“Wait until he skates onto the ice. It’ll be mayhem.”
“It’s pretty loud already.”
“This is not loud in comparison to when he comes out,” Max shouted over the noise. “Do you still hate each other?”
“No.” I blushed. “Water under the bridge.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good, because Fitz is the kind of guy who could make your time here a living hell if he wanted to.”
“How would he do that?” I raised my brows. “Our school has a zip code. It’s not like I have to see him.”
“You take pictures of sports events for the paper.” He shot me a look. “You’ll see him. Besides, as big as campus is, I bet you’ve seen all of them around everywhere.”
“True.”
“And I’ve heard the way girls talk about him. Cry over him.” He shot me another look.
My heart pounded, but I tried to keep my expression neutral. I did not want to hear anything about my boyfriend’s past. I’d convinced myself to get over his partner at The Eight from last year and stop obsessing over the thought of him with anyone else before me. It was a dumb thing to think about anyway. It wasn’t like I could change any of that. I put it out of my mind as the crowd got louder, cheers and screams sounding as the music was lowered and the announcer started announcing the team. First, he introduced the coaches, who walked out on the ice in a large group and waved. I snapped a picture.
“And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for . . . this year’s hockey team!” the announcer screamed into the microphone.
The crowd roared. The lights shut off and spotlights shone on the ice, moving back and forth as the music started up again. Players were introduced as they skated onto the ice, and I clicked photos of each of them. The crowd seemed to get louder with each one. I wondered if they’d done it on purpose, given them an order of popularity to come out in. If so, I felt bad for the first one. Nolan was introduced. Nolan Chadwick Astor. It was a long, important-sounding name. I wondered if his mother was waiting for him to grow out of the long hair and inappropriate comments phase and grow into his name or if she’d given up hope.
Logan was last. “Logan ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald!” The crowd went crazy, pounding on the glass, stomping on the floor, climbing on their seats, and I had to pause taking pictures to look around because I really thought they’d bring the house down. The noise vibrated through me as I stood there, and I smiled as I lifted the camera up and snapped a picture of the crowd first, and then Logan as he skated out on the ice. It got louder when he was in full sight. Unlike his teammates, who did a wave and stood in line, Logan skated around the ice and waved. It was then that it hit me. He really was popular. He really was sort of famous. And yeah, he was arrogant, but not as arrogant as you’d expect someone with this kind of following to be. When he skated toward my section, I braced myself, pressing my face to the camera and holding it tighter, as if it would somehow fall out of my hands at the sight of a close-up. I took a breath. I needed to calm down.
This was Logan, for God’s sake. When he reached us, people pounded on the glass. I stood closer to it and snapped, snapped, snapped. I didn’t want to miss him if he went by really fast. Suddenly, it seemed almost quiet, as if the crowd around me was waiting in anticipation of something. When I blinked into the little window of the camera, I saw his face right in front of me, staring into the lens—into me. I licked my lips, and he grinned, a slow, sexy grin that made his green eyes sparkle with mischief. He knew I was flustered. I lowered the camera but kept my finger on the button in case he did anything film-worthy. He nodded at me. I smiled, shaking my head. What was he doing? And then he did something I would have never expected in a million years. While holding my gaze from the other side of the glass, he opened his hand and kissed his palm.
It happened in an instant. So quickly I was sure nobody really caught it, but I did, because it was clearly for me. I smiled wide, resisting the urge to throw the camera down and walk onto the ice to jump on him. He winked and skated away.
“Well, I guess you can say you definitely don’t have issues anymore,” Max said. “What was that kiss thing?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head, still smiling.
I stayed for another hour and from the looks of it, the other people weren’t leaving any time soon either. Logan and his team were working on some drills with no signs of stopping. Glancing at my watch, I saw that it was almost seven thirty and started packing up. There was no way the paper would need more pictures than what I took. The announcer said they were finished with the pep rally shortly after I packed up and the guys skated off the ice. I walked with Max to the general area of the rink, standing off to the side as the crowd of people walked by us waving their Fitz Mitt. Max stopped a couple of them and interviewed them for the paper. They all gushed about their golden boy, Fitz, and mentioned they’d driven down for this and would drive down again for games. When they walked away, I turned to Max, who was making sure he’d jotted down the notes.
“That really is impressive.”
“What? That they travel to see him?”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“I told you. He’s a legend.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about dating a legend. Old insecurities started to bubble as I thought about it. How would I deal with all of the attention? Would I be able to handle all of the girls that constantly clung to him? Would he really not pay attention to them? With Travis, it was a gamble I was willing to take because even when we were “on” I didn’t feel this lost in him. With Logan, I felt like I was on a completely different playing field. Yet, Logan hadn’t ever given me a reason to doubt him. Not yet anyway. We’d been friends for a while now and I hadn’t seen him so much as look at another girl when I was around. I needed to trust he meant it when he said he wanted to be with me. Besides, he’d called me his girlfriend.
“Why are you so smiley?” Max asked.
“I can’t smile?”
“You normally don’t unless I’m saying something funny, and then I think you may just look amused for my sake.” He smiled. My cheeks hurt from smiling so hard. I pushed him playfully. “Uh-oh, Mae has a secret,” he said.
“What secret?” The voice came from Logan. Some people swarmed him when they saw him. He was wearing a team t-shirt and jeans, his gaze on me as he smiled for his fans. “I just have to . . . “
I waved him away. “I’ll be right here.”
“Holy shit,” Max breathed. “You could’ve given me a warning.”
“A warning about what?”
“You and Fitz are a thing.”
“Her and Fitz are dating,” Logan said loud and clear. Some of the people waiting for a picture gasped and directed their camera toward me.
“Eyes on him. I suck on the ice.” I blocked my face. “I’m just here for moral support.”
They laughed, but obeyed my wishes and kept their attention on him.
“You think you can handle all of this?” Max whispered.
I shot him a look. Logan had the best hearing out of anyone I’d ever met. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hear him right now. I looked over at him and he was talking to a guy so I figured it was fine to talk about this to Max quietly.