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April 26 - April 28, 2025
“Thanks, but I’m headed to a friend’s place near here,” I said. “I can make my own way there.” “I’ll walk you.” Reed spoke with such confidence I didn’t know how to say no.
“But you have a good night, Sunshine. I hope I proved to you not all hockey players are pigs.”
Maybe she thought I hadn’t heard her at the ice rink. Or that I didn’t recognize her. Impossible. Violet wasn’t the kind of girl you forgot. She had stunning long, deep red hair, and her eyes were such a startling shade of light blue I’d struggled to pull my gaze from them. Her features were delicate, and when she wasn’t glaring at me she looked like she could have stepped right out of a fairy tale—well, fallen out of one in her case.
Grayson turned to me once our younger brother was gone. “You’ve had a lot of bad ideas over the years, Reed. But this has got to be one of the worst.” I shrugged. If it meant I got to see Violet again, I didn’t really care.
Before I could say anything to Mia, I felt a shift in the atmosphere of the room. The lively and carefree energy turned tense, and a sense of unease rippled across the dance floor as the people around me seemed to freeze in place. It felt like a storm had just rolled in, bringing ominous clouds that cast a shadow over everything and everyone. The people around me were fixated on something behind me. “Oh my god,” Mia gasped. “What are they doing here?”
“I hate you!” I kicked the tire again. I wasn’t sure if I was angrier at Jeremy for cheating on me or myself for believing he was different. I think it was mostly myself. I shouldn’t have allowed my feelings for him to blind me from what my mom had taught me: never trust a boy who cared more about a game than he could ever care for a girl.
“As I said before, it’s best to just ignore Parker.” “We always do,” his other brother added in a low voice.
One side of his mouth lifted, giving him a crooked smile, which revealed the barest hint of a dimple. It softened him somehow. Who knew devils had dimples.
“Because I am done with dating, and I will be one hundred percent sticking to my no-jock rule from now on. No exceptions.”
Sureeeeeeeee
I guessed I had my answer. Yes, I really was that nervous to see Reed again. The more concerning question though was why.
I laughed awkwardly and did my best to shrug off her comment about my infamous run-in with Jeremy’s nose. Violet was the last person I wanted to talk about that with. I didn’t want her to think I was some violent thug who solved all his problems with his fists. It never really bothered me that everyone else seemed to think it, but Violet made me care.
“But perhaps an even better revenge would be for you to move on with someone else . . .” “Perhaps.”
Ooooooo
It was amazing how quickly you could become repulsed by someone you once thought might be the love of your life. One moment, all you can think about is his warm brown eyes and soft dark hair. The next, you realize his hair is actually a little greasy, and his eyes are closer to the color of mud than honey. Even his voice, which was once soft and melodic suddenly sounds more like the whining purr of a drone.
The bonfire was looking more and more appealing. And I refused to let a stupid hockey player ruin another night for me. I just had to ignore the fact it had been a certain rival hockey captain that had invited me to the bonfire in the first place.
She might have sworn off hockey players, but that didn’t seem to matter to me as I watched her through the fire. I only needed her to like one hockey player: me.
“So, are you going to get your girl?” he added. “Just stay out of trouble.” “I’m afraid I can’t promise that. Can you?” As I looked back at Violet, I wasn’t sure I could.
“If one of the Darling Devils was looking at me that way, I’d be running in the opposite direction as fast as my legs could carry me . . .” “Oh, and how exactly is he looking at me?” “Like if you smiled back at him, he’d leap right through those flames, pick you up, and carry you back to his cave like some barbarian.”
As Violet spoke, I was struggling to stop myself from interrupting her so I could tell her that I wasn’t sorry she’d kissed me. That it felt one hundred percent real to me. With every word, this girl was shattering my heart but making it beat harder at the same time.
I was growing more and more concerned it was going to be impossible to swing this situation around in my favor. What if our fake relationship ended up putting me thoroughly in the friend zone? That would be even worse than Violet thinking I was a conceited arrogant jock.
But then his gaze landed on me, and his icy exterior thawed. Amusement played across his lips and danced in his eyes. Suddenly, it was hard to remember why I’d felt intimidated at all.
“What on earth is that?” “It’s your favorite,” I said as sweetly as I could. “A strawberry Frappuccino with whipped cream, marshmallows, and sprinkles on top.” “You know I have a reputation to uphold . . .” he murmured, keeping his voice low. “I thought it couldn’t get any worse.” “I guess that’s true.”
I could understand why it might be hard for him. A guy like Reed would probably chat up a streetlight if it had long hair.
“Uh, no kissing.” “It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?” he said with a hint of a smile. “You already well and truly broke that rule.” “I wasn’t thinking clearly when that happened,” I shot back. And if we repeated that mistake, I wasn’t sure I would ever think clearly again. Reed’s lips were far too skilled, and I’d enjoyed it far too much. Kissing was what had gotten me into this in the first place; it would only make things messier, and it was exactly why we needed to put these rules in place. “No kissing,” I
“It sounds like you guys have been friends a while,” I said. “Yep, best friends since our first day of school,” Matt replied. “We both had the same Spider-Man lunchboxes, and I simply can’t ignore a sign from fate.” “How cute,” I said. “Not cute. Manly. Totally manly,”
Every time she held my hand, touched my arm, or even just brushed against me, my stomach flipped, and every time I breathed in the sweet scent of her shampoo or watched her tuck her bright red hair behind her ear, I had to remind myself she wasn’t truly mine. I hung off her every word when she spoke, and when she smiled, I could feel myself falling deeper and deeper. I was in serious trouble because I was only becoming more certain she was never going to look at me the same way.
“It’s not crazy to look out for someone you love.”
My head told me that Violet would never let herself break her own golden rule. But my heart didn’t seem to care. It was like it had been given the puck with an opportunity for a breakaway. There was no defense in its way, and it was off and racing toward the goal.
How could my heart be beating so fast when all we were doing was looking at each other? And how could the connection between us feel so real when this was all supposed to be fake? Surely this wasn’t completely one-sided?
“Because a kiss can tell you everything you need to know about how another person feels. You can’t fake chemistry, and if this relationship really is just pretend, he won’t be into it.”
I hesitated. Not because I was terrified of falling on the ice but because I was terrified I was falling for him. Every moment I spent with him, I could feel the protective barriers I’d erected around my heart slipping away.
She was here. She had come. And as I stared into her bright blue eyes, I knew what I had to do, how to show her what she meant to me. If there was a choice between winning the game or the girl, she needed to know I’d choose her every time. Even if it spelled the end of the Darling Devils.
