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Off the Ice
by Julie Cross

Copyright © 2017 by Julie Cross. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Prologue

~Tate~

Something cold and wet hits the side of my face. My braces clank against Haley’s, and we both jump apart. I hear giggling coming from several feet away. When I turn my head, my sister, Jody, is sitting on a log, a clear plastic cup of ice in her hand. Her friend Claire O’Connor smacks her on the arm. “You are so mean.”

“He’s my little brother. I’m supposed to torture him.”

“Sorry,” I mumble to Haley.

The bonfire in front of Juniper Falls Pond is bright enough that even in the dark, the color in Haley’s cheeks is clearly visible.

“I think it’s adorable. Little Tate is all grown up,” Claire says.

“You act like you’re ten years older than me instead of one year,” I tell Claire. She does nothing but lift an eyebrow. A challenge, I think. “Oh, I get it. It’s a college thing, right? Your high school friends are all little kids now?”

Claire’s leaving Juniper Falls to do some fancy dual-credit, early-graduation program at Northwestern University, specially designed for talented people like her—the singing, theatrical type, probably ones who live in tiny towns where hockey is all anyone talks about and musical theater is a foreign language.

“I still remember Tate racing you in your mom’s red high heels,” Claire says to Jody, and they both start laughing.

My face falls into my hands and I groan. Haley stifles a laugh and I shoot her a look. “I was nine.”

She smiles at me and pushes herself up to her feet. “The cupcake supply is getting low. I’d better replenish it.”

“Little Man Tate,” a familiar voice says from behind me. “Did I just see you making out with this beautiful girl?”

My jaw tenses. Fucking Luke Pratt.

He grins at Haley. “Hope he’s being decent to you. If not, you let me know, and I’ll remind him how we treat our girls around here.”

Yeah, no thanks, I’ll pass on getting advice from a guy who can’t go a week without cheating on his girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend now, so I heard.

He plops down beside me and I force a grin. “So…when do you start practicing?” I ask.

Luke graduated last spring. He’s got a spot playing on a junior hockey team somewhere down south. He takes a long drink from a flask. “I leave next week.”

Across the fire, Claire flips her long red hair over one shoulder, her face lighting up at the sight of Luke. I roll my eyes and catch Jody doing the same. Luke notices her watching and grins.

“All this for you, O’Connor?” He waves a hand, gesturing at the fire, music, the table of cupcakes Haley made with musical notes and those theater masks on them.

Claire shrugs. “Everyone’s excited to get rid of me.”

Aside from Haley, my sister, and me, I’m not sure people are here to celebrate Claire’s achievements so much as they’re here to celebrate, as in hang out and get drunk. Most people in Juniper Falls know Claire best for being Davin O’Connor’s daughter—the guy with the coolest hockey bar in the state of Minnesota, famous for the walleye horseshoe.

“Is that right?” Pratt says. And then he looks at her in a way that… Well, I doubt he’s really seen her before, but he sure as hell is now.

My stomach turns. I can’t take any more of this. I get up and look around for Haley. Seconds later, Jody is at my side, walking with me.

“I hate that guy,” I whisper.

“Me, too.” Jody shrugs, like this isn’t a big deal. She looks at me and says, “What? She’s into him. He’s finally noticing her and she deserves that. I voiced my opinion. Can’t do anything else.”

He’s finally noticing her? I hate him even more now.

I move behind Haley, catch her around the waist, and squeeze her against me. It’s chilly out tonight and she’s not wearing a jacket. “Cold?”

“I’m fine,” she says before her teeth start chattering.

I pull off my hoodie and put it around her. I’m about to ask her to go for a walk with me so we can make out without ice being involved—I get enough ice at hockey practice—but Jody interrupts me.

She’s reading a text on her phone. “Dad wants you back at O’Connor’s.”

I rest my forehead on Haley’s shoulder. “Do I have to?”

Haley reaches up and pats my cheek. “It’s cute that you watch football with your dad.”

“Cute” isn’t how I would describe it.

“Plus…” Haley adds. “Don’t you have to hang out with him?”

It’s so obvious that Haley lives in a two-parent home it almost makes me smile. She doesn’t get the divorce stuff. Any of it. “Jody and I haven’t had to do weekends at Dad’s for years. Not with his living several hours away during the hockey season.”

