Page 25

REED

“Hey, Reed. Is that your girl over there?”

I skidded to a stop, the ice flying up from my skates, as I looked in the direction Matt had nodded toward.

Violet was standing at the edge of the rink, and she lifted her hand slightly to wave.

I was surprised to see her here so early.

I’d told her she only needed to make an appearance for the last few minutes of practice.

Given her feelings about hockey, I knew this would be boring for her to watch.

Plus, we only needed Hoffman to see us leaving the center together, so it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d arrived a little later.

I still couldn’t believe Violet’s ex had expected her to watch him train. I knew she was set on avoiding jocks, specifically those with big egos, so I couldn’t fathom how she’d ended up with a guy who had one bigger than the rink we played on.

“Yeah, that’s her,” I replied, smiling in her direction as I raised my stick to return her greeting.

I was genuinely excited to see her, but slightly nervous too.

I’d enjoyed our tactics meeting far more than I should have yesterday, and the little golden rule she’d thrown in at the end had me worried.

She didn’t want any feelings involved, but I was already well on my way to breaking that crucial part of our agreement.

“Dude, you are such a goner.” Matt laughed, and I realized I must have looked like a total loser waving my stick in the air at Violet. I shoved my shoulder into him as I went to skate off, but it only made Matt laugh harder.

I hadn’t told anyone the truth about me and Violet and how our relationship was fake. Not even Grayson, and I usually told him everything. I think a part of me just didn’t want to admit it out loud. Matt was right. I was a goner—and I had been ever since I’d seen her swing her foot at her car.

The guys were all grilling me about her in the locker room before practice.

We’d made quite a scene with our kiss on Saturday night, so everyone was understandably curious.

Even at school, people had been asking me all day about the new girl from Sunshine Hills, and I’d been more than happy to tell them she was my girlfriend.

Matt, especially, had been asking a lot of questions about her.

It was fair enough considering I hadn’t shown any interest in dating since freshman year, and suddenly I was going out with our biggest rival’s ex-girlfriend.

It had all happened so fast, and Matt seemed to realize something didn’t quite add up.

Surely, he’d never guess our relationship was a complete lie. I could barely believe it myself.

Coach barked at us to grab a quick drink, so while the rest of the team headed over to the bench, I skated across to Violet.

As I approached, she greeted me with a slightly anxious smile.

She looked cute tonight with a large jacket that seemed to swallow her whole.

Every time I saw her, I swore she’d become smaller.

Either that or her clothes got bigger. I couldn’t deny that winter in Minnesota was cold, but I’d never seen anyone layer on jackets the way Violet did.

“Having fun?” she asked, nodding in the direction of the ice.

“Always.” I pulled my helmet from my head and grinned at her. “But I think the more important question is: are you?”

She shrugged. “I only got here a few minutes ago, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.”

“Are you talking about me or the hockey?

“Uh, both?”

“So, what you’re saying is, you’re not all that impressed by my hockey skills.”

“I didn’t say that. It seems like you know what you’re doing.”

“Jeez.” I ran a hand through my hair. “That’s like the nice way of saying I’m simply adequate.”

“Well, I meant it in a good way.”

I couldn’t hold back my grimace.

“Okay.” She slowly started to smile. “What I meant to say is I’ve never had my breath taken away quite like I did when I first saw how you handle that stick. I’ve been swooning ever since…”

I burst out laughing. “Yeah, that’s much better.”

She rolled her eyes, but there was still a playful smile on her lips.

“If you want to be impressed by someone’s stick skills, you should have been watching me,” Parker said as he attempted to shoulder me out of the way and take my place. The little shit.

“Hey. Parker, right?” she said.

“The one and only.” His broad shoulders straightened with confidence. “It’s nice to see you again, Violet.”

“Yeah, you too.”

“So, what do you say? Want me to show you my skills?” he asked.

I really struggled not to shove him out of the way. The only reason I held back was because I didn’t want him to know how much he was getting to me.

“We better still be talking about hockey,” I warned.

Violet didn’t seem nearly so bothered by him though, and she released a bright laugh. “I’ll keep an eye out for you,” she replied.

