by Maya Hughes
Glancing over her shoulder, Emmett peered down at her like he’d invite a reanimated corpse if that’s what she wanted. “Of course. You should come. Have a little fun. It will be our last blow out before we all head out to college.”
Avery dropped her eyes and picked at her fingers.
“There’s a lot to wrap up at the end of the year.” I winced at how lame it sounded, even to my own ears.
“You’ve got to have fun at least once, Mak. Come along. It will be fun!” He was like a well-muscled teddy bear. It was hard to say no to that.
“Kaitlin will be there, and she can be your chaperone,” Avery added. Kaitlin was my only other friend in school. “And I think you might have promised her one party before the end of the year. Not too many chances left,” she teased with an eyebrow raised and her arm looped through Emmett’s.
“Sure, I’ll try to stop by.” Might as well. I wasn’t going to see most of these people again. What did it matter?
“Yes!” Avery rounded the table and threw her arms around me. “I wouldn’t have made it through the year without you. Thank you!”
“You’re welcome.” I hugged her back. Awkwardness crept in as she gave me one last squeeze. I wasn’t used to people hugging me. I couldn’t even remember the last time it had happened. How screwed up was that?
She let me go and practically floated over to Emmett. “We need to get Alyson and drop her off at a sleepover.” Avery leaned into Emmett threw his arm around her shoulder, and the pair walked out like they didn’t have a care in the world. Why should they? Emmett could go anywhere he wanted on a hockey scholarship, and even if there was no scholarship his parents would be able to write a check to send him wherever his heart desired. They used to hobnob with my parents at the country club back when my parents left the house. That was how it used to be in my family, but not anymore.
“Hey, Mak, you ready for your shift?” Arlo called from behind the counter. The cafe filled more as people came in for their early evening caffeine fix.
“Coming.” I gathered up my stuff and shoved it into my bag, dumped it behind the counter.
“Ready?” Arlo asked, filling three cups with varying levels of coffee and milk. I tied my apron around my waist and logged in to the other register.
“Ready.”
3
Declan
The glare from the headlights washed over us as cars pulled in and out of the convenience store parking lot and made us look shady as hell parked up around the side. The fact that we even had to go through these hoops annoyed the shit out of us.
Sitting at the side of the gas station, we waited for Emmett’s guy to show up with the kegs. We’d made the mistake of having a party at his place with only the liquor his parents had in their fully stocked bar. Let’s just say no one wanted that to happen again. Top-shelf booze with a group of high school kids with no concept of their alcohol limit… I shuddered as memories of the smells in the first hour nearly gave me waking nightmares.
Heath leaned against the door in the back seat, staring at his phone. He’d been glued to it ever since we left school. It was an intensity he didn’t normally have. Usually, he was all chilled out and laid back, this was a side of Heath we didn’t see too often. Who knew what the hell he was up to.
The usual place we ordered our kegs from had been shut down by the liquor control board. It may or may not have been for selling booze to underage kids, but it really screwed up our plans for this end-of-year rager. Finals were finished. Letters were signed—for most of us anyway.
Our last house party before we were all sent across the country from one another. Heath would be staying local with me in Philly, while Ford and Colm were heading up to Boston together, naturally, and Em had been tight-lipped about where the hell he was going. Putting things off until the last minute as always.
We’d all already been drafted provisionally onto our NHL teams, but that didn’t mean it was a lock. College was a four-year-long development program. Then there were the intensive summer sessions where I was expected to show that I belonged in the NHL. If Archer was there in the summers, I was screwed.
I had to impress and kick ass in every game, every practice, because the NHL coaches would be watching. Plus keep my grades up and not get booted from college. Getting kicked out of college would mean I was screwed if I didn’t make the team. I didn’t even want to let those thoughts in. Not making it to the NHL, and why? Because some fucking asshole wanted to try to ruin my life twice.
The fear of not being able to hack it burst through more often than it had before. This hockey scholarship was the only way I was going to college. The only reason I’d made it into Rittenhouse Prep was because of my skills on the ice. Being a King was the most important thing in my life. We’d always be a team, even if we were apart. But the pressure was on, and when that happened anywhere other than on the ice, I looked for an escape.
“Oh, Em, I forgot to tell you. Archer Travis was there during our last training session,” Heath said unhelpfully from the back seat.
“Travis? Really? That’s fucking cool. He’s a legend.” Em checked the rearview mirror.
And I tried my best not to shatter my phone. I relaxed my grip and took a deep breath. They didn’t know. They didn’t need to know that the one and only time I’d seen my dad in the first fifteen years of my life was peeking through my bedroom door as the voices on the outside got louder.
“Don’t you want to meet him?” My mom’s voice was all weird, like she’d been crying.
“No, I don’t want to see him. I don’t even want to know him. I told you when you got pregnant, I didn’t want to be saddled with a kid.” He stood from the couch and ran his hand through his hair. He looked familiar, but I wasn’t sure how I might have seen him before. He was tall. Dark hair like mine.
She broke down in tears, and he walked over, standing in front of her.
“Stop crying, Eva. Stop crying,” he bit out.
