Off the Ice (The Penalty Kill Trilogy) (Volume 2) (16 page)

Presley

Who would have thought that my lying, my penalty, would mean I would have to wait quietly and patiently in the penalty box? It was against Levi's rules for me to do anything, but stay separated from him until my time was up. I had to wait an unbearable amount of time while letting my player, my Levi, kill the time until I could return.

I can’t believe I’m laying in his arms right now. I can’t believe that my Levi is back. I promise myself I will never hurt him like that again. When he said we would be fine, I thought my heart was going to explode with happiness.

“
Don’t go and start thinking, Smarty.” Levi pulls me closer to him.

“
I’m not. I just can’t believe that you’re here and we’re going to be able to work this out.” I look up at him and smile.

“
I said that we’re fine.” He kisses the top of my head.

I cuddle closer and I can’t stop smiling. “You do realize I don’t want to get out of this bed, right?”

He laughs. “Well, we will have to eat soon, if you want another round like earlier.”

Now, it’s my turn to laugh at him. Then we hear the front door.

“Pres, you here?” Trevor hollers.

“
Trev, I’m in the bedroom. Don’t -”

“
Oh, shit!” Trevor exclaims as he walks into my bedroom. He immediately covers his eyes. “Really, Carr?”

“
Man, I’m under the sheet and Smarty has a shirt on.” Levi laughs at him.

“
Nice abs, Levi,” Marley says behind Trevor.

“
Hey, I have abs,” Trevor yells while his eyes are still covered. Marley laughs.

“
Everyone out. Levi and I need to get dressed,” I announce and Levi laughs. I definitely don’t want Marley
or
Trevor to see anything that is under these sheets. They walk out of the bedroom, and we get dressed.

“
So, when did this happen?” Marley asks as we come into the kitchen.

“
About an hour ago,” Levi chuckles as we sit down.

“
Well, we were coming over to see if you wanted to go and get something to eat.” Marley smirks. “But I think Levi has already.”

“
I don’t want to know this.” Trevor covers his ears and Levi barks out a laugh. I’m sure my face is as red as an apple.

“
Marley,” I hiss at her.

“
What?” She tries not to smile as she tries to act innocent.

“
Could we please just talk about food and nothing sexual, especially when it involves my sister?” Trevor groans.

“
I could go for some food. Smarty?”

“
Let me clean up and change.” I get up and Marley says she’ll help.

“
I don’t need help.” I laugh as we go into the bedroom.

“
No, but I need details. Spill it.” She sits in the chair that’s in the corner. I grab some clothes from the closet: jeans and a Penguins t-shirt. I tell her everything that happened between Levi and me.

“
Shit, you two have some hot sex. I thought Trevor and I were animals, but I think that has us beat.” She fans herself.

“
Ew, don’t talk about Trev and sex, please,” I say as I fix my hair into a ponytail. I do it just for Levi, because I know he likes it. Marley giggles as we head back to the kitchen.

“
How about Lou’s?” Trevor asks and we all agree. We jump into Levi’s SUV and head over to RU’s campus. We talk about school and our finals coming up. I’m nervous about my finals. I’ve taken a lot of classes this year, and I’m a little worried.

We get to the diner and grab a booth. Marley is telling us that she hasn’t heard about her internship yet. It gets me thinking about mine, and I’m not sure what I am going to do if I don’t get in. I really don’t want to ask my dad or mom for help on this. I want to do it on my own.

Levi talks about his internship, the one my dad helped him with. He got all his information and starts when finals are over. Then he will head off to prospect camp in Pittsburgh. I can’t help the twitch of sadness. He’s going to be so far away, and I know it’s only going to be for a few weeks, but it’s still sad.

Trevor isn’t doing an internship this summer because he will be helping out with hockey camps. I think deep down Trevor loves doing that more than anything. He loves teaching kids about hockey, and since he is a big kid on the ice, it’s perfect for him.

They are about to ask me about my future plans, but Marley’s eyes go wide as she stares at the door. I look over my shoulder to see Zack walk in with a brunette haired girl. I don’t know her, nor have I seen her before.

“
What are you two looking at?” Trevor leans over to see Zack. “Well, fuck,” he mumbles.

“
What?” Then Levi looks. I grab Levi’s thigh and slightly squeeze it. Please don’t get mad, I think. Instead, he tightens his arm around my shoulder. “It’s fine,” he whispers into my ear.

“
Hey, guys.” Zack stands at the end of our table. I haven’t spoke to him since I punched him at the party. Even though he is still wearing the nose brace, his black eyes are gone. Trevor told me it was really bad, and I couldn’t help but feel overjoyed by it.

“
Hey, Zack.” I’m a little surprised that it is Levi to speak first.

“
I just wanted to say ‘hi’ and I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I see that some people are.” He gives me a small smile.

“
Yes, we are and a little is thanks to you.”

I whip my head and stare at Levi. His grip gets tighter on my shoulder, and I know that means he’ll explain later.

“I’m glad. I really am.” He shifts uncomfortably. “Well, I have to get back to my friend. Um, see you guys around.” He gives a fake smile and leaves.

“
Okay, why thanks to ‘him’?” I ask Levi. He just shrugs as the waitress comes and takes our order and then leaves.

“
I dragged his scrawny ass over to Levi’s a couple of weeks ago,” Trevor explains.

“
What?” Marley and I both shout.

“
Well, what the hell happened?” Marley stares with her eyes wide. “I’m surprised he is still walking upright since he was near you, Levi.”

