Page 7 of Losing an Edge

“Everything?” I tried to swallow but choked on my tongue.

“Everything. And I’ll make it hurt a hell of a lot worse than you hurt her.”

“What makes you think I’m going to hurt her?” I asked. That probably wasn’t the right thing to say when he might as well be breathing fire through his nostrils.

He took so long answering me I started to wish the fire were real, so he could melt the ice beneath my feet and I could disappear through the floor. But then he said, “No, 501. I don’t think you’re going to hurt her. Because you’re not stupid. You’re a smart kid, so you know better than to do anything that would hurt her. Which is why you’re going to take her on a date tomorrow, and you’re going to be perfectly fucking nice but as interesting as a bag of rocks. You’re going to keep your fucking hands to yourself. You’re going to bring her home safe—early—and then you’re going to move on with your life and let her move on with hers. You got it?”

Before I could answer, the coaches called us out to the center of the ice for practice to start.

I was in a daze the rest of the day. I didn’t have the first clue what had happened last night, when Cadence had run off after I’d asked her out. I had even less understanding about what had happened this morning or why she wanted to go out with me now.

All I knew was that if Jonny could come up with a way to be a fly on the wall during this date tomorrow night, he would do it—so I needed to be on my guard and make sure I didn’t do anything I’d regret. I had no doubt he’d meant what he’d said.