Page 9 of Pucking Snowed In With My Ex

CALLUM

I was sick of watching the guys fawn all over Skye. One at a time, she pulled them under her spell and had them laughing and flirting with her. It was just like the old days when she captivated everyone in a room without even trying. She’d let her hair down out of the ponytail she’d been sporting while decorating, and the golden waves hung down her back. My palms itched to wrap it around my hand, and I looked away as she laughed. I was going to kill someone if I didn’t get out of here and do something else.

“Who wants to play a friendly game?” I nodded out towards the rink.

“The rink has to be buried under a ton of snow by now,” Zach said as everyone turned in my direction.

“I’ll pull out the plow. It will only take a few minutes to clear enough space to play. Don’t tell me you’ve gone soft playing inside fancy arenas all the time?” I poked.

“I’m game,” Noah said, and the guys stood slowly and stretched.

“I’ll play, too,” Skye said.

“You want to play?” I snickered, and she crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at me.

“You have a problem with that?” She glanced around the room. “There are only eleven of you, which means you’re one person short to play five-on-five. I’ll play goal.”

“You have to be kidding.”

“Why, ‘cause I’m a girl?”

“No, because you don’t know how to skate,” I said. That was true, but I really just wanted a break from Skye before I ripped her clothes off or pulled out a hunting rifle and shot one of my friends.

“I don’t need skates to do goal.”

“Let her play, man. I mean, what do you want to do? Leave her in here alone,” Tyler said.

I wanted to yell yes, but I could picture her locking me out of the house.

“Fine, but if you break anything, I can’t get you to a hospital, so don’t whine to me,” I said as I stormed away to get my gear.

* * *

An hour later, the rink was clear, and the game was underway. I hated to admit that Skye was a pretty good goalie, considering she’d never played before. There were no slap shots or sneaky wraparounds, but she’d stopped all but two goals. Even with the bulky pads on, Skye looked tiny in comparison, but she never wavered. She was just as fearless as I remembered.

“Fuck,” I growled as Tyler stole the puck off my stick and wheeled around to head in the other direction down the ice.

“It’s a good thing you two are broken up, you might be distracted or something,” Tyler said, laughing as I stormed after him. I was tempted to trip his annoying ass, but it was a lot more fun to beat him with speed.

“Fucker,” he growled as I pulled ahead, got in his way dropped my stick in his way. “Hey!”

“No refs, who you gonna cry to,” I asked as Aaron grabbed the puck and shot it down the ice.

Skye stopped it and flicked the puck out to J.T., who was pushing hard straight at me. Skating backward, I tried to block him, but J.T. was the fastest out here, and he wheeled around me like I was standing still. He passed it to Conner, and with a quick wrist shot, the puck sailed in under Cale’s blocker. In Cale’s defence, he was a winger normally and looked ridiculous in the goalie equipment.

“Yay!” Skye yelled down at the other end. Unbelievable.

Heading to center ice for the faceoff, I wanted to hit Tyler just for the knowing look on his face. Why did he always have to be a fucking pest? We had no one to drop the puck, so we waited as Austin counted down.

“Three, two, one,” he called out, and I easily won the draw and passed the puck back to Aaron. Getting into position with Alex and Noah, we advanced down the ice toward Skye. I couldn’t stop the smile as she squatted lower, her eyes focused on the advancing puck. Noah passed the puck to me, and I circled around to avoid having the puck stolen by J.T. before winding up to fake a slapshot.

I slammed my stick down on the ice, and Skye squealed, making me laugh as she lifted her leg and covered her face as if I would do that to her. I quickly passed the puck to Alex, but my smile fell as he wound up and let loose. I watched in horror as the puck sailed right for her and sent her flying back into the net as it hit dead center on her mask.

I’d never moved as fast as I did to get to her side.

“Stay down,” I said, whipping off my gloves to feel around for anything broken. “Are you dizzy?”

“A little,” she said.