Chapter 5

“Here we go again,” I sighed as I stared at the cocky player gliding toward me, crisscrossing around the ice while he toyed with the puck. Cade had such precision when he was skating that I had to concentrate on his every move because I didn’t know what he was going to do next. That ability was impressive for a defender, but it wasn’t the only reason Coach Henson favored playing him in tough games. Cade had a secret talent. He was one of the best long-distance shooters on the team and liked to test it out on me any chance he got, which was fine. I was used to that. Today, however, things felt different.

He’d been testing me more than usual, hitting me harder, throwing endless taunts my way, and using the excuse of making sure I had no weak spots for his newfound vigor. Hit after hit, I was slowly getting pummeled by pucks, and although I was wearing enough padding to stop the blows from bruising, I couldn’t help but feel like the hits were personal. Cade wasn’t an unassuming, relaxed kind of guy on a good day, and this was supposed to be his warm-up. I knew better.

He knew about the kiss.

How could he not?

Madison practically mauled me in the street after I dragged her out of The Draft. It didn’t matter how drunk the surrounding student body was, someone had to have seen it. Besides, if the rumor mill hadn’t gotten to him yet, his sister would have. Madison was a blabbermouth, and there was no way she could keep a secret as big as kissing me from her brother. She just wouldn’t feel right about it. I was certain this was Cade’s way of tormenting me over the whole thing because he had to find out through her instead of me. His teammate. His apparent best friend.

“Let’s see if you can get this one, Bridges,” Cade mocked from the center line. I kept my eye on the puck even though he was doing everything in his power to make it nearly impossible to.

A puck flew past my right side, hitting the back of the net. I missed it again.

Dammit.

“Come on, Bridges,” Cade hollered, elbowing Alex in the stomach as he grinned with pride. I gripped my hockey stick tighter, stopping myself from losing it. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

Funny. It felt like he was trying to be supportive by riling me up because I hadn’t played my best today, which wasn’t due to the lack of commitment. It was because I was too in my head, and I needed to be fluid. Whenever Cade came close, my body stiffened up at the mere thought of telling him that Madison kissed me. Shit. Madison kissed me, and that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that I liked it, and I wanted to do it over and over again.

How the hell was I supposed to tell Cade that?

Alex whacked a puck in my direction, and I caught it without trying. See. I could do it, I just seemed to have a block when it came to Cade, and that was catching me off guard.

“Bridges,” Cade sang, his voice echoing through the rink. Thank fuck he couldn’t see my face through the mask, because otherwise, he’d see that I was wincing. I didn’t wince. It was pretty much a requirement if you were going to be in the net. Cade dipped his chin and glared at me with mischief. He drew back his stick, and I fully prepared myself for what was coming. A puck in the head.

“Hey, Bright.”

I opened my eyes to see that Erik had taken me out of my misery. With his helmet half on, he slowed his sprints to a gentle skate before turning with ease. The guy should have been a figure skater with how effortless he made it look. He smiled and pointed to the crowd. “Your sister is here.”

Well, shit.

As if things couldn’t get any worse today.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose, and when I’d finally managed to convince myself to look at the other side of the plexiglass, I froze, because, yup, there she was. Wide-eyed and beautiful. Only now I knew that she had feelings for me, and I had no idea what the hell to do about it.

What was she doing here?

It wasn’t uncommon for people to come and watch our practices, but Madison hadn’t done it in a while. Not since she kissed me, so why was today different? Maybe Cade invited her to come so she could watch him pulverize me to a pulp.

Cade waved at his sister for a couple of seconds, but it wasn’t long before he focused his attention back on me. I crouched into position, and glared back at him, but as much as I tried to keep my focus on him, my mind had other ideas.

Was Madison smiling because she could finally see me? Was she snarling at me because I hadn’t responded to her text?

I needed to know everything that was going on in her head, so I tried to subtly flick my gaze to her. Even if it was for only a second.

