Boarded by Love Read online

  “It will be fun,” I promise, and she looks back at me.

  “Yeah, I know. I’m just freaking out over this crap,” she admits, giving me a sad smile as she points to her books and endless notes.

  “I know. If you don’t want to do it, I understand. You have a lot going on.”

  “Yeah, but I need a distraction when I’m not working on this shit. It will be good for me.”

  I smile, wrapping my arms around her. She has always been my friend, a real friend. Everyone hated me when Phillip started me at the school in his district. I was the new “rich” girl with a hotshot, hockey player uncle. I was kind of a standoffish bitch too, so that had a lot to do with why people didn’t like me. Plus my hair was bright red, and people assumed I was an easy, emo chick. I wasn’t emo for one, and maybe I might have been easy in the past, but once Phillip gave me stability, I was a completely different girl. I wanted things. I wanted to make him proud, I wanted him to love me, but he did no matter what I did, and I’m so thankful for that.

  “You know that the hockey team is at the tryouts, right? And they judge the girls.”

  “Huh?” I ask, leaning up to look at her.

  “Oh yeah, they have little paddles with numbers, and the captains take their opinions into consideration. It’s kinda stupid ’cause the guys only judge you on your looks.”

  I smile. “We’re in then. We’re fucking hot.”

  She laughs like I wanted as I crawl out of my spot and go to my side of the room. Pictures of Phillip, Reese, and me are everywhere, along with pictures of Skylar and me. While I love my pictures, my favorite ones are the ones of the kids. I love my Dimitri and then Reese’s sister Harper’s kids, Ally and Journey. I spend so much time with them that they are almost like my sister and brothers. I even have pictures of my extended family, which is all of Phillip’s teammates and their families. As I glance at all of them, like I always do, I can’t help but think how I went from having no one to love me to now having so many that I am sometimes overwhelmed with love.

  With a smile on my face, I reach for the pink flyers that Ellen was posting everywhere and chuck them in the trash as my smile grows.

  Jude Sinclair.

  Hmm. He was something, that’s for sure, and I can’t help but think of him. I told him that I’d probably never see him again, but I wish I could see him right now. I should have given him my number; I should have let him pursue me, instead of running the other way. I usually don’t regret blowing guys off, but I am regretting it like crazy right now.

  Glancing over at Skylar, I say, “Hey, do you know Jude Sinclair?”

  Her head shoots up, and she gives me a Cheshire-cat smile, all her straight, white teeth showing as she slowly nods her head. “Everyone knows Jude Sinclair, Claire.”

  I give her a deadpan look. “Well, I didn’t, until today.”

  “Did you sleep with him?” she demands, her eyes wide.

  I laugh. “Jeez, Skylar, really? I wouldn’t even sleep with Allen, which reminds me, he gave Ellen crabs. They were fucking. But anyway, you think I’m gonna sleep with some guy I just met? I’m not a slut, thank you!”

  She makes a face. “Ew, he gave her crabs? While messing with you?”

  “We weren’t messing, just talking.”

  “Yeah, but still that’s icky. You should kick his ass.”

  I shrug. “I guess if I cared, I would.”

  “True, ’cause if you’d cared you wouldn’t be asking about the sex-on-legs Jude Sinclair,” she says, waggling her eyebrows at me.

  I laugh as I nod. “Yeah, you’re right. He is really sexy.”

  “Oh, girl. I saw him go through his initiation last year at the frat, and let me say, it was mighty hard for him to keep his goodies in the boy shorts he was wearing. Not to leave out that the man is ripped, I think his abs have abs, but he’s also covered in tattoos.” She lets out a dreamy sigh. “He is… God, he is so fucking hot.”

  I snort with laughter as I fall back on my bed. My body is automatically hot at just the image that is running through my mind. “Yeah, I saw him fully clothed, and it took everything out of me to look the other way.”

  “Yeah, he has that effect on women.”

  “So he says,” I add and she laughs.

  “Oh yeah, he’s cocky as hell too, but that comes with being the best player on the Bullies team.”

  I come up on my elbows, looking over at her. “He’s a hockey player?”

  She nods, a lusty look coming over her face as her eyes darken in color. “Oh yes… He knows exactly how to handle his stick. Great hands. Wonderful hand-eye coordination.”

  I can’t believe how hard I’m laughing, and soon she’s laughing with me. Rolling onto my side, I shake my head at her mischievous smile and ask, “Is he seeing someone?”

  Her lips curve even more as she shakes her head. “No, Jude doesn’t date or see anyone. He sleeps with girls and lets them go.”

  My smile falls. “You haven’t slept with him, have you?”

  “In my dreams, yes, over and over again, but no, I haven’t had the pleasure. He says I’m too nice – I think he’s scared of my thighs.”

  Skylar does have some monstrous thighs, but it’s muscle; she likes to ride bikes and dances, too. She’s superfit and most guys are scared of her, which is stupid, in my opinion. I laugh as relief floods through me. Thank God, she didn’t sleep with him. Girl code and all, I wouldn’t try, but now that she hasn’t touched him, I might consider it. Oh hell, who am I kidding? There was nothing to consider.

  I want him.

  “So he’ll be there Tuesday?”

  She nods as she marks in an answer on the paper she has in front of her. “He’s the captain, of course he will be. His opinion matters a lot. He slept with Rachael at one point, and she does everything to make him happy in the hopes he’ll come back. Which he won’t.”

  “Interesting.”

  “That’s for sure, but what’s more interesting is that look in your eye. I usually only see it when you’re determined to get a dance done. Never saw it concerning a guy.”

  I roll my eyes before lying on my stomach to place my head on the pillow. “It’s nothing.”

  “Sure, it is,” she says back with a grin. “Something big, and I can’t wait to see what happens. Jude won’t know what hit him when you come strolling into his life.”

  “Oh, hush,” I say, but then we start laughing like banshees because we both know she’s right.

  The feeling that comes over me is somewhere between thrill and fear, but I like it.

  Chapter 6

  Jude.

  I’m not looking forward to this dinner at all.

  Jayden drives us out to our family’s home on the outskirts of Nashville. Dad wanted something secluded but also close enough to the city, and he got that in our huge country-style house. Growing up here was good, being only years apart, I grew up with two best friends instead of brothers. Yeah, we fought, and I’m pretty sure Jayden almost killed me once, but they are the two I would do anything for, after kicking their asses, of course. When we weren’t rough, tough hockey players, we were soldiers, hunters, and ninjas getting lost in the nature that surrounded our house. There wasn’t a time when my mom wasn’t hollering for us and when we weren’t constantly ganging up on Lucy. It was a great childhood, one with a great mom but an absent father.

  Turning onto the driveway that leads us through the forest to our home, I pull out my phone to check my Facebook before I won’t be able to. My mom has a basket by the door where our phones and keys go. All the people we care about are in one room, why do we need a phone, she always says. Pulling up my search bar, I type Claire’s name and smile when her profile comes up. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this since seeing her yesterday, and I can’t help but feel the desire to look through her pictures. To know her. She has her stuff on private, so I’m only able to see tagged pictures and her profile pictures.

  There are tons of pictures of her with