Page 23 of Icing on Top

Jeremiah joined in, and I tried not to stare when he knelt on the ice and started doing the frog stretch. There was a reason why so many videos on social media consisted of professional hockey players doing this exact stretch. Jeremiah being clad in a pair of athletic pants instead of bulky hockey pants just meant I had a better view of his glutes.

He shifted, and I quickly turned away, hiking one of my legs up onto the boards and leaning forward toward my toes. I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about Jeremiah like that. But I knew that image was now ingrained in my brain and would definitely pop up again at a later time.

After we had limbered up as much as possible, we used the cones to mark the start and finish line.

“One lap around?” Jeremiah checked.

I nodded and took my place, Jeremiah lowering himself into a starting position next to me.

“Hey, Zo,” he said.

“Yeah?”

I glanced over and instantly got sucked into the golden glow of his eyes. He was so close, I could see how the brown of his irises faded into amber the closer it got to his pupil.

“Go,” he whispered.

And then he was gone. My body reacted before my mind had even registered what had happened—thank God! I had nearly caught up to him by the first corner. His cross-over was a little shaky compared to mine. Even if it’d been over ten years, I would always be a defenseman in my bones, and this wasn’t the first time I’d been caught on my heels.

We were neck and neck by the time we reached the last turn. I pushed hard, my legs burning. It was all worth it, though, when my skate crossed the finish line first. I slid to a stop and then doubled over, hands on my knees, to catch my breath. All the while, I kept my glare set on Jeremiah.

“Jeremiah Langfield,” I scolded.

He just grinned at me as he went to grab more cones for us to weave around, not a single hint of regret on his face.

A sharp pang shot through my left thigh when I used it to push off toward the bench to retrieve our sticks. Thankfully, my back was to Jeremiah so he didn’t see me wince. I massaged the muscles until the pinching sensation went away and then grabbed the sticks to join him for the next task.

Chapter 10

Jeremiah

In retrospect, agreeing to spend more time with Zoe to work on the women’s rec league had been counterproductive, considering I’d been trying so hard to squash my budding crush on her. Taking her challenge had been even more stupid.

Seeing Zoe’s competitive side come out was sexy as hell; the determined wrinkle between her brows and the firm press of her lips that made me want to kiss them until they softened beneath my own. It was impossible to focus on the task at hand, let alone well enough to beat her. Even with my head start in the backward skate, I’d gotten so distracted by how smoothly she skated, despite having been out of the game longer than me, that she’d caught up to me in no time.

However, the athlete in me refused to hand over the win so easily.

Claiming a puck, I moved to the first cone in my lane and did some quick passes to warm up. Zoe may be lighter on her feet, but as a goalie, I was used to holding my stick in just one hand. I would be the one with the advantage this time.

Zoe counted down, and I reacted quickly, pushing off and nudging the puck to my left around the first cone as soon as she said, “Go.” My focus was solely on the puck as it glided back and forth, rebounding off my blade exactly how I wanted. I didn’t spare a single glance in Zoe’s direction until I’d rounded the last cone and was on my way back, noting that she still had two cones left.

She didn’t let that deter her, though. Even if my win was imminent, she continued to push herself until she made it back to the start.

“Okay, that was all you,” she amended. “I didn’t even stand a chance.”

I lightly tapped my stick against hers. “You were on my tail. If anything, that should concern me since I only retired three years ago.”

She sent me a smile, even if it didn’t reach her eyes like usual. “Guess we’re tied again.”

“What do you say to a quick water break before we start PUCKS?”

While taking shots on goal was not as physically demanding as our previous two challenges, I had noticed Zoe repeatedly rubbing her left leg.

“Yeah, a break sounds good,” she agreed.

While she left the rink to get a drink from the water fountain, I plopped down on the bench and reached for my phone out of habit.

Three missed calls from Charlie’s school.