Breaking the Deal with My Hockey Bad Boy novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Terms

On the empty rink at one in the morning, Rhett lays out the fake relationship and why he needs one too, until Jase appears at the glass.

Rhett didn't let go of my hand until we were three blocks from the party.

The October air bit through my quarter-zip, and my lips still tingled.

"You can breathe now," he said.

"I'm breathing."

"You're doing a thing where you inhale and forget to let it out."

I let it out in a shaky white cloud.

He walked with his hands jammed in his jacket pockets, taped knuckles showing at the cuffs.

He didn't look at me, and he didn't ask if I was okay.

I would have hated it if he had.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"Because Zara had your name in her mouth."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the one you're getting on the street."

He turned left, and I followed him because I did not have a better plan.

Ten minutes later he was unlocking the side door of Halverson Arena with a key that said STAFF.

"You have a key to the rink?" I said.

"I have a key to everything. Coach gives them to people he wants to keep out of bars."

The ice lay dark and flat, with only the red exit lights showing along the boards.

The cold smelled like rubber mats and old coffee, and my shoulders came down for the first time all night.

I sat on the bottom bleacher.

Rhett sat on the boards in front of me, one boot braced against the gate.

"Say it," I said. "Whatever you want in exchange."

He studied me for a second.

"I need a girlfriend," he said.

I laughed once, and then I realized he was serious.

"Coach has a folder on me," he said. "Eleven fights in two seasons."

"He told me one more report and I'm off the captain list."

"Then my scholarship goes to review."

"And a girlfriend fixes that?"

"A girlfriend with a three-point-nine who sits on the bench with a notebook? Yeah."

"It makes me look like I have somewhere to be."

"That's the worst reason I've ever heard."

"It's a good reason. It's just not a romantic one."

I pulled my braid over my shoulder and twisted the end around my finger.

"What about Zara?"

"Zara wants to know who wrote that story."

"If you're my girlfriend, she assumes it's about me, and the whole room already heard me say it."

"She'll keep digging."

"Then we give her something to dig into that goes nowhere."

He said it flatly.

I should have been grateful, and I was, but I was also suspicious.

"You hate Jase," I said. "He's my stepbrother. Why would you go anywhere near this?"

Something flickered over his face and vanished.

"I don't hate him," Rhett said. "I just don't talk to him."

"That sounds like hate."

"It's a different kind of cold."

I looked at the ice for a long moment.

"Fine," I said. "What are the terms?"

He held up one taped finger.

"Six weeks, until winter break. Then we have a quiet breakup and everybody forgets."

A second finger.

"We kiss and touch in public, where Zara can see. We don't do it anywhere else."

"Obviously."

A third.

"No sex."

My ears went hot. "I wasn't planning on it."

"I'm saying it so we both hear it."

"Fine. Next."

"Nobody gets the truth. Not your roommate, not your mother, not the team."

"Next."

He grinned for the first time, and it made the chipped tooth show.

"If either of us wants out, we say one word and it ends. No questions."

"What's the word?"

"Penalty."

I laughed again, helplessly, and he looked pleased with himself.

"That's a terrible word," I said.

"It's not a word. It's a whistle."

"Is there a sixth rule?"

He hesitated.

"You tell me when the story's about to go public. I want the heads-up."

"Why?"

"Because I'd like to read it first."

"You've read it?"

"I read enough," he said, and he didn't look at me when he said it.

I stood up and held out my hand.

He took it and shook, and his palm was hard and warm and callused.

"One more thing," I said. "Why me? You don't even like me."

"I like you fine."

"You told Hallie I had the personality of a spreadsheet."

"I said you had the personality of a very organized spreadsheet. That was a compliment."

I rolled my eyes, and the corner of his mouth moved.

Then the arena door banged open at the far end of the rink.

A flashlight beam swung across the ice, followed by a tall shadow in a captain's jacket.

I knew the walk before I saw the face.

"Melina?" Jase called, his voice echoing off the empty seats.

He stopped at the glass, looking at my hand still caught in Rhett's.

"Why are you holding his hand?"

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