Chapter 2 Chapter 2

Scott's Pov

“Rose…”

The word dragged out of my throat before my brain could even filter it. My vision must have been glitching. It had to be a hallucination brought on by two-a-day practices, chronic exhaustion, and a brain that wouldn't stop looping the same face over and over.

There was no way Rose was actually sitting on the bleachers in New York.

I took a step toward her, ready to prove my own eyes wrong, when a shriek so loud and piercing sliced through the air that I genuinely flinched.

Suddenly, a blonde girl materialized right in front of me and the guys, practically vibrating with excitement.

“Hi!” She gasped, totally breathless, like she’d just sprinted a marathon to stand in my personal space. 

“I'm Alexa! Oh my god, I am such a huge fan of yours! I literally love your sport so much!”

“Hey, thanks, really appreciate it,” I said, offering her the standard, team-approved smile while my eyes aggressively tried to look past her shoulder. I needed to see if the hallucination was still there. But this Alexa girl was relentless, shifting left every time I shifted right.

By the time I finally ducked around her hair to check the bleachers, the spot was empty and Rose was gone.

My chest tightened. Did I imagine the whole thing? Am I officially losing my mind?

“...and so I was telling my dad that we—” Alexa was still going, completely oblivious to the fact that I hadn't heard a single word past Hi.

“Hold on,” I cut in, raising a finger and pressing it gently right against her lips to freeze the chatter. “I'm kinda busy right now. Can we talk later?”

She blinked, her eyes turning into full-on lovesick puppy eyes, and nodded like a bobblehead. “Yeah. Yeah, totally!”

I didn't stick around to watch her process that. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a blur of dark hair slipping through the hallway leading toward the back exit. My legs were moving before my head even gave the command as I shoved past a couple of my teammates, sprinting down the narrow corridor, my heart hammering against my ribs like I was in the final minute of a championship game.

The figure was right at the exit door, hand on the push bar, about to disappear into the afternoon.

“Rose!” I called out and she froze. Her hand stayed flat against the metal, her shoulders locking up completely.

I took a slow breath, trying to steady the edge in my voice as I closed the distance between us.

“Rose, it's me…” I murmured, my voice dropping. “...Scott.”

Did she think I forgot? Because there was no way. How could I? She was amazing. That night in Boston wasn't just some drunk hookup, it was a full-blown shock to my system.

I felt a spark with her that I hadn't felt with a single soul in my entire life. I spent weeks looking for her, driving myself insane, replaying every second, checking stupid social media apps like a desperate teenager, and suddenly... here she is. Standing in front of a drafty exit door in New York.

She turned around slowly like she was approaching a wild animal.

“Hi, Scott,” she muttered, her voice weak, barely above a whisper.

Just like that, the relief snapped, “Hi Scott?” I echoed, a bitter laugh bursting out of my chest. “That's it? 'Hi Scott'?”

“I—”

“Why’d you vanish like that? One second you're in my bed, looking at me like... like whatever the hell that night was, and the next morning you're just… gone. I genuinely thought I hallucinated the whole damn thing.”

Rose flinched, pulling her arms tight around herself, “I didn't have a choice, okay? I couldn't stay!”

“You couldn't leave a single word?” I stepped closer, my throat tight. “Do you have any idea what it felt like waking up to an empty room thinking I meant absolutely nothing to you? That I was just some convenient mistake?”

“It wasn't like that!” she shouted, her eyes instantly glossing over with tears, her voice cracking under the weight of it. “My dad packed us up in the middle of the night! We had to leave Boston right then or we'd be on the street. I didn't even have my phone, I didn't have your number, I didn't have anything. I didn't want to disappear from you!”

The words hung in the hallway.

My breath caught in my chest. All the anger drained out of me in a single second, leaving behind an aching guilt.

“You... you really didn't want to leave?” I asked, my voice dropping back down, the edge completely gone.

She shook her head, a single tear spilling over her cheek. “No. I hated every second of it.”

“Rose…” I dragged a hand through my hair, letting out a long, shaky breath. “I looked for you. For weeks, man. I thought I was losing my mind because I couldn't just throw away whatever happened between us.”

She wiped her face with the back of her sleeve, looking up at me like she couldn't quite believe I was real either. “You searched for me?”

“Yeah. I did.” I stepped into her personal space, reaching out to gently catch her wrist before she could pull away again. “So now that you're standing right here, don't run. Will you give us a real chance?”

Rose looked at me for a long moment, her chest heaving, before a tiny, tentative breath escaped her lips. “Okay,” she whispered.

A tight knot in my chest finally loosened. I gave her a small smile, letting go of her wrist so she could breathe. “Good. Don't throw your phone away this time.”

After she headed back out to find her family, I leaned my head back against the concrete wall of the hallway, letting the cold sink into my skin.

Then, like a migraine, his face crossed my mind.

My head started spiraling instantly, a messy web of logic trying to untangle itself. Okay, look. It wasn't like me and him were officially exclusive or anything, right? We had a thing.

We hung out. We did... whatever it was we did when we were both bored or lonely or high on an off-season high.

Surely Rose wouldn't have to know about him. Why would she? It wasn't relevant. It was a completely separate compartment of my life that had zero bearing on what was happening right now.

Besides, I was a college hockey captain. I could date and fuck whoever I pleased until someone put a leash on me. It didn't matter. It was fine. Everything was completely fine.

I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets, turning around to walk back to the locker room, desperately trying to convince myself that my own logic didn't sound completely full of shit.

Just then, a familiar hand tossed my hair from behind, accompanied by his voice. “Hey, handsome.”

I turned around, and there he was.

Ervis.

Standing right in front of me, dripping wet, freshly out of the shower with nothing but a towel wrapped loosely around his waist. My eyes automatically raked down his body, taking in those absurd, perfectly sculpted abs, the water droplets clinging to his tan skin and God, that accent.

That voice, combined with that stupid smile, made my insides completely melt into mush…every single time.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, my voice raspy.

Ervis smirked, leaning back against the row of lockers. “I purposefully came to take a bath a little later, knowing I’d catch you here alone.”

My brain was running two different operating systems at once, both crashing hard. “Well, you need to leave,” I stammered, stepping back. “Before anyone catches us here. The guys are literally right around the corner.”

Instead of moving toward the door, Ervis stepped right into my personal space, blocking my path. “Why didn't you come to my room last night like you promised?”

I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly drier than sandpaper. “I... I had things to do.”

“Like what?” he asked softly, stepping even closer. The heat off his skin was ridiculous, his damp, fresh-out-of-the-shower breath fanning against my neck and making my eyes flutter shut against my will.

I couldn't even form a coherent sentence. My mouth opened, a pathetic stutter coming out, totally paralyzed by the sheer proximity of him.

“You'll make it up to me tonight, right?” Ervis whispered, his voice smooth as silk.

And despite myself—despite Rose, despite the exit door, despite the entire speech I had just given myself about logic and control—I nodded. Caught dead in the heat of the moment, unable to pull back.

Ervis let out a chuckle, flashed me a wink that should honestly be illegal, and turned around to head back toward the showers.

I stood there alone in the locker room, my heart hammering against my ribs like a jackhammer.

Fuck.

I dragged both hands down my face, staring at the wet footprints left on the tiles. What the actual hell had I just gotten myself into?