It’s thest game of the regr season.


    yoffs start in a week, and the team has never been more harmonious. Our ys are much smoother than they were at the start of the season, and ourmunication is clear, despite having a few new yers on the team.


    “You three are out tonight.” Coach points to me, Hart, and Volkova. “Olson, you’ll still y goalie, but our defense should be able to hold strong so you don’t get plowed.”


    Emory nods, and Coach moves to Mki.


    “You’re a fucking spring chicken. I’m not worried about you taking a hit, because I know you’ll just get right back up.”


    Mki grins.


    We all acknowledge Coach’s parting words and take the ice.


    I immediately look for Daisy. Two smoothies were waiting for Mki and me in the locker room before warmups, and I couldn’t help but smile. The rest of the team felt cheated that they didn’t get a smoothie, but that’s what they get for making fun of my superstitions.


    Though, I think I’m about to start another, and her name is Daisy.


    With the yoffs on the horizon and Miles’s constant texts and updates that I haven’t asked for, I refuse to think about the mess she and I are in. Instead, I push it to the back of my mind and ask Daisy to do the same.


    Just for now.


    I don’t have to think of the future or the repercussions that wille with it because, regardless, my future is her, whether or not she is willing to admit that yet.


    I’m in deep.


    She’s a constant inside my head.


    I lived six years without her and didn’t find an ounce of happiness that didn’t belong to a little ck puck.


    I won’t go another six without her.


    “Where’s our devil girl at?” Mki plops onto the bench beside me and squirts water into his mouth.


    I grind my jaw back and forth. <i ss="calibre4">I don’t know.</i>


    “Pst.”


    Mki and I turn and nce down the bench to see Reese standing there.


    A noise leaves Mki that sounds an awful lot like a moan.


    I roll my eyes. “Put your dick away.”


    I leave him behind to calm his boner and head for Reese. She has her daughter on her hip with one of those foam tridents that Daisy throws into the crowd. She’s sort of cute, smiling up at me with big brown eyes. I wink, and her babyughter fills the space between Reese and me.


    “Hey…” Reese puts her daughter on her other hip. “So, Daisy told me to first tell you not to panic.”


    A knot grows in my throat. My hackles rise. “What’s wrong?”


    Fuck, did River find out about us?


    <i ss="calibre4">Actually, that may be a load off my shoulders.</i>


    “She’s at her apartment.”


    “Devil girl isn’ting tonight?” Mki slides up beside me and starts to y with Reese’s daughter. She bounces up and down in Reese’s arms, pulling her hair in the process. “Hey. Hands off your mama!” Mkiughs.


    “Reese,” I stress, trying to gain her attention.


    After Mki takes the toddler for ap around the ice, Reese nces back at me.


    “Daisy is sick. Cindy said it was fine for her to stay home, especially since it’s not a yoff game.”


    “Sick?” My stomach drops.


    <i ss="calibre4">Is it her Lupus?</i>


    Reese nods while watching Mki and her daughter closely. “I dropped off some medicine and soup beforeing. She looked exhausted. I offered to stay with her, but she shooed me away, telling me she was just going to sleep. She wanted me to ry the message to you because you hadn’t texted back. She also told me to tell you not to panic.”


    I hate to break it to her, but I feel panicked.


    Mki brings Reese’s daughter back.


    “Oh, and she said to stay put,” Reese adds.


    My chest tightens.


    But does she need me?


    She’d never admit it if she did, but what if she does?


    I nce at the time ticking down until the game starts.


    Mki and I head back to the bench, and I’m as silent as a monk.


    “You’re not going to stay put, are you?” he asks.


    “I’m not ying tonight.” My mind is already made up. “Coach will let me go.”


    Mki snorts. “You gonna tell him the reason?”


    I shrug. “You got a better idea?”


    Mki thinks for a second. “Honestly, devil girl has made a pretty big impact on the team. He may just ept the real reason.”


    How could she not make an impact? Her smile alone stops everyone in their tracks.


    I catch a glimpse of Mki’s growing grin. “Or he might copse from shock that you are thinking of someone other than yourself for once.”


    I send him a re. “Fuck you.”


    Rhodes, from down the bench, chuckles. “It’s the truth.”


    It isn’t.


    I’ve always thought of her.


    Even when I pretended I didn’t.


    I nce at Coach with his furrowed brow and ignore my teammates’ snickers as I head toward him.<hr>


    The apartment is quiet with only a few lights on. I eye the bag of medicine and Tupperware of soup on the counter, both untouched.


    I walk past the coffee table, pausing when I see her journal. I flip it open to thest page she’s written in. There’s a long list of numbers beside a line of dates: <i ss="calibre4">99.6, 99.8, 99.5, 100.2</i>, <i ss="calibre4">100.8</i>. Below those are a few symptoms that she must have been dealing with over thest week: <i ss="calibre4">fatigue, achy joints, sore muscles, nausea, increasing fevers.</i>


    I quietly close the journal and move to her bedroom. The door is cracked slightly, but the lights are all off. My heart is lodged inside my throat as I push it open.


    Where is she?


    I nce to the bathroom and stride over to the opened door. The lights are off. I reach my hand out and flip the switch. My eyes adjust right away, and the sight I see scares the shit out of me. There she is, body lifeless on the floor.


    “Daisy?”


    I scoop her up into my arms with my heart pounding violently. Her eyes flutter open, and I frantically search her face before giving her body a once-over to see if she’s hurt. “What are you doing on the floor, baby?”


    “Um.” She clenches her eyes shut and winces. “I kind of fell and then just got tired, so I went to sleep.”


