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Felix: If you ever need a break from all the noise but don’t want to be alone, text me.
Felix: Full disclosure—Parker told me to text you. I was planning to anyway, but now I feel like I have to say that she asked everyone. Prepare for your phone to blow up. You’ve been warned.
I appreciate his honesty, as well as his almost unheard-of use of punctuation. As well as his warning, which turns out to be timely. As I plug in my phone and turn it off, the screen is already exploding with texts.
Leave it to Parker. One thing that for sure hasn’t changed is her habit of butting into my life. Like the way she used to give me critiques after every game. She was usually right too. Or the way she would tell me all the things wrong with girls I was dating. She was right about that too.
And as I fall asleep in the empty darkness of my hotel room, my screen lights up again and again with reminders that someone in this world actually cares about me.
Even if I don’t deserve it.
CHAPTER6
Logan
I walkinto the Summit the next day with my completed player profile in hand. Did I fill it out because I was afraid of what Parker might do if I didn’t? No.
Did I do it just to have an excuse to stop by Parker’s office after practice? I dare anyone to try and prove it.
“Knock, knock,Boss.”
Parker glances up from her computer, sees me, and drops her phone. I try not to smile as she disappears under her desk. When her head pops back up, she looks flustered, but tries to hide it behind a smile.
“Barnes,” she says, eyeing the paper in my hand while toying with a ring on her thumb. “Do you have something for me?”
I hold the profile out, then snatch it back when she reaches for it. “Will this get me out of dancing?”
“No promises. Did you mention that you hate dancing on your profile?”
The truth is—Idon’thate dancing. I rarely dance, but only because that usually means being somewhere public. And being somewhere public means people are watching me, maybe even filming me. It’s hard to let go and enjoy when that’s on my mind.
But when I have had the opportunity, the same calm I feel on the ice settles over me when the music pulses loud and I’m able to let loose.
When I woke up far too early this morning, I caved and downloaded TikTok and got sucked into the Appies feed. It’s surprisingly entertaining. I can see the stamp of Parker all over it—the creativity and the humor. Years ago, she was always making some kind of craft or project. Now, it seems she’s turned that energy to social media.
While some of the videos are dancing, a lot of them are of the guys just lip syncing and there are a lot of them actually playing, sometimes with humorous sound clips over them from shows likeThe OfficeandSchitt’s Creek.
Still. Getting sucked in to watching the videos doesn’t mean I’m any more eager to beinthem.
“It’s more that I don’t like being in the spotlight.”
She tilts her head, studying me before dropping her gaze and clearing her throat. Her chair makes an unholy noise as she shifts.
I frown. Why hasn’t she had this thing replaced? It’s clearly a hazard.
“Logan, I hate to tell you this but you’re a professional athlete,” she says. “In case you missed it, your lifeisthe spotlight.”
I take a step closer to her desk, skimming a few of her sticky notes there, all of which seem to be related to video trends I don’t know or particularlywantto know. “I don’t mind being in the spotlight for hockey. It’s everything else I don’t like. Like news stories and gossip sites spreading lies about me.”
She goes still. The kind of still that makes me really look at her. Suddenly, she seems flustered. Or maybe nervous. Her pointer finger is still messing with the ring on her thumb, pushing these little beads around on it. She’s avoiding eye contact, and her leg is bouncing under the desk.
Is she nervous? Did our dinner last night somehow make her uncomfortable? She seemed fine when I left, but now … something is off.
Was it something I said?
Narrowing my eyes, I hold out the paper.
But I don’t let go when she takes the other side. Parker tugs the paper. I hold tight. Blowing out a breath, she meets my gaze.
