Chapter 4 #3
I feel the crowd surge to their feet, surrounding me and forcing me to open my eyes.
Breathe. This is normal. This is excitement. Not quicksand.
I hold my breath long enough before the crowd settles back down.
And there he is again.
Number nineteen.
Kane Andrews.
Taking a lap around the ice as the introductions continue, his gaze briefly sweeping my section.
I know he’s not looking for me—or even at me. I’m too in the shadows.
But for my sanity, I let myself believe it.
Because when I do, the noise dulls, my chest loosens, and the ground steadies. I can breathe again.
Hey, whatever you need to tell yourself, sweetheart.
I don’t know when the arguing stopped, or how the game started, but the players are off, and they’re fast.
I don’t take my eyes off him. Couldn’t if I tried.
Something tells me this boy could easily unravel me. Piece by Piece. Slow and deliberate.
If I were someone else.
Someone who’d let the name Kane Andrews be…a possibility. Not a daydream.
He’s a dark knight, whisking around the ice with control and commitment.
And without knowing it, he has centered me.
Swallowing hard, I whip out my phone, inhaling as I search and download the Send Me Love app.
This is probably not what Bree had in mind when she asked me to join a social circle.
But I have an ache. A need to feel. One that no pink or teal toy will ever fulfill.
And if this is the closest I’ll ever come to telling a man what I want him to do to me…then I better make it good.
I create an alias and it’s…fitting.
I follow the steps Amber showed me, finding Kane’s thread. Then…I don’t send him love.
I ask for it.
Shadow: Unravel me, Dark Knight.
My stomach flips when it joins the long chain of texts on Kane’s feed. Feeling a little awkward, but slightly giddy too, I sit up and slip my phone into my jacket pocket.
It doesn’t matter.
He’ll see it. Or he won’t.
And it’s probably better if it gets lost in the app-mosphere anyway, buried in the sea of all the other texts.
It isn’t all that clever. Just a loaded request that only I understand. Plus, short and sweet is kind of the theme, from what I can tell.
He’s not on the ice during the second period after a hard hit, but I see him down by the benches. Jaw tight, eyes on his team. The tension is thick because the Knights are down by one.
I don’t know much about hockey, but it’s not looking good by the time the horn blares to end the period.
The tension is thick around me as the players pour off the ice and disappear down their tunnels. It’s quiet for all of three seconds before the murmur starts.
“Man, this game blows.”
“Hell’s up with them this season?”
Amber gasps and whips out her phone. “They’re heading to the locker room.”
Several others follow suit and my phone starts buzzing with notifications, one after the other. Like a domino effect.
It’s official, I’ve entered some weird cult.
Finding me confused, Lisa nudges me. “They can’t have their phones out here, but sometimes they check the app in the locker rooms.”
“Oh.” My heart skips, and I wonder if it’s too late to delete my message.
I look at the sea of screens lighting up the stands. More fan messages further burying mine and I couldn’t be more relieved.
By the third period, Kane’s back on the ice.
And he’s on fire.
It’s like he drank some power juice between periods. Either that or the hit he took against the boards knocked him back into shape.
The arena erupts as he fires one into the net, tying the game in the first three minutes of the period.
My grin is slow as I sit on the edge of my seat, silently rooting for him, reassuring him as if I’ve known the guy longer than the last hour.
As if he needs my praise.
He’s so driven, relentless, cutting through the defense like they’re merely practice cones.
My throat tightens in the final seconds. He fakes someone out, spins, and another shot from number nineteen happens so fast I almost miss it.
The crowd erupts and it barely fazes me.
Players crash together at center, gloves are thrown, sticks raised, and I’m…breathless and teary-eyed? I don’t know what that’s about, but I feel this win.
I feel it like it’s mine.
And something tells me…I’ve found my social circle.
I release a breath with a wide smile before realizing the grave mistake I’ve just made.
The game is over. And I’m still here.
The crowd’s still seated for the most part, still reveling in the win. Almost in unison, people reach for their phones and I’m assuming it’s to take videos.
Good—buys me time to get the hell out of here.
I ignore the buzzing of my own phone and mutter a quick goodbye to the girls before pushing to my feet and squeezing past Lisa to get to the aisle.
I’m almost to the double doors when an unmistakable sound effect of a social media post reaction echoes in the arena.
I turn as gasps and cheers boom around me. The jumbotron isn’t displaying any kind of message. Just the Send Me Love app logo and red hearts bouncing around it.
Curious, I look at my phone and open the app.
My stomach dips.
My breath is knocked out of me when I see a red heart under my message…and who it’s from.
Kane19