Clipped by Love (Bellevue Bullies #2)

by Toni Aleo

  What a depressing thought.

  “Great practice, guys, I’m really pleased with the performance today. The lines we have are the lines we’ll play with tomorrow. I’ll announce starters before the game next Friday, so don’t think you have it because you’re on the ice first. Remember—rest, no parties or crazy drinking on practice and game nights. I’m sure our captain has that under control,” he says, his gaze falling on Jayden, and he nods.

  “Yes, sir, curfew is being enforced,” he says in his deep, captain’s voice, and chills run down my spine. I wonder what the punishment for skipping curfew would be. I doubt it’d be the sexual kind.

  Oh my God, I’m turning into Delanie.

  “Good,” he says with a nod. “All right, hit the showers, boys. Except Moore and Sinclair.”

  My heart sinks. What the hell did I do?

  “Me or him, Coach?” Jace asks, and Dad shakes his head.

  “Sorry, Big Sinclair.”

  Jayden chuckles as he stands. “Well, he means me.”

  “You may be bigger than me, bro, but my dick—” Jace begins, but then my dad cuts him a look and he hightails it off the ice as Jayden comes to stand beside me. He shoots me a look, and I glance at him nervously. Does Dad know? Shit.

  “So today was good,” Dad says with a nod, and my nerves flutter away. He doesn’t know anything. If he did, he would just start screaming at us. “I think not having the competition between you two is good. Now we can work on being a team.”

  We both nod as Jayden says, “I agree.”

  “Yeah. Me too.”

  “Good. You two can be lethal together. Those passes up, it’s like you knew he was going to do it, Bay. I’m proud. You two are reading each other well. I don’t know what is going on, but it’s great. You two really lead and worked your asses off today. Great job.”

  We share a look, and it takes everything in me not to grin up at him as he says, “I feel exactly the same.”

  Glancing up at my dad, I wonder if he felt like Jayden’s statement was dripping with sex, because I sure did. But obviously he doesn’t because he’s nodding, grinning at us like we aren’t doing it. Which is very good. He likes Jayden, and I’d like to keep it that way.

  “Hope it continues. Big game coming up. Figures our first game would be against the team we used to play for, eh, Bay?”

  I laugh as I nod. I’ve been nervous about playing my old team. Especially since they were all so happy to see me go. “Great way to start the year. I’m ready to kick some ass.”

  “Me too. Okay, you two, head off.”

  He hits our shins with his stick before we turn to go off the ice. Once we are in the hall that leads to the locker room, Jayden says, “I didn’t realize we were playing your old team first.”

  “Yeah,” I say with a nod before pulling my helmet off. “We need to win, just to show those assholes that they should miss me.”

  “They do,” he says with a wink before pulling his helmet off. “They just don’t know it yet.”

  Looking away, I ask, “How are you not out of breath?”

  “I constantly work out. You should come work out with me,” he suggests and I shrug.

  “Maybe,” I say, and then I grin. Waggling my eyebrows, I say, “Maybe you can reward me afterward.”

  Laughing, his eyes darken as he nods. “Damn, Moore,” he teases. “Sex is doing you good, eh?”

  “Ugh, shut up!” I gasp, looking around us. “Jeez.”

  He sends me a grin and reaches for the door. “No one is around, no worries.”

  He goes to open the door, but I stop him. “What’s this shit about dance team tryouts? Markus says it’s the highlight of the season,” I deadpan, and he laughs.

  “Yeah, we go and place our votes for the girls we like for the team.”

  “Huh? I have no clue about dancing, except that I do like to shake it when I’m drunk.”

  He nods. “And sing very badly in my face. That “Chandelier” song, I’ll never hear it the same again.”

  I giggle as I smack him. “That’s my jam! Shut up!”

  “Just saying,” he says, shaking his head before leaning into his stick, his playful gaze on mine. “But it doesn’t matter. We have a board, and we have a choice between one and ten on how we think their performance is.”

  “Why does it matter what we think?” I ask, perplexed. This is dumb.

