With that, I grab my things and my filled hockey bag of shit that I stole from my parents’ house and head downstairs. I throw the bag in the back of my truck but spy Cassie’s car a few down from mine and an idea hits me.
I skip back up the stairs two at a time and break into her old recording room and start dismantling as much of the important stuff as possible. I take it down, bit by bit and load it into the back of my truck. I can’t resist but to go back to her room and give her another kiss before leaving. She mumbles a goodbye and snuggles deeper into her bed, I gently close the door and climb into my truck.
It’s nearly nightfall when I wake on the couch. Shit, I’d gotten home and headed to the gym with Bobby. I immediately collapsed on the couch and fell asleep assuming Cass wouldn’t be back on campus until late afternoon, she would have stayed in bed all day.
I had a lot to think about with Cass after everything that had happened at the wedding so I did what I do best and worked it all out at the gym and absolutely killed myself.
Bobby had taken one look at me, smirked and said, “Looks good on you.” I gave him a blank stare denying that I knew what he was talking about but it is pretty damn obvious. I have Cass back in my life, in a strange, not really together kind of way and for the first time in years, I’m starting to feel settled within myself. I’ve not been as grouchy or dying for the party lifestyle like my reputation suggests I would. I haven’t chased after any chicks or acknowledged them when they attempt to climb all over me, I just don’t feel the need anymore, there is no longer a void that needs filling.
For the first time in a long time. I feel like myself and clearly, Bobby has noticed.
“So,” I hear Bobby say and realise he is sitting on the opposite couch watching ESPN when he could be doing that at his own place. “Ready to talk about it yet?”
I send a scowl his way as I sit up on the couch. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He nods towards a cold beer on the coffee table and I reach forward and take a sip. My stomach instantly clenches as it attempts to reject taking any more alcohol into my body. I place it back down with a cringe. “Quit pussy-footing around,” Bobby says. “How was the wedding?”
“Good,” I grunt, not offering much more than that. He gives me a pointed look and I let out a resigned sigh. “Fine,” I say, telling him what he really wants to know. “Cass and I talked and sorted some shit out.”
“And?” he prompts.
“And I don’t know. She still wants to be with me but I’m not sure I can trust her not to up and leave again,” I tell him. “I can’t go through that shit again. Why do you think I’ve avoided this shit with chicks?”
“Honestly, dude, I think you’ve avoided it because you’ve been holding onto hope that Cass would come home, or at least waiting for someone who could even resemble the kind of person Cass is,” he says, “Though, you never would have discovered anyone like that because you don’t give any of them the time of day.”
“Seriously? The kind of chicks I’ve been with are not really the type of women who are interested in a relationship, they’re after the bragging rights which I was more than happy to give them.”
“And what about now?” he asks.
“Now?” I repeat with a sigh, “Now the thought of being with another woman makes me feel sick like I’m betraying Cass in some kind of way. It’s ridiculous though because we’re not even together.”
“It’s not ridiculous,” Bobby says channeling his inner Dr. Phil. “You’re in love with her and you know as well as I do that if you were to be with someone else it would hurt her. It only makes sense for you to want to protect her from that.”
“Yeah, I guess but doesn’t change the fact that she’s the only one I want in my bed. I just have to make sure I can trust her now.”
“Holy shit, Jaxon Payne has seen the light,” Bobby says as dramatically as possible. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
“Shut up, man,” I say, grabbing the cushion off the couch and launching it at him.
He catches the cushion with lighting fast reflexes, which I must admit is one of the reasons he makes such a great hockey player. “You going to head over and talk with her?” he asks, “Because if you are I may as well head over and steal their food. I’m fucking starving.”
I think it over for a moment before shaking my head. “Nah, man. She probably isn’t back from her place yet. She most likely stayed to help clean up a bit and from what I know of her, she probably needs a bit of space to sort through everything that happened last night.”
“Yeah, ok. In that case, I better go and scrounge up my own dinner,” Bobby says.
With a lift of my chin, Bobby heads out the door. I get up off the couch and find myself some dinner before settling back into the couch and watching the game.
I wake on Monday morning and I just know this is going to be a good week, all the pieces of my scrambled puzzle are finally falling back into place. There are only a few pieces left for me to work out.
I rush out the door to meet the boys for our morning run and we instantly get into it. I lead the pack with Bobby by my side and the rest of the boys following us up.
A smirk plays on my lips as two petite brunettes come jogging on the opposite side of the road. Bobby and I recognise them instantly but they are too lost in their chatter to realise anyone is around.
Bri notices us first and nods with her chin towards us. Cass looks up and instantly zero’s her eyes in on me. I jog across the road and the boys follow behind so that we are heading straight for them. A playful smile comes over Cassie’s lips and I know within just a few moments that smile will be gone.
I adjust myself on the path so that I am running right in her way and stare her down. Heat rises in her cheeks and I know she is thinking about the other night. She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth and begins biting on it making me want to pin her up against a tree and fuck her right here not caring who the hell is watching.
