Our Overtime: Ice League Book 1 (The Ice League Series)

Fuck.

Just fuck.

My hand was toast and Jules was gone. What the hell had just happened? I tried to process in my head all of what I’d just seen and heard.

Well, I had no way of getting back to my place. I’d driven here with Jules.

I had no choice but to walk back into the rink holding my hand pathetically.

Feeling completely dejected, I walked up to the concession stand asking for ice again when I felt a slap on the back.

“What up, brotha?” Max asked. He must’ve caught a glimpse of my hand over my shoulder because his next words were: “what did you do?” In a very disappointed voice.

I shrugged him off me, I didn’t like how he was implying it was my fault.

“Had to,” I grumbled.

“Oh of course,” he said sarcastically. “Let’s get out of the lobby before parents start questioning.” Max led the way to his office and I followed behind feeling like a kid being called to the principal’s office. But it was Max. He’d gotten in so much more trouble than me. And that asshole deserved it. I just couldn’t grasp the rest of what I had seen…or what I had just caused. I didn’t want to grasp it.

Max ushered me into the office, but I didn’t budge, “I think we need Paige,” I told him.

He lifted his eyebrows and blew out a breath, “Yeah, we always do. But I don’t want to stress her out right now, okay?”

I brushed past him, ripped my hat off and threw it on the ground with force.

Rubbing my eyes, I took a seat. How the fuck were we having more problems? Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to get everything back so quick. But it was Jules. She was worth it. So fucking worth it. There was no one else for me. I knew it. And she knew it. I could feel it in her touch and the way she looked at me. It was the same addictive way she looked at me at sixteen, making me feel like the hero in her story.

Max took a seat across from me. “Can you move it?” He asked, nodding towards my hand.

I tried to open it without cringing, but it was useless. I felt it throbbing painfully, like I’d just rebroken it.

“Well. We’re going to the hospital again,” Max said in a warning tone. “And I’m not taking no for an answer.”

I stared at the ground, ignoring him and still processing.

“You know anything about Canyon’s dad?” I asked Max.

“I mean… I think he’s a mean son of a bitch from what I’ve seen of him around the rink… but nothing out of the ordinary for that kind. Why?”

I couldn’t bear to look up at Max and admit what I was thinking, but I had to say it aloud to test the idea.

“I think…I think he hit her,” I heard myself say it so quietly. It pained me to hear it. My beautiful, happy Jules who’d always cared so deeply about me. Her long beautiful hair, her smooth, pale skin, her beautifully delicate and grace filled body. I couldn’t bear to think of her hurting and pretending like everything was fine. But it was making sense now. And the more I thought about it, the more the pieces were coming together. The way she’d jumped away from me when I was close to her, almost like I’d scared her just by being near her. The way she flinched away when I had tried to touch her when we first started talking again. I noticed the reaction had eased away the last couple of weeks with me, but it was still something that happened with strangers. I had written it off as her just being nervous in a new setting. It had never crossed my mind that she was nervous because someone had…

“Oh my God,” I said in a pained voice and dropped my head down in my hands.

We sat there in silence for a couple of minutes. It was agonizing to think of. While I’d be depressed and a prick over the last few years because I thought I’d been wronged, I was still living a pretty damn good life living out my dream and playing hockey. She had been treated like that in addition to feeling rejected by me.

“I don’t blame you then,” Max said quietly. “About your hand.” He paused, “Can you keep this from Paige… for a little at least?”

“No one can know,” I told him quickly and firmly. “She didn’t even tell me. She wouldn’t want anyone to know.”

Max held my gaze and nodded. I could trust him to keep this a secret.

“You’re not going to let it happen again,” Max said it as a statement instead of a question. He was her friend as well.

“Max… he’s the one who caused it all. He gave her that phone. He sent her those breakup texts. I’m sure of it.”