After my shower, I blow out my hair and dress warm for the trek back to school, but as I’m leaving my front door, a fancy car pulls up in my driveway. I notice Cole in the driver’s seat right away.
I stop and wait to see what he wants. This day just keeps getting better and better.
Cole gets out of his car. “Hey, Rebel.”
“Hi,” I reply, but it makes me feel on edge that he’s here.
“I feel responsible for what happened. I was drunk and don’t even remember saying shit to Tiffany,” he says.
“It’s fine,” I tell him. “But I have to get to school.”
“I can give you a ride. I’m headed there now.”
“Thank you.” I follow him to his SUV.
Once in the car, an uncomfortable silence settles between us until Cole finally breaks it. “Wolfe is really into you. I’ve never seen him so torn up before.” I don’t have anything good to say so I remain quiet.
“It’s his big return to the ice tonight. He usually never has family there supporting him. I brought you a few tickets. If you can make it, I know it would mean a lot to him,” he says and passes me three tickets.
“If he wanted me there, then why isn’t he giving me these tickets?”
Cole rubs at the scruff on his chin. “Look, I don’t like talking because that clearly got me in trouble already, but Wolfe had a tough childhood. His parents weren’t around. He’s bad with emotions and shit,” he says. “But I’ve never seen him with a girl the way he was with you. He digs you.”
“I don’t know, Cole. I’m not cut out for lies and deception.”
“Wolfe is anything but a liar. In fact, chicks find his straightforward, no-sugarcoating way of life downright offensive. That’s why he has the reputation that he has. Because he’s never fallen for anyone before. He was totally spaced out this morning during our meeting with Coach, and Coach called him out. Wolfe has a lot riding on the game tonight,” Cole explains as we pull into the parking lot.
“He told me.” I remember how excited he was about getting back on the ice and the possibility of being drafted.
“See, Wolfe doesn’t share pieces of his life with chicks,” Cole says.
I leave the tickets on the dashboard.
“Take them, Rebel. At least consider coming,” he says.
I take them and tuck them into the front pocket of my backpack.
“Thanks for the ride,” I say and then I leave his car.
Thirty-Four
Wolfe
After dropping Cait off at the arena, I head back out to the Mustang. I have to see Rebel before the game. Fucking up with her is my biggest regret, but I know I can turn things around. Luckily, the arena is close enough to her house that I am giving myself a whole twenty minutes to drive there, say my piece, and make it to the ice on time. Coach is probably going to blow a gasket when he realizes I’m gone, but I can’t play a proper game tonight feeling so twisted up. I make it to Rebel’s house faster than I expect. The small Toyota isn’t parked outside, but it doesn’t mean Rebel isn’t here. I get out and knock on the door, but the lights are off and it doesn’t seem like anyone’s home.
Dammit! My pulse kicks up. I’m running out of time. I head over to the Firken. I’m watching the minutes tick away as I make my way over, causing me to sweat despite the cold weather. I park out front and break into a light jog to the front door. I see Darren right away.
“Is Rebel working tonight?” I ask.
“No, man. She asked for the night off. Again.” He emphasizes the word “again” like I’m to blame.
“Is her friend Holland on shift tonight?”
He shakes his head. “She only works our busy nights.”
“Thanks.” I head out of the Firken, get in the car, and try Rebel’s cell.
Where are you?
I back out of the spot and head back to the arena. Her cell goes to voicemail.
“Rebel, I need to find you,” I say desperately. “Please call me.”
I don’t mean to sound urgent, and I don’t want to scare her, but I need to see her face. I want to call Holland, but I don’t have her number. Heading back to the arena, defeat washes over me like a heavy coat of motor oil. I fucked up and I won’t be able to make this better.
I pull the Mustang to the side of the road and Google the number for the Firken. Darren picks up and I ask for Holland’s number. He protests at first, saying it’s her private information, but after I tell him the whole shebang about me screwing things up with Rebel and being in love with her, he caves and reluctantly gives me her number.
