Page 68 of Chasing Hope

MATTEO

you’re disgusting

ELLINGTON

I can smell your jealousy from here

MATTEO

that’s your STD marinating

ELLINGTON

I’m as clean as a whistle I’ll have you know

Skating to the other side of the rink where half of the team is congregated—the rest having fucked off like Caleb and taking this time to travel—I’m not fully present as I go through the motions of warming up.

My mind is elsewhere, more specifically on a pretty blonde whose blue eyes have had me hooked since I was seven. Let’s fucking face it, Evie has always been special to me, and the fact that I can’t stop thinking about her chest pressed against mine, her arms around my neck, and her face buried in my nape speaks volumes.

I’m a grown twenty-seven-year-old man, and I can’t get over my best friend’s little sister hugging me.

I repeat, a fuckinghug.

I had a hard-on the entire drive to the arena. The only thing that finally pulled me out of it was seeing Caleb’s text. It was as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over my head.

Thank fuck this is training camp and not a real game, because I don’t know if I’d be able to concentrate.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

Oh, I know. I’m just head over heels for Evie.

I’m finally snapped away from my thoughts as Grayson steps onto the ice, our captain drawing everyone’s attention. Coach soon follows, the assistant coach, Olivia Foster, close behind with a slicked-back bun.

No one holds back their groan at the sight.

“Fuck, Foster, cut us some slack today,” Irving whines.

She cocks a brow. “Perform like you’re worth the millions the team pays you and perhaps we will go easy on you.”

Coach barks out a laugh.Well, at least one of them seems to be in a good mood.

Foster begins moving around the rink, placing small orangecones, outlining our warm-up drill for the morning. Once she’s done, Coach Anderson claps his hands together. “All right, boys, let’s warm up those muscles. Ten minutes of drills, let’s go.”

Ten minutes later, I’m skating over to the right side of the ice where Olivia Foster waits for us, and I can tell just by the twinkle in her eye this training session is going to hurt.

And sure enough, it fucking does.

It’s torture as is to run through sessions without Caleb by my side. We’ve been defensemen on this team together for years. We move in sync, breathe in sync, and even think in sync. Everything about us is a well-oiled machine, so to not have my other half beside me on the ice feels…odd, to say the least.

I’ve heard the whispers about IceHawks trying to recruit Kai Silverton. It would be fucking amazing to see that weapon of a player join the defensemen. Especially since Lukas retired and it’s left O’Connor with rookies coming and going in his second line of defense. So far, no one has been able to click.

Kai would be a game changer, the extraoomphthis team needs to take home a championship again. And I can tell we all want it. We may be grumbling about this training session but the determined expressions say otherwise.

We all want to prove ourselves, especially after losing the championship last year.

O’Connor stops beside me, ice spraying my pant leg as we watch Johnson run goalie drills.

“I think Fosterlikesliving up to the boys’ superstitions.”