Bracing the Blue Line (33 page)

THAT SOFT CLICKING never fails to make me smile. I'm sitting in the library, studying, and Lucy has apparently arrived. Now, I'm waiting for that whine of disappointment when she realizes I've noticed her.

“Grant,” she sighs. “You ruined it.”

I lift my head to look at her walking towards me. “That's not a nice thing to say. I can't help that I have good hearing.”

She sits down next to me and shrugs. “I guess.” Her fingers fiddle with the camera hanging from her neck before she says, “I have a question.”

“What's that?” I ask, closing my textbook to give her my full attention.

Lucy's face transforms with a rather serious expression. “Will you go somewhere with me tonight?”

“Sure. What favor are you wanting to cash in this time?” I tease.

She frowns. Uh, oh. “I'm not asking for a favor, Grant. I meant as a date.” Oh. “We haven't technically been on one yet and I say we both need some fun before finals. We could go do our run first and then go.”

“That sounds like a good plan.” A slow smile makes its way onto my face as I lean back into my chair and fold my arms over my chest. “Where are you taking me on this date, Lucy?”

She rolls her eyes. “Don't make me change my mind.”

I lean over, grab the leg of her chair, and pull her closer to me. Lucy tries not to smile as I hook a finger under her chin to make her lean towards me. “Would you really do that to me?”

She nods. “I would.” Lucy gives me a soft kiss. “But I won't. Not this time anyway.”

Smiling, I put my books away. “Let's go run then.” As we walk over to the gym, which has a small track inside, I take her hand, deciding to tease her one more time. “If you're taking me, does this mean I don't have to drive?”

“Sure, we could walk,” she laughs.

We have a locker here, so we already have clothes waiting for us. Once we change and stretch, we start our jog. We are perfect partners for this because we both run at the same pace. With how regularly we're running, we are getting a bit faster, but not much. It's not our forte, that's for sure. I love that she's trying, though. Especially when it was a pretty much whim decision because Maddie asked her, and she's never done it before. She could've said no, but she didn't. And she's putting all this effort into making sure she does it to the best of her ability.

My lungs are on fire when Lucy finally decides we're done. Hers might be too because her chest is heaving as she tries to take deep breaths.

“Remind me again why we do this?” Lucy asks.

“I'm doing it for you. You're doing it for Maddie.”

She smiles, and I'm confused as to why as she grabs a handful of my shirt and tugs me flush against her. Lucy gives me a kiss and murmurs against my mouth, “You're sweaty, Grant.”

I laugh. “So are you. Sure hope you plan on showering before our date. I don't want to go out with a stinky, sweaty girl.”

Lucy wrinkles her nose and shoves me away from her. “You're so mean. Go get ready and then come pick me up, okay? And bring all your goalie stuff.”

“Why?” I ask with confusion.

“You'll see.”

I agree before leaving her to go do as she wants. Why in the world do we need my gear? She probably wants to take some shots afterwards. When I get back to campus, I go to Lucy's dorm and some chick answers with a bright smile.

“Hey, is Lucy here?”

“Yeah,” she says. “Just a second.” She disappears and seconds later as promised, Lucy is standing at the door.

“Hey, Grant.”

“Hey, Lucy. Ready?”

“Yep!” She takes my hand and starts pulling me down the hallway.

“Excited?” I laugh. “What's the plan? Might help if I knew where I was driving, you know.”

“I'll let you know when to turn,” she giggles.

“You are enjoying this way too much,” I say as I open the door of my truck for her.

She grins. “I know.”

So as we leave campus, Lucy does indeed let me know when to turn until she leads me to a restaurant across town. Even from the outside, it has an old-fashioned southern feel to it, and I wonder how Lucy knew about this place. When I glance at her, she's wearing a smile.

“Whenever my grandparents come up to watch one of my brothers' games, this is their favorite place to eat. I thought you might like it too.”

“Let's find out.” We rush inside to escape the freezing cold. Once we're seated and our food comes, I ask, “Are you ready for Christmas break? Does your family have any special traditions?”

“Nothing special. I just really want to go see my grandparents. They're getting older and not as healthy. I go see them every break.” Lucy's voice softens. “They took care of us and raised us after my parents died, so I want to make sure I visit, especially since their health seems to get worse after every visit. They are doing well right now, though.” She attempts to give me a smile, but it falls too quickly to be a real one. “What about you and your family?”

“We travel for Christmas to get a break from everything. We're going to the Bahamas this year.”

When she laughs, I'm lost, but I smile anyway. “Good. You could use some sun.” I look down at the skin on my hand since my arms are covered by my long sleeved t-shirt. I'm not really tan, but I'm not pale either. The color is somewhere in between. I've never given it much thought before. Lucy laughs again. “Grant, I was kidding! You look fine, promise.”

“Fine? That's how you reassure someone?” I shake my head with a grin. The girl is something else.

“What can I say? I have a spectacular way with words.”

As we discuss finals, I realize that this is probably one of the last times I'm going to be able to spend a decent amount of time with her this year. After finals, we're both leaving until next semester. It's still on my mind as we leave, and I drive us to the rink. Lucy hasn't said what we're doing yet, which makes me notice she didn't bring her camera. Maybe I was wrong.

It's not until we're at the player's bench that I say, “Okay, Lucy, what are we doing here?”