With her hands stuffed in her sweatshirt to keep her warm, she was jumping on the spot, wearing her Carolina Catfish baseball hat so low that I couldn’t see her facial expression. I could tell she was looking in Cade’s direction, though, acting like nothing happened between us and we were all good.

She hadn’t told him if their interaction was anything to go by. But when I really thought about it, why would it be different for them? Cade would never blame his sweet, innocent little sister for trying to seduce me. It would be all my fault because, despite my best efforts, I would have clearly led her on.

Thwack!

“Dammit.”

I dropped my stick and threw my hand up to the sharp pain radiating from the side of my head. Pulling my helmet off, I checked to see if Cade’s puck had done any damage and then with my other hand; I pulled one glove off with my teeth.

When my hand was free, I flicked back my sweat-soaked hair, annoyed that I still hadn’t cut it, and patted my head, making sure I wasn’t bleeding. It was unlikely, but I needed a minute before I got back in the net anyway, so I might as well check. My ears were ringing, and I knew I’d have a throbbing headache in the morning, but that pain was only temporary. The need to look at Madison and gauge her reaction seemed to be a permanent fixture, however. Would she be concerned about me? Maybe she’d revel in my pain? Or worse, she might be completely unaffected by my injury, because the only thing worse than hate is indifference.

“I told you to keep your eyes on the puck, Bridges.” Cade’s tone combined with the hit made it sound like a threat. Eyes on the puck, not his sister. I got it.

“Are you okay?” Brooks asked as he skated over to me. Although he was an excellent skater, he always had this tiny bit of clunkiness about him, which was one of his only faults. I was told the strange skate gait had something to do with how he unintentionally walked on his tiptoes- something he didn’t like to talk about.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Scotty, Alex, and Erik joined, creating a barrier around me and blocking Madison’s view. Great. I’d made a scene. Something I’d been doing a lot of recently.

“Not sure why the defense is getting so many shots in today,” I griped under my breath, glaring at my best friend as he sprinted toward me.

Cade was by my side in an instant, pulling me into a side hug and squeezed. “This is exactly why.” There was a lilt of humor in his voice, and I just couldn’t work him the fuck out. “You’ve got to be ready for the unexpected. Clearly, you weren’t, and it’s better you found that out against me than some angry guy from an opposing team. They would have knocked you unconscious, and that dream of us signing our contracts with Atlanta together would have flown right out the window.” He hit my back so hard, I balked forward. “Luckily, I went easy on you.”

“You still hit him in the head, though.” Alex pointed at me with his hockey stick.

“Yes, but I aimed for the top side, knowing it would only skim him instead of directly at his face so he could see it coming. That’s called being a good friend.”

I rolled my eyes, lifting my shoulder enough to shunt him away from me. “Thank you, oh, so powerful Cade,” I replied sarcastically. Pushing my hair back, I shoved my helmet and gloves on and then took my position back in the net. While the rest of the team slowly went back to their practice routines, I took a moment to glance over at Madison and was not prepared for what I saw.

Flat-lipped with furrowed brows, Madison was watching me. Thankfully, she couldn’t see I was looking at her with my helmet on, but when she bit down on her bottom lip with concern, I noticed her lip gloss shimmer under the rink lights.

Did it taste like Cherry Garcia?

I shifted on my skates, thankful that I looked like a marshmallow in my padding because it made it hard for anyone to see the half-mast erection I got from just thinking about kissing her again.

Focus.

I closed my eyes and forced myself to look back at the ice. I was met with the hard faces of my teammates—a sight that was nowhere near as interesting as Madison’s bouncing form. The girl was like a walking distraction, making it hard to concentrate. I couldn’t help it. Those big blue eyes, that unmistakable pout. She was by far the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, and it was getting harder to stop myself from looking.

Beep.

What the?

A puck hit the back of my net, drawing my attention to the hockey player in front.