She wiped her eyes, and he handed her a pair of kid’s ice skates and told her to give them to the kid. The kid. Also known as his son. Also known as me.
Watching her cry after he left, I promised myself I’d do whatever I needed to do to be better than him. Hours and hours on the ice until my bones ached, but I was determined. The blow of fucking up in front of him when I finally had the chance was a kick to the head. I needed to get myself together, but right now I needed to forget.
I needed the pounding music, hot girls, and a shit ton of booze, but more than that I needed to chill the fuck out until the time came to worry about college and coaches and development programs. I needed to be that guy who knew he had the world by the balls again.
There would be more than enough time in only a few weeks to be the responsible, upstanding model player I needed to be. But it wasn’t time yet.
I checked my phone again. “Where is this guy?”
Emmett pulled out his phone, the brightness lighting up our spot behind the gas station, littered with cigarette butts and broken bottles.
“No idea. Do I look like his personal GPS? He’ll be here or he’s missing out on all this.” Emmett tugged the wad of cash out of his pocket and shoved it back in. Sometimes he had more money than sense, but it sure as hell worked for me. Bring on the kegs.
“Who is this guy anyway?” Heath poked his head between our two seats.
“Not sure. He got in touch after they had to cancel my order at the old place. Maybe he worked there.” Emmett drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and tapped out a message on his phone.
“You sent him a message?”
“No, I sent one to Avery. I haven’t heard from her all day.”
Heath and I exchanged looks. All day most likely meant more than an hour. I was surprised they hadn’t implanted a tracking device on each other. Their lovey-dovey phone calls and texts were nearly constant.
The parking spots around the side were filling up, which would definitely put a damper on our kind of illegal tran
saction that was about to go down. I checked the time again. Getting busted for this seemed like more and more of a stupid idea with so much riding on the line the longer we sat there.
A van pulled into the lot and parked directly behind Em’s SUV. Thank fuck!
I gritted my teeth at the cloud of smoke that billowed out of the car as the guy opened the door. Talk about flying under the radar.
Emmett and I exchanged looks before climbing out of the car. Heath slid out the back. Behind the SUV, Emmett pushed the trunk button on his key and the large door swung open. As we got closer to the van, my tense muscles relaxed.
The guy didn’t look much older than us. Probably still in college, which was why he was stupid enough to do this and not even try to be discreet about it.
“You guys ordered some kegs,” he said with his lids half-closed.
“You’re late,” Em bit out, obviously more pissed than he’d let on.
“You probably shouldn’t be driving when you’re this baked, man.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. His lazy gaze made its way to me, and he grinned and laughed. Idiot. People thought I was an irresponsible asshole, but even I wasn’t that bad. Heath leaned against the side of the car, texting like we didn’t have shit we needed to be doing.
Beer Man slid the door to his van open, and we were hit with an even more powerful blast of beer and pot. Eight kegs. The guy spent a solid two minutes trying to get the dolly out of the back of the van before Emmett let out a deep breath and grabbed the first keg. Picked it up without so much as a grunt. He slammed it down in the back of his SUV. The car bounced from the added weight, and he glanced back at me before pushing it farther inside to make room for the others.
“You going to help?” he called out to Heath, who finally looked up from his phone. His blond hair almost completely covered his eyes. Without the coaches to ride his ass about it, he’d let it grow even longer.
I went over to the van and grabbed the next one. I grunted and hefted it over, lifting it over into the SUV, feeling like my arms were about to fall off. Benching a couple hundred pounds and still struggling with this, I was in awe once again of Emmett as he moved at almost double the speed I did. Heath was playing the long game of trying to check his phone while carrying a hundred-pound keg.
As we loaded the final keg into the back of the SUV, Beer Man finally managed to wrangle the dolly free from whatever magical hold the van seemed to have on it, and it clattered loudly to the ground.
“Got it,” he shouted triumphantly, grinning at us. Em just shook his head as he took out the money.
“It’s all there.” He shoved it at the guy, who pushed his hair off his face. His eyes got wide at the wad of cash in Em’s hand.
“I think I’m going to have to add on an extra fee for the rush delivery. Things aren’t as easy now that the shop’s closed.” He leaned against his van, nearly falling into the open door thinking he was hot shit.
Em’s jaw ticked as he held out the cash. I grabbed it from his hand.
“Listen, you don’t want to do that. Now that the shop’s closed, there are going to be a lot more people looking for hookups.” I stepped forward, putting myself squarely in front of Emmett. “And if word were to get out that you weren’t exactly reliable, I think other people might go looking for a different person. Someone a bit more dependable. We all want that to be you, right?”
I peered over my shoulder at Em, whose neck vein looked ready to burst at any second.
“Yeah, of course,” the guy said, his eyes practically closed.
“So why don’t I take a referral discount off right now, and we’re all happy?”
The guy made an annoying little humming sound as I peeled three twenties off the top and shoved the cash into his hand.
“See, everyone’s happy. Have a good night.”
