Page 44 of Enemy Games

“And women in general.” Haley scrunched her nose.

“Excuse me?”

“Ethan told us about the paper towel metaphor. Not the best look, Hunter.” Kennedy ran her eyes over me, making me feel judged. Again. Which wasn’t fair.

“Those were my father’s words, not mine. I don’t agree with him on that, but I do agree that love isn’t real. It’s a societal construct.”

I wasn’t proud of my dad or the beliefs he desperately tried to ingrain in me. Luckily, my mom was an amazing person and made sure his influence didn’t stick.

Having a front row seat to your parents’ nasty divorce, then both of them swearing off love or ever having a partner again, did reinforce that love wasn’t real. It was fleeting and only needed to last long enough for people to mate. It was how our species continued. The whole first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby and yadda, yadda was made up. The world tried to convince people that life was supposed to go that way, but I knew better.

Haley chuckled. “Yeah, you say that until you fall in love.”

“I don’t see that happening.”

“I can't wait for the day you eat those words,” she challenged.

I wanted to argue, but the guys returned with arms full of food and drinks. Soon enough, everyone was focused on the previews, and my drama was forgotten. Hopefully, I could keep it that way.

Chapter 13

Presley

Everything about this felt wrong.

Off.

It was a strange sense of deja vu or a memory of a dream.

Surreal.

Yeah, that was the best way to describe the sensation of pulling into my hometown on a bus with a team who didn’t know this place. They weren’t friends I’d known all my life. They weren’t looking at the streets with memories from growing up. They didn’t know that the best burgers were from West End’s diner, but the best fries and shakes came from Gram’s near the lake.

They didn’t see the light post at the corner of Center Street and Maple and fill with embarrassment over hitting it on their first night of having a driver’s license.

This was just another town, another school, to play against.

For me? This was coming home.

“You okay?” Chris asked.

I turned away from the window and offered a smile. “Yeah, it’s just weird being here as a visitor even if I’m not playing.”

Matthew and Coach Jarry knew how big this game was for me, but they decided to wait until next week for me to start practicing with the team again. I would be watching from behind the bench tonight.

It probably made me a coward, but I was relieved not to have to play my old team or step onto the ice in front of the town that considered me a traitor.

“I bet,” she chuckled. “At least my previous school was on the other side of the country. I doubt we’ll ever travel to Oregon, so I’m off the hook.”

She grew up in Washington, so there was a low chance of her ever playing near her home either.

This was a pretty unusual situation.

I wanted to talk to someone about it, but the only person who would understand was sitting at the back, pretending he didn’t know me.

Not that I blamed him. I went off on him the last time we spoke, and even if what I said was true, I didn’t need to yell at him.

I glanced over my shoulder and wondered if he was going down memory lane as we drove past his high school on the way to Green Lake.