Chapter 39 Stella
Stella
Standing at the front desk of Total Fit at my next shift two days later, I look up from my computer where I’ve been working on my grad school essays when the door chimes.
My eyes widen at the girl with the swishing auburn ponytail walking toward me, a shy smile blossoming on her face as she recognizes me.
“Hi,” Danielle greets, stopping when she reaches the counter.
“Hey, Dani,” I reply. “No offense, but what on earth are you doing here?” I ask with a disbelieving laugh.
She laughs along with me, acknowledging the absurdity of the coincidence. “I actually just transferred here at the beginning of the semester. My family just moved here from Maryland.”
“Maryland? Well, I suppose it makes sense you don’t actually live at the ski resort, that’s just where my brain decided you had to be from,” I admit.
“Technically, I’m from just outside of Washington D.C. My step-dad works for the government, and he had to come here for work.”
“You didn’t want to stay at the school you were already enrolled in?” I ask curiously.
Dani shrugs. “I was at a small local college, living at home and not in the dorms. I hadn’t decided what I wanted to major in, and truthfully, I hadn’t made a lot of friends since I didn’t live on campus with everyone else.
My childhood best friend, Maya Winchester, goes here, though, so I’m not a complete loner! ”
“She’s the hockey coach’s daughter, right?” I ask.
“Yeah! Do you know her?”
“No, I haven’t met her, just heard her name in passing,” I say.
“You should definitely hang out with us sometime! She’s so fun,” Danielle offers.
“I’d love that! I don’t get enough female companionship around here,” I say with a laugh. “Hockey boys, everywhere I look.”
“There are worse views to have,” she replies with a grin.
“That there is,” I agree. Curious, and praying that I’m not overstepping, I ask, “So, have you…talked to Beau about moving here?”
Danielle lets out a huge, dramatic sigh. “No. I’m too chicken to text him after everything that happened over break. But Maya and I ran into one of his other friends—Jameson?—at the grocery store, so I don’t doubt he knows I’m here.”
It takes me a moment to remember that Jameson is Booker’s first name. The guys never call him that.
“Did you ever talk with him more at the resort?” I probe, feeling guilty for being nosy, but not guilty enough to stop asking.
“Sort of? I ran into him alone one night at the resort bar and—”
She’s cut off when another customer comes to check in, and I had momentarily forgotten that I was at my place of employment.
“Anyway, I saw him at the bar, and I was feeling brave, so I went up to talk to him, only he, uh, wasn’t really interested in talking.
” Her face goes bright red, and I chuckle at what she’s insinuating.
“But the next morning, we did actually talk, and he’s just so guarded, I’m not sure which parts are true and which were just to placate me from nagging him anymore. ”
“I don’t think he would lie about anything he said to you.” I try for a reassuring tone.
“I don’t think he would either. But I also think he’s very capable of just telling me what I want to hear, thinking he wouldn’t have to see me again.”
I purse my lips in contemplation, because I don’t disagree that it’s plausible.
“Either way, I’m sure I’ll have to suck it up and talk to him eventually. But, for now, I’m just trying to get settled and make some friends.”
“I completely understand,” I say, happy to let her drop the topic. “Let me know if you want to get a coffee or anything sometime!”
“Thank you! I will. Now, I guess I need to get a gym membership, which is what I actually came here for.” She laughs sheepishly.
“For sure, I’ve got you.”
A couple hours later, Dani comes back to the counter after her workout, and says she’d love to take me up on my offer for coffee one day. We exchange numbers, and she leaves the gym with a new friend.
“Guess who came into the gym today?” I ask Colt when he picks me up from work. Sometimes, even though I have my car in town now, he likes to drop me off and pick me up, for old times’ sake.
“Who?”
“Danielle,” I reveal, shooting him mischievous smirk.
Colt barks out a laugh. “No shit. Booker said he saw her with Coach’s daughter at the store a little while back.”
“Yeah, she told me that Maya was her friend from when they were kids. She said her family was moving here because of her step-dad’s job.”
At this, Colt perks up. “Did she say what he does?”
I shake my head, noting his reaction. “Not really, she just said he worked for the government. Why?”
“Remember a few weeks ago when I said we saw the University of Maryland guy who hit me when I was at dinner with the team? That I talked to him?”
“Yeah,” I confirm.
“Well, he told me the reason he was transferring here next season was because of his dad’s job in the FBI.” Colt’s brows scrunch, his telltale thinking face.
“Wait, so you’re saying Dani is Drake Kingston’s step-sister?” I ask incredulously.
“No, I have absolutely no idea if they’re related. I’m just saying it’s a crazy coincidence if they’re not. I’m entirely speculating right now. I’ve never seen him at the resort with her, so I don’t know.”
“Are you going to tell Beau your theory?”
Colt begins laughing, borderline uncontrollably. “Oh, God, I can see his face! He’s legitimately going to flip his shit if it’s true.” I can’t help but crack a smile of my own at how entertained he is.
We pull into the parking lot of my new apartment complex.
Leaning over, Colt gives me what’s supposed to be a goodnight kiss, since it’s already almost eleven p.m. and we both have class in the morning.
But, when he goes to part ways, I wrap a hand around the back of his head, holding his face to mine.
My palm hovering over the scar that almost took him from me.
“Stay with me tonight,” I whisper over his lips.
“I have morning skate at six,” he replies, continuing to kiss me, bracketing my face with his large, rough hands.
“Stay anyway,” I beg.
“Okay.”
Eventually, he hops out of the truck and walks around to open my door.
He wraps a strong arm around my shoulder as we enter the building.
In the elevator, I wrap my arms around his slim waist in a hug, resting my head on his firm chest. I feel him dig his phone from his pocket, and he snaps a photo of is in the mirrored wall.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispers into my hair, resting his chin on my head and holding me tight.
When we reach my apartment, I’m not surprised when Colt asks if he can join me in the big, tiled walk-in shower.
We continue kissing, as if we’ve got all the time in the world.
Colt massages my body with soap and scrubs my hair with my shampoo.
I revel in the feel of his firm, wet body against my skin, admiring his beauty.
I’m incapable of expressing how thankful I am that the man I fell in love with has fully returned to me. And while everything we—he—went through was abysmal, I can’t help but acknowledge that it made the two of us all the more obsessed with one another.
I’ll never take him for granted.
After our shower, naked in my bed, Colt fucks me slowly, reverently. He makes love to me late into the night, despite his early practice, whispering his love and adoration into my skin and melting my heart with his.