely, weren’t very funny.
I was happy we won. Obviously. But did I feel the need to risk twisting my ankle by jumping up and down while wearing my blades? Hell no. I was smarter than that. And I didn’t like pointless risks. They did nothing for me.
So, while my reckless teammates jumped up and down, including even the pouty newbie, Asher Sullivan, I looked at the losing team. Most of them were taking their helmets off roughly as if wanting to smash them against the ice. But one of them wasn’t angry at all.
Grayson Reed.
He blazed around on his skates and tossed his stick to a teammate while taking his helmet off.
And when he did, he wore the goofiest smile I had ever seen.
You would have been excused for thinking he had just scored the biggest victory of his life.
Someone on his team said something and Grayson Reed threw his head back and laughed out loud.
As he slowed to a halt, he twirled on his skates.
Like he could feel my cool gaze on him, he turned his head and looked directly into my eyes.
Even from here, I could see him clearly.
I’d clashed with him countless times on the ice.
Last year, he was promoted to assistant captain after only a couple of months.
He had been on the offense like me since he joined the team.
I knew his eyes were chestnut. I knew how veins appeared on his neck when he exhausted himself.
I knew what his dusty blond hair looked like when it sweated under his helmet.
And I knew those lips both when they sneered and when they grinned.
I’d seen him bare his teeth under his helmet countless times.
I’d seen him challenging me and mocking me in too many encounters.
A cold wind washed over me. The muscles in my neck stiffened. It was as though I was being pulled toward him by an invisible rope.
Grayson mock-saluted me with two fingers touching his temple.
I didn’t reply but turned away from him.
My teammates were preparing to leave the rink and I followed.
In the locker room, the atmosphere was more relaxed than it had been in ages.
The victory had brought us closer together, even if it was for just one moment.
Beckett and Caden exchanged a respectful nod.
Even Asher wasn’t as sullen and pouty as he usually was.
Sebastian had Tyler in a headlock, rubbing his head with his knuckles, and Phoenix was next to them, laughing out loud.
Jordan, Asher’s stepbrother, wore a subtle smile.
Sawyer was on his phone, probably making plans to see his boyfriend, Noah, for a round of celebratory drinks.
After we showered and dressed, some of the guys took a raincheck, Beckett gave in and decided to join us for one drink but warned us not to go wild, and Caden shrugged and said he would sit with the team for a bit.
I wondered if he had a date later or if he just didn’t want to be exposed to Beckett all that much.
Whatever. I was in a good mood after the victory. It spoke of a turning tide.
Not that the Breakers were that hard to beat, but our season was already in shambles, so I would take what I got.
When the smaller group of us walked out of the rink, we headed straight for the Thirsty Thinker tavern.
It was a sizable establishment, so it wasn’t a big surprise to find a lot of the Blizzard Breakers congregating on one end.
We smartly followed Beckett to the opposite side of the bar.
The chatter and the music of the bar were enough of a buffer between us and our opponents that we could safely joke, laugh, and celebrate without rubbing it in too much. A little was allowed, though.
We kicked things off with a round of beers. Our freshmen, Asher and Phoenix, waited for our seniors, Sebastian and Tyler, to bring a double order of drinks. Nobody asked too many questions at the Thinker, but we never pushed our luck by sending the baby-faced teammates to get their own drinks.
The party grew smaller after the first round.
Jordan said something to Asher about drinking and Asher threw his hands up so wildly that it was obvious he was fed up.
He drained his drink, slapped his roommate, Phoenix, on the shoulder, and said they would talk later.
Phoenix, for his part, turned a friendly smile to everyone he came across.
His tattooed arms and neck — and as I had noticed in the locker room, chest, and some parts of the sides of his torso and smaller areas of his legs — attempted to give him a bad-boy aura, but his grin shattered those ideas.
Jordan remained, shaking his head, and rolled his eyes when Beckett said something I could barely hear. “…him time. He’ll understand.”
Caden didn't stay with us for long. He moved over to the bar and struck up a conversation with some guy. It didn’t take a genius to see where things were headed.
Even so, Caden made it clear after a time.
He and his date were all handsy with one another, never missing a chance to lean in while laughing.
Since Beckett had been named the captain, all Caden did was flirt around.
I liked it. He deserved to have some fun.
But there were moments when I felt like he was doing it in a much more destructive fashion.
Not my place to lecture him, I decided.
Beckett clapped his hands after putting his phone inside his jacket pocket, said something I missed, and then headed toward the bar.
I watched him as he ordered drinks and the fury in his eyes when Caden and the guy kissed, bumping into Beckett’s elbow and spilling some of his beer.
The altercation was brief because Jordan intervened, but it lasted only a minute, and then he returned, shaking his head.
The two soon left the tavern one after the other and I didn’t see them for the rest of the night.
The shrinking group on our side of the bar ordered another round of drinks.
Sawyer’s boyfriend, Noah, joined just then, and my friend’s attention was redirected completely to him.
I didn’t blame him. Noah was an interesting guy and objectively handsome as hell.
It was only right for Sawyer to forget about the rest of the world when Noah entered a room.