Page 91 of Home Ice

“Of course.”

“It’s like the Hulkbuster suit. With your teeny head sticking out the top.”

He scowls and shoves his helmet on. “Better?”

“Ehh. I could do without the death glare.”

“Well, we all want things we can’t have.” He looks around. “You going to coach me?”

“The thing is, I’m not actually a coach. We can do what we’ve been doing the last few weeks, or I could shoot rockets at you and see how many saves you make.”

“Sure.” He takes off on his warm-up skate, and I watch him the whole time. It’s weird. How he can be so prickly and, let’s face it, a downright asshole sometimes, but as I watch him, a cautious sort of softness takes over. Through his scowls and his thumbs-ups and his sheer determination to push me away, I’ve gotten glimpses of him. That drive for hockey. The way he hurts over Carly. How sometimes, when he thinks I’m not looking, I’ll catch him watching me exactly the way I watch him. I’m curious about him the way he’s curious about me.

He slows to a stop in front. “Where’s Coach?”

“He had an appointment.”

“You said. What’s he doing?”

I smile at his audacity. “Not your business.”

Kasen tilts his head as far as his bulky helmet will allow. “Are you guys hooking up?”

Oh, shit. Barrett and I haven’t really talked about what we’d tell anyone, because no one has bothered to guess. No one could guess, considering how careful we’ve been. “Again. Not your business.”

“That’s a yes.”

“That’s a keep going and I’ll make sure you don’t make a single save today.”

“Unlikely.” One side of his lips actually curls upward. Then he reaches out and takes my stick. He replaces it with his goalie one, the one I bought him, and turns his attention to a puck, knocking it back and forth so fast I don’t even think I could keep up.

“That’s some impressive stick handling. Coach Barrett teach you that?”

“Nope, my best friend did.”

“Shit, he’s talented.”

“Yes, she is.”

I bite my tongue at that gentle reprimand. “What’s her name?”

“Amy. She’s on our team and better than most of us. I fucking love seeing her kick ass against some of the teams we play. They hate it so much.” He cackles. “They really take it personally to be beaten by a girl.”

I pick up on the affection in his tone. “Are you …”

He actually bares his teeth at me. “No, we’re not dating. No, we don’t want to date. Jordan likes her, but she’d never date anyone on the team. She wants to be taken seriously.”

I nod at where his hands are flying on the stick. “If she’s teaching you those moves, I don’t see how anyone couldn’t.”

“Really?” he snorts. “You can’t think of anyone on your team who doesn’t look down on the PWHL?”

He’s got me there. “Okay, yeah, a few.”

He nods and keeps focused on the puck. Barrett told me he was a smart kid, but listening to him talk, I can’t not respect Carly for how she’s raised him. Sure, he might want to hate me, but besides that, he’s actually got a good head on his shoulders.

“Carly did great,” I whisper.

Kasen’s eyes fly to mine. “What?”