Falling for her best friend's brother was NOT a part of her summer plans...
Karma Fitzgerald never saw Nathan Jenkins as anything other than the womanizing big brother of her best friend, Lanie. That all changed during a summer trip to the beach, wh...
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Fucking clocks.
Everything came down to a clock. Sleep schedules. Work. School. Everyday life. But none of those things were the reason why my heart was pounding against my rib cage right now. None of those things were the reason I could hear the goddamn tick tick tick as the scoreboard counted down to zero.
With a quick lift of my eyes, I glanced at the board. The game was tied 5-5 with ten seconds left. Ten seconds. It usually seemed like a short amount of time. Not even the length of a decent kiss with Karma. But still…ten seconds. Sometimes a lot could happen in ten seconds. And right now, my team's victory for the first hockey game of the season was riding on these ten seconds.
Nick and I exchanged glances as we flew down the ice towards the goal. The team we were playing had a decent goalie who was known for his skills at blocking my shots during previous seasons. That's why my best friend and I worked on some new strategies. One of which, we were about to attempt right now.
I moved my stick back and forth, guiding the puck down the right side of the ice. Nick watched me closely, as did the goalie. When I was just a few feet away from the goal, I gave Nick the signal. Right on cue, he skated behind the goal and came around to the other side.
My eyes went to the clock again. Five seconds. Five fucking seconds. This win was only going to happen if our plan worked. I looked at the goalie again. He was in position with gloves open and eyes pinned on me.
I came to a stop right in front of him, and drew my stick back like I was getting ready to fire a shot into the goal. Instead, I passed it to Nick, who was positioned behind the goalie with a clear fucking shot.
And he took it…and it went IN! The buzzer sounded and applause echoed through the rink. I joined in on the excitement, throwing my hockey gloves and stick on the ice before Nick nearly tackled me in a celebratory hug.
"We fucking won!" He yelled over the chanting from the other players.
I smiled, riding the same wave of adrenaline that he was. "Yeah, we did. About time we scored on that SOB!"
"Hell yeah! We're going to Anthony's later to celebrate. Party tonight!"
Having a party after a winning game was a tradition we did every season. And I always went. But that was before. When I liked to drink and occasionally hooked up with girls at those parties.
"I think I'll skip it this time."
"Ah, come on!" He whined. "We've barely hung out since you started dating. Don't bail on the party!"
Shit. I hated when he put it like that. It made me feel guilty every damn time. "Alright, fine. But only for a little while."
"That's what I'm talking about!" Nick clapped his hands together before skating towards the rest of our teammates that were still celebrating in the middle of the rink.