His eyes bounced back and forth between the money in my hand and the rest in his. Opening his mouth like he wanted to say something, I shot him a glare. Did he really want to do this? If he did, I had no problem with letting Emmett handle this the way he wanted. The guy peered over my shoulder and snapped his mouth shut. Good idea.
“It’s cool, bruh. I’m going to go get some snacks,” he said, smiling like that was the best idea he’d had all year, and it probably was.
Em tracked him walking around to the front of the store like a bull ready to charge after the red cape.
“Chill the fuck out, man. I got us a discount.” I grinned wide and dumped the money into his hand.
“That little shit was going to try to milk more money out of me.” He said it like it was the gravest of insults.
“Technically, he’s older.” I leaned against the back of the SUV.
“I could have snapped him in half.” The disbelief in his voice made me laugh. Emmett hadn’t met many people who dared to piss him off. Between his size, his reputation on the ice, and his money, he’d achieved the perfect balance of untouchable.
“True, but think of all those sad juniors and seniors next year who wouldn’t be able to get their hands on kegs if you did.”
He let out a long-suffering sigh and squeezed the bridge of his nose.
Another car pulled into the lot, blasting us with their headlights and pulling in beside the SUV. Em hit the button on the back of the car, and the trunk door swung down, clicking shut.
The door to the car swung open, and out hopped the one and only Mak. Her eyebrows were pinched together under the dark rim of her glasses as she took in the scene. Glancing between the van and the back of the SUV, she shook her head and mumbled under her breath before slamming her door and rounding the front of her car.
“What’s the matter, Books?” I don’t even know why I called after her, but I didn’t like being dismissed. Didn’t like the look in her eyes when she saw us, like we were losers hanging out back there. It made me want to get under her skin more than I wanted to admit.
“Nothing, Declan. Nothing at all. It’s nothing more than I would have expected.” She crossed her arms over her chest, standing in front of her car. The lights from the gas station’s neon sign and the glow from inside from the store surroundings showed off the curves she always tried to hide. The ones I’d felt at prom. I shook my head.
This was not the chick to think about in the curves capacity. If she even thought for a moment I’d glanced at her in anything other than fear, she’d probably come over and try to remove my balls with a swift kick.
“It’s not like you’re not going to be partaking. You’re coming to the party, right?” She liked to pretend she was above us all. Too good to be a bit wild; maybe that’s what she needed.
She dropped her arms.
“Emmett invited me, so yes, I’m coming. Do you have a problem with that?” She jammed her hands onto her hips.
“No problem. But don’t act like you’re not going to be there partying with everyone else.”
“I don’t drink.” There was a beat of silence; it was like the entire world came to a screeching halt at that revelation.
“Of course you don’t. Maybe a little beer would be good for you. Loosen you up a bit.”
“I’m plenty loose, thanks.”
Emmett let out a loud, sharp guffaw before quickly stifling it and coughing into his fist. Makenna glared at the three of us. Heath was oblivious.
“It’s got to be good for your blood pressure or something. Keep those high-strung tendencies in check.”
She spun her key ring on her middle finger, holding it up nice and high as she walked away without another word.
“I hope this doesn’t mean you’ll miss the party,” I called after her. She turned around, walking backward. I couldn’t help my smile at the way her lips were pursed together. She didn’t take any shit. The threat of ball removal notwithstanding, she was pretty cute.
“Don’t you worry your yourself, Declan. I’ll be there, but I don’t know if you will. Might want to run along before you get yourself in trouble.” She jabb
ed her thumb in the direction of the cop car that pulled into the lot, and Emmett and I both calmly and slowly walked around and climbed into the SUV. The interior lights cast long shadows over us as we slammed our doors shut.
“Heath, get into the car,” Emmett said, rolling down his window. Heath was still standing against the side of the SUV like there wasn’t a squad car about to pull into one of the spots beside us.
“I’ve got to go to a thing, so I’ll see you guys later.” Not even looking back, he took off running. Which was exactly what you wanted to happen when there was a cop car in the vicinity, but before we could say anything, he was disappearing down the street into the night, his phone screen bouncing around in the evening air.
We both looked at each other, not knowing what the hell he was up to, but we needed to get out of there. With some maneuvering to get around the idiot who’d brought us the beer, we managed to get out of the lot unscathed.
Pulling out onto the street, we were on our way to Emmett’s place with eight clinking kegs in the trunk. His parents were out of town for the whole week—hell, they might not have been there all along.
“Are they really not going to be here for graduation?” My mom had requested my graduation day off from all her jobs almost six months ago. She’d even gone out and gotten a nice new outfit that hung from her bedroom door. The least I could do was put on a happy face and a big smile for pictures.
Emmett shrugged his shoulders, but the headlights from oncoming car lit up the interior of the SUV and his jaw was tight. I could practically hear the grinding from here.
“No. Whatever. It’s not a big deal. Who wants to sit through a graduation anyway?”
“Not me, but my mom would murder me if I tried to skip out on it. At least we can have our last blowout before heading to development camps. You’re seriously going to keep where you’re going to school a secret?”
Emmett chuckled and loosened his grip on the steering wheel.
