Page 22 of The Draft

Cade laughed. “Guess someone didn’t get his fill the other night. Invite your girl over, we want to meet her. Then we can talk strategy with the rest of the team for our next game.”

I swallowed, and Scotty shook his head, holding back the smile on his face as Cade strolled to his locker.

“Party at ours? Smooth, D. Real smooth,” he said through gritted teeth.

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe tell him the truth.”

“Soon,” I quipped.

“It better be.”

Scotty slammed his locker shut as he trudged to the showers. Luckily for me, I had almost double the padding to put away, so there was always an excuse for me to lag behind everyone else.

I didn’t bother going to the showers because, unlike the other guys, I needed to do a few off-the-ice post-game stretches before I was done for the night. Shoving on a pair of black sweats and a T-shirt, I grabbed my foam roller and headed for the little gym attached to the rink, enjoying the fact that it was only me in there. Living with the guys meant there wasn’t a lot of alone time, so I always relished the quiet. This was my time to focus.

Stretching for a goalie was imperative, but some might say I took it a little too far. I needed to, though. If I wanted my body to move like liquid on the ice and block shots, I had to be supple; and after trying everything else, I found Pilates and post-practice stretching were the only ways to accomplish that.

Dropping the foam roller on the mat, I decided to start with my quads and relaxed my thigh against the firm foam, rolling my hips back and forth as I held myself up in a press-up position. With every roll, my mind went deeper into thoughts it shouldn’t. The main one being what it would be like to have Madison underneath me instead of this equipment.

Her blonde hair would be splayed out across the mat. Her hips would be rolling in time to mine. Her fingers would be digging into my shoulders, and she’d no doubt be letting out these soft, breathy moans.

And I was hard.

This needed to stop.

For the first time in my life, I quit my foam roller stretching and moved to the mat. I had to get Madison off my mind and focus on something else. But after spending twenty minutes in solitude, attempting to stretch my muscles, and over-analyzing the shit out of my performance today, I finally quit. I knew why I failed so badly. I kissed my best friend’s sister, and she was in the crowd watching. It wasn’t rocket science. Fixing it, though, felt like a messed-up Rubik’s Cube, and I’d never been good at solving those.

By the time I finished, the locker room was empty. Throwing my towel across the bench, I took my time with getting ready. The party had no doubt already started, and although I was technically the host, I was hoping I’d be able to sneak into my room before I had to talk to anyone.

I walked out of the doors of the arena, and just as they shut, I immediately stopped in my tracks. What was she doing here?

Adjusting the bill of her hat, Madison was sitting on the bench outside the rink, looking around like she was waiting for someone. It was getting dark, and the place was too quiet for my liking. The campus was safe, but I didn’t like seeing her out here alone, potentially putting herself in danger, so I immediately walked over.

“Madison,” I said, and she jumped in surprise before looking up at me with those bright blue eyes of hers. The tiniest of smiles pulled across her lips as her gaze drifted down my body.

Still so hot. Stillnotmine.

“Are you waiting for Cade? Because I think he left already.”

She shook her head and pursed her lips. “No. I, uh, came to see you.”

I swallowed, committing those words to memory because, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I liked the way it sounded. “Me? Why?”

“You know why, and it has nothing to do with your unhealthy thigh-stretching obsession.” Her gaze dropped to the trusty black foam roller tucked under my arm, and the tiniest quirk of a smile grazed her lips.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head and pushed whatever thoughts she had to the side. “We need to talk.”

And those words just killed the mood because they had so many implications, and I didn’t want to be part of any one of them. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

She sighed, tucking her hands into her Covey Crushers sweatshirt. “We don’t have a choice. You’re my brother’s teammate and one of his best friends. We need to figure things out.”

“Have you talked to Cade?”

She tilted her head, holding back an amused smile. “I think we both know that you wouldn’t be walking straight if I had.”