“Look,” he said, his tone marginally less hostile. “You add a lot of value to the team. And I appreciate your knack for getting into your opponents’ heads. But you have to reel it in a little off the ice, or you’re going to ruin all your hard work. Understand?”

“Yes,” I muttered. “I understand.”

“You can’t impress the scouts from the sidelines, Carter. Get it together or get benched. You’re dismissed.”

“Yes, sir.” I stood up and threw my gym bag over my shoulder before heading for the door. There was still enough time to catch some sleep before class.

“And Carter?”

“Yes, Coach?” I turned back to face him.

He snatched a pen from its holder with a worrying amount of violence. “Consider this your first, last, and only warning.”

8. you thought about it

CHAPTER 8

YOU THOUGHT ABOUT IT

Bailey

I didn’t dare tell Jillian and Amelia where I spent Saturday night. When I got home Sunday morning, they assumed I had been at Zara and Noelle’s, and I didn’t correct them. Zara and Noelle had agreed to cover for me too, angels that they were.

Plus, nothing even happened with Chase. So why open that can of worms?

Even without telling Jillian and Amelia about Chase, things were strained at our place. Like neither of them knew how to act around me now that I wasn’t Luke’s girlfriend. I hadn’t realized that as far as most of my “friends” were concerned, that was my identity.

Now it was like I was a stranger instead of their roommate and friend. Or like I had a communicable disease and they were scared of catching breakup-itis.

Maybe I could move into the Callingwood Daily office and live there.

* * *

I successfully avoided Luke for the first part of the week, which required considerable effort given the overlap of our lives. On my way to English Lit on Tuesday, I nearly ran smack into him on the quad. Fortunately, I had reflexes like a ninja, and I ducked behind a tree so he didn’t see me. At least he was alone.

You could say I was taking the whole post-breakup no-contact strategy to the extreme. If I wasn’t in class, I was holed up in the Callingwood Daily office. I didn’t even settle in to study on campus for fear of Luke strolling by. But now it was Wednesday, and contact with him was inevitable, because taking a class with my boyfriend had seemed like a great idea until he was suddenly no longer my boyfriend.