side and bumped me with his shoulder. “I think we have Emmeline to thank for that. She’s my good luck charm now.”
“Well, then I guess I’ll be seeing more of you at the rink.” Mr. Whitney beamed a smile at me. “But for now, I’ll leave you two to chat. It’s morning in Tokyo, and I have a conference call starting in half an hour.”
As he walked away, I asked, “Why does he think I’ll be at the games so often?”
“Something you should know about hockey players; we’re superstitious as fuck.” He tossed his red tie over his shoulder and unbuttoned his black button-down shirt to show me the T-shirt he was wearing beneath it. The well-worn material was pulled tight against his abs, and I was sorely tempted to run my fingers across the ridges of his six-pack. “I’ve worn this to every single high school game since I was a freshman.” He lifted the button-down shirt higher to show me the Blue Devils logo hidden underneath. “None of my teammates gave me shit about wearing this once they found out it’s brought me good luck for the past three seasons.”
I wasn’t into sports, but I still knew we had a pretty serious rivalry with Devil Ridge. “Whoa, you guys really must take your superstitions seriously.”
“Yup.” His cocky grin and the mischievous glint in his blue eyes sent butterflies swirling in my belly. “That’s why it’s so important for you to come to all of my games from now on.”
“Hmm”—I cocked my head to the side and stared up at him with a smile—“that seems like an awfully convenient way to ask me to come watch you play again.”
He shrugged, his grin widening. “But did it work?”
“Maybe,” I giggled, loving how confident he was. “I guess it depends on when the next game is.”
“Tomorrow night at seven.”
I was pretty sure school football games only happened once a week, so that wasn’t the answer I was expecting. “How often do you guys play?”
“We can have anywhere from one to three games a weekend, depending on what’s going on.” He pointed toward a banner hanging from the ceiling that listed last year’s team as the winner of some event called Large Lion. “Sometimes we’ll participate in a tournament, and it could be more.”
It had to take a lot of dedication to play that many games so close together, especially during the school year. “How long is the season?”
“The championship tournament is in early March.”
My eyes widened after I did a quick calculation in my head. “Dang, that’s five months from now.”
“What do you say? Will you block out all your weekends between now and then for me?” He brushed a lock of my hair over my shoulder. “How I perform this season could be the deciding factor in me getting the chance to play professional hockey, which has been my dream since I was little. I can use all the good luck I can get.”
I could hardly believe that I’d gone from wondering if Corby would want to hang out with me earlier today to him wanting me to come to all his games. But I didn’t let the quick shift in thinking throw me off track. “How can I say no when you put it like that?”
“You can’t.” He straightened and grinned. “Would I be pushing my luck if I offered to drive you home if one of your friends that you were sitting with gave you a ride? We’re neighbors after all.”
“Um.” I bit my bottom lip, really wanting to say yes. “I’m not going home, though. I’m having a sleepover at Emily’s house, and her house is on the opposite side of town from us. She and Sarah are waiting out in her car for me since they were still cold from the game.”
“If you want to let them know they can go, I’m up for driving you there,” he offered.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket to send a text to Emily, who would be thrilled to leave me behind so Corby could give me a ride. “You don’t mind that it’ll take you an extra half hour or more to get home?”
“Fuck no.” He reached down and laced his fingers through my free hand. “I’m looking forward to having you all to myself.”
I freaking loved the sound of that, as long as I didn’t make a total fool of myself. Knowing he was into me had settled my nerves some, and I hadn’t stumbled over