Page 20 of The Draft

But then I heard a giggle, and my chest constricted because I knew who it was and I wanted to know what, or more importantly, who she found so funny.

Scotty slapped the puck, aiming between my legs, and I butterflied down to catch it. With my knees on the ice, I heard the beep of the puck hitting the net and cursed under my breath. The sad reality of today was that I’d missed more opportunities than I’d saved, and that wasn’t like me at all.

Shaking my head, I punched the top of my net, sending a few curse words to the hockey gods before taking one final glance at Madison.

She was still staring at me. Not her brother doing drills around the ice, but me.

The fuck-up who fucked up.

She was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, and I knew I was in trouble, because for some asinine reason, I thought she looked even better than at The Draft. Something about her being all cozy and warm under there made me want to slide my hands across her taut stomach so I could feel what was underneath.

I crushed my eyes shut because I wasn’t helping myself. Her body. Her smooth skin. Those perfect tits that I’d forced myself to never think about were there in the forefront of my mind and it seemed like every time I looked at her, it was all I could imagine.

When I opened my eyes, Madison was licking her lips and a rush of cherryfilled my mouth. Instinctively, I swiped my tongue across my own lips, almost certain I could still taste her.

Sweet cherry perfection. I wondered if that was how she tasted everywhere.

Argh, I needed to stop. This was Cade’s sister I was thinking about. Cade’sbabysister.

But man, had she grown up in all the right places.

Another puck flew past. This time it was at my side, and I hadn’t even attempted to save it. I’d accepted the fact that I’d pretty much failed in practice today, so what was another puck?

When Coach’s whistle blew, I looked at the door, and he was pointing at me. Tipping his chin in my direction, he said, “Bridges, you’re off.”

Even with his disappointed face, I was relieved, happy that he’d finally seen enough sense to take me out of practice. I wasn’t myself today, and I needed to get out. Off the ice and away from Madison.

“Gunman, you’re up.” Coach gestured to our second-string goalie, and as I pushed through the gate, I knocked his shoulder, tipping my head in acknowledgment as I made my way to the locker room.

Was Madison still looking at me?

I cut a quick glance behind me, only to see Madison talking with Alex and Scotty. What was that feeling burning inside me? Why did all those thoughts from the other night come rushing back? Why did I want to murder every single man for even smiling at her?

Did I have a crush on Madison? I knew I liked her and thought she was hot, but the way I was starting to think felt like somewhere down the line, it had turned into an obsession.

Shit. We really did need to talk before I took this too far. I couldn’t stop thinking about her and we needed to figure out what was going on between us before her brother found out. Not that anything could happen no matter how much I wanted her. That was a line I’d drawn in the sand way back in high school when Cade first told me how betrayed he felt after Henry. I wasn’t willing to go back on that now just because her presence was driving me insane.

As I stepped onto the rubber floor, I put my skate guards on and made my way to the locker room. Out of Madison’s sight and away from myteammates, surely it would be easier to figure out what to do about our situation with no one throwing pucks in my face.

“Hey,” Scotty said as he opened the locker next to me and hung his skates up.

I cursed under my breath because I didn’t realize practice had already finished. All that time to think, and it had done absolutely nothing to clear up my Madison dilemma. In fact, I’d made it worse because the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was screwed no matter what I did. If I agreed with Madison that I’d forget about the kiss, then I’d only be hurting myself, because I couldn’t forget it. Thus, I’d then be sentencing myself to continual torture for the rest of the year, watching as she flirted with every guy on campus. However, if I told Cade I had feelings for his little sister, I probably wouldn’t live to kiss Madison again. See. No upside.

Stuffing my padding into my bag, I cursed under my breath and let everyone think it was because I was angry about my performance today. It was partly right. That had annoyed me, but the bigger annoyance was that I’d let a girl screw with my game, something that had never happened before. Frankly, I’d never cared enough about one to let it break my concentration, but Madison was different. I’d always known that, and the fact that she was my best friend’s little sister had made it easy to push her to the back of my mind. Now that she’d voluntarily broken through that barrier, opening the floodgates right along with it, she was all I could think about.

“So, uh, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Scotty said with his head hung low inside his locker. He looked shady as fuck, so I figured he wanted to talk to me about something important and he didn’t want anyone else to hear it. It was probably related to Laura.

Standing, I turned so my back was to the rest of the team. “What’s up?” I asked, with my head dipped into my locker as I unwrapped the bandages on my hand, pretending that was all I was focusing on. If he wanted this to be discreet, I could be discreet.

Scotty glanced over his shoulder to look at the other players. When he confirmed it was just the two of us within earshot, he asked, “What’s going on with you and Madison?”

I stopped unwrapping my bandage, surprised that he’d outright asked me that here.

“There’s nothing going on,” I gritted out, throwing the used tape into my locker in annoyance.

Scotty blew out his breath and leaned his head against his locker door. “Didn’t look like nothing to me when you skipped out on your speed date so you could throw her over your shoulder and take her home.”

“It wasn’t a speed date. I was talking to Sienna, who was just looking for a story on the hockey guys. Madison had no right being there, and I was doing Cade a favor by keeping her away from those football horndogs.” Even I didn’t believe my excuse.She had no right being there?Pfft. That was a lie, but one I’d keep pandering to if it meant she’d be far away from the football team and Aiden Matthews.