Chapter 13
The locker room was mostly empty by the time I finished showering and dressed in my street clothes. I was pissed about Tobias Kane being in our arena, but I saw no reason for him to lie when I could so easily fact check him. I’d have mentioned it to Coach, but he’d disappeared into his office before I could catch him.
Probably for the best because I couldn’t stop thinking about pinning his daughter to the wall and watching her slowly surrender. He’d asked me to befriend her, and I could guarantee he hadn’t intended for me to include my dick in the equation.
I hadn’t intended it either, but when she’d threatened to find another hockey player, I’d lost it. The thought of her with Sellers or Jaden or Reece, or hell, Tobias Kane, made me want to throw down. She hated hockey players, but she wanted to play with one? Fuck yes, that one was going to be me.
Except I wasn’t sure I was really what she wanted. She’d asked for an interview, and I’d tested her limits, as I often did when she was involved. I might as well have been Reece. After the scene with Kane—after staking a claim I’d been resisting for weeks—I’d fallen straight into her trap.
I knew better. Avery used her words as armor, and she’d been building a shield to push me away. I’d reacted by doubling down. Pressure wasn’t the way. It wasn’t my way. She’d probably show up tonight and hand me my ass, which would suck because I still needed her tutoring help.
After our first meeting, where we’d read together curled up on the couch, I’d understood the first third of the book enough to have a discussion with her. I hadn’t been able to do that since high school.
My actions in the hallway might have cost me the answer to passing this class. I needed to remember there were bigger stakes than Avery’s affections. If I failed again, I wouldn’t be able to play, wouldn’t be able to graduate, wouldn’t be able to look Grandpa in the eye when I slunk home with my tail between my legs.
Knowing all that, I wouldn’t change anything. I tossed my wet towel in the bin with more force than necessary and stomped back into the main locker room where my roommates waited.
Reece and Mase sat by their lockers, playing on their phones and completely ignoring each other. I slowed to a stop as I considered getting their advice. Avery would skin me alive if she knew I was talking about her to my teammates, even if they were also my best friends, but I was somewhat out of my depth with her.
Reece looked up from his phone in time to catch me staring at him. “What?”
Gavin would have been a better option, but I’d take what I could get. “Hypothetically, how would you deal with having feelings for someone who could destroy your future?”
Reece frowned. “I don’t understand the question.”
Mase snickered without looking up. “You don’t. If someone has the power to destroy your future, you get rid of them or find a way to take the power for yourself. You don’t get emotional.”
Both Reece and I turned to stare at Mase. Sometimes I wondered about his past, but he’d never volunteered the information. When Mase didn’t add anything else or acknowledge us, Reece stood and stretched.
“Look, Cole, no one has the power to destroy your future except you. What are you worried about?”
“I may have fucked things up with my one chance to pass this lit class.”
Reece nodded. “I assume this is about Coach’s daughter, so I’ll try to be specific.”
At Reece’s ridiculous nickname for Avery, Mase’s head jerked up and his intense blue gaze locked on me. “You’re fucking Coach’s daughter?”
Reece held up a finger. “Nope. You had your chance. I’m talking now.”
Mase snorted and went back to his phone, but his thumbs stopped moving on whatever game he was playing.
“Rule number one is to never get emotionally involved with someone you aren’t willing to go to the mat for. Rule number two is never get emotionally involved with someone who isn’t equally fucked up. Rule number three?—”
“Maybe it would be easier to just not get emotionally involved,” Mase interrupted.
Reece scowled. “That was rule number three. Thanks for stealing my thunder, asshole.”
Mase saluted him and stood, shoving his phone in his pocket. “Glad to help. We ready to go?”
Yep, should’ve held out for Gavin. Or Eva. She’d been inserting herself in her friends’ love lives for years. Neither of these assholes knew what to do with a girlfriend. Not that Avery wanted to be my girlfriend, but I’d settle for a hint of emotional investment.
Reece pushed through the door first, and Mase stopped long enough to send me a pointed look. “Take away her power.”
I shook my head and followed them to the car. Mase took the backseat, put in his earbuds, and stared out the window. Which left me the front seat and Reece’s questionable advice. He argued for the benefits of one and done the entire way home. Next time, I’d drive myself.
Henry met us as we came in, wiggling her tail, then ran straight for the back door, feet slapping the tile. Without Eva here, we didn’t have to trudge through the gate, so she had to wait for us to open the door for her. She’d been outside a lot lately, but as long as she was happy, I wasn’t going to limit her backyard time. I’d make sure to tell Eva when she got back though. Right after I asked her about Avery.
Mase disappeared down the stairs, and Reece and I shared a worried look. He was always worse around Christmas. We had another week before the holiday, but I wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up.
“Hey, baby girl,” Reece crooned at Henry, pulling strawberries out of the fridge. She quacked at him, then went back to staring a hole in the glass.
