Page 42 of Pucking Never
I want to throw my arms around his neck and kiss him whenever the urge strikes, no matter who might be watching.
Determination rising up inside me, I push to my feet. Before I can talk myself out of it, I hurry out of my apartment and make my way out of the building and across the street. I’m going to tell Jensen right now. We’re going to do this and get it over with, like ripping off a bandaid, so we can move forward with our lives.
By the time I get in the elevator to go up to his floor, I’m smiling. Yes, this is the right decision. It might be a little rough coming clean to Carson, but he’s my brother and I have to believe that he’ll ultimately want us to be happy.
The elevator dings and the doors slide open. Feeling confident, I hurry down the hallways toward his door. I just about reach it when I see it suddenly open, and I freeze in my tracks when a woman steps out of his apartment.
Not just any woman. The blonde I met at the rink last week.
Camille.
She turns back to Jensen, who’s now filling the doorway. Neither has noticed me and I watch in horror as Camille presses her body flush against his. His hands come up to grasp her upper arms and as they gaze at each other, it looks as though they’re on the verge of kissing.
A gasp slips past my lips before I can stop it.
Jensen’s head snaps up and his eyes meet mine. His gaze widens. All the color drains from his face.
“Grace?” he chokes out.
Before he can say anything else, I turn and run as fast as I can back to the elevator.
“Grace!” I hear him call out, but I ignore him, punching the elevator button. Thankfully, the doors slide open right away and I slip inside. I ride the elevator down to the ground floor, and as soon as the doors open again, I’m back to running. Through the building’s lobby, across the street, back to my own building, I sprint as if I can outrun the scene I just stumbled upon. Tears sting my eyes and I try to fight them, but it’s a losing battle. It feels as if the whole world is crumbling down around me and I don’t know which way is up anymore. I blindly try to navigate through the lobby of my building to get to the elevators. Before I can push the button to summon it, one arrives and I stumble toward the opening doors.
A tall, familiar figure steps out of the elevator and I nearly run them down.
“Grace?” Carson’s startled voice cuts through the pain-filled, chaotic haze that’s consuming me. “Grace, what’s wrong?”
His big hands land on my shoulders, grounding me and I look up into his concerned expression. I don’t say anything. I can’t. Instead, I drop my head against his chest and start to sob.
Carson immediately wraps his arms around me and holds me tight. He keeps me on my feet and guides me into the elevator. We ride up to my floor and instead of questioning me further, he simply supports my sagging frame and helps me to my apartment. Once inside, he settles me on the couch and sits next to me with open arms. I collapse into his embrace and soak in his warmth and strength as my heart shatters in my chest.
Chapter Twenty-One
JENSEN
“You’ve reached Grace! I can’t come to the phone right now, but if you leave your name and number, I’ll get back to you ASAP!”
Clenching my teeth in frustration, I hang up my phone. That’s about the hundredth time I’ve listened to her voicemail message. I stopped actually leaving her new messages awhile ago, knowing I could only beg her to hear me out in so many ways before I started to sound truly pathetic.
When I saw her in the hallway yesterday, I didn’t know how to react. The look of hurt and total betrayal on her face gutted me, and she’d run away before I was able to pull myself together to explain what it was she’d just stumbled upon. Camille had just shown up at my place out of the blue. I’d let her in so we could talk and I could tell her I wasn’t interested without causing a scene, but she’d still tried to make a move on me, so I’d told her to leave. Grace’s timing couldn’t have been worse as she’d seen Camille’s last ditch effort to seduce me.
I’d told Camille to get lost and ran after Grace, but by the time I got to her building, she was already in the elevator, sobbing in Carson’s arms. The doors had slid shut and I was left standing in the lobby, at a total loss as to what to do next. I’d decided not to chase her up to her apartment, knowing a confrontation with Carson would only make things worse. However, since she hasn’t picked up a single one of my calls since then, I know I have to find her and talk to her face-to-face. I’m terrified of how she’ll react when I try to explain, though. I’ve told her about my dad and how controlling he is, but will she believe that he’d go to these lengths?
When I arrive at the stadium for practice, my first stop isn’t the locker rooms. I rush to the rink, hoping to find her setting up her equipment, but she’s not there. My heart sinks. What did I expect? If I were here, I’d avoid me like the plague too.
Disappointment and worry lancing through me, I trudge back to the locker rooms to get ready for practice. The moment I cross the threshold into the large space, though, I’m hit by two hundred and fifty pounds of pure fury. Carson appears almost out of nowhere and grabs the front of my shirt. His expression is enraged as he slams me up against a row of lockers.
“What the fuck did you do?” he demands to know.
“Woah, Carson,” Zander says, coming up next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. “Take it easy man.”
Carson shrugs Zander off, his furious glare locked on me.
“What did you do to Grace?” he snarls. “She was a wreck last night and all I could get out of her was your name! What the hell is going on between you two?”
I gaze at him for several seconds before I murmur, “Grace and I…we’ve met before. She was the girl I was with in Miami. I had no idea who she was at the time, and when she showed up here, I…”
Carson’s fist comes so fast I barely have time to dodge it. I duck out of the way and his hand slams into the locker I’d been pinned to.