I push the thought from my head or I’ll never be able to concentrate on the rest of my training session. The closer we get the more evil my smirk becomes, she instantly releases her lip from her teeth and the flirty look in her eyes disappears. She starts shaking her head but it’s too late, we’re right on top of them now.
She tries to sidestep me but I can read her like a map. I bend low and wrap my arms around her legs as our bodies crash together. She lets out a squeal but before she even knows what is happening, she is thrown over my shoulder as I continue my run.
Bri turns and runs with us while Cass kicks and pounds on my back, begging to be released. I can’t help but laugh as I smack her on the ass. “Would you put me down, you big jerk?”
My laugh completely takes over me and I have no choice but to stop and put her down before I hurt us both. I place her back on her feet and she narrows her eyes at me in annoyance. I step into her personal space and stare down at her and the annoyance instantly disappears from her eyes and is replaced with need and heat.
She leaves her stubborn little fists on her hips as I lean into her and kiss her deeply before releasing her and sending her a flirty wink. “Gotta go, babe,” I say, taking off with the boys and leaving both Cass and Bri staring after me dumbfounded.
A chuckle from beside me has me glancing over at Bobby. “Fuck man, you got it bad.”
With a roll of my eyes, my fist comes shooting out as I nail him in the shoulder, completely throwing him off the path.
The rest of the day fly’s by and before I know it, I’m finishing up my on-ice hockey training session and Coach is hollering across the ice for me to join him in his office.
I step off the ice and make my way to Coach’s office as quickly as possible as I have got myself some plans for tonight. “What’s up, Boss?” I ask, flopping down into his chair, though with all my hockey gear on, it’s not as easy as it sounds.
“Just checking your head is in the game,” he says with an accusing tone.
; I’m instantly on edge, “It is,” I demand, “All my games have been spot on, I haven’t missed a beat.”
“Chill out, kid,” he says with a grin. “You’re right, your games have been flawless, your training session with the boys are fantastic and your dedication to your role as Captain is commendable.”
“Huh?” I grunt, completely confused.
“What I am saying is that anything hockey related is near perfect but don’t act like I don’t notice you boys, once you step off my ice. Your head is a mess.” He accuses.
“Nah,” I deny. “I’m all good.”
He gives me an annoyed look and gets straight into it. “You’re running three times as much as the others, you’ve logged a shit load of hours in the gym, you’ve stopped your wild partying and the moment you step off the ice, you sink away into your own head,” he says, “Now, I know I may be getting old but fuck me, Jax, I can see when something else is going on. Now, you have three seconds to tell me or you’ll be on during the next figure skating session doing your drills.”
Damn it.
With a sigh, I look up at coach. “There’s a girl.”
“Oh, shit,” Coach groans.
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” I say. “She’s kind of the girl I’ve been in love with since I was twelve.”
“What?” he grunts in shock then immediately starts choking on his own breath.
“We were together for six years before she up and left for New York without a goodbye and now she’s back,” I explain.
“I’m not seeing your problem,” he tells me. “It was years ago.”
“Yeah, well I keep accidentally falling into her bed.”
“Right,” he says with an understanding nod of his head. “The way I see it is you both have some unresolved issues and you need to sort it out before you run yourself into the ground.”
“Agreed,” I say.
“Good, now get out of here,” I get up from my chair and turn to leave but he stops me in the doorway. “Jax,” he says with a more serious tone in his voice. “If your still in-love with this girl after years of being apart, then I dare say she is the one for you. You’d be a fool to mess that up.”
“How do I trust that she won’t leave again?” I ask.
“Faith, Jaxon,” he says. “You know as well as I do that trust is earned not given. Maybe she just needs the chance to earn your trust back.”
With that, he gives me one final nod and turns his eyes down to the paperwork on his desk before excusing me from the room.
I head back down to the locker room to change, with my mind once again in a rush of thoughts but one thing is right. If I’m still in-love with Cass after so long then maybe she is the one and maybe I have been messing around. I just need to forgive her already but then again, how the hell can I be sure she won’t leave again. I don’t think I could bear to be left by her again, it was horrible the first time, another go of it might just kill me.
I find Bobby in the locker room and sit down beside him to take my skates off. “All good, man?” he asks, referring to my meeting with Coach.
“Yeah,” I grunt. “He just wanted to bust my balls a little,” I explain, kicking off my skates and stripping out of my training gear.
“Heading home?” he asks as he stands and picks up his hockey gear.
“Nope,” I say with an unintentional grin.
He shakes his head and heads for the doors with a goodbye to the rest of the guys. I grab a towel and head into the shower, after all, I don’t want to smell like a dirty locker room when I’m sliding into Cass later. I strip off and step into the shower, feeling the warm water rushing over my sore muscles and realise that maybe coach is right, I might be overdoing it a little.
Movement catches my eye and I turn to see Xander walking out of the showers, trying to pull a shirt on. His arm raises above his head and my eyes instantly zero in on a massive purpling bruise to his ribs, in fact, there are smaller cuts and bruises all over him.
What the fuck?
