Rival Darling: A Young Adult Hockey Romance (The Darling Devils Series)

I ONCE AGAIN FOUND MYSELF stuck in the living room of Violet’s house speaking with her uncle Luke. We might have reached a tentative truce when it came to Violet, but I still got the feeling he had to bite his tongue now and again. At least he hadn’t threatened me tonight. Although, there was still plenty of time for that.

“I hear you had quite an eventful game today,” Luke said.

“Yes, sir.”

“Please call me Luke.”

“Yes, sir, uh, Luke.”

Luke was struggling to withhold a smile. “Sir Luke.” He pondered it for a moment. “I kind of like the sound of that.”

I grinned in reply.

“I know I teach at Sunshine Hills Prep, but I have to admit I was glad to hear you gave us a beating on the ice.”

“You are?”

He lowered his voice. “Just between you and me, the boys on our team have serious egos. I think it was about time they got put in their place.”

“I think so too,” I agreed. One guy in particular, but I didn’t say that aloud. I was still furious with Hoffman and hated him a little more for the way he’d tried to destroy my relationship with Violet and completely throw off my game. It did make the win so much sweeter though. I was never going to forget the sight of him sitting in the penalty box with his head in his hands as we celebrated our victory.

“She shouldn’t be too much longer,” Luke said, nodding toward the stairs.

“It’s no problem,” I replied, taking a sip of the water Luke had given me on my arrival.

Violet picked that exact moment to walk down the stairs, and I started choking on my drink. Luke rushed over to slap me on the back. “You okay, kid?”

I nodded, unable to take my eyes off Violet. She was always beautiful, but tonight, she looked like a vision that had walked right out of my dreams. Her red hair was long and flowing down her back, and the dress she wore was such a light shade of blue it reminded me of ice on the surface of a lake on a bright sunny day.

“You look incredible, Violet,” I said, stepping toward her and accidentally slamming my shin into the coffee table. Not again. I tripped forward but somehow still managed to keep to my feet. That coffee table was going to be the death of me.

Luke chuckled behind me while Violet struggled not to laugh too. Her eyes were bright with happiness, which at least made my embarrassment worthwhile.

“You scrub up well yourself,” she said, nodding at my outfit. It was one of my dad’s suits from back when he was in college. There was no way he could squeeze himself into it now, but it fit me like a glove.

“Thanks,” I replied. “You ready to go?”

She nodded, and I held my arm out as I approached her.

“You two be good,” Luke said as she linked her arm with mine. “I want Violet home by midnight. And there will be no funny business.”

“Funny business?” Mia chimed in. I’d been so focused on Violet I hadn’t noticed her cousin sitting on the stairs. “Like a comedy act?”

“You know what I mean,” Luke growled.

“I really don’t, Dad. Maybe you should spell it out for Violet and Reed?”

“Uh, that won’t be necessary,” Violet said, shooting her cousin a scowl. “We get the message. No funny business, promise.”

She practically dragged me to the door in her rush to get away. She was probably concerned Luke would take Mia’s words to heart and start giving us a detailed breakdown of what he considered to be funny business. It was something I was more than happy to avoid too.

I was still chuckling when we reached my car.

“You think that was funny?” Violet asked.

“I mean, I would love to hear Luke’s explanation someday.”

“I pray that never happens,” she said, pointing a finger in my direction. “So, please don’t encourage him.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” I grinned.

I felt genuinely happy while driving us to the dance, and I caught Violet grinning at me when we reached the school parking lot.

“What?” I asked, as I turned the engine off.

“You were humming.”

“Humming?”

“Yeah, to the radio.”

“It was a good song.” I said despite having no idea what had been playing.

“If you were humming along to the song, then you were totally off-key.”

“Didn’t realize I had such a judgmental audience.”

“I’m not judging. It was cute.”

“Cute?” I gasped. “Nobody calls me cute.” Although, after my surprise performance on the ice earlier today, I was probably going to get called a lot of new things.

Violet leaned across the center console, still smiling. “And what are you going to do if I call you cute again?”

“Hmm…” I moved in so our lips were nearly touching. “Why don’t you say it and find out?”

She bit her lip. “You’re cute.”

“Right. That’s it.” I sat back. “No kisses for you for the rest of the night.”

“What?” Her face dropped.

I jumped from the truck and walked around to meet her.

“You can’t be serious,” she said after I opened the passenger door for her, and she started to climb from the truck.

“Deadly serious. I don’t joke about kisses.”

“But, Reed…”

Before her feet could touch the ground, I scooped her up in my arms, laughing as I twirled her around and pulled her close.

“Okay, I’m kidding,” I said before kissing her firmly. I placed my forehead against hers as I drew back enough to speak. “You can call me whatever you want, Sunshine. As long as you call me yours.”

She smiled and kissed me once more. “I’m not going to argue with that.”

“I think I just threw up.”

I groaned at the sound of Parker’s voice behind me, and Violet’s cheeks turned pink, but her smile didn’t fall as she looked past me to my brother.

“Hey, Parker.”

“What she meant to say is go away, Parker,” I added. My younger brother simply ignored me and slung an arm over Violet’s shoulders before guiding her toward the school gym where the winter formal was being held.

“You look ravishing tonight, Vi,” I overheard him say. “Has dipshit told you that?”

Violet laughed. “In his own words, yeah.”

I slowly followed along behind the two of them, wishing I could just punch my brother and take his place.

“Well, I hope he’s treating you well,” Parker continued.

“He’s been the perfect gentlemen.”

Parker snorted. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

“Where’s your date tonight?” Violet asked.