“You need to concentrate, D,” Scotty warned, lining up his next puck, ready to attack me again.

Right. Concentrate.

It wasn’t like playing hockey in front of Madison was new to me. She’d watched us for years, so this should be no different. Except now it was because all those other times she’d watched before, I hadn’t known what it felt like to kiss her. What it felt like to have her clawing at my shirt because she wanted more from me. What it felt like to have her body leaning into mine.

“Shit,” I whispered sharply. “Get it together, Bridges.”

Shaking my head, I squatted back into position and focused all my attention on Scotty’s puck. Dancing it around with his stick, he was doing his best to distract me, and I was determined to prove I could remain focused.

But then I heard a giggle, and my chest constricted because I knew who it was and I wanted to know what, or more importantly, who she found so funny.

Scotty slapped the puck, aiming between my legs, and I butterflied down to catch it. With my knees on the ice, I heard the beep of the puck hitting the net and cursed under my breath. The sad reality of today was that I’d missed more opportunities than I’d saved, and that wasn’t like me at all.

Shaking my head, I punched the top of my net, sending a few curse words to the hockey gods before taking one final glance at Madison.

She was still staring at me. Not her brother doing drills around the ice, but me.

The fuck-up who fucked up.

She was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, and I knew I was in trouble, because for some asinine reason, I thought she looked even better than at The Draft. Something about her being all cozy and warm under there made me want to slide my hands across her taut stomach so I could feel what was underneath.

I crushed my eyes shut because I wasn’t helping myself. Her body. Her smooth skin. Those perfect tits that I’d forced myself to never think about were there in the forefront of my mind and it seemed like every time I looked at her, it was all I could imagine.

When I opened my eyes, Madison was licking her lips and a rush of cherry filled my mouth. Instinctively, I swiped my tongue across my own lips, almost certain I could still taste her.

Sweet cherry perfection. I wondered if that was how she tasted everywhere.

Argh, I needed to stop. This was Cade’s sister I was thinking about. Cade’s baby sister.

But man, had she grown up in all the right places.

Another puck flew past. This time it was at my side, and I hadn’t even attempted to save it. I’d accepted the fact that I’d pretty much failed in practice today, so what was another puck?

When Coach’s whistle blew, I looked at the door, and he was pointing at me. Tipping his chin in my direction, he said, “Bridges, you’re off.”

Even with his disappointed face, I was relieved, happy that he’d finally seen enough sense to take me out of practice. I wasn’t myself today, and I needed to get out. Off the ice and away from Madison.

“Gunman, you’re up.” Coach gestured to our second-string goalie, and as I pushed through the gate, I knocked his shoulder, tipping my head in acknowledgment as I made my way to the locker room.

Was Madison still looking at me?

I cut a quick glance behind me, only to see Madison talking with Alex and Scotty. What was that feeling burning inside me? Why did all those thoughts from the other night come rushing back? Why did I want to murder every single man for even smiling at her?

Did I have a crush on Madison? I knew I liked her and thought she was hot, but the way I was starting to think felt like somewhere down the line, it had turned into an obsession.

Shit. We really did need to talk before I took this too far. I couldn’t stop thinking about her and we needed to figure out what was going on between us before her brother found out. Not that anything could happen no matter how much I wanted her. That was a line I’d drawn in the sand way back in high school when Cade first told me how betrayed he felt after Henry. I wasn’t willing to go back on that now just because her presence was driving me insane.

As I stepped onto the rubber floor, I put my skate guards on and made my way to the locker room. Out of Madison’s sight and away from my teammates, surely it would be easier to figure out what to do about our situation with no one throwing pucks in my face.

“Hey,” Scotty said as he opened the locker next to me and hung his skates up.

