Goal Line (Madison Howlers #4) Read online

  It could wait until after they showered.

  And maybe then some more.

  Chapter Ten

  DATING ANNIE WAS definitely going well. They saw each other once or twice during the week and then spent a day together over the weekend if neither of them had other stuff on. Annie had come to a few more of Devon’s games, too. It was a good start to a relationship. Devon felt happy. It must’ve showed, too, because the guys teased him about actually smiling sometimes.

  “So is it her?” Ricky asked as they all changed after training one afternoon.

  It took a moment for Devon to realize he was even being spoken to. When he blinked at Ricky, the guy rolled his eyes. “The girl we met outside the restaurant? Short, brunette, pretty eyes?” he listed. Devon supposed that was a fair enough description of Annie. He was tempted to argue that she had a pretty everything else, too.

  “The girl who almost broke up with me because you told her I’m only dating her because of her name?” Devon clarified. Ricky’s eyes widened.

  “No!” he exclaimed sounding genuinely surprised. Devon hadn’t brought it up before, mostly because Devon didn’t bring stuff up. Annie hadn’t broken up with Devon. She had actually let him explain. But he could easily imagine how much worse it could’ve gone.

  “Wait, what happened?” Blake asked, throwing his dirty shirt towards his sports bag.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Devon saw one of the rookies who’d been with Ricky that night shuffle. He didn’t blame any of them. If he had, Devon would’ve brought this up before - but he wasn’t going to act like it hadn’t been a shitty thing of them to do. Yes, Annie needed to know that Devon wouldn’t date her if her name didn’t match his soulmark but... He didn’t really think his teammates were the ones who should’ve told her.

  “We didn’t mean anything bad by it,” Ricky defended straight away. Devon shook his head. He did know that, but that wasn’t really the point. He appreciated that Ricky looked genuinely apologetic.

  Devon saw that half of the guys near them were waiting for an explanation. He cleared his throat. “Annie and I were on a date, these assholes walked by and asked if her name was Antonia since I wouldn’t date her if it wasn’t.” Devon shrugged.

  He saw a few of the guys visibly flinch at that. At least he wasn’t the only one to think that was a pretty dick move. “Somewhat understandably, Annie didn’t really appreciate me only dating her for her name.” Which was not what Devon had been doing. But that, too, was not really the point here.

  “We really didn’t mean it like that, Dev-O,” one of the rookies piped up.

  “It’s still a fucking shitty thing to say to someone’s date,” James commented. The rookie looked down. Devon always enjoyed seeing just how much respect James and Hayden tended to get just for being older and playing centers. He had been on the team pretty much as long as either of them had and he never got those sorts of reactions.

  Then again, Devon tended to focus more on hockey and less on socializing. He did appreciate the guys taking his side in this, though. It felt good to know that he wasn’t just making a fuss where there was no reason to.

  “We’re sorry, Dev,” Ricky said. The rookies nodded eagerly. “It was just a joke, but I can see now how that was really stupid.” It had been, Devon wouldn’t disagree there, but Annie hadn’t broken up with him over it.

  “So who is this girl?” James asked. “Annie,” he repeated. They were all aware that her full name must be ‘Antonia’ for him to date her, but no one said it. There were no other guys on the team who only dated their soulmark matches. Devon was pretty sure quite a lot of them had never dated a soulmark match. It made him stand out. Devon truly didn’t care.

  He’d always wanted to meet his soulmate. Dating soulmark matches seemed like the only way to go. Now that some of the guys on the team had actually met their soulmark matches, they were much more sympathetic to why Devon wanted that.

  “She’s at college, majoring in Spanish,” he answered. “We’ve been dating for...” Devon had to pause to think about how long it was. That first date at the coffee shop felt both like forever ago and also like no time had passed at all. “About two months now,” he finally decided.

  “Two months!” someone, maybe Connor, exclaimed. “And we haven’t even heard about this girl?” He frowned.

