She spun her straw at an attempt to mix her smoothie, doing her best to not pay too much attention to the girls. They weren’t worth her energy. She’d already seen a few grins from Luc that the bunnies must’ve thought were for them, if the screams of joy were any indication. But that was just who he was. He had fun on the ice.
Tyler ruled the other end of the ice, shooting repeatedly at Kaden. He snuck a few through, but even he had trouble scoring on her brother. Kris and Pat joined Tyler in the shower of pucks on Kaden, as if they were determined to score on him. Calm and collected, Kaden batted every last one away, one at a time.
Coach Walker had pulled the other group aside, so nothing was happening on that end. Kassie’s eyes stayed on Kaden and his mad goalie skills, along with his loud, obnoxious chirping at the guys who missed. Until the gaggle of girls caught her attention.
They were pounding on the glass, trying to get Luc to notice them. Surely, he’d ignore them and pay attention to Coach. But the instruction must’ve been over, because Coach Walker skated to the bench to oversee practice.
Sam Morris was practicing, which was good to see. He was on the end with Luc, shooting at Dom. The guys skated around him, and most acted cautiously. Sam didn’t seem to care as much as the other guys did, not backing off from running into people.
That’s when she saw it. Luc posed for a selfie with one of the bunnies through the glass. Dominic chirped at him, and she would’ve thought that was enough to snap him out of it. But what he was doing was innocent. He was coming home with her tonight, so whatever the bunnies did made no difference to her.
He wasn’t flirting. She’d seen him flirt. This was giving the public what they wanted. He was all smiles and when one of them brought out a sign that said “PUCK-STAR” his ego was fed.
Luc didn’t know she was here yet, even though he had invited her. And try as she might, Kassie couldn’t stop the fire that ran through her as he continued to give the girls the attention they wanted, tapping the stick on the glass where they stood and flashing his amazing smile to them. Her jealousy was starting to show. Kassie, you know better than this. What was worse than the bunnies getting to her needlessly was hearing Kaden tell her “I told you so.”
She sipped at her smoothie and watched the guys take one-timers at Kaden. He was a great goalie; there was no doubt about that. Tyler had been able to slip a few in, though. But, after all, he was the great Tyler Kidd.
A puck flipped under the net and into the stands. Looking to see where it came from, Kassie saw it was from Luc. She’d seen him give pucks to the fans before, but not as much as Kris and Sam did. A girl with his number on caught it, screamed, and kissed the puck. A great smile crossed his face at her reaction.
But that smile wasn’t the same as the way he grinned or smirked at Kassie, so she kept her jealousy at bay.
Then there was yelling on the ice. Before she could comprehend what was happening, Kaden charged at Luc, who was busy posing for another photo. In the process of standing up to get a better look, Kassie clumsily knocked over her smoothie, which slowly spilled out onto the bleacher seat and floor.
She wanted to find something to clean it up, but she also wanted to see what was going on down on the ice. First, she’d see what was going on, and then she’d clean it up. Tossing a few tissues on the mess, she moved down the steps, closer to the glass for a better view.
She couldn’t hear what was being said through the thick plexiglass, but it was obvious that Kaden was mad. And his anger was being directed fully at Luc. Her brother had his goalie mask propped up on his head, and he was in Luc’s face, yelling.
His behavior was like a repeat of the other day at her apartment. She’d had a bad feeling this would all come to a head on the ice, and she was right. But there was nothing she could do, as much as she wanted to jump in and help. She ran out to the café to grab a few napkins for her mess, and kept one eye on the guys through the glass. Kaden was still yelling at Luc. Practice had stopped, and everyone was standing around watching as well.
When Dom rushed from his end of the ice to where Kaden and Luc were, Kassie grabbed a handful of napkins and rushed inside. Something was going down, and it wasn’t good. And it was all because of her.
Kassie ran into the rink, right along the glass. She had to push by the Marcella fan club just to get to where the ruckus was. This isn’t playtime anymore, kids. Get out of my way! Dom was holding Kaden back, and Luc was straightening his jersey and messed-up pads, and putting his helmet back on.
Luc turned towards the glass, their eyes meeting. A smile pulled at one side of his mouth as he acknowledged her. He tapped the butt end of his stick on the glass at her. They were close enough to the glass that she could hear bits and pieces of what was being said.
“Nice move, O’Conner. Right in front of your sister.” Luc’s smirk was sexy and a bad move on his part. Her brother would take any opportunity to wipe it right off his face.
“You’re going to condemn me for that shit? You were flirting with those girls right in front of me! I told you not to pull this shit with my sister! I also told you if you hurt Kassie, I’d kill you!” Kaden lunged at Luc again, but was being restrained.
“I wasn’t doing anything, and Kassie knows that. You seem to be the only one with a problem!” Luc retorted.
Coach Walker wildly blew his whistle, interrupting the fight. He quickly instructed Luc to go to the locker room and Kaden to go to the bench. As Luc stormed off the ice, he slammed his stick down at the benches, breaking it in half. Coach Walker told the team to get back to practice or they’d all be doing laps.
Her brother was overreacting, as usual. Not being able to get to either of them was frustrating. Her hands were tied. And now Luc was out of sight, so she kept her eye on Kaden instead. He stood at the bench, drinking water. Kaden’s helmet was propped up on top of his head, and he squirted a drink into his mouth. His eyes caught hers. There was no doubt that he was angry. Kaden nodded towards the Marcella-bunny fan club, then back at her. His face was stern and hard.
That was his way of saying, “I told you so.”
She shook her head and looked away. She’d deal with her brother later. It wasn’t like she and Luc were married, or had even been seeing each other for that long. Luc didn’t owe her anything. Besides, he hadn’t done anything wrong. Luc was just being Luc. He had fans, and at least he wasn’t being a jerk to them.
So what if he flashed a few smiles? Took a few selfies? As long as he was going home with her, what did it matter?
Just then, her phone buzzed in her purse.
Luc: Kass. Sorry about that. I understand if you don’t want to go grab dinner after that mess, but I hope you still do.
Luc: Coach told me to go home. Give me about fifteen minutes and I’ll meet you outside?
Kassie: What about your dad?
Luc: He’s going out to dinner with some of the other dads. Tonight, it’s just us. Still up for it?