Page 68 of Ice Cold Heart

Reece stepped in my way. “Since when do you let shit-talking assholes get to you? Smile and let it go, then cram the puck down his throat. Unless he’s not really the problem…”

We stared at each other for a long beat, and I gave in. “I think Avery’s avoiding me.”

He rolled his eyes. “I knew it. You let her have all the power and now you’re fucked.”

Gavin frowned. “What the hell, Reece?”

Reece threw his hands up. “Ask him. I’m clearly not qualified to give relationship advice.” He stomped off to harass Sellers on the other side of the room.

Gavin shifted his gaze to me with a lifted brow. “Do we need to talk about this now?”

“No.” I ground my teeth together as the lie twisted in my stomach. “Yes.”

“Talk,” Gavin ordered.

I sat next to him and lowered my voice. “Avery has been busy the last couple of weeks, and we’ve only managed three tutoring sessions.” I held up a hand when I saw him start to interrupt. “My grade is fine. We got ahead before the semester started, though I’m going to need to work my ass off after the season’s done.”

“Why is this affecting you now?”

“It’s been building. All I want to do is be with her, and I thought she felt the same way. When she’s with me, she’s all the way with me. When we’re apart though, I feel like there’s a wall between us.”

Gavin nodded. “And you want the wall gone.”

“Yeah. I want to stop hiding. I want her out there in the stands wearing my name. I want to be able to kiss her after the game without worrying who might see us. I want a future with her.”

“Even though the relationship could cost you a spot on the team next year?”

I leaned back and let out my breath in a rush. The truth came so easily. “Yes. She’s worth it. If Coach can’t see how much I love her, then he doesn’t deserve either of us.”

Gavin rubbed his jaw, looking pained. “I hate to say this, but there’s nothing you can do except talk to her. If she’s pulling back, she has a reason. Find out what it is and deal with it together. Which is not something you can do during our conference playoffs. Talk to her tonight. Even if she tries to blow you off, get stubborn. For now, put her aside and get your mind on the game.”

I definitely should have talked to Gavin weeks ago instead of gaslighting myself into believing nothing was wrong. He and Reece had been picking up my slack, and they deserved better than I was giving them.

“Kane keeps bringing her up.”

“Fuck him.” Gavin motioned Reece back over. “He’s expecting you to be distracted, so let’s use it. Play into the narrative.”

Reece nodded. “Yeah, if he thinks you’re not paying attention, he’ll stick close. Draw him away from us. Gavin can fake a pass to you, and I can get us on the board.”

“It’s a better plan than expecting Mase to save our asses all night.”

We brainstormed for the rest of intermission, and I felt the difference when I took the ice for the second period. Avery still lurked in the back of my mind, but I had to focus on playing my role.

Less than a minute later, we saw our opportunity. Betterman, our lead dman, got the puck away from Easton’s left winger in our zone, and it sailed toward me. Kane was right behind me with the rest of his team coming in fast.

They thought I’d fuck up the play, so they weren’t bothering to cover the rest of my team. I let my eyes drift to the crowd for a split second as the puck passed my stick, then kicked it away from Kane behind the net.

Reece dug the puck out of the wall and shot it to Gavin, who took off while Kane and his buddies were busy with me. They realized too late Gavin was on a breakaway, and their goalie wasn’t nearly as good as ours.

Kane let out a curse behind me as the buzzer sounded a goal.

The rest of the game became a grudge match, but Easton couldn’t rally. At the end of the third period, with seconds left on the clock, the puck flew my direction on a pass to Kane near the wall in the neutral zone.

I had the chance to intercept, but I let it go. Gavin whistled from behind me, and I knew I had the go ahead. The second the puck touched his stick, I hit full speed and slammed my shoulder into him. Kane went flying with a satisfying crunch, and Gavin scooped up the puck to finish out the game.

Reece skated over to Kane as he came to his knees and patted his back, saying something too low for me to hear. Our bench unloaded onto the ice, and I was quickly surrounded by my team. For the best since the fury was still smoldering in my chest.

I accepted the congratulations, but all I wanted was to get home and find Avery.