“Good morning.” I flashed him a wolfish grin.
“Morning,” he grunted.
He was pissed, and I got it. I did.
He’d warned me to stay away from Dayna, and I’d broken my promise. But she wasn’t like other girls. This wasn’t a casual hookup. I liked her—I liked her a lot.
I’d tried to stop myself, but she made it impossible. Because being around Dayna was addictive. And the second I’d had a taste, I knew it would never be enough.
Carson continued to glare at me across the counter.
“Is this the part where you threaten to chop off my balls if I hurt her?” I asked.
“Oh, I won’t just chop them off… I’ll have the team run shooting drills with them.”
A violent shudder ran through me. “I like her, Carson. I really fucking like her.”
“Yeah, I know.” He ran a hand over his jaw, studying me. “But it’s one summer, Aiden. One summer, and then you’ll go back to Lakeshore U, and she’ll be here, in Dupont Beach. You have hockey, and she has her internship. Doesn’t leave much time for a relationship.”
“With all due respect, Coach,” irritation coated my words, “that’s for the two of us to figure out.”
I knew he meant well. He wanted to protect me as much as he wanted to protect Dayna. But I’d realized last night that I wanted to give this thing with her a chance.
Dayna was special. She wasn’t like the girls at college. She cared about me. She cared about the guy beneath the hockey jersey.
“She’s family, Dumfries.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Fuck her over, and you fuck me over.”
Jesus.
His icy glare was enough to send most guys running for the hills. But I wasn’t most guys, and I was used to his hard-assed tactics on and off the ice.
“I don’t want to jinx it, but I think it could be the start of something.”
I hadn’t come to Dupont Beach looking for it, but it had found me anyway. And the truth was, Dayna was everything I never knew I needed. Smart, patient, and willing to stand up for what she believed in, and she fucking loved hockey. If anyone could tame my wild heart, it was her.
“Fuck, Dumfries. What the hell am I supposed to say to that?” He chuckled, but his expression quickly sobered. “She’s good for you.”
“Yeah, she is.”
“Just… be careful with her heart. It’s fragile. She’s fragile. When Dalton died, it broke something inside her.”
“She’s stronger than you think.”
He gave me a small nod. “So does that mean I can expect to see her around campus a lot on the weekends?”
“You’d have to ask Dayna, Coach.” I gave him a small smile. But it didn’t sound like a bad idea at all.
In fact, now he’d mentioned it, I couldn’t think about anything else. Because I wanted her in the stands, wearing my number, and cheering my name.
“Hopefully, she’ll be a good influence because you’re on thin ice, Dumfries. One wrong move next semester, and you could jeopardize your shot at the pros before you even step out on the ice.”
“You don’t have to worry about me, Coach.” I planned on turning things around.
“Glad to hear it. So I was thinking we could spend some time together today. Hit the rink and run some drills on the ice?”
“No can do. I have a date.”
“Oh, it’s like that, huh?” A knowing smile traced his mouth.