Page 16 of The Chase

“Max!” she cried and pulled me into a big hug. Kei gave the best hugs. “You okay?”

I nodded. “My car died.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“TJ gave me a jump.”

“Really?” she asked, a big grin on her face.

I rubbed a hand over my face. “It was so embarrassing. I don’t want anyone to see me like that.”

“What happened?”

“He calmed me down, but then…”

“What?”

“He asked me out.”

“Wow! See! Maybe he needed a little kick in the pants.”

I frowned at her. “I said no.”

“Why? Girl, that man’s hot. Go out with him. Make him work for it—and ask for yours this time!”

I shook my head. “I think he felt sorry for me.”

“Max! I think you should give him another chance.”

I shrugged. “He just wants sex.”

“Okay…and would that be terrible?”

I shrugged and tried to get her to forget the conversation while I started boiling water for pasta.

“Max?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you, honey, but I think you need to consider seeing someone.”

“To date?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. You never talked to anyone after the accident, and living with this undiagnosed anxiety isn’t good for you.”

“I’m fine, Kei,” I insisted. Talking about your feelings with a stranger wasn’t something that was done in my family. I hated even talking about it with Keiana. There was no way I would do that with someone I didn’t know.

She frowned but let the argument drop as she helped me in the kitchen for dinner.

I kept thinking about what she said, though. About TJ, not the therapist thing. Maybe I had been cruel to reject him like that. Maybe I should have given him a chance. But I was pretty sure I slammed the door on that today, so I wasn’t sure why I was still thinking about it.

CHAPTER SEVEN

TJ

I stormed into the locker room and threw my helmet into my cubby. For the third game in a row, I couldn’t set anything up, and the team was in another skid. So much for the home opener win. I didn’t want another shitty season under my belt; I wanted to bring the cup back to Philly.

I’d like to blame it on the fact we found out Jonesy got traded to Carolina right before the game started. He had been lacing up his skates, about to go out for warm-ups, when Coach came over to tell him he was in the wrong locker room. But our last two games had been more or less the same. We just weren’t clicking out there on the ice together.