22.

Fresh white powder followed behind me as I skated freely around the freshly smoothed ice, enjoying the early morning stillness. It was 4:00 AM. The rink was technically closed, but with some persuading, I had convinced Mark to let me come in an hour before opening to enjoy some much-needed private ice.

After Aiden had confronted me at my own house yesterday morning, I was in dire need of a nice skate to clear my head. I tried going for a six-mile run as a form of therapy but no matter how long I ran or how hard I pushed myself, I couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I knew that things between Aiden and I were going to be vastly different form here on out. Too much had happened between us now for things not to change. At least on my end, I couldn't help the unwanted feelings that swirled inside of me. I was actually starting to like Aiden.

I swung my right arm forward out in front of me while swinging my left arm behind, glided smoothly in a backward skate. My arms scissored, putting my left arm now out front. I glanced back over my shoulder and drew my right leg backward. As my left foot came back by my right foot, I stuck my toe pick into the ice. My body propelled up into the arm, I kept my arms tucked against my chest as I complete two and a half rotations before my skates hit back to the ice.

It felt damn good to land a double axel.

Recently my skating had, for lack of a better word, sucked. I just wasn't focusing solely on my skating like I used to. My practices had never been worse. I'd fallen out of the majority of my jumps, and I fell out of the simplest of spins. It was as though I was some newbie skater.

In my defense, everything at the rink had been flipped upside down with the announcement of the new rink sponsor. All of the changes that Lance had made instantly were enough to knock any skater's game. And that was without factoring into the punishment with Aiden for fighting against rink policy. It really was no surprise that I couldn't focus.

My whole life had become a giant mess.

"Hey there stranger."

I jumped at the sound of a voice echoing across the open ice. The rink wasn't open yet. No one was supposed to be here.

I skated around in a half circle to see Chris standing by the opening to the ice, a smile on his face and a hockey stick in his hand. What was he doing here so early?

"What are you doing here?" I pushed myself into a skate over in his direction, attempting to hide the disappointment I felt that someone had interrupted my alone time.

"Nice to see you too, Zo."

I skirted to a stop in front of him. A sheepish smile formed on my lips as I looked down to my skates. "Sorry, I was just enjoying the empty ice."

"Sorry to interrupt," he chuckled softly.

"I didn't think anyone else would be here so early," I admitted.

Chris laughed at that. I looked up at him with a frown. "Considering that practice starts in fifteen minutes, I would be concerned if no one was here."

My eyes widened in horror. Time must have slipped away from me. "Have I really been out here that long already? It feels like I just got out here."

"Where the hell have you been Lodge?!" Brendon, a voice I recognized instantly, yelled from the top of the stairs. I looked up at him, dread crept inside seeing Brett and some other guys following closely behind him.

"We haven't seen you since the bonfire last week," Brett added with a sly smirk, eyebrows wiggling. I rolled my eyes.

Stepping past Chris, I hopped off the ice and took a seat on the front bench next to my duffel bag. "I've been around," I grumbled as I began to unlace my skates.

"Have you intentionally been avoiding us?" Brett asked, feigning a sense of hurt in his voice. Next to him, I could hear Brendon cracking up. They all knew damn well that I had been avoiding them.

My eyelids pressed tightly closed. "You already know the answer to that."

Brendon's laugther quickly faded as he took a seat on the bench next to me. I lifted my gaze up from my skates, turned to see he was staring at me with a fake pout of innocence. "You aren't really mad for that whole dare thing, are you?"

Mad wasn't the right word. I wasn't mad. I knew that the knew was a deliberate, calculated move by the boys. It was not something that Brendon or anyone else came up with on the spot. I was certain of that. But I wasn't mad at them for it.

"Mad at you?" I echoed. "Not mad," I grumbled, shaking my head. "But don't think that I didn't notice that you all were grinning like kids on Christmas when you dared me."

The grin on Brendon's face was quick to return. "Are you implying that kissing Aiden was a present?"

I snorted, rolling my eyes. "More like a lump of coal given under false pretenses."

"Nah." Brett shook his head. "A lump of coal was you attempting to get away with a peck on the lips."

My face scrunched in annoyance. The boys were all way to invested in mine and Aiden's nonexistent relationship. It didn't make any sense to me that they cared so much about whether we kissed or not.

"So, you guys admit that you set me up. You wanted me to play a game where I had no choice but to do the dare. Why?" It was only fair that I got an explanation to their strange fascination with me and Aiden.

I reached back down to my skates, placing my hard guard on each other the blades before pulling the skates off and placing them carefully into my bag as I awaited an answer from the guys.

