Seduced by the Game (2 page)

“Ugh! Lacey,” she
complained. Standing, she rushed to the pick them up.

“Oops, my bad! My hands
are frozen!”

Rachel sent her a lopsided
grin, retrieving her pencils and falling back into her seat. Wearing a pair of
jeans with boots up to her knees and a large Cats’ sweatshirt, her dark brown
hair fell in curls around her face. Her brown eyes were framed with darker
lashes as she focused on getting her pencils right in line again. They hadn’t
been friends long, but, from the beginning, Lacey had known that she and Rachel
were going to be friends for life.

“No biggie—did you go
watch your brother play this morning?”

Lacey nodded. “I sure did.
It was nice. I missed the sounds of the ice and the smell. I was about ten
seconds from rushing down there and putting my nose to it.”

“’Cause that’s normal.”

“Yeah, it is,” Lacey said
with a laugh, opening her business book.

“I’m glad you went,”
Rachel said after a few minutes. “That’s it, right? You are completely back to
normal now.”

Lacey smiled as she bit
into her lip. “Yup, completely normal Lacey now.”

“Awesome, now all you need
is a hot boyfriend to make life a little interesting.”

“This coming from my
single best friend,” she teased, causing Rachel to laugh.

“That is true, but I
am
on the prowl. All I need is a man who is clean and knows what he wants, and my
life would be complete.”

Lacey laughed. “Good luck
with that.”

They shared a smile before
returning to their books. They had a quiz that morning. Lacey wanted to refresh
herself, but she couldn’t focus. All her thoughts kept floating back to number
sixteen.

“So… crazy idea.”

Lacey looked up, leaning
against her hand. “And that is?”

“Wanna go to the Cats’
team party tomorrow?”

Her brows shot up as she
laughed. “What? Who are you, and where is my best friend? Cause the Rachel Wise
I know doesn’t go to frat parties. They are dirty, remember?”

That made Rachel dissolve
into giggles, and soon Lacey joined in. “I know, but I think we need to be
proactive here. We’ve been here for six months and haven’t been to any parties.
We study and we go to the movies. We are nerds, Lacey!”

“I like being a nerd,”
Lacey said with nervous laugh. Her heart kicked up in speed, and everything
went cold inside her. She was pretty sure she knew where her best friend was
going with this. 

“I do too, but I want to
get laid, and no one has caught my eye. I need to broaden my boundaries, and
hockey players are hot.”

Yeah, they are… especially
Karson King
,
Lacey thought as she slowly nodded. Even with that fact, there was no way she
was getting involved with anyone.

“Plus, it wouldn’t be
weird for us to be there because Grady is your brother,” she added. She was
right, but Lacey wasn’t sure it was a good idea. People didn’t go to those
parties to play Scrabble. They went to hook up, and hooking up wasn’t in
Lacey’s vocabulary anymore.

“Yeah,” she agreed as she
shrugged her shoulder. “But maybe we can go to a movie; guys are at the
movies.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Lacey
said, letting out a breath.

“No, it’s something. Tell
me.”

Biting into her lip hard,
she looked away and muttered, “Karson King was staring at me this morning
during practice.”

“So?”

Lacey moved her hands,
rubbing her thumbs together in a nervous way. “He was looking at me like I was
naked, like he wanted me, and I don’t want to give him a reason to flirt with
me by showing up at the party he is hosting.”

Rachel held her gaze for a
second before laughing hysterically. “Lacey Martin, are you crazy? Who in their
right mind wouldn’t want Karson King to flirt with them?”

“I guess me,” Lacey
breathed. “He’s trouble.”

“Oh yeah, he is, the best
kind of hot trouble, which would be right up your alley. Get you right back on
the horse. You need a little romance; you need to feel like a woman again.”

Having a guy reject her
wasn’t going to make her feel like a woman, but she couldn’t say that. Rachel
might know her condition, but she didn’t know what it was like. She thought it
was nothing to worry about, when it was actually life altering. So instead of
telling Rachel the truth, Lacey shook her head and said, “I don’t want
trouble.”

