Page 10 of Double Puck

Diego gasps softly, and Biscuit chooses that moment to plant both front paws on my thigh, stretch his neck, and steal a strip of bacon off my untouched plate.

That's when I notice my phone vibrating against the island.

Dad.

Everything inside me goes strangely cold.

My eyes cut to Declan. He's deep in logistics with Zoey, asking whether Mom has spoken to a lawyer yet. Mason watches me from across the kitchen, his blue eyes narrowing slightly.

I reject the call, but the phone vibrates again almost immediately.

For one stupid second, humiliation burns through me all over again.

I found out about my father's thirty year affair while standing on the Beachside Boardwalk with five hundred strangers, my brother's voice pouring out of a PA system like a prophecy. All I could do was stand there, learning my entire childhood had footnotes everyone else got to read first.

I always knew we weren't perfect. I’m not an idiot, despite popular family opinion.

But I tried, you know?

I believed that people could screw up and still survive. That if you kept showing up, kept everyone laughing, kept the whole damn thing moving, eventually it might become the happy ending you were pretending it already was.

Which is ironic, considering my longest relationship lasted eleven weeks and ended when I forgot her birthday.

Darcy’s slow, unwilling look from last night slides through my mind again.

I don’t do hockey players.

I reject the call, but don't block the number. I'm not ready to talk to Dad, but I'm not ready to give up on what I've always believed in either.

Declan's hurt, I get that.

So am I.

But maybe there's a way through this.

I pocket the voicemail before either of my brothers can ask who it was, and the preview text burns against my thigh the whole time:

Beck, please call me. Declan's wrong, and I know out of all of my children, you will understand. Just give me a chance.

“Shit, sorry, Zo. I just got a message from Colin,” Declan says, checking his own screen then looking at Mason and me. “He's called an emergency meeting. All three of us need to be at the Bear Cave in thirty.”

I push back from the island, leaving the pancakes to go cold as Zoey's says goodbye and hangs up.

"Where are you going?" Declan asks, already suspicious. Apparently that's his default factory setting now.

"Where do you think? I'm going to get ready for the emergency meeting about my execution." I stretch, casual as a man can be with a hard-on he's been ignoring since last night. "If Darcy Madden's going to end my career, I owe it to the franchise to look hot in the termination paperwork."

"You've got bacon on your chin," Mason says, deadpan.

A laugh punches out of me before I can stop it.

Thank fuck for Mason.

"It's called garnish, Mase. Read a fashion blog."

Diego hands me a napkin as I breeze past him. "Take a shower! You smell like tequila."

I take the stairs two at a time, which is a mistake, because every step reminds me exactly what's got me moving this fast.