didn’t need to know.
Tugging on the bottom of my sweater, I pointed at the logo embroidered on the right upper chest area. “I’ll be on school property, so I have to be in Black Mountain Academy approved clothes.”
“I will never understand how a school that costs so much has the worst taste in uniforms.” She tapped her finger against the face of the Rolex wrapped around her wrist. “You’d better hurry. I need Edwin to drive me to the charity gala in thirty minutes. Your father is still in the office and will be meeting me at the event.”
I would have loved to point out that there wouldn’t be any need to rush if she’d let me get my license, but arguing with her never accomplished anything. At least I only had a couple more months to go, and I had the perfect excuse to get out of here before she asked where I was going. Since Emily and Sarah caught the flu bug going around school, neither of them could pick me up. I didn’t want to miss Corby’s game, and I had been hoping my mother would be too busy to pay attention to what I was doing, like usual. “I’m ready to go, so he’ll be back in a jiffy.”
I hurried out the door before she could say anything else and practically dived in the car. “Drive it like you stole it,” I teased.
“No need to worry, Miss Cushing. I’ll be back in plenty of time to get your mother to her event,” Edwin reassured me with a smile.
“Phew!” I slumped against the back of my seat. “You’re a lifesaver.”
“I’m just doing my job,” he disagreed as he drove like the pro he was.
When we arrived at the rink, I squinted up at the building. “If you can figure out how to avoid telling my mom where you dropped me off, I’d appreciate it.”
“Your mother rarely speaks to me, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”
I flashed him an apologetic smile before I climbed out of the car. My mom could be such a witch, but I was lucky her attitude worked in my favor tonight. I knew she was going to find out about Corby eventually, but I wanted our reprieve to last as long as possible. The closer I was to my eighteenth birthday—and freedom from being under my mom’s thumb—the better. She was used to me giving in to whatever she wanted, but that wasn’t going to happen when it came to my relationship with Corby. I planned to fight for him as hard as he went against the other team when he was on the ice.
When I walked into the rink, I headed straight for the stands and grabbed the same seat I’d used for each of their home games over the past two weeks. Corby hadn’t exaggerated how superstitious hockey players were. I’d almost sat somewhere else last weekend, but half the guys had yelled while pointing at where they wanted me to go. Sarah and Emily had giggled their butts off and teased me about being the Cougars mascot. All the jokes had been worth it when Corby scored another hat trick and pointed at me after each goal.
It was weird being at the rink by myself, but a bunch of the other people in the stands smiled and greeted me as I sat down. Everyone knew who Corby was since he’d quickly become the star of the team. Even if people didn’t see us together after every game, it was impossible to miss my connection to him with how he acknowledged me whenever he scored—something that happened again two times tonight.
It didn’t take long before I forgot about being alone at the game as I cheered the Cougars on with everyone else around me. After watching four games, I felt as though I was getting a hang of how the game was played and was finally able to follow what was happening, which was a good thing since I didn’t have Sarah around to explain it all. I was proud of myself as I screamed, clapped, and stomped my way through yet another victory for the Cougars.
My throat was a little hoarse by the time the game was over, so I grabbed a hot chocolate from the snack area while I waited for Corby to come out of the locker room. He was always one of the first guys to finish getting cleaned up, and I expected he would move even