Cade: Fire And Ice: A Second Chance Hockey Romance Read Free

to face a middle-aged man in a John Deere baseball cap.
    "Yes."
    As soon as my identity was confirmed he smiled and shook my hand enthusiastically.
    "Thought so. Not many boys in town as big as you. You looking forward to the season? Been training hard?"
    I nodded, preparing myself for what I had already come to expect from these conversations - a grilling on how dedicated I was to Coach Hansen's program and a discourse on how lucky I was to be playing for the Ice Kings. Sometimes, they reeled off the names of former Ice Kings players who were now in the NHL. But just as the man in front of me was about to launch into his spiel someone caught my eye.
    A small someone with a halo of thick, dark brown hair. It was that girl from history class - Ellie Hesketh. I don't even know why I was so eager to talk to her, but I was. She had seemed pretty eager to avoid talking to me during class, and again afterwards when I saw her by the school gates. A girl being uninterested in talking to me was so out of the ordinary that that alone was enough to pique my curiosity. There was something else, though, too. Something about her, something compelling that I couldn't quite put my finger on. She had very big, dark, almond-shaped eyes. I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to know more about her.
    By the time I managed to extricate myself from the conversation with the older hockey fan, she was nowhere to be found, so I kept wandering the grocery store until I spotted her in the checkout line.
    "Ellie?"
    She noticeably jumped when she heard me say her name and for a second I actually thought she was going to make a run for it. What the hell was this girl's deal?
    "Hi."
    'Hi.' That's it. I wasn't sure what else to say so I stood there for a few seconds, trying to think of something and checking out what she was buying. A loaf of bread with a bright orange '50% off!' sticker on it, some dented cans of fruit, some children's cold medicine, a few other things.
    She paid with a crumpled ten dollar bill and a plastic bag of change, which she seemed hesitant to hand over.
    "Ha! Had to search the sofa cushions, huh?"
    As a pink flush crept up Ellie Hesketh's neck and across her pale cheeks, it dawned on me that she may actually have had to search the sofa for change and a feeling of mounting horror froze my brain.
    "I mean, uh, it's not a big deal if you did. Have to search the couch, I mean. It's, um..."
    I trailed off as Ellie steadfastly refused to look at me and the checkout girl cut in.
    "There's not enough here for the m-"
    "That's fine, no problem."
    Ellie grabbed a half-gallon of milk and put it to the side, quickly snatching up her bag of groceries and the few pennies the checkout girl handed to her before practically running out of the store. Without thinking, I pulled a hundred dollar bill out of wallet and handed it over.
    "I'll be right back. Put the milk on my bill, too."
    Then I rushed out through the automatic doors and into the dark evening to find Ellie. She was already almost out of sight, marching stiffly across the parking lot, but I caught up easily.
    "Ellie! Hey! Ellie!"
    She looked up at me, her eyes searching my face, but she still didn't say a single thing. The experience of being flustered around a girl wasn't a frequent one for me but Ellie Hesketh managed to have me babbling like an idiot with a single glance - even then, even before anything had happened.
    "I'm sorry if I - uh, I'm sorry about making a stupid joke. I was just joking. I mean, it wasn't, I didn't mean it as an insult."
    She was so small next to me and the parking lot was so dimly lit. Was she shaking? A wild urge to pull her into my arms suddenly overtook me but I resisted, perfectly aware of how such a gesture would make things even more awkward than they already were. So I just kept blathering.
    "I bought the milk for you. If you don't mind."
    She stayed silent so I kept going, pouring words out of my mouth in a desperate attempt to keep her there, standing