She turns me to face the bar across the street. “Go. He came all the way from Michigan to watch football with you.”

Right. His visits have nothing to do with his royalty among the alumni in town or wanting to get drunk and play King of the World or relive the state championships of ’94. People around here worship my dad. Still.

I glance over in Claire’s direction. Luke has moved to sit beside her. “Should I even bother saying good-bye?”

Jody shakes her head. “She’s busy living out her fifteen-year-old self’s fantasy.”

Yeah. TMI. I give Haley a quick kiss and leave her with my jacket and my sister. Despite Haley’s arguments in favor of quality Dad time, I take the long way over to O’Connor’s and run into Mike Steller, our varsity goalie, and his girlfriend, Jessie.

“Saw you at practice the other day, T-Man,” he says. “Your glove is getting pretty quick.”

“Thanks.” I keep my eyes on my shoes, trying to hide the excitement. Right now, Mike Steller is the goalie to recruit. And he’s only a junior. I’ll be a senior before I take his place. Which is good because I’m nowhere near ready yet.

When I finally open the door to the bar across the street from Juniper Falls Pond, a cheer erupts. The Vikings just scored a touchdown. A table of out-of-towners follows the cheering with a few boos and “Fuck the Vikings.” From behind the bar, Davin O’Connor, Claire’s dad, flexes his muscles and flashes his tattooed arms at the idiot guys cheering on the Bears. That’s all it takes to cut them off.

My dad walks to the bar and orders another beer. I glance at the TV—it’s only the second quarter.

“Tate,” Dad says. “Glad you’re here. Larry and I…” He points a finger at Larry Jones, another big hockey legend in town. “We were just goin’ on about your teammates, Jamie and Leo. Are they talking to any coaches yet?”

“I don’t know.” I shake my head. “We have different practices. Plus, it’s not like you can sign them—”

“Hey, Tate,” Davin calls. “Got something to show you!”

Relieved to have an excuse to leave before I become a coconspirator in NCAA violations, I turn quickly and head back to the bar. Davin is crouched down, messing with the beer taps. “You gotta see how I rerigged these. It’s twice as fast and half the cleaning.”

I walk around behind the bar counter and check out the redesign. Football isn’t exactly my thing, and Sunday night games can last hours. Over the years, I’ve learned all kinds of things about soda fountains, beer taps, commercial ovens, bar sinks.

“Probably a good idea if you stick around,” Davin says, keeping his voice low. He slides a set of keys across the bar to me.

My face heats up. I stuff the keys into my pocket and keep my gaze focused on the hoses running beneath the bar.

“You have your license, right?”

I shrug. “A few more days.”

Davin waves a hand. “Close enough.”

Yep. Not that it’s stopped me from driving before.

After I help with the beer taps, Davin sends me outside to toss some stuff in the Dumpster. That’s when I see her. Claire.

She’s tugging Luke Pratt toward the outside staircase that leads to an unfinished apartment above the bar. I hide myself halfway behind a Dumpster and watch them reach the top landing. My stomach ties in knots. I don’t like this. Not Claire. Not with Luke.

I mean, it’s not like Claire is… I shake my head. Haley is my girlfriend, and she’s great. But Claire is Claire. She’s something other. Other in that way where a girl is completely unattainable because she’s seen you racing around in your mom’s red heels. But that means I’ve seen her, too. Claire in the backyard chasing a firework. Claire belting out a solo from Les Mis during the middle school talent show. Claire making up hip-hop dances in my living room with Jody—wearing only a sports bra. I know I don’t have any right to these feelings, but it’s like she’s given me a piece of herself.

I should stop this. If Davin knew…

Go back inside, Tate. Forget about it.

I guess maybe it’s good that she’s leaving Juniper Falls tomorrow.

***

~Claire~

It takes only seconds after we close the door for Luke to kiss me. I’ve imagined this moment for years, but in my head, it went slower, it built and built to something…something more.

I wanted it to be everything.

Thirty seconds later, my shirt ends up on the floor. I try with everything in me to get lost in this. He and his girlfriend are finally over. I’ve wished for years for them to break up—in the kindest way possible, of course. And it’s my last night at home. Last night to have the kind of experience girls are supposed to have in high school. Last night to leap or…not.