“Dude?” I say, stopping him in his tracks. He turns to look at me and instantly realises what I’ve seen.
“It’s nothing, man,” he says with a shake of his head before pulling his shirt the rest of the way down and leaving the room. I think about going after him but I’m starkers and I’m not really in the mood to get my ass whipped by 20 towels for leaving the showers in my birthday suit.
I finish off my shower wondering who the hell could have done that to him and more importantly, why? If he was in some kind of trouble, he knows he could have come to us and we would have backed him up or at least helped to keep him out of trouble, I mean, if he gets caught fighting, especially on school grounds he’d be kicked from the team and the kid is too valuable to lose.
I step out of the shower and wrap a towel around my waist before heading back to my locker and pulling on a pair of jeans and a shirt. I promise myself to look into this thing with Xander or at least try, though the kid is a bit of a black sheep and if he wanted to tell us something, he would have done it already. With a sigh, I grab all my things and jam them into my hockey bag and search my locker for my phone.
I look down at the screen and scoff at the missed call from my dad knowing he would be questioning me about the missing shit from my old room. I hit delete and bury my phone in my pocket. I don’t have time for his fake shit, I have much, much better things to be doing.
Chapter 15
Cassie
Brianna and I sit in the lounge room after a long Monday, me with my notebook scrawling out lyrics while Brianna scrolls through Facebook, searching for anything worthy of her attention.
I scan over the last few pages of notes I’ve written and realise a change in my writing. It almost seems lighter in a strange way. I flick back a few more pages and compare the differences. Yep. Definitely light, doesn’t seem so dark anymore.
I know the moment I left for New York, it was all about heartbreak but then my parents died and a dark depression slipped into it. I feel as though being home for the past few weeks has begun to heal me, cleanse me from the inside out and I know exactly how it has happened.
Brianna starts spilling out the latest gossip about who knows what while trying to talk over the sound of the T.V, which neither of us is actually paying any attention to. There’s a knock at the door and we look at each other, both with confusion lacing our features.
“You invite anyone over?” I ask.
She shakes her head while giving a very un-ladylike shrug, though, ladylike is not something Brianna has ever claimed to be.
“So, I’m assuming I have to answer it?” I groan as I start getting up from the comfort of my lounge.
“Yuuup,” she sings as her attention falls back to her Facebook.
I trudge to the door and open it up to find a very handsome man standing at my door with a pizza. How very romantic. “Are you lost?” I smirk as I position myself in front of the door and lean against the frame to block his entry. The sight of him standing at my door has my heart warming, especially the fact that he feels he can just come and drop by unannounced like he used to like he feels he belongs here.
“Not me,” he replies with a twinkle in his blue eyes.
I stare him down, trying to keep a straight face. “What are you doing here, Jax?” I question, though, the intrigued tone of my voice is a dead giveaway.
He shrugs his shoulders, “You know,” he says as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. “I was in the neighborhood.”
“Right,” I reply, leaning fully against the doorframe so I can cross my arms over my chest. I watch as his eyes dart to my now pushed up cleavage and grin as his eyes heat with excitement. “You just happened to have a pizza on standby in your truck?”
“Your Mum would have been the first to chew me out had I shown up empty-handed,” he explains.
“True,” I smile, thinking of all the times mum had done just that. “I thought you were on a strict diet for hockey?” I ask.
&nb
sp; “I am,” he says, “This is for you.”
I eye the pizza and take a deep breath, taking in the heavenly aroma and knowing he would have brought me pepperoni. “And what are you going to eat?”
He lets out the smallest chuckle as he steps forward into my space. A wicked smirk crosses his features as the twinkle in his eye from earlier returns. He slides an arm around my waist and pulls me into him, sending a surge of electricity through my bones. I lick my lips and my bottom lip instantly disappears in between my teeth. I’m practically panting before he has even spoken. “I’m eating you.”
Seeing my reaction to his closeness has his own eyes darkening. I feel him hardening and I press myself against him trying to relieve the ache he has managed to cause in the last thirty seconds. He pushes me through the door and drops the pizza on the ground before crashing his lips into mine.
I moan into his mouth as he lifts me and takes us to my room. I don’t think I will ever get used to the feeling of his lips on mine again, it still seems like a dream, as if it’s all happening in my mind. Could this be real? Is he really starting to come around? I know it’s a long shot, but is he finally starting to forgive me?
I distantly hear the door slam and realise we must have left it open, either that or Bri has stolen my pizza and made a run for it. Actually, on second thought there is no way I am leaving this room to find even a slice of pizza left.
Thoughts of pizza disappear from my mind the moment I am thrown clear across the room, off Jax’s strong body and come down slamming into the centre of the bed. He is on me before I even have a chance to squeal. Urgency and need shine in his eyes and I know without a doubt he can see the same in mine.
My hands desperately find the waistband of my pants and I struggle to pull them down while he tries to rip my shirt over my head. I get my pants to my knees before giving up and using my feet to kick them off. My pants have hardly hit the ground before my fingers are clutching at his shirt.
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