Page 74 of Hot Shot
The rest of the day passes in a blur with no one else recognizing Hunter.
“I’m so tired.” I lean against Hunter as we stroll back to the castle and the front of the park.
“Come on. It’s only seven. We’ve still got EPCOT to hit.”
“I don’t think I can do it. I’ll fall asleep standing, and you have a game tomorrow.”
“Fair enough.” He stops walking to lean over and kiss me on the forehead. “Let’s go home.”
Let’s go home.
The words echo in my head as we head back to his truck, and I find myself liking how they sound.
Chapter twenty-eight
Hunter
“Youokay?”Wesasksas we skate warm-up laps around the rink.
“A little sore,” I say, rolling my neck and shoulders.
“Too much sex with that girlfriend of yours?” Holt interrupts, coming up behind us.
“Actually, we spent the day at Magic Kingdom.”
While it probably wasn’t the best idea to do all that walking the day before a game, it was worth it to see the way Madison’s face lit up when she saw where we were.
“You what?” Wes asks.
“And you didn’t invite us. Not cool. Not cool,” Holt says.
“Funny. Haha.” I roll my eyes.
They don’t have time to retort as Coach blows his whistle and calls us over for a huddle.
Morning skate flies by and before I know it, we’re heading back to the locker room.
We play the Miami Mockingbirds tonight. Yes, their mascot is the Mockingbird, which sounds ridiculous, but it’s the official bird of Florida so I guess it makes sense. It’s going to be a brutal game. We played them earlier in the season and there were no fewer than six fights, one player on their team got a misconduct, and we ended up losing in overtime.
Tonight, though, we have home-ice advantage, which I hope means a better outcome for us.
“You want to go to lunch?” Wes asks as we head off the ice.
“Sounds good to me,” Holt says.
“Yeah, okay,” I agree.
When we get back to the locker room, I check my phone and see I have a message from Madison saying she has to work late because she had a last-minute cake order come in. I make a mental note to ask her again about starting her own business. We talked about it a couple of weeks ago, but she hasn’t mentioned it since.
I also have a message from Elias wishing me a belated Happy Thanksgiving and asking what I’m doing for Christmas.
We text occasionally, but I wouldn’t say that we’ve established a friendship because I’m still not sure what relationship I want to have with him.
“Rhodes?” I glance up to see Coach Weaver standing in front of me.
“Yeah, Coach.”
“Can I have a word? In my office.”