  Honestly, Devon was pretty impressed that they hadn’t. Annie had come to Green Bay and he’d successfully snuck her out of the hotel with any of them noticing. If anything, Devon felt like he deserved a medal for that. But he wasn’t going to tell them. They’d all pout and complain.

  “You haven’t asked,” Devon pointed out, finding a clean pair of socks in his locker.

  “So?” Ricky asked. “Is she the one?”

  Devon laughed at that, shaking his head. “I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. Maybe if Annie had been the first Antonia he’d ever dated, Devon would have said ‘yes’. She was certainly the most fun person he’d dated. But Devon knew that often things just didn’t work out long term.

  He did hope that Annie was the one. It was a hope he didn’t dare to voice in case he jinxed it or something.

  “God, it’s like trying to get blood out of a stone,” Ricky complained, making the other guys laugh. Devon, though, only shrugged.

  James slapped a hand against Devon’s back. “He’ll tell us when he’s ready,” he announced. Devon turned to raise an eyebrow at James. That was strangely considerate. “And until then we’ll ask him every day,” he added, making the team erupt into laughter.

  “Fuck you all,” Devon said, shaking his head. But there was a smile playing on his lips. He knew they meant well. Even Ricky and the rookies when they were being dumb.

  The conversation moved on to discuss how hard Blake’s girlfriend was going to beat them all at Apex that weekend. Devon let it drift over him. It was nice, knowing that his team cared enough to ask but to also know when to stop. He was looking forward to introducing them to Annie properly.

  It sent a warm flutter through his body to think of how well Annie would get on with them. The way his heart beat for her made many promises to Devon about how Annie might be it, she might be the one. He had to give it a bit more time. Then he might know. Devon was sure he’d know. It was just hard to know how to know.

  Devon had invited Annie over to his that Saturday. There wasn’t a game, so in the evening the guys were gathering at Connor’s place for video games. It was pretty clear to everyone already that Thea was going to beat all their asses, but the guys always took it as a challenge. If there was something professional hockey players were great at it was being competitive.

  It seemed like the perfect time to have Annie meet the guys, so Devon had suggested they go. First, though, they had a whole day to spend together.

  Annie had come over early in the morning and Devon had made them breakfast. Annie had been very good at expressing her thanks. So good that they’d both had a little nap afterward. By the time the early afternoon was rolling around, Devon had decided he needed to run off whatever pancake-related calories the sex hadn’t taken care of.

  He’d left Annie with her knitting, enjoying how at home she looked in his living room. Devon loved seeing her cuddled up on the couch, under a blanket, fingers busy dancing over whatever she was working on. It felt good. Even pushing himself extra hard during his run didn’t get rid of the warmth that image filled Devon with.

  After a quick shower, Devon was finally ready to settle next to Annie on the couch and enjoy a few hours of cuddling before they had to leave for Connor’s. She lifted the blanket to let him under it and Devon pulled Annie’s legs over his. This was quickly becoming one of Devon’s favorite positions.

  “Is that still the scarf for your friend?” he nodded at the project in Annie’s hands. Moving slightly, Devon reached for the knitting basket but frowned when he couldn’t see the project he’d started with Annie’s help. “What happened to the thing I was knitting?” Devon asked
with a frown.

  Annie’s needles barely paused as she glanced up at him. Devon found that impressive, the way she could carry on even while they had a conversation. He was definitely not at that stage yet. He didn’t know if he ever would be.

  “Oh, I unraveled it yesterday,” Annie answered. “I needed the yarn to test out something for Magda’s scarf.”

  That made Devon frown. It wasn’t like Annie didn’t have plenty of yarn. He couldn’t imagine that she had absolutely needed the bit that he’d been working with. Devon knew that what he’d knitted wasn’t great or anything, but she’d taught him enough for Devon to try to knit something. He had liked the idea of keeping that, as a reminder.

  Devon hadn’t really thought that Annie might just... well, not even throw it out. Erase it.

  The thought sat somewhat uncomfortably in Devon’s stomach. A kind of anxiety, he realized. Devon wasn’t used to not finishing things, though he knew that Annie was. “I would’ve liked to finish it,” Devon said truthfully. “Just because you don’t bother to, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have.”

