Page 21

Shortly after that weekend trip with Mer and Ali to see the boys in Canada, I was given the green light to train again.

Patrick and I decided to transfer to a new coaching team in Buffalo, New York. I quickly enrolled in some college courses and chose to live on campus at Marshall University so I could experience college life. Patrick chose to live downtown and was taking classes online.

I was now going into the fall semester, and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I could be, but—

“You have your eyes on anyone? I hear Eric likes you,” Ria, my roommate, asked, wagging her eyebrows at me as she pushed open the front door of our sorority house, leading the way into the crisp fall night.

“Eh.” I shrugged with indifference and hugged myself against the cold. I really should’ve brought a jacket, but I didn’t want to lose it at the party.

“Oh my God,” Ria groaned as she grabbed my hand and started speed walking down the sidewalk toward the already busy frat house. “All the guys drool over you, and I swear they’re all holding out hope that you’ll choose them. Please put the rest out of their misery and choose someone, P.”

I just laughed because that was very much not true, but it was nice of Ria to say. And while I’d love to just choose someone, no one ever seemed to match up to him . But I’d never admit that to anyone.

After that road trip to Canada, I really thought Richard and I would start dating. But then Richard got traded to a lower team all the way out in Vancouver and he went radio silent on the whole group.

My texts went completely unanswered, so then I tried to call him—multiple times. I left dozens of messages, but still no word.

Mer thought he was depressed, but that was no excuse to just cut me out.

After a while, I stopped trying because he was making me feel pathetic.

Piper Wyndell-Hamilton didn’t beg for anyone’s attention, I told myself. But…deep down, I really wanted to jump on a plane to Vancouver and demand to know why he was ignoring me. That wasn’t an option, so I picked myself and my heart up off the floor and moved on.

Well, I tried to move on. I studied, I spent time with friends, I went out and drank, danced, and kissed other boys. But every time I kissed someone new, a little part of my heart would pathetically plummet, because it just wasn’t the same.

But maybe tonight would be different.

It was the beginning of a brand new semester, a chance to be brand new again, and we were starting it off with a lock-in party with Sigma Chi.

“Ooh, those guys are cute,” Ria said, pointing to a group of guys standing in a circle on the frat house lawn.

I bit my lip as I studied them. Yeah, they were cute, wearing their button downs, dockers, and boat shoes, but they just weren’t my type.

Why did I have to go and fall in love with a hockey guy before I even knew there were other types of guys in the world? It’s like Richard Charles Kappers the Third had imprinted on me or something, and I hated it. How the hell would I ever fix it? Maybe I needed therapy?

“So, that’s a no,” Ria said with a laugh. “Okay, let’s get something to drink before we get our flirt on.”

________ _

After an hour of sipping on a drink and standing in a circle with some girlfriends, I realized things were not about to be any different this school year, and what I really wanted was to head home and get a full night’s rest before my early morning practice.

“Oh my God, wait, he’s so cute,” Tara, a girl in my sorority, said.

“Which one?” Ria asked.

“The one with the earring!” she whispered. “He’s gotta be a new student. You see him?”

“Ugh, I hope he’s not a freshman,” Paige said.

“Earring?” I snorted in amusement. “Isn’t that a little try-hard?”

Paige grabbed my shoulders in a surprisingly strong grip for such a tiny person and turned me to face said guy. “That man can try anything with me.”

I stood there, completely shocked, gaping at chocolate brown eyes, a choppy mullet, and a lazy panty-dropping grin.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think Richard Charles Kappers the Third would be at my university, casually leaning against a frat house wall, tipping back a bottle of beer.

And he did, in fact, have an earring. A tiny silver hoop through his left ear.

What the actual fuck?

My first thought was that I was hallucinating, putting Kappy’s face on this random, new guy.

But the longer I stared, the more I was sure.

It was him. His strong jaw, his Adam’s apple, his nose with the slight notch in it.

He was here. After practically a year of radio silence, he was standing just a few feet away from me at my college.

Without a second thought, I marched straight up to him, ignoring my friends calling after me.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded.

“Piper the Viper,” he drawled, like he’d been expecting to see me. His blood-shot eyes trailed up and down my body, making goosebumps involuntarily break out on my skin. He took a long pull of his beer. “I like this look.” He grinned and reached out to touch the bottom of my crop top.

