Page 6 of Thrown Off Balance
“Hey.” I mouth back, wishing we didn’t have thick glass separating us.
“Cody! Are you ok?” My little sister’s voice rings above the rest of the fans. I chuckle as I turn around to find her in the crowd. She always picks seats around the penalty box. She says it’s the best way to see Jax the most often during a game.
“I'm good!” I call back to her, nodding my head in case she can't hear me.
Sloan glances over her shoulder to see who I'm talking to and her eyes widen when she sees Sophia. The last time she saw her, Soph was probably in middle school.
“Sloan?” Sophia’s brows draw together and she tilts her head to the side. Her attention snaps to mine and when I nod my head, letting her know it’s definitely Sloan, she starts climbing over people to get down to where Sloan is sitting.
“Baby! Where are you going?” Pecker, my brother-in-law, watches his wife like she’s crazy.
I tried to warn you, bro. She’s as crazy as they come.
Sophia gets all the way down to Sloan and positions herself between Sloan and the guy she’s with. She wraps her arms around her and murmurs something I can't quite hear.
Sophia’s talking a mile a minute and her hands are moving all over the place. I grin at my sister. She might be slightly crazy, but I love her to death. I guarantee she was going crazy when Barry took a swing at me. She acts like if she screams loud enough, she can make a difference on the ice. We don’t have it in us to break it to her that we can't hear her on the ice and the refs don’t care about her opinion.
“Let’s go!” Jax skates by and pounds on the wall, letting me know it’s time to get out of the penalty box.
I take a deep breath and blow it out slowly as I secure my helmet and slip my gloves back on. I need to focus on the rest of the game. Now that Sophia has seen Sloan, there’s no way she’ll leave without getting her phone number. If I can count on one thing in life, it’s that my siblings will always have my back.
Chapter 4
Sloan
I suck in a sharp breath as Cody slams the other player into the wall. There’s no way this doesn’t hurt him. When the guy takes a swing at him, I nearly scream out Cody’s name, but I stop myself at the last second.
Seeing him just on the other side of the glass in the penalty box… Cody grew up. He’s no longer the boy I fell in love with. He’s a man now. His dark brown hair is just long enough to run your fingers through. The thick scruff covering his jaw is something I’ve never seen on him before. The bright blue eyes staring at me are still the same though.
I couldn’t help but ask if he was ok. Even after I knew he was, I couldn’t tear my attention away from him. It’s so weird seeing him for the first time in years. I didn’t know if he still lived here and it felt weird to contact him after so many years apart.
I'm not dumb, I know we’re very different people now than we were the last time we saw each other. There’s a very good chance we won’t get along anymore.
“Cody! Are you ok?” A female voice screams. I watch Cody chuckle and turn around to tell the woman he’s good.
Following his line of sight, I see a woman who has to be related to Cody. They look too similar to not be. I don’t think it’s Charlie, she doesn’t look old enough to be Charlie, but there’s no way that’s Sophia… right?
“Sloan?” The woman’s brows draw together as she stares at me.
The next thing I realize, she’s climbing over people to get to me. She gets all the way down to me within seconds.
“Oh my gosh! It is you!” She squeals as she wraps her arms around me. “How are you?”
“I'm good… You’re not Sophia, are you?”
“Yup!”
“No! The last time I saw you, you were like this big.” I hold my hand around my stomach, though I'm sure Sophia was bigger than that. “How are you?”
“I'm great! I got married and opened my own bakery.”
“That’s so awesome. I know that was always your dream. Is it in Rosewood?”
“Yup! Mulberry Lane Bakery.” She beams proudly.
“Of course.” I chuckle. The whole family takes such great pride in Mulberry Lane. I love it.
“What about you? Do you live here again?”
