Charity: Black Mountain Academy/Fortuity

by Rochelle Paige

  “I vote yes,” Sarah cried, rubbing her hands together. “We can crank the seat warmers up to five, too, and then our butts will be toasty in no time flat.”

  “Will you be okay by yourself?” Emily looked around the lobby with wide eyes.

  She was so sweet to worry about me. “I’ll be fine.”

  “If you’re sure.” She gave me a quick hug, with Sarah doing the same, before they went out to the parking lot.

  I felt a little out of place being surrounded by families and girlfriends waiting for the players they came to cheer on, but I was still riding the high from Corby making it clear he wanted me here so I felt less awkward than I normally would. Avoiding the clusters of people, I headed toward a spot against the wall next to the rink’s entrance where nobody else was hanging out. Leaning against the hard surface, I had a clear view of the door Corby would come through.

  About ten minutes later, he was the first guy to appear. His blond hair was wet, and his blue eyes lit up when he spotted me waiting for him. Our gazes locked as he stood in the doorway, but my gaze jerked up when someone stepped in front of me. Recognizing my neighbor, I stifled my groan of frustration. I didn’t want to insult him, but he wasn’t the person I was looking forward to talking to right now. “Hey, Mr. Whitney.”

  “It’s good to see you at a game, Emmeline. I didn't realize you were a fan of hockey. I don’t think I have ever noticed you at the rink before.”

  My cheeks filled with heat as I explained, “This is the first time I’ve been. One of the players invited me to watch the game.”

  “If the team continues to play like they did tonight, maybe we’ll turn you into a fan.” He glanced over his shoulder and spotted Corby walking across the lobby toward us before turning back to me. “It was remiss of me not to think of introducing you to Corby when he moved in with us. I’m not sure if you’ve already heard, but Eleanor and I became his foster parents over the summer.”

  “Yeah, I heard something about that.” It was silly of me not to tell Mr. Whitney that Corby was the player I had come to watch, especially since he was going to find out soon enough. But no way was I going to admit too much. I didn’t trust myself to keep my mouth closed and was scared I would start babbling about why I had discovered that the sexy hockey player had moved in with my neighbors.

  “With you living down the street and attending Black Mountain Academy in the same class, I’m sure Corby would have appreciated meeting you before school began.”

  “You’re probably right.” My cheeks were flaming as I thought about all the low-key stalking I’d done of Corby over the summer. I couldn’t begin to imagine how I would have reacted if Mr. Whitney or his wife had reached out to my mother to set something up to introduce the two of us. She would’ve sniffed out my crush on Corby for sure, and then all kinds of heck would have broken loose. “It’s always nice to see a familiar face at school.”

  “True.” Mr. Whitney nodded and turned to Corby as he came up beside him. “Corby, have you met Emmeline Cushing? Her family lives down the street from us. They’re the house with the Art Deco entry gate with all the decorative scrollwork.”

  My mother had picked out the most ostentatious gate she could find, so I wasn’t surprised that he was using it as a landmark. But I still rolled my eyes at the description, making Corby grin. “Yup, I met Emmeline on the first day of school. She was the student they had show me around to my classrooms.”

  “Ah”—Mr. Whitney’s gaze slid in my direction, and his eyes gleamed with speculation—“I guess you showed up too soon for Emmeline to have the chance to tell me how you’d met.”

  “We haven’t really hung out since then,” Corby added, drawing Mr. Whitney’s attention which gave me the chance to let out a soft sigh of relief. “I wasn’t sure she even remembered my invite to the game after all this time.”

  “It’s great that she did.” Mr. Whitney looked at me again. “This was the perfect game to watch for your first time at the rink.”

  I wasn’t sure how good of a game it had been except that our team won, but I smiled and nodded anyway. “I don’t know much about hockey, but Corby’s three goals were certainly impressive.”

  “That they were.” Mr. Whitney clapped Corby on the back. “I had high hopes for your first game as a Cougar, and you did even better than I expected.”

