Make Your Move (Aston Archers Hockey #1)

18. Lincoln

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

LINCOLN

N ova is still in my bed when I wake up the next morning. Her blonde hair is fanned out across my pillow, and her lips are parted slightly as she breathes softly. She looks so goddamn perfect, so fucking peaceful. The last thing I want to do is disturb her.

After I brought her to bed last night, I fucked her twice more until we were both drifting into an abyss, falling asleep wrapped up in one another.

She stirs in her sleep, the comforter falling farther down her body as she rolls onto her stomach. She lifts her knee, exposing her leg from beneath the blanket as she bends it and positions it beside her. My T-shirt lands just beneath her bare ass. My heart swells in my chest at the sight while my cock also twitches.

Leaving her where she is, I walk over to my dresser and pull out a change of clothes before slipping out of my bedroom. I walk down the hall toward the bathroom when I hear the front door open. I freeze in place, my stomach falling to the ground as my heart literally stops.

I glance down the stairs and see Nash as he lets himself in and shrugs off his coat. We have a game tonight and have to be at practice in an hour, but I thought I would just see him at the rink…not here—not right now when his fucking sister is half naked in my bed.

Shit.

Nash lifts his gaze, his eyes meeting mine from the bottom of the steps. “Oh, hey.”

“Hey,” I say, my voice hoarse and thick with sleep. “What are you doing back?”

“Well, last night was a bit of a shit show.” He starts as he begins walking up the stairs. My eyes widen slightly, and I glance down the hall at my bedroom door before recovering and looking at him. “Turns out Ford booked the place for the wrong night so we all ended up crashing at Rowan’s.” He rolls his eyes as he walks past me, heading to the bathroom. “I slept like shit on his couch, so I figured I’d just come home to get ready for practice.”

This is not great.

There’s a part of me that doesn’t care if he finds Nova in my bed. When we were nineteen, he questioned me once about his sister, and I lied. I lied so well he never asked me about her again. At the same time, he had nothing to worry about because I had already decided I wasn’t going to act on my feelings for her.

That was then, and this is now.

After seeing her in my bed this morning, I’m not sure I want her anywhere else. What could really go wrong if he found her? Sure, he’d be blindsided and probably pissed, but we’re both consenting adults. Nova is a big girl, and she can make her own decisions.

“Actually, you go ahead,” Nash says as he comes back out of the bathroom. “I’m going to get changed, and then I’ll go to the bathroom.”

I look down the hall at my bedroom and back to him before nodding. Fuck it. If I go back to my room now to warn Nova, that will look even more suspicious than him seeing her in there. I don’t imagine she’ll wake up, and if she hears him, I doubt she’ll come out.

But a part of me secretly hopes she does.

Heading into the bathroom, I use the toilet and brush my teeth before letting Nash in. Nova still hasn’t come out, so I head back into my room, opening the door once more just to check on her. She’s still sleeping, so I leave her there and head downstairs to get ready to leave.

Nash meets me at the front door, and we walk out to the street to my car. He gets into the passenger’s side, talking about how their night was, and I pause just outside my car door as I look back at the house. The curtains in my bedroom shift, and I see Nova standing there in nothing but my T-shirt.

A slow soft smile lifts her lips, and she raises her hand to me, giving me a gentle wave. I smile back, lifting my hand to her before I get into the car. If I don’t leave now, I don’t trust myself not to walk back inside to her.

And if I do that, her brother will most definitely find out the truth.

I follow Ford down the tunnel toward the ice. Music plays loudly from the speakers throughout the arena, and the lights shine brightly from above. Rowan skates over to the net, and I step out onto the ice, feeling the slick surface beneath the blades of my skates. With my stick in my hand, I move to the boards, grab a water and squirt some into my mouth and head over to where Nash and Ford are already stretching.

Dropping down onto the ice beside them, I catch bits of their conversation as I work on stretching the muscles in my legs. Nash looks over at the glass, and I follow his gaze to see where he’s looking. To the left of the net, just on the other side of the clear material, are Nova and Posey. Posey’s hands are against the glass, and she’s wearing an Aston Archer’s jersey that looks a little too big for her.

A smile pulls on my lips, and I can’t help myself as I climb up to my feet. Ford and Nash follow suit, and we all begin to skate in circles around our half of the ice, taking a moment to get our legs warmed up.