I cursed under my breath because I didn’t realize practice had already finished. All that time to think, and it had done absolutely nothing to clear up my Madison dilemma. In fact, I’d made it worse because the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was screwed no matter what I did. If I agreed with Madison that I’d forget about the kiss, then I’d only be hurting myself, because I couldn’t forget it. Thus, I’d then be sentencing myself to continual torture for the rest of the year, watching as she flirted with every guy on campus. However, if I told Cade I had feelings for his little sister, I probably wouldn’t live to kiss Madison again. See. No upside.

Stuffing my padding into my bag, I cursed under my breath and let everyone think it was because I was angry about my performance today. It was partly right. That had annoyed me, but the bigger annoyance was that I’d let a girl screw with my game, something that had never happened before. Frankly, I’d never cared enough about one to let it break my concentration, but Madison was different. I’d always known that, and the fact that she was my best friend’s little sister had made it easy to push her to the back of my mind. Now that she’d voluntarily broken through that barrier, opening the floodgates right along with it, she was all I could think about.

“So, uh, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Scotty said with his head hung low inside his locker. He looked shady as fuck, so I figured he wanted to talk to me about something important and he didn’t want anyone else to hear it. It was probably related to Laura.

Standing, I turned so my back was to the rest of the team. “What’s up?” I asked, with my head dipped into my locker as I unwrapped the bandages on my hand, pretending that was all I was focusing on. If he wanted this to be discreet, I could be discreet .

Scotty glanced over his shoulder to look at the other players. When he confirmed it was just the two of us within earshot, he asked, “What’s going on with you and Madison?”

I stopped unwrapping my bandage, surprised that he’d outright asked me that here.

“There’s nothing going on,” I gritted out, throwing the used tape into my locker in annoyance.

Scotty blew out his breath and leaned his head against his locker door. “Didn’t look like nothing to me when you skipped out on your speed date so you could throw her over your shoulder and take her home.”

“It wasn’t a speed date. I was talking to Sienna, who was just looking for a story on the hockey guys. Madison had no right being there, and I was doing Cade a favor by keeping her away from those football horndogs.” Even I didn’t believe my excuse. She had no right being there? Pfft. That was a lie, but one I’d keep pandering to if it meant she’d be far away from the football team and Aiden Matthews.

“You know those guys live next to Laura, right? As far as football players go, they’re pretty decent. I doubt they were trying anything with Baby Bright. Besides, I hear they’re all interested in other people, anyway.”

I gave him a side glance.

“How do you know all this?”

“Heard them talking about it once when I was at Laura’s house.”

That made me pause for thought, and I whipped my head in his direction, studying his face. Nope, his nose wasn’t twitching, which was a usual sign of him lying. His lips were flat, and he was completely serious, which made no sense.

“Scotty, when have you ever willingly been invited to Laura’s house? I thought she hated you.”

His jaw tensed, and he stood up a little straighter because I’d caught him outright.

“She doesn’t hate me, and I haven’t exactly been to her house. I was just in that neck of the woods because I went to one of those football parties Aiden throws. Happened to walk past her as I was leaving.”

I narrowed my eyes, scrutinizing him with a side glare, but as per usual, he held still, never once faltering from what was clearly a lie. I needed to take notes because, apparently, he was much better at keeping secrets than I thought.

“Anyway, we aren’t talking about my terrible luck with Laura right now. We’re talking about what the hell is going on with you and Baby Bright.”

“And much like you avoiding the last question, I refuse to answer this one because there’s nothing going on.”

“You sure about that? Because it didn’t look like nothing when you lost all focus the minute she stepped into the arena just now.”

“Fuck. You noticed?”

“Everyone in practice noticed. We were shooting penalties at you. Why do you think Cade whacked you in the head with the puck? He wanted to get your attention on practice and off his little sister.”

“Fuck!” I said loud enough that the rest of the locker room quieted down. So much for being discreet. “Do you really think Cade noticed?” I asked with my head hung low as I cursed under my breath. Scotty nodded, and I desperately wanted to slam my locker shut, but I knew that would cause a scene, and I didn’t want to draw any more attention to myself.