  Corby moved to my side and bumped me with his shoulder. “I think we have Emmeline to thank for that. She’s my good luck charm now.”

  “Well, then I guess I’ll be seeing more of you at the rink.” Mr. Whitney beamed a smile at me. “But for now, I’ll leave you two to chat. It’s morning in Tokyo, and I have a conference call starting in half an hour.”

  As he walked away, I asked, “Why does he think I’ll be at the games so often?”

  “Something you should know about hockey players; we’re superstitious as fuck.” He tossed his red tie over his shoulder and unbuttoned his black button-down shirt to show me the T-shirt he was wearing beneath it. The well-worn material was pulled tight against his abs, and I was sorely tempted to run my fingers across the ridges of his six-pack. “I’ve worn this to every single high school game since I was a freshman.” He lifted the button-down shirt higher to show me the Blue Devils logo hidden underneath. “None of my teammates gave me shit about wearing this once they found out it’s brought me good luck for the past three seasons.”

  I wasn’t into sports, but I still knew we had a pretty serious rivalry with Devil Ridge. “Whoa, you guys really must take your superstitions seriously.”

  “Yup.” His cocky grin and the mischievous glint in his blue eyes sent butterflies swirling in my belly. “That’s why it’s so important for you to come to all of my games from now on.”

  “Hmm”—I cocked my head to the side and stared up at him with a smile—“that seems like an awfully convenient way to ask me to come watch you play again.”

  He shrugged, his grin widening. “But did it work?”

  “Maybe,” I giggled, loving how confident he was. “I guess it depends on when the next game is.”

  “Tomorrow night at seven.”

  I was pretty sure school football games only happened once a week, so that wasn’t the answer I was expecting. “How often do you guys play?”

  “We can have anywhere from one to three games a weekend, depending on what’s going on.” He pointed toward a banner hanging from the ceiling that listed last year’s team as the winner of some event called Large Lion. “Sometimes we’ll participate in a tournament, and it could be more.”

  It had to take a lot of dedication to play that many games so close together, especially during the school year. “How long is the season?”

  “The championship tournament is in early March.”

  My eyes widened after I did a quick calculation in my head. “Dang, that’s five months from now.”

  “What do you say? Will you block out all your weekends between now and then for me?” He brushed a lock of my hair over my shoulder. “How I perform this season could be the deciding factor in me getting the chance to play professional hockey, which has been my dream since I was little. I can use all the good luck I can get.”

  I could hardly believe that I’d gone from wondering if Corby would want to hang out with me earlier today to him wanting me to come to all his games. But I didn’t let the quick shift in thinking throw me off track. “How can I say no when you put it like that?”

  “You can’t.” He straightened and grinned. “Would I be pushing my luck if I offered to drive you home if one of your friends that you were sitting with gave you a ride? We’re neighbors after all.”

  “Um.” I bit my bottom lip, really wanting to say yes. “I’m not going home, though. I’m having a sleepover at Emily’s house, and her house is on the opposite side of town from us. She and Sarah are waiting out in her car for me since they were still cold from the game.”

  “If you want to let them know they can go, I’m up for driving you ther
e,” he offered.

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket to send a text to Emily, who would be thrilled to leave me behind so Corby could give me a ride. “You don’t mind that it’ll take you an extra half hour or more to get home?”

  “Fuck no.” He reached down and laced his fingers through my free hand. “I’m looking forward to having you all to myself.”

  I freaking loved the sound of that, as long as I didn’t make a total fool of myself. Knowing he was into me had settled my nerves some, and I hadn’t stumbled over my words too badly yet. Hopefully, I’d be able to keep that streak alive through the weekend if we were going to be spending time together. After hitting send on the text to Emily and Sarah, I waited for their replies back—which were a hilarious assortment of emojis, confetti, and fireworks from Emily and eggplants, donuts, and squirting water from Sarah. Giggling, I glanced up at Corby and said, “They’re cool with me catching a ride with you.”