But now I don’t want to be alone up here with him, with a queen-size bed only a few feet away. And I definitely don’t want to end up on that bed. “Hey…” I push lightly against his chest. “Slow down.”

He pulls back and looks me over, forehead wrinkled. “Slow down? I thought you wanted…”

My face heats up. I shake my head. “Not here. Not like this.”

I don’t know what I want anymore. His touch, his scent, the feel of his lips—none of it is anything like I imagined or anything like I saw with him and Kara.

 “Relax.” The beautiful grin returns, and he’s found a wall to push me up against and skin on my neck to kiss. “Close your eyes. Then the room doesn’t matter.”

“Wait… Just—” My heart pumps loudly in my ears. I shove him harder and duck under his arm to escape. This quick move seems to put Luke off balance.

He stumbles back into a coatrack and bangs his head. “Jesus! What the fuck?”

This is all going so wrong. “Sorry—”

“You drag me away for this? I left a bunch of girls back at the party.” He works at straightening his shirt, now tangled in the coatrack. “What is wrong with you, O’Connor?”

“You left a bunch of girls?” I repeat. “I thought you and Kara just broke up…”

I thought you were heartbroken and needed comforting. Or finally free to notice someone who’s spent way too much time noticing you.

Those words stay locked in my head because in this moment, I know they aren’t true. This Luke Pratt I’ve created is just an illusion. He’s not real. How many times had Jody told me just that and I hadn’t believed her, hadn’t let myself?

“I’m just here because someone said you were into me,” he replies. “And you’re kinda hot—weird but hot. And I thought…” He rubs his head where he banged it and seems to get pissed off all over again.

I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping to lessen the impact of his words. But they still hit like a slap across my face. Weird. I’m the weird girl to him. I snatch my shirt from the floor, holding it in front of me, covering my chest. I march over to the door, throwing it open, and allow the cool night air to hit my heated face. “Go ahead, then. Find those other girls. Have fun with that.”

He shakes his head, looking me over like I’m insane. I feel insane. “Singing school? Who the hell goes to school to sing? I bet my lucky hockey puck you end up down the street at El Margarita singing ‘Happy Birthday’ with a fucking sombrero on your head!”

“Just get out,” I whisper. I can’t speak any louder or I’ll start crying, and I’m not gonna cry in front of him.

Finally, after tossing me one last disgusted look, he storms out. I slam the door and lock it behind him. The second I hear his feet land on the ground below the staircase, I slide down the wall and let myself cry. What the hell did I just do? God, I’m an idiot.

This is what happens when you spend more time with someone inside your head than in real life.

The Luke Pratt in my fantasies would have stuck around, talked to me. Tears stream down my face. I wipe my nose on my sleeve and try to pull myself together. I can’t go back to the party like this. I can’t go anywhere like this.

Except college. I have to go tomorrow.

What if he’s right? Will I end up at a Mexican joint singing “Feliz Cumpleaños”? What the hell is so great about me that will get me out of this town when so many other people fail to? What if the “singing school” fantasies inside my head are just like the Luke Pratt fantasies, and it ends up being awful?

I give myself a minute to climb down from this emotional mountain and reach far in the distance for some logical reasoning. This isn’t about school. School will be fine. This is about Luke Pratt. Who has turned out to be just another varsity hockey player player. I shouldn’t even be surprised. But I really had thought he was different—one of the good ones.

Maybe there aren’t any good ones.

I spend a little while longer up in the storage/apartment convincing myself to stop crying and then crying all over again. And when I finally lock up, I’m back to being ready to get the hell out of this town.

“Get off me!”

I freeze at the bottom of the outside staircase, recognizing Keith Tanley’s voice but not the sharpness it carries. I peer around the corner, spotting a stumbling Keith with scrawny Tate, trying to hold his dad upright.

“Dad…just…can we please—”

Keith spits out a string of swearwords and struggles out of Tate’s grasp. Even though they can’t see me, my face heats up. I’m embarrassed for Tate. Embarrassed for Jody, despite her absence. Embarrassed for anyone like me who has only seen the completely together, always charming version of Keith Tanley.

I should hide out until they’re gone. That would be easier for Tate. Easier for me, too.

But then Keith shoves Tate hard. He falls on his side onto the gravel parking lot. Dust floats around him. Mr. Tanley reaches down, grips Tate’s arm, pulling him to his feet. He tugs him along, flings the passenger side door open, and attempts to shove his son in. But Tate holds himself in place. He reaches out and grabs the bed of the truck, his feet skidding in the rocks as his dad pushes him harder.