  “Because most of the time, the captains want to sleep with us. Jude used to do them all. That’s how he officially met Claire. She’s a dancer.”

  “Gotcha. By the way, your brother sounds like he used to be very busy,” I say with a smirk, hoping that he doesn’t get offended, but he grins back at me.

  “Biggest whore I knew, but all it takes is someone special to change you,” he says, his eyes meeting mine, a knowing look on his face.

  Eyeing him, I ask, “Are you insinuating something?”

  “Maybe,” he says with a shrug.

  Expelling an annoyed breath since I know damn well what he is implying, I push him out of my way playfully, shaking my head as I pass by him. But I know he’s right. It does take someone special to change you, either for the worse or the better. I want to think that he would be one to do it for the better, but that’s way too much to think about right now.

  Plus, I have dance team tryouts to judge.

  Yippee.

  I’m on a team with a bunch of fucking horndogs.

  They are not even judging these girls for their talent but for their looks! And if they twerk. It’s insane. I am completely disgusted with the male gender right now.

  “Oh, she’s getting a ten!” Markus yells, barking at the girl.

  Barking!

  “You’re a pig,” I say, and he laughs as he holds his board up, tens written all over it.

  “She is hot, though,” Jace mentions, his head cocking to the side.

  Why did I choose to sit between these idiots?

  Oh, because Jayden had to sit by the dance captains, and let me just say, the blonde only has to touch his face one more time before I accidently throw my board at them.

  “This is so dumb,” I exhale, trying to keep my angry thought deep down inside me.

  Markus laughs before coming close to me. “You’re just mad that most of the girls are trying to hook up with Jayden,” he whispers, and I glare.

  “I am not,” I say back, folding my arms in a pouting way. “I don’t care what he does.”

  “Has anyone told you, you’re a terrible liar?” Jace asks without looking at me. “Every time Rachael even touches my bro, you tense up. And I’m sorry, but I am waiting like a kid with popcorn for you to toss that damn board at her head.”

  Glaring at the side of his head, I say, “I’m about to toss it at your head.”

  Looking back at me, feigning hurt, he says, “That’s not nice.”

  He then flashes me a boyish grin before they announce the next girl, one of the members of last year’s team. They have to requalify each year, just like the hockey players.

  Skylar Preston.

  Wrestler chick.

  “Fucking bitch,” I growl, and Jace starts to laugh as Markus nods.

  “Yeah, they were hooking up for a while. I think they were together, yeah, Jace?” Markus asks like I’m not even there, and I hang on every word that comes from Jace’s lips.

  “Kinda, really unofficially. It isn’t like he ever brought her home to meet my mom, but he did fly out with her to see my brother and Claire. She’s a cool chick.”

  I beg to differ.

  “That’s right,” Markus says as the girl starts dancing. She’s stunning, the best dancer I’ve seen today, but I don’t care. She’s on my hit list. “He seems interested still, you think?”

  That has us all glancing down at where Jayden is watching her dance. He has a goofy little grin on his face and his eyes trained on her body. What in the ever-loving fuck is he looking at?

  “That motherfuck—”

  “Wh
at, Baylor? Is there a problem?” Markus asks, glancing at me with a knowing grin. “You aren’t jealous, are you?”

  “Why would she be? Nothing is going on, remember,” Jace says, and I swear to God, I’m gonna kill them.

  Glaring, I feel my nails bite into my ribs as I squeeze myself harder, trying not to snap. But when Skylar grabs the edge of the table, moving her hair back and forth before meeting her eyes to Jayden’s, everything inside me goes white-hot. She then reaches up, tapping his nose in a playful way before sashaying back to the middle of the gym. I can let that go; she’s fishing for big numbers. But what pisses me the hell off is when Jayden holds up a board that reads a ten.

  I swear, it takes every ounce of my restraint not to scream and fling my damn board at his head. Angrily picking up my marker, I rip the cap off and write down my number as Jace and Markus hold up their boards. When they glance back at mine, they both fall over laughing. That gets the attention of the captains, and soon they are laughing as Skylar’s fury-filled eyes meet mine. I send a nasty look right back at her before leaning back against the bleachers, propping myself up with one arm while Markus and Jace continue to heckle like hyenas.

