Page 13 of The Draft

She was right. My gaze was still very much focused on the gum on the ground and her gold-pointed shoe right next to it. I knew I was going crazy because it felt like the shoes were looking at me with disappointment. She tipped her toes, and I breathed in, still not ready to talk about it.

Then, before I could look up, she growled in frustration as her feet turned and she walked away. It was only after the clanking of her heels started to fade that I looked up and watched that perfect ass of hers strut into the distance again.

It was getting darker, and in that tight black dress, Madison was getting harder to see. No one was around, but she couldn’t run in sneakers, let alone those heels. If someone wanted to attack her, she’d be there for the taking.

Fuck.

I scraped a hand across my face, groaning as I watched her get further away. I couldn’t leave her. Cade would kill me. Not to mention, I’d never forgive myself if something happened to her. Not after we kissed. But if she knew I was following her, she’d pester me about my feelings, and I wasn’t willing to talk about it. Not until I’d figured out what they were for myself.

So I did what any normal person would do in my situation. I subtly walked behind her with no intention of announcing my presence. With my hands stuffed in my pockets and my head hung low, I silently walked behind her, only looking up occasionally through my…curtains. I was getting my hair cut in the morning.

Madison hadn’t noticed me at all, but that could have been because I was using streetlights and bushes to cover myself every time she glanced over her shoulder to check her surroundings. Honestly, her inability to detect the fact that someone was following her frightened me. What if I’d really been a creeper with different intentions? It wasn’t like I was a small guy. I was six foot six, which was perfect for guarding the net, but not so good when you were trying to be inconspicuous.

I nearly rushed to help her when she stumbled on her heel, but as she gained her footing, she cursed my name, so I subtly stepped to the side, taking cover in a large bush before she could see me.

Sniffling and grumbling more obscenities, she riffled through her bag and took her phone out. Dipping further into the bush, I ignored the fact that there was a stick poking in my ear and checked my own phone to make sure it was on silent. On the off chance that she was calling me, I didn’t want it to give me away.

“Hey, Tiff,” she drawled out, wiping her eyes as she did it. I knew exactly who she was talking to, and it only served to rile me up more.

Why couldn't she have waited until she got to her dorm to call her cousin?

“I know it’s late. I’m sorry. I didn’t wake up Ella, did I? Oh, good. It’s just I’ve had a crappy night, and I need to vent.”

My back was nearly breaking in this crouched position, and I tried to subtly stretch but cringed when a stick snapped under my foot.

Dammit.

So much for being inconspicuous. Madison’s head whipped in my direction, and I stayed deathly still, hoping she would be too scared to come looking in the bushes and find me.

“Yeah, I’m still here, sorry.” She shook her head, turned around, and as she started walking to her dorm, I sighed in relief. “I just thought I heard someone behind me, but it must have been a coyote.”

I pushed out a silent snort because she’d have no chance against a coyote, let alone a two-hundred-and-twenty-pound hockey player. Although maybe I’d been underestimating her this whole time since my face was still tingling from those slaps earlier.

“I kissed Dash.”

Her voice had all kinds of emotion in it. Hope, excitement, but the mainone was sadness, and that didn’t make me feel good.

I could have sworn I heard her cousin squeal down the phone, but Madison didn’t pull it away, so it was probably just the ringing in my head from the stick piercing my eardrum.

“No. You don’t get it.Ikissed him. He didn’t kiss me back.” Okay, she was upset. Her sadness was heavy and thick now, and I was almost certain she’d been silently crying as she hobbled across campus. I acted like a dick, and it felt like my stomach was being gutted.

“I know. I know. I should have gotten over him a long time ago, but you don’t see the way he looks at me. It’s like he wants to eat me, and you know him, he hardly looks at anyone. He even dragged me out of this dating event because he didn’t want to see me in there.”

She took a long breath, which turned into a snort-slash-sniff at the end. It wasn’t the most flattering noise, but Madison could vomit on my shoes, and I’d still marvel at the pretty pattern it made.

“I’m outside. All right, I’ll call you later,” she huffed before dropping her phone back into her purse and strutting to the dorm. Madison wasn’t drunk, but she wasn’t steady on her heels either, and I could only assume it was because she was so upset, she couldn’t walk straight.

By the time she made it back to her dorm, I sighed in relief. At least she was in there and not fraternizing with the football team. Not that they were bad guys or anything, but they weren’t for her. Especially not Aiden.

The only person for Madison Bright was me.

Even if I could never have her.

Checking my phone, I swiped through a bunch of annoyed messages from Scotty for ditching him, which, if I was being honest, I was surprised he’d noticed, and then headed straight to my dorm, which was only a ten-minute walk away.

As I opened the door, I smiled, waved at the girl behind the desk, and headed to the hockey wing.

Unlike the football players, who ended up in the frats and private housing, the hockey team had its own dedicated dorm block. With bathrooms attached to each bedroom, we were the luckiest team on campus because the Hendricks Building was considered the best. Yes, you heard that correctly. The Hendricks Building. The block was purchasedand maintained by Scott Hendricks, Scotty’s father, when Scotty committed to playing here before joining his father’s old team, the Toronto Thrashers. Some would think it was crazy for a father to purchase an entire building for their son, but that was typical of Scott Hendricks. He’d do anything to give Scotty everything he needed to make it as a professional NHL player.