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Her chest crashed into mine, and I held her by the wrists. Her knees dug into the top of my thighs, but I didn’t care. We were nose-to-nose. I could feel her breath on my mouth, her lips dangerously close to mine.
“Why?” she breathed.
I had entirely forgotten what I’d said before she was this close.
“I have a feeling you’ll be my lucky charm.”
“And what makes you think that?”
“Just being around you puts me in a better mood,” I admitted. My heart swelled at the sight of her smile.
“You’re so full of shit,” she chuckled, bumping her knees against my stomach.
“I mean it,” I said with a laugh of my own as she pulled herself carefully out of my grip. “I need you to come to all of my practices and pre-season games so I don’t completely fuck up on my dream.”
The air around us became stale quickly.
She knew what my dream was. She knew that dream would mean I wouldn’t be in Hartford anymore, if at all. Her job was here, her family, and the only thing that wouldn’t be wasme. There was no way in hell I could convince her to move to Hempstead.
Nothing I could say would be good enough for her to uproot her entire life to move to a city where she didn’t know anyone, had to start all over, and was miles away from her family and friends.
I’d never have made her do that. I’d never have tried to convince her to do that.
“So, you need a brochure.” Her tone was cold. Hurt. “And some stats?”
Jessa stepped away and turned to look at a bookshelf that housed Power Play advertisements, brochures, stickers, and who knew what else.
I cleared my throat and stood. “Yes.”
“How many brochures do you think you need?” she asked slowly, but she wouldn’t look at me. She kept her gaze fixed on the bookshelf in front of her.
“Just one.”
“I’ll give you ten. You can do whatever with the rest of them. Here’s our annual report from last year. It has our most current statistics, considering we only place applicants once per year.”
Her shoulders slumped forward, and I knew she was curling inward. I had watched her do it before when I said something that had intimidated her. When I’d stupidly brought up wanting more of her.
And now I had brought up leaving. Specifically,meleaving.
She was becoming reason enough for me to stay, but it was…complicated.
Spinning around quickly, Jessa thrust the bundle of documents in my hands and slipped past me. She took a seat in her chair and yanked the still-ringing receiver from the phone.
“Hi, Joann.”
She didn’t look up at me as I neared the door, or as I lingered, hopeful she’d simply wave. Instead, Jessa kept her head down and scribbled something in her notebook.
CHAPTER12
JESSA
I had completely shutdown on Zach when he’d visited me at work.
His words had felt like a cold slap in the face from reality.
His dream. His dream was to be in the NHL, to finally have a shot at greatness. It was a dream shared amongst Power Play participants, and so far, he was the only former participant to even get close.
Others had abandoned the idea, grown up and realized it was a lot harder than they believed it to be, or found different interests.
