e P

napped to me, the silenc

n, be serious. She's the creek girl. She belongs in rubber waders, not on competit

ers, but it didn't reach the hockey players. They

e eyes were fixed on me with an intense, steady faith that sent a sharp shiver down my spine.

nthusiasm. "ALRIGHT! Since everyone is in-winner takes the captain

pitying applause. Sasha leaned over the boards, her voice loud and cutting: "Adorable. Like a duck learning

l to ensure Brooke stood alone at the top of th

was Brook

t. She had the posture of someone who had paid for expensive private lessons, and she executed a single toe loop with practiced precision. S

ere I was standing by the boards, her face flushed with the kind of victory that comes f

"Still want to go? It's okay to back out. Nobody expects a lab nerd to stay on her feet once

her. I didn't

eryone else, this was a campus prank. To me, it was the first time in four years that the phantom ache in my a

es, his brow slightly arched. He was waiting. Not for the girl he'd met at

liberate. I tossed it onto the wooden bench, leaving me in the fitted bl

s people noticed the lean, corded muscle of my shoulders and the discipli

or and manic glee. "Hold my notebook," I said, my voice

lia hissed, her green eyes blazing.

felt like walking back into a graveyard-my graveyard. For four years, I had kept the girl who lived f

y clawing at my throat. It promised the sting of the cold and the weight of a thousand

slipping as he watched me walk away from the ri

ps of my bag, where four hundred dollars of custom-molded l

for the first time, I let Brooke see

y skates,