  “Good.” He tugged on my hand to lead me out to the parking lot, heading over to a shiny red Jeep. The tires were pretty big, and I blushed like crazy when he gave me a little boost up into the passenger seat.

  I could’ve made it on my own, but I probably would’ve looked less than graceful. “Thanks.”

  “No need to thank me,” he murmured before jogging around the vehicle to climb inside. “I’ll take any excuse I can get to have my hands on you.”

  I didn’t know how to reply to that, so I looked over my shoulder and didn’t see anything in the back of the Jeep. “Don’t you have hockey stuff you need to bring home?”

  “Nah. That’s one of the things I love about playing for the Cougars. Since we have our own rink, I can store my equipment in the locker room between practices and games,” he explained as he pulled out of his parking spot.

  “That’s cool.” I thought about how much bigger he had looked out on the ice wearing all the hockey gear. “What about away games? I bet hauling all your stuff around is still a hassle.”

  He asked me for Emily’s address and plugged it into the map feature on his phone before answering, “That’s another advantage Black Mountain Academy has over my old school. We have a charter bus decked out with televisions and comfortable seats to take us to our away games. We toss our hockey bags in the storage area underneath and don’t worry about it until we get there. It won’t take me long to get used to traveling in style.”

  I patted the dashboard in front of me. “It seems to me as though you already drive in style.”

  “Yeah, that’s a new thing for me, too.” My mind was blown when he told me about all the stuff Mr. Whitney had done for him since he’d moved in. Knowing that the Whitneys had ulterior motives for signing up to be a foster parent, I had assumed they would do the minimum required. It was great to know Corby was being taken care of so well while he stayed with them, especially since he’d been on his own since his mom passed away.

  By the time we pulled into Emily’s driveway, my feelings for Corby had strengthened. He wasn’t just a hot guy I was drooling over from afar anymore. With each new thing I learned about him, I was even more impressed.

  8

  Corby

  William was already at the table when I came down for breakfast on Monday morning. I wasn’t dragging after playing two tough games on Friday and Saturday, but I was running behind because I’d taken extra time getting ready in case I saw Emmeline first thing at school today. By yesterday afternoon, I’d wanted to kick my own ass for not getting her number either of the times I’d dropped her off at her friend’s house after my games. I’d considered jogging down to her house and knocking on the door, but she hadn’t mentioned when she was going to head back home, and I didn’t want to run the risk of meeting one of her parents for the first time when she wasn’t even there. I’d never gotten to that stage with a girl before, but I could already see the potential for it with Emmeline. “Morning.”

  “Good morning, Corby.” William gestured at the glass of milk and plate covered with a silver dome at the place setting across from him where I normally sat. “I didn’t want you to cut it too close going to school this morning, so I had the chef make your breakfast. The maid just brought it out a few minutes ago.”

  “Thanks,” I murmured as I moved around the table and sat down. When I lifted the dome and the scent of my protein pancakes topped with peanut butter and sliced bananas wafted up, my stomach growled. “This looks wonderful.”

  “We have to keep you fueled so you can keep playing like you did this weekend.” He took a sip of his coffee while I dug into my breakfast. “Five goals in the first two games and leading the Cougars into back-to-back victories is a great start to the season.”

  “Up until the third period, I wasn’t sure we’d be able to pull off the win on Saturday,” I admitted with a shake of my head. “It felt like the net had a forcefield in front of it most of the game.”

  “Their goalie had an excellent game,” he agreed. “Which makes getting the puck past him twice as much of an accomplishment.”

  “Yeah, it felt damn good to score against him.” My lips kicked up in a small grin as I pointed at my half-empty plate. “But I don’t think I can take all the credit for how well I’m playing lately. Like you said, meals like this are keeping me fueled to play at a whole new level.”

