Game Over Read online

  “Oh, Mia.”

  Okay, this was getting too heavy. “Maybe both Nora and I need to find someone else. Come on, let’s go. I could do with a drink.” I went and banged on the bathroom door. “Hey, Nora, you are beautiful enough, now get your ass out here, we need to start celebrating.”

  The door swung open, and my petite friend appeared. Gone was the sadness, and in its place was the peppy upbeat Nora we all knew and loved.

  “Let’s do this.” Nora linked arms with me and Angie and, giggling, we headed out the door.

  The party wasn’t in our usual haunt, but had been organized at a venue in town. A small club had opened its doors, exclusively dedicating the night to our hockey team. There was going to be a live band, hockey-themed cocktails, and a whole lot of fun until four a.m. It was exactly what we all needed now that finals and the tournament were over.

  “So, what are you doing for the summer, Angie?”

  “I’m off to D.C. with Kai.” She beamed. “I’m going to meet his parents and stay the whole summer.”

  “Seriously! Already? That’s so cool, Angie.” And I meant it, too… except it did trigger a little pang of jealousy that I shut down straight away. Angie deserved it. She was so sweet, and she and Kai really did make the cutest couple.

  “What about you, Nora?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Dad wants me to pet sit his pooch while he is in the Bahamas all summer. So, I will probably go up to his lake house, as my landlord will have a fit if I bring Mr. Tigs to my place. Though I am not sure what I am going to do for one week, as I also promised my mom I would spend time with her at the ranch.”

  Nora was so down to earth, I forgot she came from this uber rich family. You wouldn’t know it, because she was always so sincere and never rubbed it in your face. But her mention of her dilemma at choosing between vacationing at her ranch house or her lake house wasn’t even within my comprehension.

  José and I had a very different childhood than Nora. Our dad passed away when we were six, and Mom worked three jobs just to put food on the table. It was fortunate that I was smart, and my brother was so freaking talented, or we’d never have secured scholarships or even gotten to go to college.

  “Why don’t you take the dog with you?”

  “Because Mom won’t have it near the house.” Nora sighed. “Since the fuss Dad made when she remarried, she refuses to have anything to do with him. End of story.”

  You could see the tears well up in Nora’s eyes, and I could tell she hated being monkey-in-the-middle to the constant battle between her parents. It was something else I couldn’t relate to. Even though Dad wasn’t part of our lives anymore, Mom still remembered him fondly, as did we. We all sorely missed him.

  “Never mind, I’ll figure it out. Oh, you know what, you should come out to the lake for the weekend, or longer if you like. It would be so fun. You too, Angie, when you get back. You could bring Kai. Um, and perhaps you could bring Charlie, Mia, and your brother…”

  I threw my head back and laughed, knowing what Nora was about to suggest. “I’d love to come, but my brother has goalie camps and conditioning. Besides, he is his own man, he never does anything I ask him.”

  “So, what are you going to do all summer?” Angie deftly redirected the conversation away from José.

  “I’ve signed up to tutor. The summer classes begin soon, and I could make a little cash.”

  We approached the club, and I could hear the music all the way down the street. As students flocked toward the entrance, all thoughts of summer plans went out of our heads. It was the end of my freshman year, and I’d aced all my finals, and, like our hockey team, I was riding high and in the mood to let my hair down. “Jeez, look at this line! It will take us until midnight to get in here!”

  Nora grabbed mine and Angie’s arms. “Stick with me.”

  Sometimes, I swear, Nora forgot she was only a smidge over five feet. She hit the crowd head on and somehow managed to squirm through it with us in tow. Once at the front, she pulled something from her pocket and flashed it at the bouncer at the door. He nodded and she slipped in past him. We went to follow, but he put his hand up and stopped us.

  “They’re with me,” she hollered over the pounding beat. The guy hesitated for a second, and she stretched up on tiptoes and put her hands together in a mock prayer. He rolled his eyes at her and waved us through.

  Inside, it was dark, but less packed in the foyer area than outside. “How did you do that?”