“Shit. I bet Madison told him about the other night, too.” I mumbled more to myself than anything, but Scotty heard it.

“Oh no, Dash.” He dropped his head, pinching the bridge of his nose before he looked at me with disappointment. “Please don’t tell me you slept with Baby Bright?” His words were a sharp whisper because the room started to fill with the rest of the team. “Because that’s not a secret I want to have to keep.”

Scotty’s reaction was enough to confirm that my instincts were right. This entire thing was a bad idea.

He was still looking at me, waiting for a response but I immediately clamped my lips shut when I heard Cade’s booming voice filling the room. Scotty glared at me with urgency now, so I responded with a clenched jaw and a slow, steady shake of my head. It was the truth. I hadn’t slept with Madison. Had I thought about it? Multiple times and in multiple positions, but I liked to keep other people on a need-to-know basis.

“Whatcha’ guys talking about?” Cade snuck up on us, planting himself firmly between our shoulders. His eyes gleamed with amusement as he looked between Scotty and me, probably thinking we were talking about Laura.

“Nothing,” we both said too quickly to make it sound convincing.

“Ahh, don’t hold out on me.” He pointed his finger at me as a smile danced on his lips. “You’ve got that dazed look on your face that you used to get when you got a new hockey stick. Are you guys talking about the girl Dash hooked up with after The Draft?”

Scotty nearly choked on his own spit. His brows rose as he glared at me in shock and betrayal. “You brought a girl home?” I knew his mind was reeling because I just told him I hadn’t slept with Madison, but Cade’s response was giving him second thoughts.

“Nah, I was kidding. You know Dash. He’s too private to do anything in our dorms. He just walked into the common room with a delirious look in his eyes and cherry red lip gloss all over his face. I’m guessing most of the stuff went down at her place.”

“You went to a girl’s house?” Scotty replied more high-pitched and animated than necessary. I rolled my eyes, not sure how to answer any of this. “Is that the real reason you ditched me?”

“No.”

“Then whose lipstick were you wearing?” Cade asked.

Pressure was building in my chest because I had no idea what to do. Scotty was about ready to blow this secret out of the water, and I wasn’t ready to tell Cade the truth. So, I did the only thing I could think of.

“Party at ours!” I yelled, throwing a glance at the rest of the locker room.

Welp, that wasn’t entirely thought out. Everyone was looking at me. Mostly in confusion, because I wasn’t the type of guy to just suddenly initiate a party, especially since I had a broken door, but if a party was the only way to get me out of admitting anything happened with Madison, then we needed to have one.

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. Still not mine.

“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.”

Something that felt a lot like relief washed through me, because then I knew his odd behavior today at practice was just him being a dick.

“But that’s beside the point.” She waved her hand dismissively in my direction. “We’re going to be around each other a lot these next few months with your games, so we need to play nice, and the only way we’re going to do that is if we come up with a strategy.”

Strategy? She kissed the living daylights out of me the other week, and all she wanted to do was talk strategy . It was my fault. I was too stunned and stilted to really give her my best stuff, but wow, the feedback was real.

Maybe she didn’t like me as much as she said. Maybe that kiss cured her of any feelings.

“MB.” Cade’s loud, gruff voice made Madison jump, and I took a few steps away to ease any suspicions. “Glad you could finally make it to practice.” He rolled a hand over my shoulder, squeezing tightly before making his way to Madison and hauling her into a hug. “Did you enjoy watching me nearly decapitate Dash today?”

“Can’t say it was the highlight of my evening, but if it makes you happy, then yes.”

He chuckled, and I glared at him because he should have been at the party already. “What are you still doing here?” I certainly wouldn’t have taken the risk of talking to Madison right now if I knew he was still lurking around the place.

“I had a call to take, but I guess you were too busy fucking your foam roller to notice.” He pointed at my arm. “I see you’re still holding Bertha, so I’m guessing it went well,” Cade joked.