When we got home from practice earlier today, Nova wasn’t there. She had left to go pick up Posey from her father. When I woke up from my pre-game nap, she still wasn’t there. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her before the game, and I wasn’t sure if she would be here or not tonight.

But there she is.

I skate over to the two of them, my eyes meeting Nova’s before looking at Posey. Posey opens her mouth, her face lighting up as she lets out a string of laughter. She jumps up and down, pressing her hands against the glass. Mine are covered with my gloves, but I press them right to where hers are, feeling my heart soaring inside my chest.

I don’t know what Posey and her mom are doing to me, but I think I might like it.

“Whose jersey is that?” I question Nova, pointing at Posey’s jersey.

Nova smiles as she lifts her up, flashing both of their backs to me. Written across both of their backs is my last name and number. Just as she shows them to me, Nash comes to an abrupt stop beside me. He narrows his eyes at me before looking at my sister.

“What the hell kind of traitor shit is going on here?”

Nova rolls her lips between her teeth, biting back her grin, and she shrugs like she has no idea what he’s talking about.

“Why are they wearing your jersey?”

I shrug, attempting to appear as innocent as Nova looks. “I think they may have found a new favorite player.”

Nash glares at his sister. “First Taylor and now Matthews? When are you going to support your brother?”

“I’m supporting your team,” she says loudly through the glass and shrugs as she laughs. “Isn’t that enough?”

Nash lets out a sigh of defeat as he turns away. I wave to Posey, winking at Nova when her brother isn’t looking before skating away with him. We head toward the center of our zone, each of us grabbing a puck with the blade of our sticks and firing shots at Rowan with the rest of our teammates. We go through the rest of our warm-up, and you can feel the energy buzzing throughout the air.

Everyone is tuned in and ready to go.

The sound of the horn blares through the arena, echoing throughout the space as we finish up and start to make our way back to the tunnel. I stop at the bench, grabbing my water to get a drink before we have to get off the ice.

Nash skates over to me, stopping right beside me, half knocking his shoulder into mine. He looks over where Nova and Posey were, his eyes traveling up the stands as we both see them walking up the stairs. He turns his head to me, his eyes narrowing on mine for a moment before he moves away. My eyebrows pull together, and I watch him step off the ice, his movements choppy as he walks down the tunnel.

I toss my bottle to one of our trainers and quickly head in the direction Nash went. He’s only a few feet ahead of me, and I catch up to him just as we reach the door to the room where everyone is waiting. “Yo, wait up,” I say, grabbing his arm as I pull him back to look at me. “What was that?”

Nash’s silent for a second. “Just trying to figure some things out.”

My throat feels like it’s going to close in on itself. “Like what?”

“You and Nova,” he says quietly, stepping to the side so we aren’t standing near anyone else. His voice drops lower. “I’m not fucking stupid, Lincoln. I see the way you watch her.”

Fuck.

“Nash,” I start, but he abruptly cuts me off. He doesn’t look amused, and he certainly doesn’t look open to having any conversation as he clenches his jaw. “There’s nothing to figure out.”

“I’m not even going to ask if there’s anything going on between the two of you or not.” He pauses, his nostrils flaring as he exhales. “If you hurt her, I will make sure you never skate again.”

“There’s nothing going on,” I try again, and he shakes his head, lifting his hand to stop me again. He’s not done talking, and I have to let him get it all out. He doesn’t want me to confirm or deny, and I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.

“I don’t need a response. I don’t need anything. All I need is for you to understand.” He runs his tongue over his top teeth. “Do you understand, Lincoln?”

“Yes.”

He inhales sharply and nods as he works his jaw. “Good.” He nods toward the other room. “Come on, let’s go.”

Carson and Rowan both look at us as we step inside, but no one says anything. Nash falls into conversation with the two of them, appearing completely normal as I sit there feeling out of place. As I look around the room, my gaze meets Caleb’s. He doesn’t say anything, but the way he’s looking at me reminds me of the last thing he said to me.

“You don’t want to live with the regret of not saying something.”

I push the thought from my mind, shoving it down deep inside, tucking it away for another time. Now is not the time or the place to say anything to Nash. I don’t know what I would even say. I have a thing for your sister and slept with her, but I’m allergic to relationships so it won’t be going any further than that?

I don’t know if any of that is even true anymore.

If there’s one person who can make me reconsider everything I thought I didn’t want, it’s her.

It’s always been her.