Off-Ice Collision: A Grumpy Sunshine Hockey Romance (Wyncote Wolves Book 8)
Off-Ice Collision: Chapter 31

It has been two weeks since that night in the tree house with Vaughn. I’ve seen him a few times in passing since then, but we haven’t actually talked. From what I’ve noticed, it doesn’t seem like he’s really home much, except to sleep. There has been temptation to reach out and see how he is, but I know that it isn’t my place.

We need to split apart before we can come back together as one. I’ve been hanging on to the words he spoke to me that night, hoping he meant what he said. Time will only tell if he’s actually getting his shit together or not.

Emery walks through my front door without knocking, already wearing her bathing suit. “Hey, girl.” She smiles at me as she loops her arm through mine. She turns me around to face the back door and we walk out to the pool together.

I’m surprised when I see my brother floating around on a raft in the center of the pool. He was in deep shit with our parents after he threw that huge party. They ended up coming home the next morning before Maverick even crawled out of bed… and they came home to quite the mess.

Someone at some point broke some ornaments my mother had in the living room. She wasn’t exactly pleased, which led to a long talk that they had with Maverick. He is skating on thin ice and he knows it, which is probably why he’s been laying low like this.

“What’s his deal?” Emery asks me, her face dipping close to mine as she drops her voice low. “Is he even alive?”

I look out at Maverick and he pays no mind to us. He’s completely still on the raft with his eyes shut. “I think so,” I tell her. “If you watch carefully, it looks like his chest is rising and falling.”

“You know I can hear the two of you,” he mumbles as he lifts his head to look at the two of us. “For your information, I am alive. I was just out here contemplating all the decisions I’ve made in life.”

Emery cocks her head to the side. “What’s to contemplate? If they’re decisions you’ve already made, there’s nothing you can do to change them now. You might as well focus your energy and attention on the decisions you have to make in the present and the future.”

Maverick narrows his eyes at her before he looks at me. “Since when did your best friend turn into a fucking philosopher?”

I shrug, and Emery is the one who answers him. “I’m not saying I practice what I preach, but from what I’ve heard, it’s the best way to live your life.”

“Yeah, thanks, but I think I’ll pass on any life advice from you.”

Ice slides over her eyes as she gives him a cold, hard stare. “Hmm. I’m nowhere close to being in the same position you are in life, so I think I’m qualified to give advice to a fuckup like—”

“Okay!” I exclaim, clapping my hands together as I cut her off. This is what the two of them do and have done since we were kids. There has never been anything more than friendship between them, but I know Emery has been watching Maverick spiral and she hates it as much as I do. “How about we spend the day getting along instead of arguing about shit that doesn’t really matter right now?”

Maverick rolls off his raft, splashing as he lands in the water. Emery straightens her towel out on the lounge chair beside her before she sits down. I look between the two of them as Maverick comes up through the surface and begins to climb out of the pool.

“I have someone I need to go pay a visit to.”

My stomach sinks at his words. “I know she’s here,” I admit. The girl who ratted Maverick and his professor out. He’s always been someone to start shit and instigate whatever he can. The same way he and Emery are at each other. If this girl is at the lake, I know Mav’s sole focus is going to be making her life a living hell.

“And your point?”

I stare at him, my lips pursed. “Leave it alone, Mav. Leave her alone.”

A harsh laugh escapes him and he shakes his head at me. “Sorry, sis. You might be the sun, but I’m like a black fucking hole.”

I watch him as he disappears from our sight, heading directly into the house. I turn back to my best friend and she rolls her eyes. “I feel sorry for the girl, he’s about to ruin her life…”

“Me too,” Emery admits, but then she shrugs. “Oh well. You know how Mav is. If he can be the villain in someone’s story, he’s going to fulfill that role.”

Grabbing my stuff, I sit down on the lounge chair next to Emery and pull my hair up into a bun on top of my head. She’s already fully laid out, soaking up the sunrays, and I mimic her as I put the head of my chair down. Laying on my back, the sun above shines brightly, almost instantly burning my skin.

“So, tell me what’s going on with you and Vaughn.”

Closing my eyes, I don’t move from where I’m lying. “There’s nothing going on between us,” I tell her, and it’s the truth. “We haven’t talked for, like, two weeks now. I’m trying to give him some space to try and figure out what he wants out of life.”

“Do you think it’s working?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him so I don’t really know. He doesn’t seem to be home much, so I imagine that he’s been relatively busy. Hopefully doing something productive and not going on another bender or something.”

