Page 398 of Faking the Goal

"Hooked up with this girl last night."

I stare at him. "You hook up with girls all the time."

"Nah, man." He shakes his head, chuckling. "This one was different."

"Different how?"

Cody leans back against the boards, looking entirely too satisfied with himself. "She had the stamina of a fucking feral cat. Damn near drained the life out of me. I woke up this morning and genuinely considered texting Coach that I was too dehydrated to come to training."

I bark out a laugh. "That wild, huh?"

"Yeah." He grins again, but then, almost as quickly, it disappears. His shoulders slump and he looks down at his skates with such genuine disappointment that I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing again. "But fuck, when I woke up this morning, she was gone."

"Gone?"

"Gone. Vanished. Didn't even wake me up." He scrubs a hand down his face. "I didn't get her name. Didn't get her fucking number. Nothing."

That does it.

I laugh.

Cody glares at me. "Glad my suffering entertains you."

"It does." I clap him on the shoulder. "Besides, isn't this usually your move? Sleep with someone and disappear afterward?"

"That's completely different."

"How?"

He opens his mouth.

Nothing comes out.

I grin. "Exactly. Congratulations. You finally got a taste of your own medicine."

He flips me off.

I'm still laughing when I reach for my water bottle, but when I look back at him, he's gone quiet again. And weirdly enough, he actually looks bothered.

Huh.

That's new.

"You'll be fine," I tell him. "You'll meet another girl tonight and forget all about this one by tomorrow."

Normally, that's exactly the kind of thing Cody would agree with.

Instead, he slowly shakes his head.

"I don't know, man."

I raise an eyebrow.

Cody lets out a soft huff and stares down at the ice. "Shit. I think she put some kind of fucking spell on me."

"A spell."

"Yeah." His mouth twitches, but there's something almost resigned about it now. "One night and I'm already fucking hooked."