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The Hockey Prince
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2026-08-25 20:45:33"You're smaller than I pictured."
Lena Carter hadn't even made it through the front door yet, and already this stranger was sizing her up like she was a used car he was deciding whether to buy.
"You're exactly as annoying as I pictured," she shot back. "So I guess we're even."
He blinked. Then his mouth curved, slow, surprised, like nobody talked to him this way and he wasn't sure yet if he hated it.
"Cameron," he said, sticking out a hand.
She didn't take it. "I know who you are. Half the school has your face on a poster."
"Only half?" He dropped the hand, unbothered, and reached for her duffel bag instead before she could stop him. His fingers brushed hers on the strap. Neither of them let go fast enough. "Let me guess. Not a fan."
"I'm a fan of hockey. You're just a guy who plays it."
Something flickered behind his eyes, quick, real, gone before he could stop it. "Careful," he said, low, so her mother wouldn't hear from the foyer. "I like a challenge."
"Good thing I'm not one."
"Everything about you says otherwise."
*****
Twenty minutes earlier, none of this had felt real.
Lena had sat frozen in the back seat of the car, staring up at the house through the window, if you could even call it a house. Stone pillars. Glass walls that went up three stories. A driveway so long it deserved its own zip code.
"Breathe," her mother said from the front seat, though she was the one who looked like she might pass out from excitement.
"I am breathing," Lena said. "I'm just breathing in disbelief."
Eight months ago, Diane Carter had been a receptionist splitting rent with her daughter in a one-bedroom walk-up. Now she was Diane Hayes, wife of a man who owned three car dealerships and, apparently, an entire hillside. Lena still hadn't adjusted to the new last name. She wasn't sure she wanted to.
She'd grabbed her duffel bag before the driver could touch it, old habits and followed her mother up steps wide enough to park a bus on.
That's when the door opened. That's when Cameron Hayes happened to her, all six-foot-something of him filling the doorway like he'd been poured into it, hair damp from a shower he clearly hadn't bothered finishing, a fading bruise blooming purple along his forearm like a badge of honor.
And that's when the trouble started.
Dinner was worse.
The dining room was built for people who threw parties, not families who just wanted to eat in peace. Richard Hayes held court at the head of the table, tan and delighted, recounting Cameron's game-winning goal against Michigan like it was scripture handed down from a mountain. Diane laughed in all the right places. Lena picked at her food and tried to ignore the fact that Cameron was watching her instead of his father.
"Journalism," Richard repeated when Diane mentioned Lena's major, the way a man repeats a word he's already forgotten. "That's, good. Good field."
"It's a dying field," Lena said. "But thank you."
"She's got an edge to her," Richard announced to the table, delighted, like she was a rescue dog that had finally shown some bite.
Cameron leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, studying her over the rim of his water glass. "She's got something," he said. "Haven't decided what yet."
"Don't strain yourself deciding."
"Oh, I won't." His mouth curved. "I like taking my time."
Diane shot her a look across the table, ‘behave’, and Lena swallowed the next three things she wanted to say, along with all the frustration underneath them.
*****
She found him waiting outside her new bedroom an hour later, like he'd been standing there just for the pleasure of being caught doing it.
"This is my hallway," he said, before she could ask. "You're new. I figured I'd lay out the house rules."
"I don't need rules from you."
"You'll need this one." He pushed off the wall, closing the distance slow, unhurried, like he had all night and nowhere better to be. Up close he smelled like soap and something warmer underneath, cedar, clean sweat, something she'd probably remember longer than she wanted to. "Stay away from my teammates. Marco especially. He collects girls like trophies. I'd rather not watch you become one."
"Worried about me?"
"Terrified," he said, and it didn't sound like a joke. "You walked in tonight and made my father's dinner table interesting for the first time in a year. That's dangerous. People like you get chewed up around here."
"People like me can take care of themselves."
"We'll see." His eyes dropped, just briefly, to her mouth, then came back up fast, like he hadn't meant to let that happen. "Goodnight, Lena."
He said her name like he was trying it on. Like it fit better than he expected it to.
Then he was gone, footsteps fading down the hall, and Lena shut her door and pressed her back against it, heart going harder than it had any right to.
One dinner. One warning. One almost-something in a hallway that smelled like cedar.
She heard it then, through the wall, faint but unmistakable, the low rumble of Cameron's voice on a phone call, and a name that stopped her cold.
‘"...she doesn't know about her dad and my old man yet. Nobody's told her. Let's keep it that way for now."’
Lena stood frozen against the door, pulse roaring in her ears.
What did her father have to do with any of this?
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"You're smaller than I pictured."Lena Carter hadn't even made it through the front door yet, and already this stranger was sizing her up like she was a used car he was deciding whether to buy."You're exactly as annoying as I pictured," she shot back. "So I guess we're even."He blinked. Then his mouth curved, slow, surprised, like nobody talked to him this way and he wasn't sure yet if he hated it."Cameron," he said, sticking out a hand.She didn't take it. "I know who you are. Half the school has your face on a poster.""Only half?" He dropped the hand, unbothered, and reached for her duffel bag instead before she could stop him. His fingers brushed hers on the strap. Neither of them let go fast enough. "Let me guess. Not a fan.""I'm a fan of hockey. You're just a guy who plays it."Something flickered behind his eyes, quick, real, gone before he could stop it. "Careful," he said, low, so her mother wouldn't hear from the foyer
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