    “Are you hurt?” I ask, needing to know if she’s okay. “I’m calling River.”


    “No!” Her eyes fly open, and she locks onto me.


    There are dark bags beneath her bottom eyshes and a pinkish hue to her nose and cheeks. I can tell she’s not herself right now, yet she’s still just as beautiful as ever.


    “Why not?” I brush a few strands of hair out of her face and realize her skin is burning hot. “Have you taken anything for your fever?”


    Daisy pulls her attention away from me. The wheels are turning in her head as she thinks about my question. “Daisy.” I give her arms a little shake.


    She looks back at me, her eyes red. “I can’t remember.”


    “You can’t remember?”


    <i ss="calibre4">Well, shit.</i>


    Suddenly, she starts to shake in my arms, trembling with the chills, or exhaustion, or?—


    A forced swallow works down my throat as I stare at her wobbling lip. Two blue, ssy eyes stare at me from inside my arms, and I feel her pain like it’s my own.


    “Let’s get you into a bath.” I’m flying blindly, acting on pure instinct and nothing else.


    I reach forward and turn the water on, making sure the water is lukewarm. She’s already hot enough, a steaming bath won’t do her any wonders. She nods quickly, and I hold her in my arms until the water rises farther.


    When it’s finished, I sit her up to help shed her clothes. Her movements are slow and weak, which does nothing but worry me further. I keep my shorts on, discarding my shirt before I pick her up. It takes everything in me not to run my eyes past her shoulders to gaze at her perfect breasts, bare and ready for the taking.


    <i ss="calibre4">Not now.</i>


    “What are you doing?” she quietly asks, eyes opening just far enough that she can see I’m still half-dressed but slipping us both into the tub.


    “Taking a bath.”


    A softugh thates out as a breath floats from her mouth. “Your clothes are on.”


    She shivers when we enter the water, and I hold onto her tighter. “There has to be some sort of barrier between us or else I might identally slip inside of you.”


    Her lightughter tells me she thinks I’m kidding.


    But I’m not.


    I wait until her trembling limbs calm before I move her so her back is resting against my chest. It gives me a perfect view of her body, my eyes moving directly below her belly button.


    Smooth, perfect, and mine.


    I shut my eyes, willing my dick to stay soft.


    “Daisy?” I rub her thighs, massaging the muscles.


    She breathes out the word, “Yeah?”


    “How long have you been feeling bad?” And why didn’t she tell me?


    Her loud swallow catches my ear over the rippling water. “A couple of days.”


    “And on and off fevers for about a week?” I ask.


    She tenses. “How do you—” Her words fade, and her shoulders rx. “You looked in my journal.”


    I run my palms up her legs and grab onto her hands. I intece our fingers and squeeze before massaging each knuckle with light pressure. She rxes against me farther, her legs opening a little and her rising chest slowing.


    “Why didn’t you say something?” I ask her.


    I notice the water stops dipping near her breasts. “Daisy.”


    She lets out a shaky breath, and I nce at her mouth. The trembling of her bottom lip cuts me in every which way.


    “Daisy,” I whisper.


    She chokes on a silent sob.


    “I don’t want to be in a re,” she admits through a choking cry.


    I’m quick to wipe her tears with my thumbs. I nod against the side of her face, trying to understand.


    “I don’t want to take steroids,” she cries.


    I read somewhere that, sometimes, patients with Lupus cane out of the res on their own.


    “Is that only if you can’te out of it on your own?” I ask.


    She nods against my chest, sucking in deep breaths.


    The bath is getting cooler, but so is she, which is good. The ends of her hair are wet as I brush them out of the way. “How do youe out of it on your own? Tell me how to help you.”


    “I just have to try to rest and manage my stress. When I get stressed or sick, it puts my immune system into overdrive, and then I go into a re.”


    Guilt crashes into me.


    Fuck.


    “You’re stressed because of us, aren’t you?” I ask.


    “Maybe,” she whispers, rxing into my chest farther. “It’s hard to know.”


    Silence settles within the bathroom, nothing but my guilt filling the gaps.


    “What can I do to help you?” I pray she doesn’t say what I fear the most.


    “This is a good start,” she says quietly. “Baths reduce stress and inmmation.”


    I nod and go back to rubbing her muscles again. I softly knead her shoulders and biceps before reaching over and grabbing her body wash.


    <i ss="calibre4">Jasmine and eucalyptus.</i>


    That exins her sweet, earthy smell that I continue to crave—that and all her nts.


    The soapthers between my palms, and I begin to rub her legs, smoothing the soap over each curve that I long for.


    “That feels good,” she whispers in a sleepy voice.


    My mouth is right over her ear. “Good.”


    After her legs, I glide my hands up her arms and move to her shoulders again. The bath fills with sudsy bubbles, covering up parts of her body from me. I push my thumbs gently into her muscles, and she makes a noise that resembles her sweet moaning from just the other day when I had her wrapped around my dick.


    “Feel good?” I ask.


    “Mm-hmm.” I watch with rapt attention as Daisy’s legs fall open, as if they’re inviting me to rx her even further.


    “You know what else is good for reducing stress?” I move my hands into her hair and tug gently on the strands.


    Her head flops to the side, giving me more ess to the nape of her neck. I pull on her hair a few more times before my hand slowly descends beneath the water, disappearing from sight.


    “Orgasms.”


    Daisy’s eyes flutter open, the wild desire for my touch still bright through her sleepiness. She keeps a hold of my gaze as she grabs onto my wrist and slowly pulls it farther into the water,nding right in between her thighs.


    “Open your legs,” I whisper. “And let me take care of you.”