  Nora grinned back at me. “I was on the organizing committee, I had a pass.”

  Of course, she was! Nora was always on every committee known to man. I have no idea how she ever had time to do her college work.

  “Come on, ladies, let’s go find Kai. He just texted me to say he’ll let us into the VIP area.” Angie squealed excitedly, and we braced ourselves to get across the dance floor.

  Three

  Charlie

  I wandered out of the rink in a complete daze, still not quite understanding the cruel twist that fate handed me. The hours I’d put into my fitness, the thousands of videos I studied, the endless drills I’d practiced to build up muscle memory… none of that mattered.

  It counted for fuck all that I was the fastest skater on the team, that I had the best plus/minus record, or that I studied the Xs and Os and executed them perfectly. All that mattered was those three ominous Fs lined up on my grade sheet. Three fucking Fs, that I had absolutely no chance of turning around in a month. Hell, even if I had another year, I couldn’t do that shit.

  I looked back down at my summer class schedule and groaned. Seriously? They had listed three new books to read for English lit. Three! In a month! That was damn impossible for anyone, but with my dyslexia, I couldn’t even get through one book in a month—even if I did try my hardest, or had the inclination to do so. Damn it, I was so screwed.

  Both José and Kai were waiting for me when I walked into the VIP section of the club. They had lunatic grins on their faces, and Kai held out a beer to me. When I didn’t return the smile, his face dropped. “Fuck, did coach give you second line instead? What a moron, you are so much better than Cavanagh.”

  At that moment in time, I’d have been ecstatic with second line, hell, any line—but come next season, I wouldn’t even see the inside of the locker room. “I’m off the team,” I mumbled, and with verbalizing it, the reality set in. I was out. It really was game over. “Every sweat-filled hour I had ever driven myself through meant shit.”

  Kai started to laugh, then checked himself. “Fuck, you’re serious?”

  I nodded. If I tried to open my mouth, the emotion would have overwhelmed me. Instead, I just thrust my grade sheet and summer school schedule at him.

  “Peterson can’t bench you, you’re the best defense we have,” José said from behind Kai’s shoulder. His jovialness vanished when he read the grade report. “Shit, you failed your classes?”

  “Not everything.” I offered, but it made no difference. One F, three Fs, or a whole fucking row of them meant I never got to play D again.

  Kai scratched his head. “But you can retake them and you’ll easily pass this time since there are no matches to distract you.”

  Damn, I wish I had his optimism. Truthfully, there wasn’t a cat in hell’s chance of me passing the second time around. My shoulders slumped over, and I snatched the beer out of Kai’s hand. “Well, if this is my swan song, I’m getting drunk.”

  As I downed half the bottle, Kai’s face turned serious. “You got to pass this, man.”

  I shook my head. “Summer class is just one fucking month long, Kai. How the hell am I going to do that? Even if it was just English lit, there are three books to read.”

  Kai was the only one who knew about me being dyslexic, and that was because we attended the same high school. But, unlike me, Kai wasn’t stupid. He spotted my fucking aide on day one. To save him from thinking I was a total retard, I’d ‘fessed up to my reading problem. The guy had been totally cool about it. Apparently, one of his moms was dyslexic too, and he was empathetic to my struggles without treating me like a moron.

  “I’ll help you.”

  The guy was solid, a true friend. But he was also forgetting a small detail. “Kai, you’re leaving the day after tomorrow to go to Virginia.” The lucky bastard was getting paid to teach little kids to play hockey. His dad, Rick, was a partner in a company that ran summer hockey camps, while also providing elite conditioning to serious players. Not only was he going to have fun training the peewees, but his father had also swung him a place on a program his company was running. Kai would be gone the whole summer, and he was taking Angie with him.

  “Fuck! We’ll think of something, come on, let’s have some fun. Angie and her friends are on the way over to help us celebrate.”

  Fun wasn’t what I needed, but drowning my sorrows was something I could get on board with. “What’s that saying? The one about if you are going down?” I snatched up another beer and popped off the top.