“I don’t do dates.” He shrugged. “You have to ask weeks in advance, and by the time the event actually comes around, I’m usually sick of the girl I invited.”

“Give it a rest, Parker.” I took that moment to step in, stealing my girl from his arms. “You’re going to give us Darling boys a bad reputation.”

“What bad reputation?” Parker smirked in response. “You know, after today, they’ve started calling you Reed the Darling Dancer, right?”

That was probably to be expected. I’d told Violet if anyone saw me do that routine it would be the death of the Darling Devils. It actually came as a relief to find out I might have been right. I was happy for that nickname to die.

When we reached the school gym, Parker said his farewells with a wink. “Have fun, you two. I know I plan to.”

I shook my head as I watched him walk over to a group of girls. I had no idea what possessed my brother sometimes.

“Do you want to get a drink?” Violet asked, nodding toward one of the tables.

“Actually.” I turned and held my hand out to her. “I was hoping we could dance.”

“I thought you didn’t like dancing,” she replied.

“I like dancing with you.”

She smiled and took my hand. We’d arrived to the formal reasonably late, and the place was packed with other students. I would have much preferred it to be just the two of us, but I wasn’t going to complain. There was no better feeling in the world than having Violet in my arms.

As we made our way through the crowd to the dance floor, I heard a few whispers following after us. Some people were commenting on my game today while others on the beautiful girl at my side.

“There’s Reed Darling. Did you see him today?” I heard one kid say. I recognized him from tryouts this year, but he hadn’t been good enough to make the squad.

It didn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to guess how his friend might respond. I might have won us the game, but it was my other performance on the ice that had people talking.

“Yeah, he was incredible. Did you see how high he could jump?”

Wait? They were impressed with my routine?

“I know,” his friend replied. “I heard the reason he’s the best player in the state is because he took figure skating lessons. I’m thinking of taking some.”

“I was thinking the same thing!”

I struggled not to roll my eyes as I listened to the two of them. Despite what Parker said, apparently, not even breaking into a figure skating routine in the middle of a hockey game could completely destroy my reputation. I guessed the Darling Devils were here to stay.

We reached the center of the dance floor, and I wrapped my arms around Violet. The music was slow, and as we swayed together, she released a contented sigh and rested her head on my chest. I couldn’t help but hold her a little tighter. I’d experienced a lot of highs today and enjoyed some unforgettable moments, but this one seemed to top them all. Because in this moment, Violet felt truly mine.

As the song changed, Violet lifted her head and nodded past me. “There’s your other brother.”

I glanced over to see Grayson dancing slowly with Paige. She was held somewhat awkwardly in his arms, and I imagined it was probably because he was trying his best not to step on her feet. I didn’t really like dancing, but at least I wasn’t as bad at it as Gray.

“He’s not a very good dancer,” I explained, focusing on Violet once more. “Paige’s toes are in grave danger tonight.”

“Guess we can’t all leap through the air as gracefully as a ballerina,” she joked, making me narrow my eyes at her.

“Not funny.”

She laughed before returning her attention to Grayson. She tilted her head as she watched them. “I don’t think Paige is complaining.”

I glanced over once more to see Paige smiling up at Gray. I’d seen her look at him like that a million times before, but I usually tried my best not to read into it too much. Paige was just a happy, smiley person.

“Do you think they’d ever get together?” Violet continued.

I shook my head. “Doubt it. He’s too stubborn, and she’s too oblivious.”

“Too oblivious to what?”

I let out a sigh. “To the fact my brother’s madly in love with her.”

She frowned slightly but then looked thoughtful. “You never know. They might figure it out.”

“Maybe.”

I heard Paige squeak, and I cringed. “There goes a toe.”

“Poor Paige.” Violet grimaced.

“Poor Paige,” I agreed. “But I have to be honest, I didn’t drag you out here to talk about my brother.”

“You didn’t?” She laughed lightly.

“Nope. I was thinking I’d trap you on the dance floor so you could regale me with compliments on my win today.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, I especially liked the grand finale.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Mm, I was very impressed how you slid onto your knees before blowing me a kiss.”

“You’re talking about the figure skating,” I grumbled.

“Oh, you mean you were talking the game?” she asked. There was a look of innocence on her face but a cheeky glint in her eyes.

I struggled to withhold a growl. “I wasn’t talking about the game or the figure skating, Sunshine. I was talking about the part where I won you over.”

She laughed. “I’m fairly certain you won me over long before you started figure skating in a silly hockey game.”

“Silly hockey game?” It seemed there were still certain things I needed to convince Violet of. “It’s okay. I’ll make a hockey fan out of you yet.”

She smirked as she looked me in the eyes. “Maybe you already have.”

As we continued to dance, she wrapped her hands around my neck, and her fingertips started trailing softly against my skin, sending a delightful shiver down my spine. I definitely liked dancing with Violet. In fact, I thought it might just be my favorite thing.

“You know, I heard a very interesting rumor about you today,” she said, pulling back to look at me.

“Really? I didn’t realize there were any left.”

“Oh, I’m sure there are plenty more that remain unanswered.” She laughed. “But this one I’m extremely curious about.”

“Okay…” I probably should have been worried, but she was still smiling up at me. It was hard to believe she might be about to ask me something uncomfortable when she looked at me that way.

“Well, I heard a rumor you might like me.”

“Interesting.” I grinned before pulling her close to me and, in one swift move, dipping her low to the ground. I was sure we were attracting far too much attention from the students dancing around us. But right now, I felt too light to care.

I leaned in close and whispered in her ear, “That one, I’m afraid, is true.”