Levi chuckles. “Well, it was tempting to kill him, but he explained everything to me and I thought there was no need to kill him, yet.”

“Why did you do that, Trevor?” I can’t believe I didn’t know about this. Of course, I haven’t been myself the last few weeks either.

“
Well, you were depressed and drinking alcohol like a fish in water, and I was scared that something seriously was wrong with you. I knew that Levi could fix it,” Trevor explains.

“
You were drinking?” Levi looks at me.

I just shrug. I don’t want Levi to think I’m a crazy person.

“She was drinking a lot, Levi,” Marley confirms.

“
Hey, it wasn’t that bad.” I’m trying to play it down.

“
Yes, it was,” Trevor and Marley say at the same time. Levi removes his hand from my shoulder and tightly grips my hand on his leg. I know that he is upset, and I don’t want him to be.

“
Anyway, I was really worried about you and I knew Zack had more to do with it than what he was saying. So, I kindly convinced him to come with me and talk to Levi.”

“
Kindly?” I perk my eyebrow at him.

“
Well, there may have been a little force to it, but whatever.” He shrugs like it wasn’t a big deal.

“
Zack told me that it was him that kissed you and that he still wanted to be with you. That was when I saw you broke his nose.” Levi smiles at me and I’m still trying to process all the information that I just attained. My twin brother drug Zack to Levi’s to get us back together. I don’t think I could love him more than I do right now. On top of that, Levi knows the truth and I understand now we will be okay.

The food comes and we eat, keeping the conversation light. We finally are ready to go and as we are leaving, I see Zack laughing with the girl. I give him a small smile before taking Levi’s hand and leaving.

Once we are back at my apartment, Trevor and Marley head out. Levi and I crawl back into bed, but I don’t want to have sex. I just want him to hold me. I missed being in his arms so much.

“
Levi?”

“
Yeah?”

“
I love you.”

“
I love you too, Smarty.” There is a smile on my face as I drift to sleep.

~ ~ ~

My weekend is pure bliss. Levi stays with me the whole time, and I can’t believe that we are back together. Even Victor is happy when Levi calls him. I don’t want Monday, or classes, to come. But, sadly, it does.

I’m about to head to my afternoon classes when I check the mail. I don’t pay attention to it until I get home that night and throw it on my table. I can’t breathe when I see there are two letters that can change my future.

One is from the law firm and the other is from the Pittsburgh Law School. I fall into my kitchen chair and just stare at them. I don’t move. I want to know the answer, but at the same time, I’m scared to death.

I call Marley because I know she and Trevor are close. I tell her I need her to come over alone. She is there within minutes.

“Oh God, what’s wrong?” She looks at me with panic in her eyes. I just point at the envelopes on the table. I look at them like they are going to explode at any moment.

“
Okay.” She picks them up and looks at them. “Well, my normal philosophy on envelopes is that they are like penis’: small ones are a waste of time and big ones you can remember forever.”

“
Are you kidding me right now? My future is literally in your hands and you’re talking about dicks.” I stare at her.

She giggles. “Calm down. Let’s just open them and see what they say.”

“No!” I scream.

Marley jumps. “Pres, you have to open them to read them.”

“I...I’m scared.” I don’t want to think that I may have failed.

Marley holds my hand. “Don’t be.” Her smile is reassuring, and I nod. She opens the one from the law firm first. Her expression is unreadable. Then she sets it to the side and opens the one from the law school. Again, her expression is unreadable. She sits that one to the side and gets up. She grabs two beers from the fridge, opens them, and sits one in front of me.

“So?” My voice cracks. It must be bad.

“
Well,” she takes a swig from the beer. “I’m just going to miss you this summer. Plus, I’m not helping you move to Pennsylvania. It’s too far, and I might break a nail.”

I scream and throw my arms around her neck. Hugging her tightly, the tears come down my face. I did it. Without the help from my parents, I applied for an internship and got it. On top of that, I got into law school. I did it.

“Congrats, Pres.” She hugs me back even tighter. “Now, go tell Levi.”

I gasp. I don’t know how Levi will react to the news. We just got back together. I don’t know how he will feel if I tell him that I’m following him in the city and to Pittsburgh. We never really sat down and discussed our future like that. I love Levi, and I don’t doubt his love for me. However, we have had a very rocky relationship, and I don’t know how he feels.

Marley lets go of me. I guess it’s written on my face how much I’m worried because Marley tells me to stop worrying and that it will be fine.

“
You’re right. I’ll just talk to him.” I nod to myself in reassurance.

“
I suggest you do it now. The sooner the better, and then you will know where he stands.”

I nod. She’s right. If Levi doesn’t see a strong future for us, then we need talk about it.

“Okay, I’m going back to Trevor. We will celebrate later.” She hugs me again and leaves.

I sit at the table and read both of the letters again. It’s real, and I still can’t believe it. I need to talk to Levi though. I need to tell him. I text him and he tells me to come over to his place. He just finished working out with some teammates.

The drive to Levi’s is quick, because my nerves are on edge. I walk up to his door and knock. I’m shaking. I can’t believe this. Levi opens the door in a pair of basketball shorts and no shirt. Yeah, like I’m able to have a serious conversation with him shirtless.

“
Smarty.” He pulls me in and kisses me. “No one is here, so you can be as loud as you want.” He wags his eyebrows and I just smile. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“
Can we talk first?”

He nods, his expression now serious, and we head to his bedroom. I sit on the side of his bed and he sits next to me. I take a deep breath and count to three.