Reaching out, Rachel
cupped Lacey’s shoulder as she gave her a look. “Trouble is fun. Come on, let’s
go to the party.”

Working her lip, Lacey let
out a breath. With one look into Rachel’s eyes, she knew there was no backing
out. She knew that it was a bad idea, but she also knew that Rachel was right.
She wasn’t in the hospital anymore. She wasn’t dying. She was alive, and she
needed to embrace that. She needed to push her insecurities to the side and
enjoy her second chance at life. So, with a slow nod, she said, “Fine, yeah,
I’ll go.”

Challenge accepted.

Bundled up in her trusty
Cats’ sweatshirt, Lacey watched as the Cats sailed up the ice toward the goal.
Grady had the puck and deked around two players before passing it to another,
who shot but missed. NYU got the puck and went to pass it up, but out of
nowhere, Karson came, stealing the puck and spinning around a player,
backhanding it into the goal with ease. Along with the rest of the Cats’ side,
she and Rachel flew up, screaming and cheering for the home team.

The Cats were up by one
with Karson’s goal, with only six minutes left in the third. NYU had plenty of
time to score, but the Cats’ defense was playing hard. Lacey didn’t think they
had a chance on scoring on the Cats’ goalie, who had a streak of four shutouts.
Looking down at the bench where Coach was screaming and waving his arms, Lacey
knew her father was pumping his players up.

“So what number is Grady?”

“Number twenty-one—it was
my mom’s favorite number since she had him when she was twenty-one,” Lacey said
with a smile. Her heart ached a little when she remembered that little tidbit
about her mom. Sometimes, she felt like she was starting to forget everything
about her. Like how she smelled, or what it felt like when she would run her
fingers through Lacey’s hair. She remembered those things, but she used to be
able to imagine her mom doing them… and it would feel like she were really
there. It had been twelve years since her family had lost her mom to breast
cancer and, to this day, Lacey didn’t think any of them would ever be the same.

Coach missed her
constantly and smothered himself with his playbook, while Grady worked harder
than ever to make it into the pros. He wanted to make her proud, and every time
he scored a goal, he looked to the heavens and thanked her. It always brought
the tears on when Lacey saw him do it, but it was nice that he did. Lacey, on
the other hand, just missed her. The year before would have been so much easier
if she’d had her mom around. She would have known how to comfort Lacey since
her dad and Grady were completely at a loss. They both thought Lacey was next.
Hell, Lacey had thought so, too.

“That’s nice. Your mom was
so beautiful. You look so much like her. I love that picture you have of you
two.”

Lacey nodded, her eyes
suddenly stinging with tears. Lacey was six in the picture Rachel spoke of, and
they were at the beach. It was a beautiful day and, even though it was twelve
years ago, she still remembered how much fun they had. It was a couple of
months before she was diagnosed and, while Lacey hadn’t understood any of it
then, she was kind of glad she didn’t. Cancer was such a scary thing. It had
the power to gut you and take away the people you were supposed to have for a
very long time. She believed that God had a plan for everyone. She believed
that maybe she was supposed to go through her mom’s cancer, so she would be
strong through her own battle, but at the same time, why did that have to
happen to her family? Why did they have to go through the same thing twice? It
felt wrong but, for some crazy reason, her faith was still intact, and she
planned to live the life He had blessed her with to the fullest.

Like her mom would have.

And if that meant going to
a party and actually putting herself out there like the old Lacey would have
before she got sick, then damn it, she was going to do it. Deciding this wasn’t
the time to be sad about things she couldn’t change, she returned her attention
to the game.

“Karson is number sixteen,
right?”

Lacey’s face scrunched up.
“Yeah, why?”

“He’s staring at you
again.”

