Page 185 of Lose You Twice

So Kai doesn’t touch me.

He only nods once, then keeps walking.

I hate how much that restraint makes me want him.

Across the room, Weston watches him go, then turns to me. “That was hot.”

I throw a towel at his chest.

He catches it, delighted. “I knew it.”

“You know nothing.”

“I know sexual tension when I see it, babygirl.”

Asher opens his stall. “You know how to be loud.”

“I definitely know how to make the ladies loud,” Weston says with a wink.

I snicker before Donnelly appears behind me. “Cooper, stop flirting with my staff and get dressed.”

Weston’s face goes immediately offended. “I was seeking pregame encouragement.”

“Seek it elsewhere.”

“Yes, sir.”

The game starts ugly.

Not bad. Ugly.

The other team is fast and irritating, the kind of irritating that looks coached. They finish every check, crowd Asher’s crease, chirp after whistles and skate away smiling when PCU reacts. By the end of the first period, the score is still 0–0, but the whole rink feels like it’s one bad hit away from boiling over.

Kai is controlled. Too controlled.

That is the thing I notice now. Not just when he’s calm, but when the calm is something he’s forcing. I can see it in the set of his shoulders when he comes off after a shift. The way he drinks water and looks briefly toward the stands without turning his head enough for anyone else to follow.

Dane is up there somewhere.

Seattle is watching.

I wonder if Kai feels it as a door opening or a clock ticking.

Maybe both.

In the second period, Coleson takes a penalty for cross-checking, and Coach’s face turns a color I would describe as medically concerning. Donnelly mutters, “Idiot,” under his breath, and I pretend not to hear it, even though he absolutely wanted me to.

PCU kills the penalty, but barely. Asher makes two saves that should count as miracles, and Grayson clears the puck with seven seconds left. When Coleson steps back on the ice, Kai says something to him that I can’t hear from the bench.

Coleson’s jaw tightens.

Kai skates away before it can become anything else.

As the third starts, PCU comes out faster. Harder. Grayson drives the net on the first shift and draws a penalty. Weston wins a battle on the boards that makes him pound the glass like a caveman. Kai sets up on the half wall, head up, patient in a way that makes my pulse trip because I can see the play forming before it happens.

Pass to Grayson.

Back to Kai.