“Get in the truck!” Mr. Tanley says. “I swear to God, kid, if you ever touch my goddamn keys again…”

My heart pounds, my hands shake, but I have to do something. I walk toward them and shout, “Tate!”

Both of them turn their heads in my direction. Tate’s eyes are wide, his mouth falling open. Panic fills his face. He doesn’t want me here.

Keith shoves Tate against the truck then releases a frustrated groan. “See what you did? You get in the truck when I tell you!”

A glass beer bottle swings in his hand—how did he leave with that?—and his anger seems to tip over the edge. He gives Tate a hard kick to the stomach, sending him backward. Tate hits the ground hard, reaching out an arm to break his fall. Even in the dark, I see him wince, pain evident on his face. Keith flings the beer bottle at the gravel parking lot. I dive between them, not knowing what else to do. We both manage to dodge the bottle, but Tate is still on the ground, shaken. I reach down for him, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt.

Keith yanks my hand from Tate and suddenly, Tate is on his feet again, staring down his dad—fierce and angry. Looking so much older than he is. Mr. Tanley, for a brief second, has a flash of fear in his eyes. Then he stalks around the truck, gets in, and takes off, leaving Tate and me alone in the parking lot.

Tate rushes over to me. “Claire, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I’m a couple of inches taller than him, but still, I grip his arm for balance and dip my head to look at him. “What was that? Is he always like that?”

Before he can respond, I release a gasp that’s close to a scream. His left sleeve has just slid up, revealing his arm and it’s—well, it’s not right.

“Oh my God,” I say, and he looks at me, alarmed. “Tate, your arm.”

***

~Tate~

It’s like Claire flips a switch, turning on the pain in my arm. It throbs instantly, but it’s nothing compared to the nausea that sweeps over me when I actually look at it. My entire body turns cold, my teeth suddenly chattering. I hold my arm out in front of me, not sure what else to do.

The color drains from Claire’s face, but she gets to her feet. “Your dad…he pushed you and you must have—” She shakes her head, stopping. “You need a hospital. Like, five minutes ago.”

“But my mom…” I’m still holding my arm out like it’s not part of me anymore. This seems to keep the pain at bay. “She’s there.”

My mom is an ER nurse in our tiny local hospital. She’s working all night tonight.

            “Tate,” Claire says, resting a hand on my uninjured arm. “You can’t fix a broken arm without your mom finding out.”

Yeah, that makes sense. Wait…broken?

            I look at it again—God, it’s messed up. “Okay, you’re right—hospital.”

            Claire nods and then somehow, what feels like seconds later, she’s behind the wheel of her mom’s car, driving the two miles to Juniper Falls Medical Center. I lean my head against the headrest and put all my effort into breathing normally.

            My arm is broken. The same arm that grips my hockey stick.

            The darkness fades as we approach the bright lights of the ER entrance. All six parking spots out front are empty. Claire shuts off the engine and looks at me. For a moment, I’m completely free of pain. My mouth falls open but no words form.

            Finally Claire says, “It’ll be all right.”

            My stomach twists and turns. I don’t know what that means. And I’m too afraid to ask. I swallow back the fear and use my good hand to pull the door handle.

            Inside, the ER is dead. So, of course my mom spots me right away. Her eyes widen, gaze bouncing between the blood on Claire’s face and the deformed arm I’m holding carefully against my chest.

My mom is still for a long second before she rushes over. “What happened?”

Claire gives me that look again—the one she wore moments ago in the car—and now I know what she was trying to say. We’re going to lie. Both of us. Together.

I just don’t know why she’s doing this. For me. Because I’m too afraid to tell the truth? That my dad did all of this?

“I tripped on the wooden stairs at the bar,” Claire spits out. “And then Tate—”

“Tried to catch her,” I add. “But obviously that didn’t work out.”

My mom gets a good view of my arm and, despite her medical training, she goes pale like Claire did. “Oh God, Tate.”

There’s sympathy in her eyes. The kind that tells me I’m not playing hockey for a while. The nausea returns, and I glance around for a place to sit down.

But then Claire slips her hand in mine, and I’m okay again. For now.