10. Jocelyn
10
JOCELYN
“I don’t think this is where they meant to put me.” I poke my head into the luxury sky box, scanning the room with its dedicated TVs streaming a different hockey game and tables laden with food. Beyond the plush room and private kitchenette, the stadium-style box seats have Frostwolves’ memorabilia strewn over them.
The attendant within smiles and beckons me in, but I remain rooted to the floor positive that there’s been some kind of misunderstanding.
Then a familiar voice has me spinning around.
“Miss J, Miss J! How freakin’ awesome is this?” Simon from the youth center bounds up and pushes past me to check out the premium suite.
“I— what are you all doing here?” I gasp as the teens from my dance troupe file in, ushering me into the enormous party suite alongside them.
They zoom around the suite, descending on the catering table with gusto and clutching at the merch boxes. Just behind them, some of the kids from the elementary school Maddox had read to filter in alongside their parents.
“Hey, come on through. Don’t forget to smile and wave!” Melissa scoots through the door, camera raised in hand as she films everyone coming in.
“Mel? What’s going on?” I blink hard, trying to make sense of what’s happening. “Why are you all here?”
Melissa cuts her video and shoots me a look. “Didn’t Maddox tell you?”
“Tell me what? The assignment is over, we’ve done our job. You don’t have to film for him anymore.”
“Oh, no. This isn’t for his social accounts. I’m recording this because he obviously can’t be here to see the look on everyone’s faces himself.” She turns and aims the camera at my face. “Including yours. He got tickets for everyone, arranged transport, and set all this up. Paid for it too, as far as I can tell. This isn’t the kind of treatment I’d expect management to shell out for.”
“But why?” I blink rapidly, trying to clear my eyes of the mist threatening to cloud my vision.
Melissa shrugs. “Said he thought it’d be a nice way to thank everyone for spending time with him this week.”
“He did?”
A warm, tender feeling curls in my belly as I glance at the ice. He’s skating in circles, his hair flowing free in the breeze and that heart-stopping smile on his face.
“He’s such a nice boy, isn’t he?” a soft, wistful voice says beside me. I look over to see Elaine, the octogenarian who’d claimed Maddox reminded her of her first husband. “Easy on the eyes, that one.”
“Yes, he is,” I agree, my heart squeezing inside my chest as I watch Maddox skate.
“I’d marry him if I were you,” she adds, craning her neck and digging her elbow in my side. “In a heartbeat.”
I laugh, the sound carrying through the arena. “Yeah, I just might.”
Then, as if he’d heard, Maddox looks over and catches me staring.
I lift my hand in greeting, but he only flashes that dimple before joining his teammates as they head back into the locker room before the game starts. How is it that a feeling this intense could bloom so quickly, in the span of a week?
For three years, I held onto my carefully curated rules, singularly focused on the plan I formulated to gain everything back I lost.
Now that the final deposit from ASEG has hit my account, I have enough to start phase two of my plan to establish the community dance studio. I won’t need to keep trying to spin other people’s mistakes into public forgiveness, or find ways to make other people’s content work for them. Instead, I’ll be able to fully focus on my own dreams.
After everything I went through with Luke, I didn’t think I’d be able to open up and trust someone else again. Not with my heart. Not with dance.
But then, there was Maddox and his unabashed mad dong dance.
Maddox and his willingness to let life get a bit messy, because it might be fun.
Maddox and the pursuit of passions I thought I could forego, because I didn’t want to need anyone else after I got so badly burned.
I glance around the suite at the gleaming smiles and pure happiness evident on every face, young and old. They brought me in to help his image, but Maddox didn’t need my help to do this. Inside that solid, muscled body of his, Maddox hides a big, soft heart.
It’s just the kind of man he is. One who’s thoughtful and kind. Sweet and sexy.
Worth breaking rules for.
“You okay?” Melissa nudges my shoulder and settles in next to me. “You want anything?”
My eyes fall on Maddox as he skates onto the ice and positions himself for the opening face-off while the crowd cheers.
“Just one thing.”
Maddox is a beast on the ice. He just doesn’t stop. Every time he’s out there, he’s using his body to plaster another player along the boards or making a mad scramble for the puck.
Every stride he takes is marked by grace. Each time he dances around a defender to shoot the puck or pass it across the ice to someone else, I find myself on the edge of my seat. Breathless. Marveling.
I don’t know a lot about the game, but the way the home crowd reacts to his every move sends a thrill through me.
They cheer when he bumps someone into the glass. They get riled up when someone dares lay a hand on him. They groan if he shoots and misses.
There are a lot of ups and downs for sixty minutes of play, though neither team manages to net a goal. Until the moment the puck lands on Maddox’s stick and he takes off at full-speed. I leap out of my seat, screaming along with the rest of the home crowd as he crosses the blue line with a quick backward glance at his teammates.
But there’s no one with him. It’s just him, open ice, and the other team’s goalie.