  “That you’ll go down fighting? That’s the spirit.”

  Tipping the bottle back, I took another long swig. “Actually, I was thinking more like, I might as well go out with a bang.”

  “Kai, Kai!” Angie appeared at the roped off section, waving frantically. I scanned the group around her, hoping to see Mia. At first, I thought she hadn’t come, and my shoulders sagged. Another disappointment was all I needed. But then the crowd thinned, and a flash of crimson raised both my mood and my temperature. Fuck! There was only one thing better than seeing Mia here, and that was seeing her here wearing that sexy as fuck dress.

  The scarlet dress held a delicious memory for me. A few weeks back, before we entered the playoffs, Mia had worn that dress, and the night ended with me ki
ssing her. Reality thumped into place, and my morale plummeted once again. One kiss was all I was ever going to have to cling onto.

  “Shit, look at my sister.” José surged forward, but Kai put his hand to the guy’s chest.

  “Leave her be, I’ll let them in here. You go find yourself some entertainment.”

  José didn’t take his eyes off his sister—which was why I would only ever have that one delicious kiss to haunt me for the rest of my life.

  The girl who was driving me so darn crazy was my best friend’s sister. Off limits. And I should get her the fuck out of my head if I knew what was good for me. But I couldn’t.

  “Kai’s right, she’ll be fine in here. She can sit next to us.”

  Before José could argue, Kai went to the rope and instructed the bouncers to let the girls in. Within two seconds, Angie was in her man’s arms and they were lost in a kiss-fest. Jesus Christ, the way that guy kissed Angie! I turned away, my cheeks heating at the PDA, but as my gaze left Kai and Angie, it landed on Mia right in front of me.

  “Hi, Charlie, you played great tonight.”

  Damn it, she spoke to me. “Thanks, Mia. Um, come sit with us.”

  I was pretty sure I looked like a lovesick school kid as I mumbled and bumbled my way over to our booth. I slid in along the semi-circular bench, and pulled a beer from the bucket on the table to offer to her. Mia grinned and slid along the bench seat next to me. José climbed in the other side of me, and now I felt like piggy in the middle. Great, I wondered if my night could get any worse and it just did.

  A few minutes later, Nora sat next to Mia and Kai and Angie took the seats next to José, forcing me along the curved bench closer to Mia. Now her bare thigh lay against mine, and the heat from it almost made me pass out. Trying to take my mind off her close proximity, I stared at my beer.

  “Hey, Charlie, why so glum, you just won the cup!” Angie sang across the table, putting the spotlight on me.

  I shrugged. How the hell did I respond to that? I’m so fucking stupid that I am about to be kicked off the team?

  “Charlie’s got himself in a little predicament. He put so much work into his hockey, he got behind on his assignments, and they failed his ass. Now he has to pass summer school, or he is off the team.”

  Thanks Kai! Now, I looked like a complete bozo in front of Mia!

  “Oh, no. That’s awful, Charlie. What a crappy way to spend your summer. But still, once you’ve passed them you’ll be reinstated, won’t you?” Angie asked.

  Great, now they were a double act. “If I pass.” It was no good, I couldn’t put the famous Charlie spin on this one.

  “You should get someone to tutor you,” Nora chirped up.

  “I already offered, but then Charlie reminded me I was going back home,” Kai said.

  “What about José?” Nora sighed, as she said his name, and José looked up at her. As his gaze landed on her, she blushed right to her blonde roots.

  “What?” José almost startled the woman when he talked to her.

  “I-I was just saying m-maybe you could tutor Charlie. Um, to help him pass summer school.”

  José turned to me, barely acknowledging Nora. “Oh, man, you know I would if I could, but I have goalie camp in two days. I’m going to be gone half the summer.”

  “It’s okay. This is my problem, I’ll work it out.” Except, I had zero ideas how to do that.

  “Hey, you know what? Mia should tutor you. She aced all her finals, and she signed up to be a tutor for the summer program, anyway.” José suggested, taking me totally by surprise.