With a frown, I slapped his hand away. “I hate yours. You look like a long-lost member of a boy band. And you lost the right to touch me when you ignored me for months, Richard.” My unwavering stare had him flinching away.

Biting the inside of his cheek, he kept his gaze on the floor.

“Why are you here?” I demanded.

He heaved a sigh and gave me a lopsided grin, but it didn’t make it to his eyes. “I’m trying out college.”

I squinted up at him, trying to understand. “Are you…on the hockey team?”

“Nah, can’t. I already got paid to play up in the OHL, I’m barred from the NCAA.”

“That’s stupid,” I blurted out.

He dropped his head and pulled at the front of his dark hair.

“I should’ve gone to college, taken the first scholarship I was offered.

I thought I could make it.” When he looked back up at me, he had a pained look on his face, one that said, isn’t that stupid, that I believed I could make it? My heart crumbled.

“You can,” I pushed.

He choked out a pathetic laugh as he picked at the label on his beer. “I already didn’t.” He took another long pull.

“So…it’s over? You’re just quitting?” I snapped. “Never took you for a quitter.”

“I don’t know, P.” He glanced sideways at his new buddies and chuckled at something they said. He was half-wasted, smelling oddly of other substances, and completely distracted.

“I do.” It came out as a whisper.

“Huh?” he asked, but his focus was still on the guys.

Reaching forward, I grabbed his chin and made him look at me. He lost weight, making his cheeks look almost gaunt, and he had serious bags under his eyes like he hadn’t been sleeping. “I do know that you’re not a quitter. Are you drunk? High? What’s wrong with you?”

“Maybe?” He laughed. “What difference does it make?”

I’d never seen him quite so despondent, and it was freaking me out. Panic gripped my chest as I grabbed the beer out of his hand and threw it in the trash with a loud clunk. “You’re done.” I pointed a finger at his face.

A chorus of “oooh” and laughter came from his new buddies.

“What the fuck?” Kappy said, playing it up for the guys, and it felt like deja-vu. But I didn’t embarrass easily anymore, nor did I care what anyone else thought of me, especially not these strangers .

“Look at me, not them,” I demanded, stepping right up to him so that our chests were almost flush. “This isn’t you.”

His face fell. “It’s fine, Piper. I’m gonna get some business or finance degree.

Business people can make even more than athletes.

” He looked down at me with such hope in his eyes that the rest of my anger deflated.

His hands went to my waist and his voice dipped down to a whisper to say, “I can still buy us that penthouse, I promise. I’ll find a way, baby. ”

He remembered . My heart squeezed painfully in my chest. How was it that I wanted to hug him, but slap him at the same time? His words were so sweet, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d ignored me for months.

Taking a step back from him, out of his arms, I sucked in a steadying breath. I needed to shelf my anger and my feelings for a later date because he was too lost himself to worry about anything else. First priority was getting him back on track.

“You’re going to have a desk job? You?”

Hurt flashed in his eyes. “I can do it,” he said defensively. I knew he hated being thought of as stupid.

“I know you can ,” I snapped, “but why would you want to?”

His eyes darted around for an answer. “Because Piper, hockey didn’t work out, now drop it. Please. I’m already pissed about it, okay?”

I shoved a finger into his chest. “Not pissed enough. Meet me at the rink.”

He reeled back. “What? Now?”

“No. Tomorrow morning, 5:30 a.m.”

His face cracked in confusion. He looked to his buddies for clarification, but no one was paying attention to us anymore. “Huh?”

“My parents bought extra ice time for me. 5:30 a.m. every weekday morning. If you’re not there, I will hunt you down, and you will be sorry.”

He stood taller, then almost tipped sideways. “Yeah? What’re you gonna do?” he asked, trying to recover.

Angling my jaw to the side, I gave him an icy glare. “You really wanna risk finding out?”

His throat bobbed with a swallow.

“Didn’t think so.” I gave him a sickly sweet smile. “See you in the morning, Richard,” I said before turning on my heel.

And I couldn’t ignore the little thrill blooming in my chest .

He was here.

I would fix this.

Everything would be okay.

_________

But the high from last night was slowly sinking this morning as I walked across the cold, sleepy campus all alone.

While the university had a fancy new stadium on the other side of campus for the hockey teams, the old school “Barn” was a rink used strictly for practice, and I was one of the few fortunate students to have a key.