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Chapter 9
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It Wasn't Just a One-Night Stand Chapter 10
Four hours later, the internet exploded.Everyone was stunned that Nova's only public girlfriend was an obscure blog reporter.Rumors about me spread wildly, dragging Nova into the storm with them.His past was dug up: the teammate he'd beaten for no apparent reason in college, the overaggressive hits on the ice, all of it.The backlash snowballed fast. Nova's Olympic eligibility went under review.Because I loved Nova, I knew hockey had been his dream since he was eight, a dream his mother had spent a lifetime sewing protective gear to make possible.I wasn't going to let everything he'd worked for be destroyed.I logged on to Instagram, denied my relationship with Nova, and sent Claire a message: "The story's done. Sixty minutes. Not a word cut. Put your name on it."I packed the contract, the check, the voice recorder, and his mouthguard into a box and left a note on the table: "I've only ever run twice in my life. The first time was for me. This time is for you. Don't come looking
It Wasn't Just a One-Night Stand Chapter 9
"That's impossible. I lost eighty pounds. I changed the name I went by. I even...""Not that first second." He cut me off. "The first second six years ago. Maggie, I've always known exactly who you were."Snow fell between us."Then why did you stand there and watch them treat me that way?" My voice shook. "Why did you throw up in the room the next morning?"His face went white. "Who told you that?""Your teammates."He closed his eyes. Three seconds. When he opened them, they were red. "I didn't throw up.""That morning at five-thirty, I went downstairs to buy you coffee. I made sure to add three sugars, because I remembered it was your favorite. I remembered your desk was always covered in sugar packets."My knees went weak.No wonder he'd added three sugars to my coffee that night without asking."When I got back, the room was empty. Your notebook was on the carpet. As for that room key," he said, "I slipped it into your notebook myself. Before the party, you left your notebook on t
It Wasn't Just a One-Night Stand Chapter 8
My mother didn't want me involved with the Aldridge family, so I didn't go asking them why they'd given so much money.But that didn't mean I would pretend it had never happened.I hired a private investigator, Ethan Cole, to look into my background and the Aldridge family.I had a feeling the results would be surprising.A few days later, I attended the team's victory party as Nova's date.As the team's star, Nova was surrounded by fans within minutes of walking in.Happy to stay out of the spotlight, I carried my third glass of sparkling water to the far end of the balcony.Owen Halvorsen, the goalie, was drunk and sprawled on a couch, bragging to two rookies. "You know why Nova hasn't dated anyone in six years? It's because the night of college graduation, some two-hundred-pound chick snuck into his room."My fingertip tapped the side of the glass, over and over, without me realizing."Next morning he woke up, bolted straight to the bathroom, and puked his guts out. He's had trouble
It Wasn't Just a One-Night Stand Chapter 7
I folded the report into quarters and tucked it into the innermost pocket of my bag.I didn't tell her. Why should a woman in the ICU, too weak even to turn without a nurse, be told at a time like this that the daughter she'd raised for twenty-five years wasn't biologically hers?That week, I moved through life like a machine. Days at her bedside. Nights writing copy. Catching sleep in the parking lot before dawn.The week Montreal came to town, I did a feature on the visiting team.Luca Belmont. Thirty-two years old. Two Polaris Cups. The most graceful center in the league.When I was seventeen, I'd taped his poster above my bed.That year I weighed two hundred pounds. Not a single boy in my class would dance with me. Only the man in the poster smiled at me every night.After the interview wrapped, before the recorder was even off, I said offhand, "I've been a fan of his since high school."The segment aired that night.The next morning at practice, I waited by the boards. Nova skated
It Wasn't Just a One-Night Stand Chapter 6
"You went to Ashbury?" He didn't speak until we'd cleared two blocks.My hand paused on the magazine for half a second. "Yeah.""What year did you graduate?""Class of '23. I transferred during junior year and finished with night classes," I said. "You were already in the league by then."I handed him my phone with the transfer records I'd faked a month ago.Don't shake. Don't let him see through it.He glanced at the screen. His brow twitched. "No wonder. Doesn't ring a bell."I took my phone back. My back was slick with sweat.That reporter's notebook was sitting on his marble counter right now, and here he was with one hand on the wheel, telling me he didn't remember.In this little game of ours, neither of us was being honest.The long drive wasn't a lie. A full forty minutes, and he said exactly three things the whole way. The rest of the time he listened to voice messages from the team doctor.I turned to the window and counted streetlights. By the hundred and seventeenth, I fina
It Wasn't Just a One-Night Stand Chapter 5
The other end went silent for so long I thought the signal had dropped."That's not something I can explain over the phone," he said. "Come to my place. The code is four nines."Forty minutes later, I stood in his foyer. Not a single trophy photo on the wall. Just a row of hockey sticks hung by year.The oldest one had yellowed tape.The kitchen island was gray-white marble. I rested my elbow on it, and my fingertip landed on an old scratch.He stood with his back to me, making coffee. He didn't ask if I wanted any. He simply dropped three sugar packets into it.I stared at his back, and my throat tightened.Three sugars in coffee. That had been my favorite back in school, but that was six years ago.How could Nova possibly know?Had he recognized me as the girl they used to call the Zamboni? Or was he doing the same thing he'd done that night, treating me as a stand-in for someone else?My hand curled into a fist.My mouth opened on reflex, but in the end, I couldn't find the courage
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