“Well,” she starts, her cheeks flushing a deep scarlet, “you know that I like photographing you when you're in the net and I've been thinking that I want to experience that. Being in the net like you are, I mean.” She reaches for my helmet, looking down at it while turning it over in her hands. “What do you say?”

I take my helmet from her and put it on her head with a smile. “I say you look pretty damn hot right now.”

She laughs and blushes, shaking her head at me. We get my pads and gloves on her and then I put on a pair of skates, grab an extra stick and a bunch of pucks before we step onto the ice. Since Lucy hasn't ever been skating, I let her go without them for now. It'll be a little easier for her to keep her balance this way.

“Are you sure you want to wear all that? You would be fine with just the glove and helmet.”

“Full experience, Grant,” she reminds me.

“Okay.” I line up the pucks in a row and smile when she crouches, ready in case I slap one towards her. She acts like she knows exactly what to do when I haven't told her anything. “Try and glove the shots or let it bounce off your arm.”

She nods, so I do my best to aim and shoot one at her. It's not often than I'm on this side. It's a pretty soft shot, but she misses. It takes her a few more times, but she finally gloves one. After about twenty minutes of her attempting to block various shots, she tells me she's done.

“Let's take all this stuff off.”

I guide her back to the bench and remove all my gear. “Do you want to learn how to skate?”

“Yes, please.” She puts on the extra pair, and I tie the laces for her. “You know, I don't think I could ever be a goalie,” Lucy says it like it's something she would consider one day. “I wanted to flinch so many times and the puck wasn't even coming at me that fast. I thought you were fantastic before, but now, I think you're pretty amazing.”

I help her to her feet, wrapping my arms around her waist. “Thanks. You're a pretty talented photographer. I never really paid attention to things like that before.”

“Looks like we both introduced new things to one another.” She places her hand on the back of my neck, pulling me closer for our lips to meet. “Now, teach me how to skate.”

“Whatever you want, Lucy.”

Her grip on my arms tells me how nervous she is about falling. We move slowly as she gets more comfortable, my comments staying on the task at hand.

“Okay, go a little faster,” she says confidently.

I skate backwards with a little more speed, but it's a tad too fast for Lucy and she starts to fall forward. Lucky for her, I have as good a grip on her as she does on me, so she doesn't fall. I almost expect her to be embarrassed, but she starts laughing.

“Sorry, I pictured it in my head and it looked funny.” She shakes her head and takes a deep breath. “Something tells me a face plant would have hurt so much worse than if I had fallen backwards. Good thing you saved me from that.” Her grip with her right hand tightens as she lets go with her left to move her hair out of her face. Between her laughter, her smile, and every damn thing about her, she's beautiful.

“I'm going to miss you,” I sigh, pulling her against me so I can wrap my arms around her.

Lucy's lips fall into a frown. “Miss me? Where are you...oh, you mean because of Christmas break?”

“Yeah. I don't know what I'm going to do without you around, asking for favors.”

“I'll make a list of all the things I want you to do while your gone then.”

I chuckle and give her a kiss before resting my forehead on hers. “Like what?”

She thinks about it as we glide over the ice. “Well, first, I want you to come back.”

“I can definitely do that for you,” I laugh.

“You could bring me something from there, take pictures, be sure to miss me, and have fun with your parents. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

We come up to the net, and I lift her up to sit on top of it, placing myself between her knees as I hold onto her waist. “I can do that. Do you remember what you told me the last time you were here?” She wrinkles her nose and shakes her head. “You said, and I quote, 'And no funny business'.”

Lucy giggles, trailing her fingers over my chest. She's in a laughing mood tonight, not that I'm complaining. Happy and carefree are two emotions that fit Lucy. “I don't think I've said that tonight,” she whispers. She wraps her arms around my neck. “You said you were going to miss me, right? Maybe you could show me what I have to look forward to when we get back?” Her words are so softly spoken, and her cheeks are ridiculously red. I love that she's being subtly suggestive, and it still makes her blush.

“Is here okay for you or are you going to make me take you back to the house?”

Instead of answering, she presses her lips to mine to show me what I'll be missing in the Bahamas.

MADDIE HAS BEEN avoiding me since that night. She'll answer texts, but that's it. She claims she's too busy studying for finals. And now that finals are over, she's headed home a day early. Before the game tonight, I decided I needed some peace and quiet to think, so I came to the rink. At the sound of footsteps, I look over my shoulder to see Neil. His eyebrows lift in surprise.

“What are you doing here?” he asks the question I was thinking.

“Need to get away. Girl problems. You?”

“The same,” he says, sitting next to me on the bench. Neil rarely speaks of his girlfriend, so I'm a bit surprised he even said what he did.

Before I hand him a beer from the six pack I bought, I ask, “Are you going to act like a dumbass again?”

He shakes his head, and I give it to him. We both take a drag, and before either of us can say something else, more footsteps sound. Grant appears seconds later, looking much like Neil did.

“Girl problems?” Neil questions as Grant takes a seat on the other side of me as I hand him a beer.

“Not really.”

Neil swallows a sip and says, “I can bet that mine is worse.”

I give him a sideways glance and laugh, shaking my head at the seemingly absurdness of it all. “Are we seriously about to discuss this?”

He nods. “You're up first.”

“I'm in love with Maddie,” I say simply.