My head shot up, and as soon as he spotted me looking at him, he waved again. He truly was adorkable. With every TV break, he would skate behind his net and tap the glass in front of me with his stick.
I’d even snapped a picture of him when he’d removed his mask off during a TV break and raked his hand through his hair. He shouldn’t be the only one posting on social media if we wanted to make this believable. I’d captioned it, “Taking in a game with a nice view.”
My brother had texted me right away, like he had me set on notifications or something. I bit back a snort—we both did.
Mal: I’m gone less than two weeks and you go and fall in love.
Mal: You have some serious explaining to do. I thought you were done with hockey boys.
Mal: Not that I blame you. He’s cute. Not your usual. I demand all the details and you’ve been avoiding me.
I quickly responded and said I’d fill him in when he got home, but that I was happy. That would hopefully appease him for a day or so, but I’d been wrong because he’d immediately texted back, saying he’d call me in the morning.
“Oh, Dani.” Belinda’s teasing voice pulled my attention back to her.
“Yep?” I asked. “What?”
Belinda chuckled. “Are you falling?”
“What? No,” I rushed out.
“Oh, honey, do you really believe that?”
“Yes. It’s just—”
Her hand on my arm stopped me mid-sentence.
“I know. Fake. But you sure about that?”
I glanced around, but thankfully no one was paying attention to us. “Not so loud,” I muttered. “And of course I’m sure,” I said as play began to start again. This time they were at the face-off dot just to Gabe’s right, and I was already anxious. There were two minutes left in the first period and we were tied at one.
She smirked when I finally met her gaze. “Those eyes you’re both giving each other could melt all this ice.”
“That is so not true. And you can’t even see his eyes under his mask right now.” I gave a humph for good measure.
She burst out laughing.
“Why did I bring you again?”
Her smirk barely wavered. “Because Jasper is hanging out with my dad tonight so I could join you so you wouldn’t be cranky and alone in your seat.”
So annoying.
“Fine. But we aren’t looking at each other in any ice-melting sort of way, thank you very much. We know our roles and we are playing them.” That last part was whispered, me being more than aware of the crowd around us.
“Very well, it looks like.” Belinda’s knowing grin was irritating. But at least she kept her voice low.
“It’s just for show. I don’t really want to be dating anyone right now. And this seems to be working. I mean, Roger’s still commenting about what he calls my downgrade, but hopefully me being here and posting a picture of Gabe will make the jerk see that I’ve moved on.”
“Okay, sure,” Belinda said.
“Look, I know it’s a crazy plan, but I lost all sense when Roger showed up at Reilly’s. And I refuse to let him think I came up with this ruse just to get back at him. If he thinks thishas anything to do with him, he’ll think we still have a chance or some shit.” I sighed. “Fuck, I don’t even know anymore. It seemed like a solid idea when Gabe and I hashed it out, but is it? Nothing else was working to deter him.”
“Which is infuriating on its own. And yes, this definitely has the chance to turn into a disaster, but it could also work. Plus, you can have some fun. I mean, kissing for show, with him being all hot and everything?” She waved her hand toward the ice. “Sounds like a good time to me.”
I huffed, but it wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about kissing him again. More than I wanted to admit to. That little peck on the cheek last night after we ended our date had been annoyingly not satisfying. “We are not hooking up. Just acting like we’re dating.”
“Sure you are.”
