Page 4 of Puck Me Twice Over

Flick didn't say a single damn thing as I pulled out of the stadium parking lot and prayed that Coach stayed inside long enough not to witness me making a liar out of myself right to his grumpy as fuck face.

Cause come next training session, I’d have a whole lot of explaining to do if he had.

CHAPTER TWO

FELICITY

I wanted to drool over the salty fries plated up on the diner’s scarred table, but my saliva glands refused to work. The man who sat across the table opposite me took precedence at a historic level, but I couldn’t let him see me that way, either. Not tonight. Not after the way Garrett and I argued and Knox saw.

He wasn’t supposed to see me at all. That was the whole point of hiding in the crowd. In retrospect picking seats right behind the goal was a bad idea, but then my hindsight always had been twenty-twenty when it came to Knox Vandevere. It was the foresight part I struggled with. Like now.

He leaned back in the booth of the simple diner I would never have picked but that was open late a few blocks from the stadium where he played. Rain still poured outside, sheets cascading down the glass front, giving the restaurant’s front its first clean in forever.

The change from pro hockey player to casual Knox stunned me. The well worn gray t-shirt stretched easily across the hard slope of his shoulders, belying the tension I knew he held beneath, disguised as always. Blue sweats and joggers looked just as good on him as anything else. All of it was a spare set of clothing hauled from the backseat of his truck to replace what wasn’t drenched from his jog across the carpark to save me.

The thought that Knox had saved me left me with butterflies and in a low level state of panic at the same time.

This man was my ex, albeit from a long time ago. Sure, he played nice now, but what the hell did I owe him for the favor of a meal, a dry shirt, and a ride? And now there was the problem of my current ex… ugh. The favors were adding up to the sort of bill I couldn’t afford to pay. And with a Vandevere, I was always outclassed.

“Eat, Flick,” Knox murmured. He picked up his own burger and took a large bite in demonstration. Determination glittered behind his dark eyes, the sort that got him what he wanted…

Whatever he wanted.

Right now, apparently, that was for me to eat. Once, that caveat had been something else. Something sweeter between us. After that, it was to play pro hockey. Then to be a Chimera. Then…

The list grew and grew and grew, like an addiction that never ended.

Yup, I had no choice. Knox watched me until I picked up a fry and took a bite. I chewed deliberately, unsure if I was trying to brat it out on him for pushing me, or appease the demon who never stopped watching.

And, as always, I submitted.

“Fine,” I muttered, my last objections collapsing. Tears would be next, but I didn’t want to cry in front of him again. I’d hidden the last waterworks behind a curtain of rain. We’d had enough water works tonight, from both the elements and my emotions. My ego took enough of a battering in the storm outside the stadium when Garrett drove off and just…left me.

At least if Knox heard my sobs, he couldn't see my tears. I chewed another fry when the first one tasted good, then another. Salt on the inside, not the outside.

“Good girl,” Knox said softly.

My hand clenching my remaining fry jerked so hard that I nearly upended my entire plate off the table. You don’t get to do that. Not here.

I raised pleading eyes to meet his darker ones, expecting to find him wearing a shit eating grin like Garrett did whenever he pulled something over me. Instead, Knox watched me with a careful eye. Like what I did now mattered to him. And that was twice as dangerous.

I think I wanted the asshole version who was stored deep in my imagination. Part of me knew how to deal with a man like that. Not this sort. I walked away from Knox nearly a decade ago. Back then we were nothing but kids, and I don’t think my heart ever quite recovered.

Or maybe I never gave up hope. From the way he looked at me, neither did the Chimeras seated across the old diner table.

His eyes stay fixed on me. “I tried to look you up a few times, after school. But you moved away, or changed your name or… Something.” He took another enormous mouthful of his hamburger. That thing had two more bites, and it was done.

“Stalker.” There wasn’t any heat in my accusation. Glass houses, and all.

Across the table, Knox snorted. “‘Isn’t that his car?’” he mimicked Garrett’s voice almost perfectly, adding in a little side serve of whine that wasn’t entirely out of place. His hamburger compressed between strong fingers, squeezing the life out of the remains, and not without reason.

A reason I couldn't explain right now but was entirely apt.

Wordlessly, I pushed my fries remnants across to his plate. The peace offering earned me a pair of raised eyebrows, but I just shrugged. It wasn’t like I had an appetite after everything that happened tonight. Knox could bitch me out all he wanted. I’d eat fries for him, but that was my limit. That, and some hot coffee, maybe.

Reading my mind, he swapped my burger for his cup. I gave him a wan smile in return.

“I went to college,” I told the coffee mug, unable to meet his eyes.