Chapter 11
eleven
As I wait in line to get into the arena, I check my phone.
No new notifications.
I bite the inside of my cheek as the guilt for being here eats at me.
I should be home. Nights are my responsibility with Dad. Will should be at work, not at home so I could come here.
I pull up our text messages and send him one.
Me
It’s not too late to go into work. I can come home right now. Wyatt would understand.
Will
Lyla, get off your phone and enjoy the game. I got Dad. One night off isn’t going to ruin anything. Now go have fun.
Me
Are you sure?
Will
If you ask me that again, I’m going to post an embarrassing photo of you online and tag Wyatt in it.
Me
You wouldn’t.
Will
Don’t test me. Now go have fun!
Sighing, I pocket my phone as the line shuffles forward.
With nothing else to do, I look around. The differences between a football game and a hockey game are night and day.
There is a different energy here. Football fans are excited to be there, but the Walker football team isn’t the best. They invest all their money into the hockey team.
Standing in this arena, the difference is clear.
“Ticket?” the doorman asks when I step forward.
He scans the ticket on my phone and lets me pass. I look down at the ticket again to look at my section and seat number. It takes me three minutes to find my section and I head down to my seat.
“Excuse me,” I murmur as I step past a couple.
Finally, I reach my seat and sigh.
“Hey, you made it!” Cora says when she turns to see me.
“Hey, I didn’t know you would be here,” I tell her.
Looking down, I see my seat is right next to her.
“I come to all the games.” She smiles.
“That’s awesome. Did you know our seats would be next to each other?” I ask as I sit down.
Cora nods. “I did. Wyatt asked if I was okay with it, and I obviously said yes. I had meant to text you earlier to see if you wanted to come together, but work was crazy and I forgot.”
“Everything okay?”
“Oh yeah. It’s just a Thursday. I swear there is something about an impending weekend that makes everyone lose their minds.”
“You aren’t wrong.” I laugh.
“How have you been? I heard you met Wyatt’s one relative? That’s something that not even the guys have accomplished yet,” Cora asks, making me freeze.
Surely she’s wrong, right? I mean, Reagan did express guilt over not coming to games and stuff, but surely she’s met his friends.
“Wait, what? The guys haven’t met Reagan?” I ask as my heart races.
Cora shakes her head as she tosses a handful of popcorn into her mouth, unaware of the bomb she just dropped on me.
“Not in person, they haven’t. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve heard of her, but she’s like a ghost. I’m pretty sure Kellan thought that she was a random woman Wyatt claimed to be related to just so he could say he had family.”
“That’s…” I trail off, shaking my head.
Why would he have her meet me but not the people he’s closest to? For crying out loud, I’m not even his real girlfriend. Did he introduce me because he wants this to be more? Hell, do I want it to be more? Or did he do it to get a shot in at Kyle?
“Hey, are you okay?” Cora asks softly, pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts.
“I’m good,” I lie.
“Right…I take it that you didn’t know that.”
“No.”
She sighs. “Well, shit…uh, sorry? I don’t know what to say to fix this awkwardness, so how about we change the subject?” she says, making me laugh.
“Please?”
“Have you ever been to a hockey game before?”
I shake my head. “No, this is my first, and I’ll be honest, I know next to nothing about the sport.”
“Well, lucky for you I have an older brother who plays. I can tell you pretty much anything you want to know. Stick with me, kid. By the end of the season I’ll have you spitting out facts that will make Wyatt swoon.”
I feel my cheeks heat at her words.
Why do I like the idea of turning Wyatt on with hockey facts so much?
Before I can formulate a response, the crowd roars, making us turn toward the ice. We watch as the players take the ice one by one. Kellan leads the charge and skates in our direction, almost as if he knows where we are sitting. Then again, maybe he does. Maybe this is where Cora always sits.
He blows Cora a kiss, which she pretends to catch, pressing it to her heart.
Something that feels a whole lot like envy moves through me as I watch them interact. There’s no denying that they love each other. His mind should be on the game he’s about to play, but he still takes the time to seek her out and let her know that he cares.
In all the years I dated Kyle, he never did anything like that.
Kellan blows by us, and my eyes go back to the players until finally they land on him.
Wyatt’s already looking right at me, and something about the way he’s looking at me steals my breath.
“Oh girl, he’s coming over here,” Cora goads as she nudges me in the side.
Wyatt comes to a stop in front of me, with only the Plexiglas between us.
“What are you doing?” I yell.
Wyatt smiles and places one hand over his heart while he points at me with the other.
The crowd loses their minds around us as my heart races.
Did he just…
“For you,” he mouths.
For me.
Holy shit.
I might not know much about sports but even I know it means something when an athlete claims you on their turf.
My hand shakes as I place it over my heart and nod back. A beautiful smile covers his face as Kellan and Calvin come up behind him.
I watch as they steer him toward the net.
“Girl, he’s got it bad. I’ve never seen him like this,” Cora teases as she tosses her arm around me.
“He’s not the only one,” I murmur.
