He groaned, whirling in front of her so she’d have no choice but to look at him. “You can’t just pretend that night didn’t happen.”

She stopped just before crashing into him, her cheeks burning as her voice unintentionally went up two octaves. “Yes, I can.”

He paused, his hands grabbing her shoulders. She thought he’d surely be angry, but his touch was soft. She shook now, her pulse beating a warning in her ears. It had only taken a second for her reaction to spiral out of control.

“Leila—”

White spots sprinkled before her eyes as a cold sweat broke out across her forehead. She instantly felt nauseated, and it caused her to return Henrik’s grasp.

“Leila,” he repeated as if he wasn’t sure she could even hear him. “Are you all right?”

She could see him waving off people who turned around and stared. She blinked, her hand going to her throat and face. Heat stung her features. She was definitely going to be sick. “I need some air.” Her legs threatened to buckle beneath her. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

“I know a place we can go,” he assured her.

She clutched his hand and let him lead her off the ice.

Chapter 14

 

 

LEILA’S CHOICE

Leila sat on the bench in front of Henrik’s locker, watching him silently panic on the floor in front of her. He tried to be super cool about it, but his eyes were dilated. He was scared, and if she was honest, she was terrified. It had never happened so quickly before, and, thankfully, she brought her medicine with her. She quickly downed it the first time Henrik turned his back.

She sipped sparingly from a bottle of cold water he snatched from the team’s personal storage. Her face was ghostly. She knew it had to be. All the former glow it had shown only a half hour ago gone, replaced by the same misery and hopelessness that had been plaguing her for weeks.

Henrik was unusually quiet. He’d taken off his skates, and scooted the toes of his socks up against the tips of hers.

“Something is going on with you.” He didn’t look at her when he said it, because it wasn’t a question. Instead, he wiggled his toes against hers.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She pulled her knees up to her chest.

He moved forward, close enough to see her eyes as she tried to hide. “I can’t force you to tell me. I want to be here for you, though, even if I’m not really sure what that means.”

She peered over her knees at him. She should tell him. Eventually, she’d have to tell him, or at least tell someone. “Not here,” she whispered, her voice still unsteady. “I don’t want to talk about it here.”

He nodded, bringing himself to his feet. “Then let’s go somewhere else.”

She looked at him, doubtful. “We can’t. Austin and Drew—the party.”

“They’re grown men. They’ll survive without us,” he asserted, smiling at her. He held his hand out, offering her the choice of whether or not to take it.

She studied him for a long moment. There was no over-confident grin. No mischievous twinkle in his eye. He was actually being serious for once.

He really was scared.

“Okay,” she agreed, finally, reaching up to intertwine her fingers with his.

He immediately pulled her into a hug, burying his face in the tuft of curls cascading down the side of her face. “Thank you,” he offered.

“For what?” she whispered into his shirt.

He took a deep breath, and she could feel him smiling, and curling his hands into her thick curls, pulling her just a little closer. “I don’t know yet.”

***

The sun hung low in the sky as the New York skyline disappeared behind them. There was something about leaving, the thought of running away, that seemed to calm the fear that had risen up inside of her. Leila leaned her head back against the seat, taking deep, slow breaths as she enjoyed the view in front of her, and more importantly, the one beside her.

Henrik had thrown a black jacket over his Ninja Turtle shirt, and ditched his hat in the back seat, but he still looked like a little kid sitting next to her. His eyes were wide, full of possibility, and that frightened her a little, but in the good, ‘it feels right’ kind of way.

The clouds were a deep purple, scattered across the empty horizon. She had no idea where he was taking her, and she didn’t care. She could finally breathe again.

He monitored her out of the corner of his eye. She knew he probably wanted to ask her a million questions, to pry into the source of her erratic reactions, but she couldn’t bring herself to disrupt the easy calmness between them. It was so rare. So, instead, she enjoyed the peace while it lasted. It wasn’t until hours later when they came up on a sleepy town on the outskirts of nowhere that she sat up and started asking questions.

“Where are we?” She twisted in her seat, taking in every possible detail in the vicinity, attempting to pinpoint their location.

“Cold Spring,” Henrik said, his eyes focused on the road. “This is where I train in the summer.”

She studied the scenery outside the window, wondering what magical quality this town possessed to make him spend his entire summer there. There weren’t any bars or sorority houses.

“My Uncle Gus lives here.” He smiled at her. “He was my coach growing up, and when I got traded to New York and signed my seven year contract, he and my Aunt Sarah wanted to move closer.”

“They don’t like the city?” she questioned. She knew Henrik had lived in the south before moving to the Midwest for college.

“They’re from Charlotte. What do you think?”

She grinned over at him. “Are you sure we won’t be intruding?”

“Yes, because they will never know we were even here.”

Before she could process what he said, he took a sudden, sharp left turn, cutting down a small, worn road through what appeared to be an abandoned field. She grabbed the door handle, hanging on for dear life as they started bounding their way down the rugged path. “What are you doing?” she asked, exasperated.

“My uncle’s house is up the road, but this is all his property. He always dreamed of living up here, especially because New York can provide one thing Charlotte can’t.”

She raised her eyes, too concerned with being bumped out of the vehicle to form her question into words. The car came to a sudden halt, propelling her forward before her seat belt locked and brought her slamming back. When she finally gained control of herself, he had flipped the headlights on bright. He leaned over the console toward her and pointed out into the fading light. “Up here you can have your own rink in your back yard.”

Her eyes lit up. In the distance, veiled by a blanket of light snow, was a frozen pond. Normally, it would be too early in the season to skate, but the unseasonable cold had worked its magic a month early.

She couldn’t deny the hint of excitement she felt as she smiled over at him. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve skated on a pond?”

Henrik’s smile captured his entire face just before he bit his lip. “Your sophomore year. Sigma Hockey Classic. You scored three goals in five minutes.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. The girls in her dormitory had begged her to join their team for the annual charity event. The sister of one of the school’s hockey stars had to be good, right? It was for a good cause, so she couldn’t turn them down. “You actually remember that?”

He rolled his eyes at her before opening his door. “Why do you think I went?”

He got out of the car before she could respond. She couldn’t believe he remembered her playing in that game. She quickly followed him, jumping out of the car and grabbing her skates out of the back seat. He sat on the bank of the pond, pulling his skates on. She eased down next to him. “You scored eight goals in the game you played,” she said, not looking over at him. “Three in the first period, and five in the second. They asked you not to play in the third, just to keep it fair.”