If I’m not in the arena in nine minutes, Coach is going to have my ass on a skewer. I dial Holland and pull back onto the road. She picks up after the second ring.
“Hi, Holland. This is Wolfe,” I say.
“Hi,” she answers warily.
“I need to find Rebel. It’s really import—”
“We’re at the arena. Aren’t you playing a hockey game tonight?”
“Rebel is there?” I ask, confused.
“Yes. She went to look for you in the locker room. I’m guessing she hasn’t found you,” Holland says.
“Thanks, Holland. Sorry, gotta run.” I pull back into the arena. I still have to change into uniform. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
The parking lot is packed, and I find the farthest spot possible from the door. From there, I sprint toward the building and head straight for the locker rooms.
“Rebel,” I say as she practically walks right into me.
Her eyebrows furrow. “Everyone’s looking for you.”
“I-I was out looking for you. I went by your house,” I say breathlessly after my mad dash.
Cole walks out of the locker room in his uniform. “Are you insane?” he asks me. “Get in there. Now.”
I’ve never seen my best friend look at me like he’s worried about my mental state before. Or maybe he’s worried I’m throwing my future in hockey away.
“Give me a minute, Cole. Privacy, please. I’ll be there. Don’t worry,” I assure him. He nods and retreats into the locker room with a wary as shit look on his face.
“Rebel, I love you. I know I screwed up and I don’t deserve a second chance, but I’m asking for one anyway. You make me want to be a better man. I have a lot of issues that I’m dealing with and I want to share them with you. I want to share everything with you,” I say and then pause, because why is she here at my game? “Rebel, what are you doing here?”
Her throat bobs. “I wanted to wish you luck. No matter what happens between us, I wanted you to know that I support you. That I want you to do well. Tonight is a big night for you and so I came for you,” she says.
My heart picks up pace. She’s here for me. “Does that mean you’ll give us another chance?” I ask as hope leaks through every pore in my body.
“We don’t make sense. We come from different worlds—”
“We may come from different worlds,” I say, interrupting her. “But when we’re together, the world makes sense. We fit.”
“I’m an open book and you have a hard time sharing your emotions,” she says.
“I want to work on it. I’m far from perfect, but I want to change. I want to share every detail of my life with you. My sister Cait is here and she would love to meet you,” I say. “But I can’t have you as my friend. I need your whole heart.”
“You say that, but Friday night at the frat party you didn’t even care that another guy hit on me or wanted to dance with me. You never said, ‘hey she’s here with me.’ You just watched him put his hands all over me and you didn’t care,” she accuses.
“Is that what you think? That I didn’t care?” I blow out a breath, feeling my emotions rising. I look up to the ceiling, hoping to find the right words to describe what I felt. “I cared, Rebel. My blood was boiling watching you dance with him. I thought I was going to lose my mind. Even Cole called me out on it. I thought you didn’t want to be seen with me in public. That you didn’t want peo
ple to know we were together because you didn’t want the attention, but I hated every minute of you dancing with another guy. It should be us together dancing. My hands on you. I want to announce it to the whole world that I have the most beautiful, amazing girlfriend who I am so fucking in love with. I just don’t know if you’ll have me.” I gaze deeply into her eyes, letting her see the sincerity in mine.
“Honestly, Wolfe—” she starts with a serious tone, and my stomach sinks.
“No, please.” I stop her because I can’t take no for an answer. “I don’t deserve a second chance, but I’m asking for one anyway.”
“If you’d let me get a word in, I was going to say you had me at I love you,” she says. It takes a moment for her words to process. “So, we’re okay?”
“Yes.” She nods.
I throw my head back and laugh and then I lift my girl off her feet and kiss the hell out of her.
“Wolfe,” Cole barks from the locker room door.
Rebel breaks the kiss, a bright smile gracing her lips. “Go skate your ass off,” she says, and I place her back on the ground.