  The rhythmic clacking of Annie’s needles did stop then. “Finish what?” Annie asked, rather louder than Devon thought was necessary. “It was just a bit of practice. You weren’t supposed to be making anything.” She turned, frowning at Devon, her knitting forgotten on her lap. “And what do you mean, I don’t bother to?” she asked.

  “It was a bit of practice I would’ve liked to keep,” Devon commented. He knew it wouldn’t have been anything amazing. It still would have been special to Devon. It would’ve reminded Devon of this, of having Annie teach him. But it wasn’t that big of a deal. At least that’s what he told himself. Devon wasn’t used to abandoning things. It made him feel a little unsettled.

  Annie was clearly still expecting an answer from him. Devon shrugged. “Well, you don’t finish things, do you?” he pointed out. She’d been pretty open about how she rarely finished projects. It wasn’t something Devon could do, but it was a thing Annie did. He got why that meant that she’d taken his thing apart. He just couldn’t help wishing she hadn’t.

  Giving the knitting on her lap a sudden shove, Annie got to her feet. The force of her movement tugged the blanket from Devon’s lap, landing it and Annie’s yarn in a tangle on the floor. “No,” she snapped. “I guess I don’t finish things. I had no idea it bothered you so much.”

  Before he could express much of anything, Annie had turned, her cheeks flushed pink and her eyes sparkling with emotion. “I thought you didn’t care about that! I thought it was okay with you-” Whatever else she might have said seemed to get lost on the way to her mouth.

  The spark of anger from Annie was so unexpected that Devon was a bit lost for words. He didn’t care that she gave things up. It was a thing Annie did. If that suited her then Devon was fine with it. But it wasn’t something he did. Her reaction felt... like a lot.

  “That’s not what I said,” Devon defended. “All I said was that you don’t bother finishing things. That isn’t untrue. It’s just not what I do, so I was...” He stopped, giving a small shrug. Devon felt silly for wanting to say that he felt anxious about not being able to finish something. It wasn’t a real problem. He just would’ve preferred to finish it.

  And now, somehow, this had turned into an argument.

  “I know it’s not what you do,” Annie snapped, throwing her hands up. “But that doesn’t mean you get to criticize me for it. It’s not as if I want to leave everything unfinished.” There was so much emotion in Annie’s voice. Devon knew this couldn’t just be about whether or not he finished some knitting.

  He just didn’t know what this was about. And Annie didn’t really give him a chance to ask.

  “You said you didn’t want to make a scarf,” she pointed out. “How was I supposed to know you’d changed your mind?”

  This was very quickly escalating into something much bigger. Devon didn’t really know why or how. But he did feel that Annie was being somewhat unfair. All Devon had said was that he would’ve liked to finish the project, or finish something, at least. And he hadn’t expected her to know that, not really. Devon hadn’t known that was something he should’ve thought of noting.

  “But you do leave stuff unfinished,” Devon said with a frown. Her claiming that she didn’t want to seemed a bit ridiculous. Annie had openly admitted that she pretty much went from thing to thing. She didn’t commit to things because nothing interested her enough. It wasn’t something Devon related to. But it didn’t bother him.

  Shaking his head again, as if it’d help to get his thoughts straight, Devon ran a hand over his face. “I don’t get what you’re annoyed about. The fact that I actually wanted to see something through to some sort of a finish?” From the way Annie’s eyes widened, Devon instantly knew that had not been the right thing to say.

  “No,” Annie snapped. “What kind of bitch do you think I am? I’m not annoyed that you wanted to finish something!” Her hands balled into fists at her sides, though she kept her distance from Devon on the couch. “I like that you stick to things. I’ve told you that it’s something I admire.”

  She pursed her lips together, her mouth small and hard, unlike Devon had ever seen it. “I guess that’s more than you can say for me.” Moving quickly, Annie tugged her knitting free from the blanket at Devon’s feet. She grabbed her bag, too, her hands shaking as she stuffed the half-finished scarf into it. “I think I should go.”

