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“Well, how much did you make from the job?”
He leans back against the leather seat, dropping his arm to the armrest, his green eyes blazing with a fire behind them. A beat passes between us where he sucks in a deep breath, looking away for a second. “I really shouldn’t tell you these kinds of things, Jade. Rome and Chase are already pissed that I brought you tonight.”
“I’m your girlfriend… they’d better get used to me.”
He cracks a smile. “You’re cute when you’re mad, you know that?” Reaching over the center console, he presses a kiss to my lips, and my head spins from the sensation that rocks through my body.
“Stop trying to distract me, Killian.” I speak the words against his lips, and he sinks back. “If you don’t want to talk about money, I get it.”
“No, you don’t,” he counters. “You have money. You grew up with everything handed to you on a silver platter. Money is not something I normally talk about with anyone other than my friends.”
“I kinda thought we were over you being so secretive,” I hiss, crossing my arms over my chest as I glance out the window at the fenced-in parking lot filled with various types of cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles. “This will never work if you don’t open up to me, Killian.”
He clutches my arm, drawing my attention back to him. “I’m sorry, okay? Sharing this part of my life with anyone feels weird. Only Jamie knows. No one else on my team has a clue where I go on the weekends after games. I use my mom and brother as an excuse for leaving campus all the time, but it’s a lot more complicated than that.”
“You do this for them, don’t you?”
He nods. “For myself, too. I have to get out here and make something of myself. Otherwise, all of this will have been for nothing. The only way I know how to help my family is to make a few sacrifices now. They don’t need to know where the money comes from. I doubt my mom would care anyway. She’s too medicated most of the time to even notice if the bills are paid or if she has food in the fridge.”
“What’s wrong with your mom? Is she sick?”
He shrugs. “You could say that. She’s clinically depressed. I’ve tried to get her treatment, but she never sticks with the program long enough to make any progress. She’s an adult, so I can’t have her committed. She’s not insane just needs help.”
“One thing I’ve learned over the years is that people will never change unless they want to help themselves. I hope that happens…” I say, slipping my fingers between his, “… with your mom. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you to have to go to school, and play hockey, and juggle all of those other responsibilities at the same time.”
“It ain’t easy,” he breathes.
“Couldn’t you take out loans?”
“No one will give me one. I don’t have any credit. My mom never remembers to pay her bills, so her credit is shot.”
“What about grants?”
“I have a partial scholarship, but Strick U is too expensive to cover all of the costs.”
“How come you chose to go there then?”
“I’ve been friends with Jamie since middle school. We met at a video game convention his dad was hosting. I used to meet up with him and some of his friends to play hockey over at Skate Zone, and since they’re the ones who got me into hockey, I wanted to play on the same team as them. I couldn’t play with them in high school because they all went to a prep school I couldn’t afford. So, I did everything I could to keep my grades high enough to get into Strick U. I figured with some of them having famous hockey players for dads that it could draw more attention to our team and that it might increase my chances of being seen by a pro scout. So, I sucked up the expensive tuition and scraped together every penny I could.”
“Would you say all of this was worth it then?”
He nods. “Yeah. I’ve met with a few scouts this year alone. I have a decent shot, but look at who I have to compete against for this year’s NHL Draft. Tucker and Trent are the sons of the general manager of the Flyers, and Preston’s dad is the coach.”
“Jamie’s dad isn’t a hockey player,” I add. “Doesn’t he own a video game company?”
“No, his dad never played, but his grandfather did a long time ago. He’s one of the best to have ever played. He still holds almost every regular season and playoff record. I wouldn’t want to follow in his footsteps if I was Jamie. And Drake’s dad used to play with Parker and Kane. They were all on the same team years ago when they won the Stanley Cup.”
