Page 21

21

TREVOR

B eing on the ice was my happy place. My mind emptied, and the only thing I had to focus on was the puck in front of me.

The rink was cold, but it helped cool off the sweat running down my back. My hair was sticking to my forehead under the helmet as I skated, pushing hard against the ice to reach the puck. I was breathing hard, but I welcomed the burn that settled into my chest and thighs.

Stealing the puck from my teammate, I skirted around him, my eyes searching for one person. Catching sight of Wyatt, I brought my stick back and snapped it forward, sending the puck straight for him.

With a quick flick of Wyatt’s wrist, the puck shot right into the goal. Grinning under my helmet, I skated over to my best friend, slapping him on the back. Bryton landed a hard smark to my helmet as he skated by.

The sound of the whistle called the end of practice.

“Good job, boys!” Coach yelled from the side of the rink. Three hours later and practice was finally done. Despite being exhausted, I felt great. Our first game was Monday, and I was stoked to finally be back on the rink with hundreds of screaming fans.

The image of Tasha sitting in the stands shouting my name came to mind, making my heart stutter for a beat. I’ve never had someone in the stands to cheer me on. Sure I had Wyatt’s mom and brothers but they were here for Wyatt, not me. My parents never came, too strung out to care. Having Tasha there for me would be everything. I just had to ask her and hope she wanted to.

Taking my helmet off, I shook out my hair, sweat sticking to my forehead as I skated slowly around the rink.

“What has you in a good mood?” Bryton asked, coming up to my side.

“Yeah, you’ve been smiling nonstop the last week,” Wyatt interjected.

“No reason,” I lied. I knew the reason. It was because of Tasha.

The last week had felt surreal. Every day, Tasha and I hung out. Whether that was because I dropped by her office for lunch or because we went to each other's place for dinner. And, of course, food always turned into much more but neither of us were complaining. Not in the slightest.

“You’ve been MIA all week.” I could feel their eyes on me as we took another lap around the rink to cool off.

“I was recovering from jet lag. Aren’t you guys?” It wasn’t that much of a falsehood. I'd just been recovering from jet lag with Tasha.

A few nights prior, the two of us decided to keep whatever was going on between us a secret. Just for now. We both knew we couldn’t hide it forever—the paparazzi and our friends were bound to sniff it out. We just wanted to keep it on the low for the time being .

It did suck not telling my boys. Every day at practice that week, I had to bite my tongue from saying something. But until Tasha and I agreed to tell our friends, I wouldn’t say a word. Even if I did want to shout from the rooftops that Tasha Davis was mine.

We had yet to actually classify what we were, but I was pretty sure we both knew it was beyond just a hookup. Tasha was mine in every sense of the word.

“Getting Mila out of bed this week has been a chore.” Bryton laughed, shaking his head at his girlfriend.

“How is finding a house going, by the way?” I asked.

The three of us skated to the side of the rink where our water bottles sat, leaning our sticks against the wall along with our helmets. We were the last on the ice as everyone else headed for the locker room.

“Good, actually. I think we found a house we both like.” Bryton grinned. It was still crazy to think that Bryton was buying a house with his girlfriend. Wyatt was engaged. Felt like yesterday all three of us were single, hitting up the bars on weekends.

“I’m happy for you, man.” Wyatt clapped Bryton on the shoulder.

“Are you and Josie going to move before you get married?” Bryton asked.

“We aren’t sure yet.” Wyatt shrugged, chugging his water. “Her apartment is the last thing her dad gave her. I don’t think she wants to leave it.”

“She can always keep it so when she gets tired of your ass, she has another place to stay,” I joked.

“Ha ha.” He shoved my shoulder as I laughed. “My fiancée loves me, thank you very much.”

“Oh, I know.” I thought back to Monday night and the phone call I interrupted between Tasha and Josie .

“What?”

Realizing I said that out loud, I pushed off the side wall.

“I need a fucking shower,” I told the guys as I skated toward the locker room, leaving the two to follow me off the ice.

“Want to go get drinks tonight?” Bryton asked from behind me.

“Sorry, I can’t tonight,” I told him. I had other plans that were more important.

“Oh, Friday night plans.” I could practically hear the smirk in Wyatt’s voice. No doubt thinking I was going out to hook up with someone. If only they knew that person was Tasha.

“Yep.”

Tasha only had one patient this morning, so as soon as I got home, showered, and changed, I was taking her out. It was going to be our first date, and I had big plans for it.

Yesterday, when I told her I was taking her out today, she got so giddy. She asked me at least a dozen times what we were doing until she finally gave up when I wouldn’t reveal anything. But I knew she was going to love it.

“Apparently, Tasha is going out tonight too,” Wyatt said, looking at me as if to gauge my reaction. To see if I would be jealous or not. If it wasn’t me that she was going out with, I probably would have been. “I overheard Josie on the phone with her this morning.”

“Oh?” I tried to make myself sound curious as I headed over to my cubby to take my hockey gear off.

“Josie said Tasha hasn’t dated in a long time and wouldn’t tell her who it was. Have you guys heard anything?”

“Not a clue but Mila may know,” Bryton said as I shook my head, trying my hardest not to grin like an idiot.

Grabbing the back of my soaked white T-shirt, I yanked it over my head and threw it near my bag. Behind me, I Wyatt and Bryton changed, so I made quick work of putting on my other shirt. If either of them looked at my back, they would have seen scratches all over it, courtesy of my little blonde spitfire.

I made quick work of changing and putting my gear away. The sooner I got home and ready, the sooner I got to see my girl.