My eyes dart to the buzzer, and I smile. We’re down to thirty seconds, and the boys are taking the puck down the ice to the other side. The buzzer sounds as soon as the puck hits the back of the opposing team’s net.
Kellan and the guys jump on each other at the other end of the rink, making me laugh. My eyes leave them and go to Lyla. She’s jumping up and down next to Cora, screaming their heads off.
Fuck me, is she beautiful.
I skate to the middle and meet the guys.
“You were on fucking fire tonight, man,” Banks says, clapping me on the shoulder.
“Seriously, if you’re going to play like that when Lyla’s in the stands, I’m going to make sure she’s at every game this season,” Kellan tells me as he tries to wrap his arm around my shoulders.
“Get off of me,” I mutter as I push him away, making everyone laugh.
“Dude, you saved like a dozen goals,” Jason says.
“It was nothing,” I tell them as we skate toward the bench.
“Bullshit. I know you like to be modest and shit, but own it. You killed it tonight,” Kellan says.
“Fine, I played well,” I mutter.
Coach’s eyes narrow. “Played well would be an understatement tonight, Scott. You barely let anything by you. If it wasn’t for those two cheap shots they got, tonight you would have had a shutout.”
“I could have played better,” I say, making everyone scoff.
Coach rolls his eyes. “You idiots get into the locker room. For some reason the press wants interviews, and you need showers. You fucking stink.”
“We stink because we played so well, Coach,” Banks teases.
Leaving the ice behind, we head into the locker room. As soon as we step inside, the air is electric. Everyone is in a good mood after playing the way we did. There’s nothing like a good win to boost morale.
As I begin to strip off my gear, Coach comes in. The boys all cheer, making him laugh.
“Settle down.” Once everyone does what he asks, he speaks. “Press wants to interview Cooper, Banks, and Scott.”
I groan, tilting my head back. I fucking hate talking to the press. Shit, I hate talking in general. Everyone knows it.
“Do I have to?” I ask.
Coach raises a brow. “If you hadn’t played so good, I wouldn’t make you, but since you did…”
“Fine,” I mutter, making everyone laugh.
“I think you’re the only guy I know who doesn’t like talking to the papers, Scott.” Hendrix, another one of the players, teases.
“Fuck off,” I say with no heat, making everyone laugh.
Once stripped down, I do a quick ice bath and then jump in the shower. After getting dressed, I head out of the locker room.
“Oh look, there he is,” Kellan says with a devious smile as soon as he sees me.
The reporter from the local news station turns toward me and smiles. “Oh, I thought you snuck out of here,” she says.
Shit, I wish I would have thought of that. Instead, my sole focus was on finding Lyla before she heads home.
“Wouldn’t think of it,” I lie as I come to a stop next to her.
Kellan silently laughs behind her back.
“Wyatt Scott, Senior, and suspected first-round draft pick,” the lady says.
When I stay silent, she looks up at me and raises a brow.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you ask me anything. I thought you were just reading off facts.”
Kellan covers his face with his hand as the lady’s cheeks turn pink.
“Right, sorry,” she mutters. “Tonight you almost had a shutout. How does that make you feel?”
“Like I could have done better. Almost isn’t good enough,” I tell her bluntly.
“Okay…since you are expected to go in the first round, is there a team that you would prefer over others?”
“I’ll happily go to any team that wants me.”
She nods. “Right, but there isn’t one that you’re hopeful for?”
I stay silent. I already answered the question. Does she really think she is going to trap me into a sound bite just by rearranging her words?
I’m not that stupid.
“I’m pretty sure he already answered that,” Kellan says smoothly.
Her eyes dart to him for a second before coming back to me. “Of course, sorry, I must have read the same question twice.”
“It’s all right,” I say, not falling for her bullshit.
“We’ve seen you kill it for four years on the ice, but we don’t know anything about you as a person.
Tonight, though, before the game started, we saw you give attention to a specific woman in the crowd.
Do you have anything to say about that? Do you want to tell us who she is? ” she asks, sounding hopeful.
I roll my eyes and walk past her.
“Wait, I wasn’t done!” she yells as I walk away.
“Sorry, he’s a private guy, you know,” Kellan says to her, in an attempt to apologize for me.
I hear the pounding of footsteps coming up behind me.
“She’s with Cora right outside,” Kellan says when he catches up.
“Cool. Thanks for dealing with that,” I say, waving over my shoulder to the reporter.
Kellan chuckles. “It’s not a problem, man. Coach should have known better than to stick you in front of a reporter.”
“Yeah, but if I plan on playing after this, I should probably try harder.”
“Nah, there are a lot of players out there who won’t do interviews. You’ll be fine.”
As soon as we step outside, I see her. She’s got a big smile on her face as she talks to Cora. She must feel my eyes on her because she turns and looks right at me, her smile growing.
Without second-guessing anything, I walk right up to her and drop my bag as I pull her into my arms. Leaning down, I cover her lips with mine, pulling her in for a kiss.
As I kiss her, everything falls away.
This.
This is what I’ve always wanted with her. This is how I’ve dreamed of ending every game, every night, everything.