"Come on." Chris was the first to answer, drawing my attention to him. A lazy grin fell over his facial features. "Even you can't deny that the two of you have some serious sexual tension. We just wanted to give you guys a push to help you decide if there was anything more than annoyance for one another."

Unbelievable. Had the boys turned a blind eye to all the many, many fights that Aiden and I had gotten into? There was not any sexual tension going on when we were fighting over which of our sports was better. That was all pure hatred.

"You guys are delusional if you think that there is anything more between Aiden and I than hatred."

My mouth said one thing, but my heart said another. Never in a million year was I going to admit it out loud to the boys, but something besides hatred had stirred up between us. Something that made me feel all fuzzy and very very confused.

"Okay fine." Brendon lifted his hands in mock defeat, his blue eyes narrowed onto mine. Lips curled into a questionable smirk. "At least tell us this then. Why did you flee the scene so quickly after you two kissed?"

I didn't answer. There was no way that I was going to confess anything to them. It was bad enough that Aiden got it out of me yesterday, I couldn't tell the whole hockey team.

"Can you deny that you enjoyed kissing him?" Brett asked, adding more fuel to the ticking time bomb.

My cheeks warmed. More silence from me. If I lied and told them 'No', they would easily have seen through me. They still had their answer from my silence, but at least I didn't have the embarrassment of actually saying the words out loud again.

"That's a yes," Chris grinned. "She definitely did."

"You guys are impossible," I groused as stood from the bench. My feet slid into my pair of slides as I shot each boy an individual glare. "It was just a stupid kiss."

Brendon smirked. "You're probably already planning the wedding."

I snorted at that. "Don't get ahead of yourself. It was a single kiss that I wasn't completely revolted by. It'd take a heck of a lot more than that to make me not hate him."

"I give it a week. Two weeks top before your relationship is public."

My eyes snapped over to Nate who had chosen now to join in the never-ending conversation. I narrowed my eyes into a glare, shooting little daggers at him. Regardless of the fuzzy feelings I felt toward him after yesterday, I was never going to date him. We were still rivals. He was still a hockey player that thought figure skating was a joke. I could never date a guy like that.

"I hate you."

I made a quick bee line to the stairs, darting up them to escape to the safety of the locker rooms. I was over the boys teasing and too much time had passed since Chris first informed me that their practice was starting soon. The last thing that I needed was to see Aiden and give them any more ammunition to tease me.

_-_-_

As I made my way towards the front door of the rink, I froze in my tracks as my eyes caught hold of an unfamiliar sight across the hallway. Mark Hansen was dress like a true high-class businessman. He had traded his usual old hoodie and jeans for a perfectly tailored black suit, white dress shirt, and red tie. And his usual semi messy blonde hair had been slicked to the side of his head with gel. In all the year that I had known him, I'd never seen him look so elite and professional.

"Mr. Hansen?" I asked, dumbfounded by his current appearance. Mark may have been a businessman, but he had always dressed so casually. This new look had thrown me off. My eyes scanned over him as I approached, confirming that he was indeed the owner of the rink that I knew and loved. "Nice suit. What's the occasion?"

Mark chuckled, noting that I was taken back by his new wardrobe. "I have a big deal to hopefully make this morning. It's important that I dressed up."

My interest was piqued. Mark was about to make some kind of deal where he had to dress the part of an actual businessman? It must have been something huge.

"What kind of big deal?"

A wide smile engulfed Mark's face. "It's very exciting. We have another very generous man that is looking to sponsor the rink."

It felt like my heart did a flip in my chest. That couldn't be right. In less than a month, our small local rink was going to be getting a second huge sponsor. What kind of divine luck was that?

"Henry Olson," he said slowly, paused for dramatic effect as though I would recognize that name. I didn't. "Is going to build us a second ice rink."

My jaw had to have dropped to the floor. A new arena sponsor was going to build our small town of Whitmore a second ice rink. The news seemed way too good to be true. There had to have been a catch.

The last time Mark had informed me of a new sponsorship was a month ago with the arrival of Aiden. That news didn't have as good of an outcome as I would have hoped.

"Are you serious?"

Mark nodded; the wide smile never faltered on his face. "Dead serious. I should be signing the new deal with him in an hour."

I rocked forward on my toes. The news was undeniably exciting. I couldn't help the large smile that overtook my features. "That's the best news I've heard all year."

With all of the current drama going on in my life and at the rink, a new sponsor of an ice rink was exactly what I need to hear. I just hoped that the new deal didn't come with unforeseen strings attached.