“I’ll catch you guys later,” I said, grabbing my bag as I headed for the exit. “Tell the girls hi for me.” Before they could respond, I walked through the doors.

I had to get ready for a date.

“You still aren’t going to tell me what we’re doing?” Tasha asked again. I shook my head, keeping my eyes on the road.

I could understand her curiosity, though. We’d been on the road for almost an hour, each mile getting farther away from Toronto.

Tasha let out a sigh and laid her head back, looking out the window. With my hand on the steering wheel and the other on her thigh, I glanced over with a soft grin. While it was only noon, the sun was mostly blocked by gray clouds. A few rays of sunshine broke through, hitting Tasha just right. From where I was sitting, she looked stunning. Like an angel, sunlight ricocheted off her face and body where it was able to slip through the windows.

I took my hand off her thigh but she didn’t even notice, too busy staring at the passing trees. Even though I knew it was against the law, I reached for my phone next to me in the console. There were only a few other cars on the road with us and no one close .

Clicking the camera icon, I brought my phone up and quickly snapped multiple photos of Tasha. She was too beautiful not to photograph.

My thumb clicked away as I took shot after shot, not even sure how many I took as I kept glancing at the road in front of us. Tasha turned to look at me but I didn’t stop.

“Are you taking pictures of me?” She smiled. I snapped a photo at that exact moment, getting that gorgeous smile of hers.

After one more picture I finally put my phone down. I would gladly fill my phone with photos of her.

“My turn.” Before I could protest, Tasha snatched my phone and aimed it at me.

“Really?” I raised an eyebrow at her, tilting my head to the side.

“Yep.” She beamed at me on the other side of the camera. I could only grin back. She really had no idea what she did to me.

I was no stranger to a camera. I'd done multiple photoshoots for magazines, billboards, as well as ones for the team, but having Tasha take pictures of me was different. It felt more personal.

I let Tasha take picture after picture. If she wanted me to pose a certain way, I did so without saying a word—well, as much as I could with being behind the wheel. When she seemed satisfied with the pictures she got, she finally put the phone away. Leaning back against the headrest, I glanced over to find her eyes still on me.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just watching.”

“You know that’s kinda creepy, right? Just staring at someone as they drive.” I retorted.

“You won’t tell me where we’re going, so I gotta entertain myself somehow,” Tasha said with a shrug .

“There’s a radio right there.”

“Fine, then. I’ll just annoy you with some music instead.” Beside me, Tasha paired her phone to the stereo. “Let's see how you like this one.”

The moment Taylor Swift’s “Cardigan” came on, I wanted to laugh. Oh, Tasha.

“Sucks for you.” I sent her a grin. “I love me some Tay Tay.”

Before she could say anything else, I started belting out the words. I was so off-key as I sang. I was a horrible singer, but that wasn’t going to stop me. I sang the lyrics, knowing the song word for word. I mean, who didn’t love Taylor Swift? Tasha laughed as I kept going. I could have listened to her laugh every second of the day.

I didn’t miss a single word or beat as the song came to an end. With a proud smile on my face, I looked over at her and found her grinning ear to ear. She had the most perfect smile.

“You are horrible.” She laughed.

“I think you mean fantastic.”

“Fantastically horrible,” she amended, to which I agreed.

“You’re damn right.”

“How do you even know that song?”

“Because Tay is the queen.” I snapped my fingers, making her laugh even more. “Plus, she has some decent songs to workout to.” And she did. My workout playlists consisted of everything from R&B to Disney songs. If you were lifting weights or running you couldn’t listen to boring slow songs.

“You are such a dork.” Tasha shook her head at me.

“You love it,” was my response back. With my phone still in her hand she flipped through the pictures she just took as I placed my hand back on her thigh. I had no problem with her going through my phone if she wanted. I had nothing to hide.

We lapsed into silence, a random song playing in the background. It wasn’t awkward silence either. Being around Tasha made content, like neither of us had to fill the quietness with awkward conversation. We could just be around each other.

We drove for another twenty minutes before I saw the sign that told me I needed to turn. We were a long way from Toronto where it was more dense with trees, and the homes were mainly cabins or farmhouses.

“So you ready to know where we’re going?”

“I've been ready since yesterday!”

“I thought since it's an unseasonably warm October day, we should be outside. And the other day, you told me how you’ve always wanted to go to a pumpkin patch and get a pumpkin. So, I thought why not?.”

The smile that formed on her face at my words let me know I made the right choice in choosing a date at a local pumpkin patch. Earlier this week, we were lying in bed talking about random things when Tasha brought up that she’d never carved a pumpkin.

Said her parents thought it was pointless so she never got the chance. I could hear the longing in her voice as she spoke about it, and I knew right then that we had to go.

And there was also the fact that I only carved a pumpkin once or twice in my life. When I met Wyatt in university, he brought me over to his mom's house. At the time, Matteo was only twelve, and they had a tradition where they all went and picked out a pumpkin, brought it home, and had a contest to see who carved theirs the best.

They gladly took me in with open arms and let me tag along with them. Even at nineteen, it was a blast. Plus my pumpkins typically won the contest.

Tasha was practically jumping in her seat as I turned down the road that led to the patch. There were only a few cars, seeing that it was nearing one o’clock on a Thursday, which worked perfectly. The two of us could hang around for as long as we wanted without anyone seeing us.

Parking the car, Tasha looked out the front window in excitement. Turning to face me, she sent me the widest grin.

“Let's find the biggest pumpkin here.”