“Will do,” I say, and my heart feels so full. I’ve never felt this way before, but a sense of completeness washes over me. “Thanks for being here.”
“Always,” she says. Shit. Does she know what that means to me? “Now, go beat this team. I’ve never seen a hockey game before, but you know who I’ll be cheering on.” She winks.
“Thank you. I love you.” I lean in and give her another kiss as Cole opens the door to the locker room and spews a string of curses.
“I love you too.” She giggles and shoos me away. I head into the locker room and get my gear on.
“You good, Judd?” Coach Cooper asks.
“Better than good,” I assure him.
After all the guys are dressed, we join in a huddle as Coach Ramirez gives us our before game pep talk. Then we leave the locker room and I feel like the fucking king of the world.
Thirty-Five
Wolfe
We’re facing off in period two. Harvard is ahead one to zero.
“Too bad Berlin didn’t put you out the whole season,” the player facing off with me says.
Seriously? What an ass.
I smile a friendly smile, wanting to fuck with his head and see how much my smile irritates him. I allow it to grow, and when the puck drops, I’m all over it, shooting it toward Harvard’s side of the rink.
Our team skates off after the puck. We’ve been putting up good defense tonight and had one power play in our favor, but we haven’t been able to get one past their goalie. That’s about to change. I skate around a bunch of players. Dec has the puck and passes it off to Baynard who passes it off to Bozeman. Bozeman skates across the ice, making it close to the net but not close enough to get a clean shot. With two guys from Harvard on top of him, it’s a tough play. He shoots the puck my way and I take the shot, holding my breath as I watch the puck slide across the ice. The goalie’s instinct is to press his knees together, only he’s a millisecond too late because the puck slides between his skates and… oh, fuck yeah. The crowd goes wild, chanting.
I lift my stick in the air, and a bunch of guys from the team clap me on the back. We’re tied one-one. Now it’s time to cream their asses. This time, Bozeman is up for the face-off. Bozeman looks at me and nods. I can tell by the look on his face that the other player is spewing shit again, but Bozeman keeps his cool, and when the puck drops, the Harvard player shoots the puck through Bozeman’s legs. It’s fine because I skate my ass off to the other side of the rink and catch the puck. If there’s one thing I am known for, it’s my speed. I get control of the puck as a Harvard player comes and side checks me into the boards. I rebound quickly. Thompson from our team gets hold of the puck and moves in close to the Harvard net, but a player from the Harvard team moves past him and, suddenly, Thompson’s head snaps back. He loses the puck but rebounds quickly. I move in to catch the puck just as the same jackass who I faced off with gets into a fight with Thompson. Like, he’s full-out punching him. A bunch of other guys from the Harvard team get in on the action and then there are three players pounding on Thompson. I move in to help my teammate, but Bozeman says, “I got this.” He moves in and begins to push the guys off Thompson along with Baynard’s help. My guys don’t release one punch, even though they’re being egged on by the Harvard team. The ref blows the whistle and announces that two players from Harvard are getting a penalty. With two players more on the ice than Harvard, we score easily. Two goals in three minutes. On break, Coach praises us and tells us to stay focused. Bozeman comes up to me and says he’s learned a lot from me this season.
“Let’s seal the deal, men,” I say to my team. “We’re making it to the Frozen Four.”
The guys cheer as the buzzer goes for the start of the third period, which flies by in a whirl of hard skating and another goal for us. We beat Harvard and it feels damn good.
Coach gives us a speech that we have one more game to win before entering the Frozen Four. We don’t know if it will be against Havenshire or Yale yet, but I am so pumped up I feel like I can take on the world. Adrenaline runs through my body as I look around the arena, wondering where Rebel is. I want to share this excitement with my girl, but I don’t see her in the crowd; probably because I’m so pumped, my focus is off.
