Page 43 of Enemy Games

“Fine, yes. I said some mean things to her.”

“Like once?” Haley cringed like she already knew the answer.

“More like years, until I made it onto the traveling team and stopped practicing at the same facility as her.”

“And she remembers all of that.” Kennedy didn’t have to ask.

“What did you say to her?” Haley asked another question I didn’t want to answer, but I caved before they teamed up against me. I wanted their help and advice which meant telling them everything.

“I made fun of her looks and told her that girls shouldn’t play hockey. That she should quit and do figure skating.”

“Oh, Hunter.” Kennedy’s voice was full of disappointment.

“Right.” I might as well get it all out now. “She also reminded me that I dated a few of her friends in high school. Two of them happened to be at the same time.” Not my proudest moment, but in my defense, I didn’t know they were friends. Their high school was big. It wasn’t like I asked for a list of people I should avoid.

“Wow, I thought Ethan was bad.” Haley groaned, and Kennedy agreed.

“I’m not that person anymore. I get that I was mean and stupid, but all of that was a lifetime ago. I don’t get why she’s hanging onto things.”

“Well”—Kennedy looked down at her lap for a moment before meeting my eyes— “sometimes things that don’t seem like a big deal to you can be formative for others. You could have completely changed her path, her life. She chose to not listen to you and proved you wrong by sticking it out and making it to the college level. She could have easily given into your teasing and social expectations and quit. That’s a pretty big deal. Of course she remembered. She probably used your teasing as motivation to get better and persevere.”

It would have been a tragedy if she hadn’t played. She was a natural and incredibly talented. At least in the one game I saw her play in. It would have been a shame if she had listened to me.

“You guys really think I could have made that much of an impact?”

“Yeah, especially if you were her friend first. That must have really hurt her. Not only did she lose you, but you came back to torment her.” Haley sounded so sad. Great, now I was bringing someone else down.

Fine. That sounded bad. I knew it was bad, but hearing her spell it out for me made it all more real.

“What should I do?”

“Have you said sorry?” Kennedy asked.

I tried to think over the conversations I had with Presley. I wasn’t sure I ever apologized.

“Yikes.” Haley frowned.

I sighed. “Yeah, I’m a horrible person.”

“Not horrible, just learning.” Kennedy patted my arm. “You’d be surprised how far that one word can get you. It might not fix everything, but it’s a start.”

“Yeah, and once she forgives you, then you can invite her to hang out with us,” Haley suggested while wagging her brows.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because she’s new here. She probably doesn’t have a lot of friends. At least, not outside of her team,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, we can do another movie night or something and she can come.” Kennedy looked to Haley. “We do need to strengthen our numbers.”

“I’m not going to date her.” I had to make sure they were clear on that.

Haley chuckled. “Yeah, we know.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

They shared a look I didn’t particularly care for.

“We know your stance on dating,” Kennedy said first.