  “I have only given you a few tools that the rest of the boys on your team have always had.” He pointed at me with his index finger. “You’re the one who has leveraged them to their fullest extent.”

  “I’d call it a fuck of a lot more than a few tools, but I won’t argue about me making the most of what you’ve provided.” A couple of players on the team who were great skaters with solid stick handling skills had pissed me off more than a few times during practices when they’d half-assed it. I didn’t get their attitudes. They were good enough to possibly play past high school, but they didn’t want to put in the work to make it happen. But I guess if someone had a trust fund to fall back on, they didn’t need to worry about making shit happen for themselves the same way I did.

  “I noticed Emmeline was in the stands with her friends on Saturday.”

  I grinned down at my plate, remembering my conversation with her on Friday night. “Yeah, after I explained how superstitious hockey players are, she said she’d come and be my good luck charm.”

  “I suppose that I’m technically in the best position to offer you advice since I’m your foster parent, but I hadn’t really thought about how that would apply when it came to you and dating.” He leaned back in his seat and sighed. “I was too focused on making sure you had everything you needed to succeed with hockey and as a student at Black Mountain Academy. I should have realized girls would be a potential issue to tackle as well.”

  There was no denying William had done a fuck of a lot for me, but no way in hell was I going to let him warn me off Emmeline if that was where this conversation was headed. My back straightened, and I set down my fork and knife. “I’m almost eighteen. It’s a little late for the birds and the bees talk.”

  “What?” William shook his head, his eyes going wide. “That’s not what I meant at all, but now that you mention it—I suppose I should make sure you have condoms. The last thing you need is an accidental teenage pregnancy derailing your plans for college and professional hockey.”

  “Emmeline just started talking to me this weekend after avoiding me since the first day of school,” I bit out, my jaw clenched even while my dick hardened. I didn’t appreciate him making the assumption that Emmeline was the kind of girl who would jump straight into bed with me, but my cock couldn’t help but react to the mental image of me wrapping up before sinking inside her tight heat.

  “Sorry. It’s a hazard of the job that I tend to look at situations from the bigger picture in an attempt to limit surprises. I didn’t mean to make any assumptions.” He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “What I should have said was Emmeline is a sweet girl. Smart, too. You could certainly do much worse than
her if you decide to date someone while you’re at Black Mountain Academy. I just hope a new relationship won’t distract you from your goals.”

  I bent forward and leaned my elbows on the table. “You know all the shit I’ve gone through since my mom died, and I never let any of that stop me. Do you really think I’m going to start now? With something that has the chance to be really good for me after all the bad?”

  “I suppose not, but relationships can be tricky,” he warned.

  I bit back a laugh at him trying to lecture me about things possibly going bad between Emmeline and me when his marriage wasn’t one anyone in their right mind would want to use as a model. “I’ll have to take your word for it since I’ve never been in one before.”

  “Then I can only assume you’ll be determined to make this one work if things go down that path for you and Emmeline.” I nodded and he continued, “You have my full support, but I fear that her mother may be a problem.”

  “How so?” I asked as I dug back into my breakfast.

  “She’s a bit of a snob, and I can only assume she won’t be happy with her daughter’s choice of boyfriends.” He shook his head and chuckled. “It’s quite ironic when I think about it, considering she’s known to be one of the worst social climbers in town, and she gained her current position because she married well above her station.”

  I didn’t understand everyone’s obsession with social status in Black Mountain. Life was definitely simpler when I lived in Devil Valley, and I didn’t have to deal with any of this bullshit. “I guess we’ll see how she reacts because I’m not the kind of guy who backs off at the first sign of trouble. I go after what I want, and that’s Emmeline.”

  “If she becomes a problem, let me know. I can intercede on your behalf,” he offered. “My family has been in Black Mountain much longer than the Cushings, and Lilly wouldn’t want to alienate Eleanor or me. I’m sure she’ll find other ways to express her displeasure to Emmeline, but I should be able to alleviate some of the pressure.”