Rush the Edge: A Brother’s Best Friend Hockey Romance (Blue Devils Hockey Book 3)

Daisy’s eyes widen, and I’m stuck with my hand on her vitamin bottle, frozen with the need to know what’s going on.

River eventually texted me back, and what a dead end that was. He fed me some bullshit excuse about how she’s sensitive over the topic and doesn’t want him to tell anyone.

Since when does he care about what she wants?

Also, since when do I care?

I silently scoff. I’ve always cared, but since when do I show her that I care?

This is bad for my façade, but my heart is racing. The ringing in my ears is back, and there are too many emotions surging to be able to act like I’m unbothered by this.

“Daisy?” Her name slips through my clenched teeth.

Her gulp cuts through the ringing, and I focus on her mouth. “Yes.”

The opened bottle of vitamins slips through my fingers, ironically, just like she did years ago.

She takes a step back as the pills scatter all around the kitchen floor like marbles. Neither of us make a move to bend. Instead, we just stare at one another.

It doesn’t take long for the panic to surge. I lift my hand and aggressively run it through my messy hair. “What do you mean, yes?”

Sick? How sick and since when? Do her parents know? Does my mom know? Miles?

Does everyone know but me?

Daisy shifts nervously. Those perfect white teeth clamp onto her lip to nibble at the soft flesh. It takes everything in me not to reach out to free it. What seems natural to me when it comes to her isn’t always relevant, considering we’re enemies.

“I’m fine,” she finally answers, though it isn’t an answer at all.

Anger spreads like a wildfire. My fists clench by my sides. I teeter my jaw back and forth. “You practically fainted. You have a notebook tracking symptoms.”

She sighs loudly, and it’s a flame brushing against my skin.noveldrama

I refuse to back down. “If you don’t want to tell me, then fine. I’ll find out one way or another, Daisy-Petal. Surely you remember how persistent I can be.”

“How could I forget?” she mutters.

“There was once a time you told me all your secrets,” I argue.

I told her all of mine too.

Her little nostrils flare. “Well, you left.”

My muscles tense. “There was nothing left for me in that town…remember?”

Something flashes across her face, and it digs itself right into my chest. Was that hurt I saw?

“Tell me or don’t, but I’ll find out,” I threaten.

She purses her lips, and the only thing it does is make me want to kiss her.

I glance at the clock on her stove. Fuck, I have to go to the rink—which, at this point, is probably a good thing.

Some of the vitamins crunch beneath my weight as I walk past her. A faint breath of relief leaves her when she thinks she’s in the clear, but at the last second, my arm curls around her waist, and I pull her in close.

My mouth hovers over her ear.

She stares at me out of the corner of her eye.

“Have it your way, babe,” I whisper.

I place her phone on the counter and walk out the door.

Daisy has no idea the man I’ve grown to be…because when I want something, I get it.

After seeing how indisposed Daisy was after last night’s game, I assume she’ll call in sick for tonight’s game—if you can even do that as the mascot? Are there backup mascots? Substitutes? Hell if I know.

A twinge of guilt settles on my shoulders. The only reason she took this job was to prove a point to me. Is this a job she can even handle? Whatever happened to her wanting to open her own plant shop one day?

I have the notion to ask Cindy if Daisy is coming in, but what would that make me? Someone who cares?

Every few seconds, I glance around the rink. The stands are beginning to fill. Rhodes is off to the side, talking to his daughter through the glass while flirting with his girlfriend at the same time. I skate past and wink at Ellie. She throws up her little devil horns, and I force a smile.

As subtle as I can, I peer toward the bench in hopes I see another set of devil horns peeking out from behind strawberry-blonde locks. At the same time, Crew Hart, one of our newer guys from the trade, skates past and misses me by a hair. He’s a damn good skater, so I know it wasn’t a coincidence that he didn’t ram right into me, but it gives me the push I need to get my shit together and focus on warming up.

Several pucks into the net later, I drop to the ice to stretch.

There’s a group of girls behind me that are trying to get my attention, but my focus is elsewhere. Where are you, little devil?

A sick feeling fills my gut.

What if she fainted again?

I shake my head. River came home mid-morning. She doesn’t need me.

With my glove on, I punch the ice and pair it with a growl.

“Well, that was stupid,” Malaki says from somewhere nearby. “Save the punching for the game. The ice is our friend.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see that he starts to pet the ice.

I ignore him, but in true Malaki fashion, he doesn’t get the hint.

“Where were you last night? I came home, and the door was wide open.”

I grunt. “None of your business.”

Amusement slides onto his face. “Were you with your little girlfriend?”

My brows knit together with anger. “You’re pissing me off.”

He grins. “I know.”

I play better when I’m angry.

The entire team knows that.

In fact, Coach sometimes will tell me to keep the chirping up on the ice because he knows I play harder.

Rising to my skates, I swipe my stick off the ice and begin to take off.

Malaki is right behind me.

“Or…” His words linger, and he lowers his voice. “You weren’t out at the casino, were you?”

I wiggle my jaw back and forth. “Did you go through my phone?”

Malaki’s brow furrows. “Not purposefully. It was on the counter, and a text came in.”

He comes from a place of worry, because he’s the only one on the team that knows about my situation. After saving my ass, he deserved to know. But fuck, it still pisses me off.

The other team takes the ice, and the crowd grows restless.

“I wasn’t at the casino,” I snap.

With irritation backing me, I snag a puck from Hart and fling it to the top left part of the net, hitting the bar to pop in behind Emory.

“Nice,” Emory says.

It was a nice shot, full of hot anger.

Malaki skates toward me again. “So you were with our little neighbor?”

“Whatever you’re implying, stop,” I say.

The last thing I need is even more thoughts of Daisy in my head right now.

Malaki grins, and it takes every bit of maturity not to trip him with my stick before he skates off. He turns and calls over his shoulder. “By the way, she just showed up.”

I spin on my skates.

With that eye-catching shimmer on her cheeks, Daisy takes the ice with those foam tridents again. Only, this time, she manages to throw them up and over the glass to the fans without needing help from anyone.