  Devon was barely registering what was happening. He hadn’t wanted Annie to leave. Far from it! Devon wasn’t even sure why she was leaving. Or well, he kind of got it. Annie thought that him saying that unlike her he finished projects was a bad thing. Devon still wasn’t too clear how it was a bad thing when it just pointed out the truth.

  “Annie, don’t go,” he said. But it fell on deaf ears. She was already pushing all her stuff in a bag, the other hand on her phone calling an Uber. Devon felt a bit powerless to stop her. He wanted to sit down and explain but Annie’s rapid motion was hardly conducive to that.

  His mom had always taught Devon that attempting to explain himself during an argument was never going to work. Everyone’s emotions got the best of them and people ended up upset. Devon got that. So he didn’t try to stop Annie, no matter how much he wanted to.

  Besides, Devon wasn’t sure there would’ve been a point. Annie was already in motion. In the time he’d known her, Devon had quickly learned that once she was moving, Annie was very difficult to stop.

  Finally, she seemed to have gathered everything. She stood in the middle of the living room, handbag over one shoulder and knitting in her other hand. “I thought -” She stopped, shaking her head as if she wanted to break whatever had been going through her mind loose. “It doesn’t matter what I thought.”

  Rubbing her free hand across her face, Annie stared at Devon where he was still sitting on the couch. Before she could say anything - if she’d been going to say anything - her phone dinged, making her look down.

  “My car’s here,” she announced. “I guess I’ll talk to you later.”

  It truly pained Devon to watch her go. But he didn’t know how to stop her. He did walk to the door with her, but Devon didn’t risk reaching out and touching her. Arguing wasn’t really something that Devon knew how to do. Arguing over what felt like nothing was even worse. He knew it wasn’t nothing to Annie, but Devon...

  Honestly, he had no idea what the fuck had happened.

  Just like that, Annie was gone. Devon’s heart ached. He’d upset her. He recognized that, but Devon had no idea how to fix it. He’d said the wrong thing, obviously. Pointing out that she didn’t finish things was... a sore spot. Devon wished he had realized it earlier.

  Feeling a bit lost now, Devon went back to the living room. He didn’t know what to do. What he wanted to do was call Annie and apologize. He wasn’t sure she’d be ready to hear it.

  So instead, Devon called his mom. Maybe she’d be able to give him advice on how to
fix this.

  Devon just hoped Annie would let him.

  Chapter Eleven

  AFTER HER ANGER had cooled, Annie just felt sad. She’d barely made it through the Uber ride before the tears had started to fall. She’d really thought that Devon might be the one. Her soulmate. For him to throw it in her face that she didn’t finish things felt like a betrayal.

  Annie had always been self-conscious about not being as committed as her brother, or her dad, or even Magda. No one had ever said anything. Annie still noticed little details. The way her dad would watch her pick out cake recipes one evening - and then come home with a cake the next day. As though he just knew that Annie wouldn’t follow through on her plans. Sawyer had never bothered learning about any of Annie’s hobbies because they’d be dropped by the next time she saw him anyway.

  She’d really thought Devon was different. He’d been so accepting of her doing a second degree. He had been supportive of the idea that maybe she just hadn’t found her thing yet. At least, so he’d led Annie to believe. Now, all she could think about was how he must have been judging her the whole time.

  Annie couldn’t stand the thought of staying in her apartment. The friends that she lived with were nice, but they weren’t people Annie felt she could cry on. They wouldn’t understand.

  Luckily, it was the weekend. Annie didn’t have classes on Monday until after noon. She packed enough clothes for a couple of days into the back of her car and set off. Concentrating on the road would help keep her from crying. And blaring her music was enough to keep her mind off Devon.

  She arrived in Green Bay two and a half hours later, her emotions still something of a mess. She felt hurt, more than anything. And confused. If Devon had been judging her so harshly the whole time, why had he even bothered to keep seeing her?