Page 78 of The Draft

Hauling my bag over my shoulder, I sidestepped my way down the narrow aisle because it was the only way I could fit. When my phone buzzed in my pocket, I played it cool and fought the urge to check it as I passed the rest of the team. When I felt like I had enough privacy, I pulled my phone out.

“What are you waiting for, D? Our seats are just there.” Cade pushed my shoulder, pointing down the aisle at our usual seats. Even with his sunglasses on, I could see his raised eyebrows, questioning me.

I quickly tucked my phone back into my pocket and shuffled down the aisle to our seats. As I looked over the seats, Cade let out a noise like a deflated balloon.

He pushed my back playfully. “Oh. Is that what’s holding you up? Trying to see if you can switch seats? Dirty, dirty dog. Am I not enough?”

He pulled me close, wrapping his arm around my neck while he rubbed his fist into my hair. Idiot.

“What are you talking about?” I swatted his hands away and wrestled out of his hold. When I realized who he was looking at, my stomach dropped.

Sienna. How did I forget that she traveled with the team? Narrowing her eyes at me, she was feeding into the false, secret dating narrative that I’d fed to Cade.

“Are you trying to see if you can sit next to your girl on the flight? Maybe have a little double-digit fun under the blanket.”

I clenched my jaw and gripped my bag strap tightly because even thinking about a girl other than Madison felt wrong now. “No. I was just texting my mom,” I replied curtly as I shuffled down the aisle and straight to our usual seats. For the first time in my life, I was cursing myself and the fact that we had such similar last names. How was I supposed to sit next to my best friend for an entire flight and not mention Madison?

Cade threw his bag in the overhead compartment and sat next to me. “Sorry, D. Did I strike a nerve? Are you and Sienna having problems?”

“Something like that,” I muttered while I cracked my knuckles in a lame attempt to reduce my stress.

Traitor. Traitor. Traitor.

It was like a whisper trickling in my brain, and I was waiting for the damto burst. Fuck. I ate his sister out, and I was just sitting right next to him, pretending everything would always be the same between us.

Cade took me in, then laughed as he got himself comfortable. “I told you.”

“Told me what?”

“To watch out. You’re drunk on pussy and acting like a clown.” I cut my gaze to him, and he was just watching me with a tight jaw. Cade wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, and I had a feeling I was about to get lectured. “Your play yesterday was atrocious. Ever since The Draft, you’ve been playing worse than my blind seventy-year-old uncle. Your performance has never been this terrible, but it has given me insight over why you’ve never had a girl in your life that you actually like. You’re a terrible player when you have one.”

He was right about one thing: I had sucked over the last couple of games. But it wasn’t Madison causing it. It was trying to hide her from Cade that was my problem.

“I would be grateful if you could figure your shit out before the end of the season because I’d like a spot in the Frozen Four.”

When Cade pulled his sunglasses off, I was taken aback. I thought he was trying to glare at me, but I couldn’t tell because his eyes were so swollen that I doubted he could see much. “Cade. Your face?”

“Is beautiful. I know.” He waved me off, unfazed. Yes, we were hockey players, so a black eye and lost teeth weren’t anything new to us, but this made no sense.

“Did that happen while you were defending me at the game last night?”

“Nope,” he said nonchalantly as he pulled out the in-flight magazine and began to casually flick through the pages. Cade wasn’t reading, he was just milking it because he liked having information that I wanted. “You should see the other guy.”

As if on cue, I noticed Henry shuffle past us with his head down. He was trying to be inconspicuous, but much like Cade, he couldn’t hide his bruised face. Henry didn’t go on the ice last night, and as much as I wanted to pulverize him when I saw him talking to Madison, I didn’t.

“Did you beat up Henry?”

“Henry?” Cade raised his brows, and he tamed down the subtlest of grinsas Henry walked by. Something passed between them, but I had no idea what. “Nah, I didn’t beat him up but he was there.”

“Where?”

Cade poked his head out into the aisle, looking back and forth, then he leaned in. “Behind Closed Doors.”

The flight attendant announced that it was time for takeoff, giving me no time to question Cade, so I buckled my seat belt and leaned forward to take my shoes off. Cade followed suit, and while we were leaning forward, I discreetly asked, “Did you arrange another fight?”

Glaring at him pointedly, we both knew what it would mean if he’d started fighting again and someone found out.

Cade shook his head before forcefully pushing himself back onto the seat in annoyance. “I know I regularly come out unscathed in those fights, but do you really think I’d have time to prepare for a fight, and get on a bus without my bones aching?”