Page 202 of The Pucking Coach's Daughter
I slap my hand over his, stopping his upward trek.
“This feels like a game of chicken,” Penn comments. His palm touches my knee. “Ready, princess?”
He moves higher. Inch by inch. Until his pinky grazes where my upper thighs meet?—
I stop him with a hand on his wrist.
His sweatshirt is damp.
I go still and stare at his arm. The black SJU sweatshirt Carter gave him… I grab at his sleeve, pulling it away from his skin.
No.
No, no, no.
When I meet Penn’s gaze, there’s an expectancy in his expression I was not ready for.
Penn is L.?
Penn has been L. this whole time?
I shoot to my feet, but he snags my hand and pulls me right back down.
“What did I miss?” Oliver asks.
I twist around. “Like you don’t know?”
His brows furrow.
Okay, maybe he’s innocent in this.
But Penn?
“How could you?” I face him again. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
He doesn’t seem perturbed by my reaction. If anything, he seems… amused?
I rip my hand out of his grasp and practically crawl over Oliver to get away from him. I shake out my limbs. Now he’s got me rethinking every single conversation—both with Penn and L. They were the same. Are the same. But…
With shaking hands, I text Carter that I’m not staying. I don’t know where to go that Penn won’t follow, until Carter’s reply comes in.
Carter
Go to my apartment.
Please?
Okay.
I have no idea if I’ll be able to get in or not—it doesn’t really matter, I guess. Before I’m even out of the arena, I fall into a quicker pace. I run the whole way to Carter’s apartment, thankful at least that the arena isn’t too far from SJU territory.
I glance over my shoulder a few times, more worried about being followed by Penn than anyone else. He would follow me, I know that for sure. But I really don’t know what else he would go to—the lines he would cross to get closer to me.
Why?
My throat closes. I make it onto Carter’s street. It’s all familiar in an aching way. Not like just a few hours ago, when we came here with him. Walking up to his apartment alone reminds me of before my world imploded.
When things were nice and easy.