“He’s on the breakaway!” Melissa informs me, her fingers digging into my arm.
“Go, go, go!” I shout.
Maddox fires. The goalie manages to block the first shot but can’t get ahold of the puck before it bounces right back to Maddox. With a quick swipe of his stick, he knocks the puck into the back of the net.
Then, it’s chaos. The red lamp behind the goalie flickers, a horn blares from somewhere above me, and everyone in the place is jumping and screaming and high-fiving.
Me, included.
Down on the ice, Maddox practically gets clobbered by his linemates, but he still takes a moment to look up in the stands as he skates back to the bench.
When he finds me, a smile spreads over his face and that dimple appears again making my insides melt into something soft and gooey.
I press a hand to my chest, feel the speed of my racing heart and know it’s not just pumping because of the excitement from Maddox’s goal.
I think I love the man.
The second the thought crosses my mind, I know it’s true. The knowledge of it brings that shiny, light feeling that had been with me when he’d held me in his arms and danced with me bubbles up inside me again.
God, I’ll have to tell him. As soon as I can.
When the game ends, my throat is raw from shouting and the endorphins still flow in my veins. I’m practically skipping to the club-level restaurant where an usher told us to wait for Maddox, but I wave everyone else ahead as I make a pit stop in the ladies’ bathroom.
On my way back, I catch snippets of chatter from the fans clad in Frostwolves jerseys.
“Someone lit a fire under Mad Dog’s ass tonight, didn’t they?”
“What a goal he had, eh?”
“Haven’t seen him play like that in years.”
Pride wells up in me and a laugh sticks in my throat. I barely hold myself back from shouting that that’s my man, but then I hear something else.
“Must be that new woman he has in his life. Did you see what he posted before the game?”
New woman?
“Shh! Isn’t that her right there?”
My steps slow as cold dread washes over me.
They must be talking about someone else, right? Anyone else.
But I can feel the eyes on me. The icy prickle of speculation and suspicion runs up my back and I tense up.
The whispers swirling around me intensify as my vision pitches and my breath stutters while I tread through the hall with heavy feet.
“She’s not much to look at is, is she? Could’ve done better, if you ask me.”
“I don’t know, she looks kind of familiar.”
“Yeah, she used to have that fitness channel. You remember? That’s why he called her Juicy T.”
I divert my gaze to the carpeted floor just as Melissa catches up to me. Her arm hooks around my shoulder and I turn to her. I must look off because she stops dead.
“What’s the matter?”
“People are talking about me,” I whisper, fear clawing at my throat. “It’s happening again, Mel.”
“Yes, that’s definitely her,” someone else says. “That’s the girl in the video.”
I close my eyes for a second, swallowing hard as I fish my phone out of my clutch. I hadn’t noticed all the notifications during the game, but there are calls and texts and a boatload of unread tags.
YOU’RE TRENDING!!!
IS THIS YOU?!
YOU’RE DATING MADDOX MAD DONG DAVIES? YOU GO, GIRL!
Maddox Spankin’ It Meme YO, YOU GETTING THIS TREATMENT ON THE REGULAR? LOL.
ARE YOU GONNA PROPOSE TO THIS ONE TOO?
With trembling fingers, I swipe open a message linking me directly to Maddox’s account. And there we are, slow dancing and staring into each other’s eyes like two lost little lovebirds with animated emojis scattered all around us.
The video caption reads, “She’s the One, bruh. Juicy T., aka Jocelyn Tan.”
“Oh, shit,” Melissa breathes.
“There you are! I was waiting for you guys in the restaurant, but I fig—what’s wrong? You didn’t like my surprise?” Maddox asks when I look up, white-hot anger blazing through me.
“How fucking dare you?”
He staggers back a step, eyebrows nearly to his hairline.
“Not cool, man.” Melissa says.
“What? I thought getting everyone together?—”
“Not that,” I snap, flipping my phone around and showing him the post that plays on loop. “This. How could you do this to me? I trusted you.”
Maddox’s eyes widen and he swears.
“That wasn’t meant for the public.”
“Yeah, no shit it wasn’t meant for the public,” I bite out, tears falling freely down my face now.
He winces. “No, I mean that was supposed to be a text message for my brother. Not for the public.”
“Sure.” A bitter laugh rips from my throat. “I can’t believe I fell for this again. What a fool am I? How stupid, right?”
Storm clouds gather in his eyes again and he frowns at me while warding off a fan that approaches him for a signature.
“Jocelyn, you have to believe me. I didn’t mean to post it.”
“I should’ve known better than to fall for another fame-chasing B-list celebrity.” Sniffing, I dash away the wetness on my cheeks and lift my head. “I thought you would be different. That you wouldn’t use me to boost your own public persona.”
A hard bitter laugh bursts from my lips and my voice breaks. “Turns out you and Luke have more in common that I thought.”
And then I walk, dragging Melissa behind me and leaving him to face the throng of adoring fans who gathered around him.