Emery is silent for a moment and the silence has me feeling a little uncomfortable. I know what she’s thinking. How could I possibly be putting this much faith in someone who hasn’t proven themselves yet? I’ve been asking myself the same questions, but I know it’s beyond my control. Only Vaughn can control what happens now.

“I saw him at the rink the other night. You know the one that’s just outside of town? IceWorks?”

I lift my head and turn it to the side as I look at her. “What do you mean?”

Emery turns to look at me. “I had to pick my little brother up from the summer camp he’s doing there,” she explains. “He was dicking around in the locker room like he always does. I was waiting for him in the lobby and I saw Vaughn shaking hands with the owner as they came out of his office.”

My eyebrows draw together and my heart picks up its pace in my chest. “What do you think he was doing there?”

Emery shrugs. “I have no idea. He didn’t see me and I wasn’t about to ask. He’s nice to look at, but he isn’t exactly the nicest to talk to.”

I ignore her comment as I sit up in my seat. Vaughn never once mentioned anything about the ice rink. If anything, I pictured that being the last place he would possibly go. After his accident, it seemed like he had such a negative view when it came to anything ice related. The urge to pull out my phone and text him is strong.

“Maybe he’s actually following through,” Emery adds as she sits up. “You told him he needed to figure out his life before the two of you could be together. Maybe that’s what he was doing there.”

“He doesn’t play hockey anymore, though… and he always made it seem like he would never wear a pair of ice skates again.”

Emery turns to face me. “I never said he had a pair of skates on. He was there talking to the owner. It could have been about a number of things. Give him the time you told him you were going to give and wait and see what happens. Worst case, you were wrong and you can give him the peace sign and keep moving.”

The thought alone stings my heart. I’m going to give him the time, but I don’t want to be wrong. I don’t want to be right for my own satisfaction, but because I want to see him actually live life like a real person instead of just a shell. There’s so much more to Vaughn than he lets everyone else see.

“It’s hot as fuck out here,” Emery complains as she rises to her feet and dives into the deep end of the pool. I stare after her, but I’m not fully focused on what she’s doing. Instead, I’m lost in my head, thinking of Vaughn. “Aren’t you going to come in?” Emery asks me, breaking through my thoughts.

I rise to my feet and nod before following suit and diving straight in. The water is cool against my skin and I slide through it before kicking my way back to the surface. As I break through, Emery takes over the raft my brother was lying on before he left on his new mission.

“Try not to worry about him, okay?” Emery tells me as she lifts her sunglasses to look at me. “I’ll ask my brother and see if he knows anything. I don’t know if he will really be of any help, but he practically lives at that place while we’re at the lake, so if anyone’s going to have some insider information, it would be him.”

“I’m not worried about him. I’m just curious. It’s completely different from what I expected to hear about him, so I’m not sure what to make of it.”

“Don’t make anything of it,” Emery says, her eyes burning holes through mine. “It is what it is, whether it’s good or bad. Come to think of it, I feel like my mom was saying something about them needing coaches for the season this fall. Maybe Vaughn went there about that?”

I raise an eyebrow at her. “Do you really see him willingly going there about something like that? About coaching other people to play the sport he lived and breathed and now can no longer play?”

Emery shrugs. “People will surprise you when they’re on the verge of losing everything.” She pauses for a moment. “You’re important to him, London. And it seems like he’s trying to do whatever he can to get you back and prove to you that he can be what you deserve. God, I hope he doesn’t fuck this up.”

A soft laugh falls from my lips and I dip back under the water before breaking through the surface. “I hope he doesn’t too,” I admit as I climb out of the pool and walk back over to my lounge chair. Glancing at my phone, I give in to temptation and pick it up. There isn’t a single thing from Vaughn, and I wasn’t expecting there to be anything, even though I want to talk to him more than anything right now.

“Whatever you do, do not call him or text him,” Emery interrupts my thoughts again. “You are a bad bitch and you don’t chase anyone. You attract. He will come to you when it’s time.”

I stare at my best friend, tilting my head to the side. “Mav was right. You did become quite the philosopher.”

Emery shrugs as a laugh escapes her. “Just a few things I’ve picked up through life experience. Seriously, though. You don’t reach out to him. It could just distract him and give him a false sense of security, like he can get by with doing the bare minimum. You deserve nothing but greatness, so you make sure that motherfucker is the greatest before you get involved.”

I watch Emery’s face fall, but she quickly recovers as she plasters a smile back on her face. There’s something lurking beneath the surface and she speaks from experience… but from experience that she’s never shared with me before.

We all have our own monsters we’re fighting.

Some of us are just better at hiding them from the rest of the world than others…