  That’s when Jayden looks back at me, his eyes widening as his brows come together before he holds his hands up in a “what the hell?” kind of way.

  But I don’t care though.

  I don’t like her. At all.

  So she gets a zero.

  Delanie: You gave her a zero?

  Me: I don’t like her.

  Delanie: Do you even know her?

  Me: I know she was fucking the dude I’m fucking and I don’t like that.

  Waiting for her reply, I’m surprised when the phone actually rings.

  Hitting answer, I put it on speaker as I say, “Hello?”

  “So let me get this straight,” she says, laughter in her voice. “I had to call because I wanted to hear this from your mouth and not through text.”

  “Okay?” I ask, confused, as I pull my hair up. “What?”

  “So you gave this chick—one you have no clue who she is, never met her, shared any kind of communication with—a zero because Jayden had sex with her before?”

  “Yes,” I answer simply. “He was all looking at her and shit. Like he wanted her or something. I don’t like that.”

  Laughing, she says, “Obviously! My goodness, Baylor, your crazy is hanging out. Tuck it back in.”

  “Whatever,” I say, rolling my eyes. “She rubs me the wrong way.”

  “How? She hasn’t even talked to you!”

  “Whose side are you on? You’re my friend,” I snap, and she continues to laugh.

  “I know that, but you are making friends now. Girls are already jealous of you because you play and live in a house with a whole hockey team. Do you really need an enemy in all this? Girls are catty as shit, dude. She’ll run your name through the mud.”

  I bite into the inside of my cheek as I think that over. She may have a point.

  “Then I’ll kick her ass,” I decide, and she lets out a breath.

  “Do you know you’re kinda violent?”

  “Eh, add it to my list of imperfections,” I say offhandedly. “I’m just saying. I don’t like her, and I’m not gonna hide that.”

  “Whatever. You’re being a little bitch right now, you know that?”

  A little offended, I say, “Haven’t you wanted me to act like a girl since the beginning? I’m doing it, so shut up!”

  She laughs. “Touché, but Jesus. Things are getting good for you. You sound happy now, and then you go throw the gauntlet down with some chick you don’t even know because she’s dated the guy you are secretly dating. Doesn’t that sound a bit crazy?”

  It does. But. Maybe. Hmm.

  “Okay, see, this is what happens when I don’t control what I’m feeling!” I challenge back, and she laughs.

  “I mean, damn, Baylor, it’s either you’re completely closed up or you let the crazy hang out. There’s no in-between with you!”

  Bored, I say, “Point being?”

  “Are you gonna apologize?”

  “Fuck no,” I snap with a scoff. “No way in hell.”

  “You’re such a brat,” she mutters, and I smile.

  “So are you,” I say, hitting the speaker button before putting it to my ear. “I’m pretty sure you did this exact thing to Kevin at the beginning of the year,” I add and she laughs. Kevin was her first college boyfriend who apparently got around, and it ended their relationship because Delanie was losing her shit on every girl he slept with. So, really, she has no room to talk.

  “Fine, whatever. Have you even talked to Jayden?”

  Biting into my lip, I say, “I kind of didn’t say anything to him and just passed by him in a really dramatic, angry girl way. And I now see that may have been a little wrong of me, but this shit is hard, okay?”

  “What’s hard?”

  “Being with someone! It’s weird.”

  She lets out a breath, and I can hear her smack herself in the forehead. “Oh my God, Baylor, has he tried to contact you?”

  Not wanting to answer, I mutter, “Yes.”

  “And?”

  “I ignored him.”

  “You. Oh my God, why?” she asks, and I can hear the frustration in her voice. But I’m frustrated too!

  I finally agree to this, and he’s giving eyes to some other chick? What the hell? How would he feel if I did the same thing? He’d freak! And that’s just dumb. All of this. Why is dating so hard? I’ve been doing it for the last week, and I must say, if he weren’t so amazing and the sex wasn’t great, I’d say the fuck with it because I’m feeling shit that is driving me absolutely nuts.