Following her gaze, Lacey
found that Rachel was right. He was unabashedly staring at her, his mouth
turned up in a grin as he leaned against the boards. He was supposed to be
listening to her father yell, but instead he was watching her. Looking away
quickly toward Rachel, her eyes went wide. “What in the world?”

Rachel giggled as her eyes
matched Lacey’s. “He is really hot. You should jump on that.”

“No way,” she said
quickly, shaking her head. “A guy like that would run the other way once he got
a look at me.”

Rachel’s grin fell as she
reached out to take Lacey’s hand, but she brushed her off. “Don’t. I don’t want
to talk about it. Let’s just watch the game.”

Lacey could see that
Rachel wanted to say more but, thankfully, she didn’t, turning her attention
back to the game. Doing the same, Lacey found that Karson was setting up for
the puck drop. She wanted to be a good sister and watch her brother, but there
was no way when Karson was demanding her attention. He was so big, so strong,
and commanded the respect as the best player on the ice. She knew that the
scouts were there tonight. Grady was nervous and so was her dad, but she didn’t
have any doubts that Grady would be in the draft that year. It was his year.
What she was surprised about was that Karson hadn’t been in it yet. He was by
far the greatest player in Chicago. He needed to be in the pros, where his
talent could grow.

Watching as he sailed with
confidence and determination on the ice, her eyes followed his every move. He
was hell on the defense, but even more so when NYU had the puck and decided to
come into the Cats’ zone. He poke checked, he hit, and he was on them like
white on rice. He wasn’t playing around. Soon, he had the puck on a breakaway,
rushing the net. Players tried to catch up to him, but there was no catching
Karson King when he was off to score. Deking the goalie one way, he sent the
puck into the back of the net, winning the game and leaving Lacey breathless.

Watching as the guys all
jumped on Karson, while the crowd went wild cheering, Lacey’s heart went nuts
in her chest. From where she stood, she could see his grin through the cage of
his helmet, and she knew the feelings that were bubbling in her chest were
going to do nothing but cause havoc on her heart. She wasn’t kidding when she
said that Karson would run the other way from her. The sad thing was she wished
she had the confidence to believe he wouldn’t. That wasn’t reality though, so
she would keep her distance and stay away from Karson King.

By the time Rachel and
Lacey got to the Cats’ frat house, the party was already crazy. It was Lacey’s
first party, but she wasn’t innocent to what these frat guys did. Guys were
upside down on kegs, playing beer pong, and shooting pucks against a guy
covered in pillows for shots. It was nuts, but she couldn’t help but grin like
a fool.

That was, until Grady saw
her.

“Fuck,” she muttered as he
beelined for her.

“What?” Rachel asked.

“Grady is coming to yell
at me.”

She looked up right as
Grady stopped in front of them. “Lacey, what the hell are you doing here?”

Looking up at her big
brother, she shrugged as she looked around. “Came to party.”

He laughed as he shook his
head, grasping her shoulders in his hand. “The hell you are. This is no place
for you.”

Smacking his arms away,
she glared. “For fuck’s sake, Grady. I’m eighteen years old. I think I can
handle a party. I’m not a baby.”

“Yes, you are. You’re my
baby sister. Go back to the dorm.”

Still glaring, Lacey took
a step toward him, placing her hands on her hips. “I can stay here, have fun,
and be on my best behavior, or I can go to another party, get blasted, and have
sex with half the guys there. Since I apparently can’t make good choices, it’s
totally up to you. At least here, you can keep an eye on me.”

Glaring back at her, he
sneered, “You’re a jerk.”

“I love you too. Now,
while I have you, you haven’t met Rachel yet. Rachel, my brother, Grady. Grady,
my best friend, Rachel.”

Looking back at Rachel,
she saw that Rachel’s face was bright with color as her mouth curved in a very
sexy grin. When she glanced back at Grady, she saw the same look on his face.
Reaching out, he took her hand as he said, “I don’t remember my sister telling
me her best friend was beautiful.”