“Did you name your foam roller?” Madison asked, holding back a laugh. I was glad she was enjoying this, but it annoyed me that she was so cute when she was giggling.

“No, and I don’t fuck my foam roller.” I pushed him off me and cracked my neck. Usually. Today, however, there was potential because I was thinking about his sister.

Cade raised his brows and looked at Madison. “Whatever you say, but honestly, you need to take a long, hard—no pun intended—look at your life when you’ve sweet-talked your foam roller more than any girls at college.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I sniped, so badly wanting to throw the fact that I kissed his sister in his face, but I held back because that was like throwing a grenade on our friendship.

“Ah, you’re right. I don’t.” With his arm over Madison’s shoulder, Cade leaned toward her and said, “MB, did you know that our friend over here got some a couple of weeks ago?” Madison’s eyes grew wide and she blushed.

“He did?” Her voice had gone up a few octaves, but Cade hadn’t noticed.

“Yeah. He won’t tell me who the girl is, but he came sauntering up the stairs like he was some big man on campus with a delirious smile and lip gloss smeared all over his face.”

“Gross.” She curled her lip in disgust. Why did she look so freaked out? Did she think he was talking about someone else?

I stayed silent, not bothering to deny it because I wanted a change in subject.

“Are you coming over for the party?” I asked Madison because apparently it was the only way I knew how to distract anyone these days.

“Yeah, MB, are you coming to ours for a little fun? The guys haven’t seen you in a while, and we’re getting sushi. Your favorite.”

For a split second, she glanced over her shoulder and then back to me. “Uh, yeah, sure,” she replied hesitantly.

“Perfect.” Cade threw an arm over his sister’s shoulder, dragging her along to this party. So much for going to my room and thinking about things. “So tell me, MB, what happened in that dating show you’ve been watching? What’s it called again?”

“ The Baseball Bachelor .”

“Sounds riveting,” I said from behind them because I needed to keep up the fa?ade that I didn’t care, when really, I wanted to know as much about her as possible. Madison glanced at me from over her shoulder with a tentative smile. I gave her my usual look of discontent, so she turned back around. I kept walking behind them, subtly glancing at her ass whenever I got the opportunity. One thing was for certain: I needed to talk to her, and it needed to happen tonight.

When we were close enough to the house, and Cade was listening to Madison explain the storyline behind that asinine TV show, I sent her a quick text .

Dash: Meet me in my room after you’ve had your sushi. We need to talk.

She jumped when the vibration of the message went off on her phone, and it was only when we were in the elevator and she was far enough away from Cade that she read the message, responding with a thumbs-up emoji.

I had no idea how things were going to go tonight, but I hoped we’d at least be able to clear the air.

When the doors opened to our dorm, the party was already in full swing. Brooks had his usual line of fangirls waiting to get a picture with him, while Scotty was talking to a bunch of hockey fans in the corner. It was like any other night we’d have here, and I felt like enough people had forgotten that I was the one to initiate the party to question me. Maybe I could sneak out of here sooner than I hoped.

A couple of hours and several awkward conversations later, I concluded that it was na?ve of me to think that I could get out of here unnoticed. I was the tallest one here for crying out loud. Subtlety wasn’t my best quality. However, the party had slowed now, and as I got myself another water from the fridge, I saw the opportunity to get away this time.

Walking past the couch, I took a subtle look at Madison, who was still sitting and talking to her brother. It would probably be a while until she was free, but that was fine. I was willing to wait because we needed to clear the air. Madison wanted me to forget it, and I desperately wanted to as well, but that wasn’t going to happen without her telling me that I was a mistake because she was drunk and couldn’t think straight. I needed to be a mistake, otherwise I didn’t know where this would end.

I sighed in relief when I opened my door. Alone at last.

“Daniel.”

My eyes popped open and I nearly lost my shit when I saw what was going on inside my dorm.

“What the hell are you doing in here?”