Delayed Penalty (Crossing the Line, #1)(18)

All through the morning skate, and after what Leo had said to me, I couldn't stop thinking about Ami. I should have been preparing for the game and thinking of nothing but the Anaheim Ducks and how we could beat them. We hadn't seen them since game twenty four and they had beaten us 0-3. That wasn't happening again if I could help it.

During practice, Leo and Remy were talking about their night while slapping pucks at Cage, and before he could recover, they'd slap another one at him.

Skating near them, I leaned on my stick, watching, waiting for Cage to react to them. He'd let them do this as sort of a warm up, but right when they weren't expecting it, he would slap one back at them.

"You know that feeling when you're on acid and the world stops just to f*ck with you? That's what it was like."

Remy gave Leo a concerned look and then slapped another shot toward the net. "Never did acid," he said in his rough voice this early in the morning. "I really worry that with the hard hits you've taken, and your drug use as a kid, you might not have any brain cells left."

Leo yawned. "I've got some left." He took cover behind me when Cage took one off the face mask. He knew what was coming.

Sure enough, Cage took a puck and fired it back at us, nailing Remy in the back of the head.

Leo skated over to me after warm-ups and asked if she was awake. He knew they'd taken her off the medicine.

I said yes, and he knew then I'd be no help in that game.

As it turned out, I was more than on my game that night with two goals, three assists, and ten minutes in the penalty box.





After the game, I didn't go out with the boys. Instead, I did what I had been doing for the last nineteen days.

The five-minute drive to the hospital went slower than it had in the previous weeks because, for once, there was this anxiety that had settled over me, knowing that I would finally meet her.

What would I say?

Should I ask about her family?

No. Stupid idea. Let her talk.

What if she can't talk?

What if she doesn't want to see me?

No, that wasn't true. Wendy said she asked for me.

Wendy was just getting ready to leave, dressed in street-clothes, when I walked in. It was late. She probably just wanted to get home.

"Has the doctor seen her since she woke up?"

"Yes, he said she has no memory of the few hours leading up to the attack, as well as the entire attack itself. She doesn't remember."

Nodding, my next question was, "Did you tell her who I was?"

Wendy gave me a grin as she walked to Ami's room with me. "I told her your name, but no, I didn't say that you were a hockey player or anything. That's your business."

My arm wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her into me. "Thanks. I appreciate that."

"Does that mean you'll take me to dinner soon?"

I gave her another smile. "Sure."

I wasn't lying. I would take her to dinner. Going home with her was another story. I knew I couldn't do that again.

The anxiety of actually meeting Ami, now that she was awake, was written all over my face. Wendy noticed and asked, "What's going on with you?"

"I don't know…what if I'm not who she expected?"

"Believe me, she's pretty cool, and any girl would be lucky to be saved by you." Wendy gave a nod in the direction of the room. I smiled, giving her one last look before she left.

I stood outside the room for a few minutes, not knowing what to say. It was more along the lines of my f*cking feet wouldn't move, and my heart was in my throat.

What if I wasn't who she expected?

That was a big what if in my head. It was the one question that was keeping me from stepping inside. Until now, I'd never seen her eyes open, her smile, or her voice. She'd never seen me, never heard my voice, looked into my eyes, or felt my touch.

At some point, I must have gotten my balls back because I knocked lightly and poked my head inside the door.

And then I heard her voice for the first time. "Come in." Sweet like syrup, but a touch raspy from having the tube in her throat for so long. It was also tender and just as scared as I felt.

She was sitting up; that was also a first. Her eyes were downcast as stared at her hands resting on her lap. She looked up as I came through the door, her bright starry blue eyes, though tired, met mine and I smiled at her.

They were bigger than I imagined and somehow the same cool blue as mine, just brighter. When you looked at her pale complexion and then the eyes, they looked misplaced with their clarity and innocence. I couldn't look away from her, and the anxiety I felt was overwhelming. Beneath the eyes was a depth and intensity I'd never seen in another person. But then again, I'd never taken the time to really stare at someone before.

The doctor came in right then, ruining anything I was about to say, but it gave me a few minutes to decide what to say.

After being around Ami for all of two minutes, I learned a few things. She didn't take shit from anyone, which explained the bruises on her fingers and the blood under her nails when I found her. She fought hard for her life. And she was adorable. When she kept rolling her eyes at the doctor, I dug that. I liked her more by the second and was starting to understand why I was so drawn to her. She was just like me in some ways.