After the game, we do the ritual handshakes on the ice. Off the ice, I’m all about the media interviews. The guys played smart tonight and the reporters definitely picked up on it. As team captain, a lot of the attention is on me, but I deflect it and thank my teammates for bringing their A game.
As I’m leaving the locker room, Cait is there waiting for me. “How did you…” I don’t finish my sentence because I see my father standing off to the side. He has never been to any of my games.
“Hello, son,” he says in that proper, deep voice of his.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, looking between Cait and my father.
My father opens his mouth to speak, and I notice the slight tremble of his lower lip. “I wanted to come see you play. I haven’t been father of the year.” He pauses and looks down at Cait. She nods to him and he refocuses his attention on me. “I worked too much and didn’t support my family. I blamed you for something because admitting that I was at fault meant taking responsibility, and I haven’t been very good at doing that. I…” His lip quivers again. “I’m really sorry for treating you the way I have. You didn’t deserve it. You were a kid, for crying out loud. Making noise and fighting with your sister is normal. My reaction and lack of patience for you guys is something that I regret so much.”
“Dad, a drunk driver ran a stop sign. Even if you didn’t have a lot on your mind. Even if you weren’t angry with Cait and me, the accident was probably still unavoidable,” I say, looking down at my sister. She is so strong and so smart. I was worried about her all this time, but she’s been so resilient.
“I was impatient and distracted. I’m the governor. I make huge life decisions every day, and yet I couldn’t save my family from the heartache we’ve been through,” Dad says sadly.
“We never needed saving. We needed your support and your presence in our lives,” Cait says to him.
He nods and blinks. His eyes are rimmed red. I’ve never seen him this way… ever.
Dad refocuses his attention on me. “I’m really proud of you, son. The way you lead your team. The exemplary player you are. I was wrong about you and hockey. I should’ve supported you. Should have gone to your games to see what a fine young man you’ve become. Can you forgive me?” he finally says.
My stomach feels like its flopping like a fish out of water. I’ve waited so long for Dad to say those things to me. I’ve been so hard on myself, felt like such a failure, because that is what he made me feel like. But standing here in front of this man who I love despite all his faults, I just want to be accepted and loved.
“This is about forgiveness,” Cait says.
I nod
to my sister and kiss the top of her head, then I look at my dad. “I forgive you,” I say, and those words feel like they set me free. Like the weight of the mountain sitting on my shoulders has turned to air and drifted away.
“Thank you, son,” Dad says and hugs me. And after everything we’ve been through, I hug him back, feeling overcome with emotion.
When I step back, I see Rebel coming down the hall with Holland and her sister.
“Congratulations.” She smiles and I walk over to my girl, wrap her in my arms, lift her in the air, and kiss the hell out of her. “Wolfe, put me down,” she says into my mouth. But I can feel her smile against my lips. I put her down. Her cheeks are so red she looks almost sunburned.
“Rebel, I’d like you to meet my sister Cait and my father Christopher,” I say, still feeling high and jittery from the win and my father’s presence.
“So nice to meet you,” Rebel says and hugs Cait.
“I’ve heard so much about you,” Cait says.
“Same,” Rebel replies and then she shakes Dad’s hand.
“It’s a pleasure,” Dad says.
Holland and Blossom congratulate me on the win and then the guys slowly pour out of the locker room in their suits.
“Coach just notified us that fucking Havenshire won. We play them for the spot at the Frozen Four,” Cole says, and when he notices Dad, his face falls.
“Sorry, Mr. Ellison.”
My dad throws his head back and laughs a deep laugh.
Coach leaves the locker room and walks over to us.
“Governor Ellison, it’s a pleasure,” Coach says to him.
Dad shakes his hand.
“Your son is quite the impressive player.”
I look at Coach in shock. “What? How did you know?”
“I didn’t, Wolfe. I just saw the striking resemblance right now,” Coach says.
Heartless Player: A College Hockey Romance : (Westfall U Series) Page 22