I chuckled and let her out, setting my gear on the back porch. “Looks like you’ve lost favor.”
Reece grunted, then joined me with his bag. “She’ll be back. Toss Mase’s stuff too. Eva will be back tomorrow, so we need to air this place out.”
Mase had gotten lazy about leaving his gear next to the front door, but Reece was right. Eva would make our lives hell if she came back and the living room smelled like hockey ass. She’d probably also give me bad advice on purpose.
I heaved Mase’s gear onto the porch and watched Henry chitter at the back fence. “What are you up to, silly duck?”
She ignored me, so I went back inside in time to catch the package of Pop-Tarts Reece threw at my head. He leaned against the counter with his ankles crossed and his mouth full.
“Kelly specifically told you to stop with the junk food,” I reminded him.
He swallowed and pointed the half-eaten pastry at me. “Look, the only time I’m going to listen to someone telling me what to eat is if they’re naked and covered in peanut butter.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and set the foil packet on the kitchen table. “Our nutritionist is not part of the menu.”
Reece very carefully didn’t say anything.
I groaned. “Don’t tell me you banged the nutritionist.”
He grinned. “Okay.”
“Dammit Reece, she’s a professional. She works for the school. Don’t you have any boundaries?”
His grin dimmed a little. “Guess not. What time is Coach’s daughter coming over tonight again?”
“Her name is Avery.”
“Mhmm,” he agreed. “And you’re going to fuck her. Don’t lie to me. I saw the way you were looking at her today.”
“It’s not the same,” I growled.
“It is to me. Kelly had fun, and we’re still on good terms. Which of us is freaking out because his dick might ruin his future?”
I needed to change the subject before I did something I’d regret like take a swing at him. “Thanks for the advice. You heading out again tonight?”
Reece eyed me for a long beat, then set his food down. “Yeah, party at Kappa. I thought I’d drag Mase along, give you plenty of time to study.”
“It’s working, you know,” I said quietly.
Instantly, the tension drained from his stance. “I’m glad, man.” He leaned back to stare at the ceiling and sighed. “Sorry for being a prick.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, just feeling restless.” With a dry laugh, he met my gaze again. “Nothing some time with the lovely ladies at Kappa house won’t fix. I’m going to take a nap before I head out. Let me know if you need me to hang after all. My offer to be your buffer still stands.”
Guilt hit me for ragging on him about Kelly. They were both adults, and Reece knew what he was doing. He didn’t need me to parent him, or worse, judge him.
I stopped him before he could leave the kitchen. “I’m sorry too. Who you sleep with is none of my business.”
Reece sent me a wicked grin. “No sleeping involved, but maybe think twice before you use treatment room four.”
He laughed at my cursing as he bounded up the stairs. Honestly, it was a miracle Reece hadn’t gotten himself suspended with his antics. Gavin usually kept an eye on him, but I doubted he knew about treatment room four. Reece had gone out every night this week, which was excessive even for him.
All of us were on edge, though. We were only a few weeks away from making the playoffs, and I couldn’t fault him for needing a release. I usually went home when the pressure got this high, but the damn lit class got in the way. Then again, if I’d gone home, I wouldn’t have run into Avery in the library.
Coach might have still tried to coerce her into tutoring me, but without the initial introduction, she probably would have blown me off. And here I was freaking out because I couldn’t keep my hands off her.
I shook my head and started loading dishes into the dishwasher. Maybe I needed a release too. Not the Avery kind, but something to take my mind off all the ways I could fuck this up.
Henry waddled back into the kitchen, her conversation apparently done, and quacked at me. I dried my hands, then picked her up.
“Hey, baby girl. Want to watch some Next Best Ninja?”
She wiggled her tail and head-butted my shoulder. A definite yes. I carried her upstairs, and she snuggled down in the blanket I left for her on the bed. Next Best Ninja was on hiatus until February, but I had no problem rewatching old episodes. Henry would be asleep in minutes anyway.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was part cat. She liked to swim in the bathtub each morning, but other than sticking her face in the water every time we washed dishes, she was mostly a land bird. I blamed Eva because none of the ducks on Grandpa’s farm acted like a pampered princess.
The reminder of my family and the time I was missing with them tanked my mood. We weren’t big on holidays necessarily—Grandpa liked to say a farmer didn’t get days off—but Kate and Mom always put up a tree and made a feast for Christmas. This would be the first year I missed it.
Eva had offered to do a tree, but none of us had wanted to put in the extra work. Now I was wondering if we’d made the wrong decision. Christmas, Mase, the lit class—all my decisions felt like wrong decisions lately.
Coach trusted me, and if he ever found out about my deal with his daughter, he’d bench me, or worse. But I’d make the same choice again in a second if it meant getting closer to her. With so much wrong, the only thing that felt right was Avery.