Page 19 of The Love Penalty
Grabbing my towel, I stalk out of the shower, drying off quickly and hurrying to get dressed while Casey and Liam stand there chatting. I tune out their conversation, my mind wandering back to… yep, you guessed it… freakin’ Lani!
“Just heard from Mick.” Ethan slips his phone into his back pocket as he walks past me. “She and Caroline are going to Offside for dinner before we all head home to hit the books. You guys in?”
I glance over my shoulder as Liam responds. “Nah, man. Rachel’s at the diner tonight. Think I’ll go eat there and study until she’s done.”
“Cool.” Ethan points to Casey. “You? Or have you got doggy duties?”
Casey’s smile fades, his shoulders slumping. “Shit. The dog.”
“Got you covered, man.” Baxter walks past him, slapping him on the shoulder with a grin. He looks pretty damn excited.
“Seriously?” Casey perks up instantly.
“Of course. I’d much rather hang with a cute puppy than a bunch of weirdos at a sports bar.”
“You think we’re weird?” I mutter under my breath. Baxter’s our team goalie, and I swear he was a hermit crab in a past life.
He seems to be allergic to people and normal conversation. Sure, he shuffles out for dinner sometimes—mostly on the nights Rachel cooks—but he barely says a word. As soon as he’s done eating, he disappears back to his room. Most days, he’s holed up in there, happy with his own company. I don’t know what the hell he does with his time, but the guy’s an introvert to the extreme.
But he obviously loves animals, and Fezzik’s got him voluntarily starting conversations and offering to help out.
Grinning like he just won the lottery while Baxter heads out the door, Casey turns to me. “You comin’?”
I nearly say no, but do I honestly feel like going back to Hockey House right now? My brain needs food before studying, and although I could go hang in the Athlete’s Hall and get a decent meal, the thought of my bros all having fun at Offside without me is too much.
So I say yes.
Because what the hell. A beer and some pizza will hit the spot. I can hang with my crew, flirt with a puck bunny or two. Shit, I might even get laid, and that’ll help me relax enough to hit the books when I get home.
It also might have the added effect of tricking my brain into forgetting about a certain Hawaiian beauty with the lips of an angel and the tongue of a sorceress.
CHAPTER 9
LEILANI
My fingers tap away on my keyboard, making a steady stream of clicks that reassure me that I’m gonna nail this assignment. It’s my last one for this class, and then my focus will shift to exam prep. I have five exams in total, and this year, they’re all clumped together over three days. It’s going to be so frickin’ stressful. Although, I’m feeling pretty good about two of them. I’ve been working consistently all year, and I’ve got excellent recall. I’m confident I can nail the history paper, and I’m actually looking forward to my anthropology one. The others… I’m gonna need to put in some serious study time.
The thought both exhausts and excites me.
Call me a nerd, but I enjoy studying. Learning stuff is interesting. I love building my knowledge base and expanding my awareness of the world. I love being able to contribute intelligent comments to conversations, and yes, raising my hand in class and answering a question correctly always gives me a buzz.
Shit, I really am such a nerd.
But hey, it’s me, and I’m gonna own that shit.
If anything, my nerdiness is kind of saving me, because poring over books and escaping into history helps me to avoid the present.
My phone dings, sounding loud in the empty dorm room, and I reach for it with a frown. I don’t know why I don’t just turn the thing off, but I’m so aware that my parents might try to reach me. They love sending me pics of my younger siblings. The baby of the family—Melika—went to her first dance class yesterday. She’s two and the cutest toddler on the planet. Mom took her to something called Wriggle and Rhyme. Basically, the kids sing songs that have been around for decades and jump around, flapping their arms and giggling. They call that dancing, and little Mel looked so freaking happy. The video Mom sent me was adorable. It made me tear up just a little, wishing I could be a carefree two-year-old again.
I seriously don’t know how my mother has the energy for all her kids. The doctors told her she was too old to be having another child, but she refused to listen and continued with the pregnancy. She’s now a forty-three-year-old woman with a two-year-old… and seven other children. But she seems to thrive on being a parent. I don’t know what she’s going to do when Melika starts school and she doesn’t have babies at home anymore. Maybe by then my older brother, Noa, will have started having kids. He did get married last summer, so who knows. Mom can shift into Tutuwahine mode and start her grandma duties. She’ll love it.
I grin, picturing her surrounded by grandchildren. But then my smile fades when I start to wonder if I’ll be able to provide her any. If I even want kids. I thought I did, but now I’m not so sure.
A shudder travels down my spine and I snap my eyes shut, willing that box in my brain to stay sealed up tight. I hate it when it rattles like that, threatening to pop open and flood my brain with ugly memories.
It’ll be a tsunami I won’t survive.
My phone dings again, reminding me that I totally spaced out and still haven’t checked my message. Spinning it over, I read the screen and see Caroline’s name.