  Ugh!

  Exasperated, I say, “Because he was making eyes at her.”

  “What, are you from the 1950s? Making eyes? Who says that?”

  “Shut up, Delanie!”

  “Fine, he was checking her out, I got you. Maybe you should try talking to him about that and letting him know you don’t like it. Learn from my mistake, Baylor. I flew off the handle, and now I only screw dudes because I’m not in the mood to deal with it.”

  “You’re not helping,” I moan, hiding my face in my hand.

  “I know you like him. Like, superlike him, and if you want this, then you have to be honest.”

  “I will,” I say, but that’s a total lie. I’m gonna hide out and figure this out. There has to be a way to not be so jealous.

  How did I become the jealous type?

  It’s bizarre.

  “You’re such a liar! What are you gonna do? Try to figure out a way not to be jealous? What, totally ignore that he means something to you, and if he wants to leave, then the hell with him?”

  Looking around the room in complete and sheer shock, I’m officially freaked out. “Are you in my head?”

  “I’ve known you for two years. I know how you work. You’re a freaking control fiend, and you need to just stop. Instead of hermitting it up, why don’t you talk to him?”

  “Because that would involve me admitting it hurt my feelings that he was looking at someone else.”

  “Oh, Baylor,” she says softly, and I roll my eyes.

  “Don’t, oh, Baylor me,” I say, and then a knock comes at my door.

  “Shit.”

  “What?”

  “Someone’s at the door.”

  “Who?” she asks, and I bring the covers over my head.

  “I don’t know,” I say, but I know exactly who it is.

  “I hear you in there. Open the door.”

  “Fuck me,” I mutter.

  “Ooh, it’s him!”

  “Shh.”

  “Open the door, Baylor,” he yells through it. “Before I kick it in.”

  “Wow, he really wants to talk to you.”

  “Crap on a cracker,” I mutter as I kick the covers off. “Let me call you back.”

  “Be nice,” she says, and I scoff.

  “I’ll try,”
I say then I hang up before reaching for the door to open it. Holding the door between us, almost like a shield, I don’t meet his gaze as I say, “What?”

  “What?” he says, and then laughs before sliding into the space I left and kicking the door shut. Standing there, feeling bare since there is nothing between us, I finally look up at him. He’s annoyed, it’s all over his face, but a grin is pulling at his lips and I don’t understand that. “That’s all you gotta say to me?”

  Blinking up at him, I shrug. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You know damn well what I mean, Baylor. Your actions speak way louder than your yelling does. You are pissed, and as soon as you tell me why, the better. It’s obvious it has to do with Skylar. You gave her a damn zero. No one gives anyone a zero! That’s insane. What’s wrong? What did she do to you?”

  “Nothing, I’m fine,” I inform him, but I know darn well he won’t believe that.

  Hell, I don’t believe it, but it’s just that I don’t like feeling like this. When I saw him give her that grin and that goofy little head-nod thing he does, something inside me just broke. I mean, I understand that guys look at other girls—they are dudes, it’s bound to happen. But for some reason I thought the smile he gave her was the kind of smile he reserved just for me.

  Jesus, I sound like a girl.

  He glares, folding his arms across his thick chest. “Remember when you said you’d try the whole speaking your feelings thing? I need something here, Baylor.”

  Looking away, I wring my fingers together as I shake my head and let out a breath. “I don’t like the way you were looking at her,” I admit softly.

  He doesn’t say anything, and I wait for him to tell me I’m stupid for feeling like that because I am. I mean, it’s just silly. We are only dating, I don’t own him, but fuck, it really does bother me. He makes me feel a certain kind of way, and in the time I’ve known him, I’ve realized I just really don’t want to share him. Oh shit, am I turning into one of those really possessive girls? Damn it, what is wrong with me?

  “Like how?” he asks and I shrug.

  “The way you look at me,” I admit, meeting his gaze.

  I bite into my lip and his eyes narrow as he shakes his head. “I didn’t realize there was a certain way I look at you.”