“Well, in that case, I might just have to show off a little bit,” Parker replied as though he didn’t already spend every minute he was on the ice doing just that. “So, what brings you to our practice tonight?”

She shot me a cautious glance, and I realized she was probably wondering how much of the truth I’d told my brothers.

“She came to meet me here because we’re headed to dinner together after practice,” I answered for her. “Isn’t that right, babe?”

Violet frowned slightly, but I gave her a look that encouraged her to play along.

I could hardly tell my brother she was here just so we could show ourselves off in front of her ex.

And Parker would have called bullshit if he thought I’d asked her here simply to watch us practice.

Dinner was the only thing I could think of that made sense.

“Yeah, dinner, right,” Violet said, quickly masking her surprise.

When Coach started yelling at us from across the ice, I knew we’d pushed our break too long.

“That’s our cue,” Parker said, winking at Violet before skating off.

I gave her a quick smile. “I won’t be too much longer,” I said. “Enjoy swooning over my stick skills…”

“I wasn’t actually…”

I grinned and skated away before she could finish the sentence. I knew perfectly well she’d been joking. Still, I enjoyed making her worry, for a few moments at least, that I might actually think she’d meant it.

I approached the last fifteen minutes of training with renewed vigor.

There was something about knowing Violet was watching me that made me want to work even harder than usual.

I chose to ignore the fact that she didn’t seem particularly interested in hockey.

My efforts couldn’t have been subtle because Matt skated up to me as we were headed off the ice at the end of practice.

“Trying to impress a certain someone?” he asked with a smirk.

“Don’t know what you mean.” I shrugged, trying to act cool as I sat on the bench and pulled off my helmet.

“Well, if you were, it seems you failed,” Matt added.

I looked up, and he nodded toward the entrance to the rink. “Looks like you’ve got some competition.”

My stomach twisted as I followed his gaze and saw Violet talking to Hoffman.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she didn’t look happy to be anywhere near her ex, let alone speaking with him.

The sight of them together stirred something inside me.

Was it anger? Jealousy? Nerves? Something else?

All I knew was Violet looked uncomfortable.

We were supposed to be making sure Hoffman saw us together, and I hated that she was having to confront him on her own.

“What’s Hoffman playing at?” Matt continued. “Saints players aren’t allowed in here until we’ve finished our practice.”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “But I’m going to find out.”

“Need backup?”

“With Hoffman?” I scoffed. “Nah, I’ll catch you in the locker room.”

I didn’t wait for a response before I headed over to join Violet.

“Just leave me alone, Jeremy.” I caught Violet trying to end the conversation as I arrived at her side.

Now I was closer, I could see she wasn’t just slightly uncomfortable around Jeremy.

Every inch of her body seemed to radiate with disgust and anger, and even though she was speaking softly, her words were laced with venom.

I didn’t hesitate as I slung my arm over Violet’s shoulder. Her body was stiff beneath me, but the moment she glanced up into my eyes, she relaxed, and I could clearly see how grateful she was.

“The arena’s closed to Saints during our practice, Hoffman,” I bit out coldly as I turned to face Jeremy. “You know that.”

Hoffman’s eyes narrowed on my arm draped over Violet’s shoulders, and it took him a moment to fully turn his attention to me. “Apparently, the rule doesn’t apply to all Saints.” He glanced at Violet.

“Violet might go to your school, but that doesn’t make her a part of your team,” I replied. “Besides, we’ve already made you an honorary Devil, haven’t we, babe?”

Violet nodded, but the movement looked strained as though she was struggling to keep calm and play along with our act. Clearly, whatever Jeremy was saying to her before I arrived had rattled her.

“So, what are you doing here?” I pressed Hoffman.

The guy had the gall to smirk at me. “Just checking on my girl,” he said. “I got to practice early and saw her come inside. Thought she might have been looking for me…”

“I already told you; I didn’t come here for you.” Violet’s words were edged with steel and her gaze far colder than the ice beside us. For someone so sweet, she was also someone I didn’t want to get on the wrong side of.

The smirk slipped slightly from Hoffman’s face. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Well, believe it.” she continued, pressing into me a little more. “I came here to watch my boyfriend. We’re going to dinner, and I arrived early so I could catch the end of his practice.”