  I felt my face redden at his suggestion. That was all I needed—the girl of my dreams to know just how much of a bonehead I was.

  “Look, it’s fine, I can find a tutor…”

  “I’d be happy to do it, Charlie.” Mia’s sweet voice tugged at my heart, and I couldn’t resist another glance over at her.

  “I’m sure you’d prefer to spend your summer doing something more… interesting.”

  “Come on, you know it makes sense. Mia’s here the entire summer and you already know her,” José spoke up again. For some reason, Mia’s twin had latched onto this idea.

  I looked over at José wondering if the guy was serious. Surely he knew I had the biggest fucking crush on his sister. “I…”

  “Actually, it would do me a favor. You could keep an eye on my sis for me.”

  “José! I do not need someone keeping an eye on me! Will you just back off?” Mia’s eyes widened, and her beauty tripled as her temper flared at her brother’s comment.

  Now, I feared she might back out of her offer, and I didn’t know what was worse–her agreeing to tutor me or refusing. I had to speak up before she decided. “Um, are you sure you wouldn’t mind, Mia?”

  “Of course not, Charlie. I’d love to help you.”

  I put my hand out, and we shook on the deal, but even as we did, I knew this was a big mistake. God damn it, how was I going to spend an entire month seeing this woman, and keep my distance?

  Fuck, this summer was going to be torture.

  Four

  Mia

  By three a.m. I was partied out, and the few drinks I’d had went to my head as soon as I stood up. “Oops, sorry.”

  I put my hands against Charlie’s chest to brace myself as I tumbled out of the booth. His hands went to my waist to steady me, and he tipped forward, struggling with his own balance. For a fraction of a second, I thought Charlie might kiss me and a rush of butterflies flitted through my stomach in anticipation. But when his mouth was just a sigh away from mine, he straightened and set me back on my feet. Stepping back, he hesitantly glanced over at José, and I got the distinct impression, he was checking to see if my brother had seen what occurred between us.

  My twin was too busy sucking the face off a girl in a blue dress. I had no idea who she was, but I knew it wasn’t Nora. Dejected, my friend stood behind Charlie, her eyes locked on the antics of my slutty brother.

  “Mia, are you okay?” Charlie’s voice cut through the loud music, and I snapped my eyes back to him. He’d moved closer again, to make himself heard, and I really wanted to reach out and grab hold of his shirt, tug him against me, and kiss him senseless. But of course, I didn’t.

  “Yeah, that last drink might have been too much.”

  “Um, you need someone to walk you home?”

  I hesitated, because I so wanted Charlie to do that, but really I should walk with Nora, even though we took different directions once we got up the hill.

  Just then Kai dipped his head to talk to my diminutive friend, and the next minute, she turned and waved at me. Kai disappeared across the club with Angie under his arm, taking Nora with him. I should have known Kai would be a gentleman and walk her back with Angie.

  “You sure you don’t mind going out of your way?”

  Charlie shook his head. “I could do with the air. Besides, I need to thank you for offering to tutor me.”

  Outside, the night was balmy. A warm spring wind blew off the lake making it feel like summer had well and truly arrived. For the first few blocks, we walked in silence, Charlie with his hands shoved into his pockets, and me teetering on my heels trying to keep up with his long strides.

  When we reached the bottom of the hill that led up to my subdivision, Charlie looked over his shoulder, and slowed. “Sorry, I’m going too fast for you.” He pulled his hand from his pocket and took hold of mine.

  “It’s these silly shoes. I should have worn flats.”

  He looked down at my stilettos and grinned. “Is it mean of me to say I’m glad you didn’t? Your legs look fantastic in them.”

  I squeezed his hand and stopped walking. “That’s easy for you to say, you don’t have to climb this hill in a three-inch heel.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  We were standing facing each other, and I became ultra-aware of how close his body was to mine. Through his open collar, I caught a tantalizing glimpse of his chest, and I licked my lips as I stared at the outline of his pecs through his clothes.