Page 47 of Trick Play

“I wanted to give us the very best chance at a happy future, and during freshman year, I didn’t see how that could end with us together.”

He was young, impressionable, and had his world ripped out from under him right before moving here. Could I really blame him for thinking only the worst would happen? It did to his parents, so why would he be spared?

“I wish you would have told me.” Even though I knew all the reasons why he didn’t. He was scared. He thought he was protecting me. He did it out of love. He was misguided, but I truly believed that he didn’t mean to hurt me the way he had.

“Looking back, I wish I had too. I wish I confided in you. There was so much happening all around me, and I closed down rather than opening up to you. I should have. We could have handled it together, but I didn’t want to be your burden. I wanted to be your partner, your strength, your love.”

I twisted toward him. “You were, Ethan. You were all those things until the day you walked out.”

His jaw tightened, and I nearly broke when a single tear slid down his cheek. This big, strong, brute of a man. The terrifying beast on the ice. The boy I once loved with my entire being was crying in front of me?

In an instant, I wrapped my arms around him and held on tight. His shoulders shook as I ran my hand up his back and neck, pulling out his hair tie so I could rake my nails through his hair like he loved so much.

How could this terrible moment feel so right?

Chapter 16

Ethan

Never in a million years did I think I would be breaking down in Kennedy Thompson’s arms. Not even in my wildest dreams when I didn’t make the biggest mistake of my life by breaking up with her. Not even when I envisioned a different reality where we ended up together.

In the all ways I pictured apologizing and begging for her forgiveness, I never could have seen this.

I felt at home in her arms. Safe and loved in a way that only she ever made me feel because Kenny was my home. The only place where I was enough as I was. Grades and school and hockey didn’t matter.

Just me and her.

I never wanted to pull away. I never wanted to leave this moment.

Even knowing Lauren was a dozen feet away plotting her revenge, it didn’t matter. I was exactly where I wanted and needed to be.

“Kenny,” I whispered.

She moved slightly, and another impossibility happened. She kissed the top of my head with such tenderness, I nearly gasped.

“I’m sorry,” I said with my eyes closed, pressed against her. “I’m so sorry.”

There weren’t enough words to express all the ways I failed her, and there were even fewer to make it right.

“Ethan.” My name was barely a whisper, but it was enough to make me look up.

We stared at each other, so much still unsaid, but we were frozen in this moment together.

My eyes dropped to her lips. The ones I once knew so well.

She didn’t pull back. Didn’t move, so I did.

I leaned forward, closing my eyes when our mouths connected. I hesitated, waiting for her reaction, and nearly shattered when her lips moved against mine.

A familiar touch, but at the same time completely new and exciting. She sucked in a breath and pulled back.

It took a second for me to open my eyes. I didn’t want to face reality.

“Ethan, we shouldn’t. I can’t.”

I took in her expression and leaned back. This was too much for her. There were warring emotions in her eyes, and the last thing I wanted to do was hurt her anymore.

“I want to say I’m sorry or that it was a mistake, but I can’t. It felt like coming home.”