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“You have no idea how excited the team is to have you. Word of advice before you go?”
I guess that’s my cue to be dismissed, so I pick up the player profile and nod. “Sure.”
“At leastpretendyou’re excited to be here too.”
I don’t respond because I’m not excited and not pretending to be. I’m resigned for now. Bitter at the turn my career has taken. Eager to get back to Charlotte. Or anywhere else. Just not … here.
Only now I feel the slightest tug of regret thinking about leaving in a matter of months. Even this little bit of Parker has lightened my mood, just the way she always did.
Pausing in the doorway, I consider offering the apology I owe but wasn’t asked for. The words are trying to form coherent sentences when Parker speaks.
“Oh, and Logan?” She grins at me. “Have fun at practice.”
NowthatI can do.
CHAPTER3
Parker
“I thoughtI might find you up here,” a deep, lightly accented voice says.
I’m so startled I almost drop my phone over the railing and onto the ice below. What’s the drop—fifty feet? Eighty? Despite my heavy-duty case, if the fall didn’t shatter the screen, the first player who skated over it would finish the job.
Clutching the phone to my chest, I swivel to glare at the only person who would dare sneak up on me. Especially up here on the metal catwalk above the rink. Most people don’t even know how to get here.
“Javi, you can’tdothat,” I tell our facilities manager.
He only chuckles, running a hand through his more salt than pepper hair. “Figured you’d expect it by now.”
I should, considering the man is like a Houdini of the Summit, appearing and disappearing at will.
“How’s it going down there?” he asks, peering over the side at morning practice.
“It’s going. You know—same old.”
I glance down, unable to help the way my eyes immediately zero in on Logan just as he takes a shot that Felix blocks. I can’t hear words from way up here, but based on body language, a couple of the guys skate by and make cracks to Logan.
I smile.Welcome to the Appies, Wolverine.Getting razzed—which is probably way too innocent a term for the kinds of foul insults these guys hurl at each other—is just a part of being included on a team. They’re giving Logan a hockey-style welcome. In no time, he’ll be fully assimilated. And insulted. Same thing.
Unless … Logan refuses to reallybepart of the team, keeping them all at a distance. My brother confessed a few years ago that he wasn’t all that surprised when Logan ghosted him.
“I’m not sure I everknewhim. Like, we hung out. It was comfortable,” Brandon once told me. “It’s not like we didn’ttalk.But Logan never went deep, and sometimes he would disappear.”
I frown as Logan shoves Nathan, who is inarguably the last guy you want to shove. It takes Tucker and Dumbo and Coach to separate the two of them. Not the best showing. I stop filming and delete the video I was taking.
Javi makes a disapproving sound, and I can’t blame him.
“Come on, Logan,” I mutter, willing him with the force of my mind to be better.
I know he’s probably changed in the years since I’ve seen him, but I still know him. I do. Our talk in my office made me certain of this. He’s still Logan. Good guy wrapped up in a rough—but pretty—package. Maybe now a little gruffer and world-weary, but the moment he called me Peter Parker, I knew he is still the guy I fell for all those years ago.
The hot, sweet one I looked up to and adored. The one whose name I doodled in notebooks. The one who always made me feel like I mattered.
No, Parker! Bad. Must not fall for the hot hockey player who already left you high and dry once! This particular crush is not about to rise from the dead.
Though I fear it’s already too late. The crush has risen. More like … it never died and just sat quietly like a troll under the bridge, biding its time. Within moments of him stepping close in the elevator, I was already a goner. Now, my best hope is to manage it. Keep that troll in check until Logan gets called back up and try not to spend too much time with him.
But even if being around Logan is bad for my own pathetic heart, I do want to see him bond with the rest of the Appies.
