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Patrick rolls his eyes, clearly annoyed with me. What the hell is their problem? “What. Did. You. Say. To. Her?” He pronounces each word slowly like I’ve taken too many pucks to the head.
Jonathan chuckles, amused with his brother, and it pisses me off. “Saturday night. She came here and ran into you. What did you say?”
“Not much. Why the hell does it matter?”
That pisses them both off, their nostrils flaring almost simultaneously. Patrick is the one to speak though. “Because you said something to upset her, only she brushes it off. Look,” he starts, losing his aggressive stance and looking like someone who is worried, “I’m sure you’ve heard how we are with her. And it’s true. We’re overprotective wit
h very good reasons. We normally don’t confront people who upset her because she can usually handle herself. But she won’t tell us what you said, which worried us.
“That’s why we’re here. Lucy’s silence speaks loudly, and it’s rarely a good thing. She was supposed to ask you a favor. Did she?”
My anger at them fades when I can see that they, or Patrick at least, really is concerned. Which makes no fucking sense because I didn’t say anything terrible to her.
“No. She was going to, but I joked that she asked a lot of me, and she changed her mind. I offered to walk her outside, made another joke, and then she declined. She was in a hurry to leave after that, but I didn’t say anything mean to her whatsoever.”
Jonathan shakes his head, not believing me, and again, I wonder about their sibling relationship. “What was your other joke?”
I sigh, aggravated again. “I told her that she should let me walk her out because there could be a murderer outside.”
“Fuck,” Patrick curses under his breath and I’m at a loss once again. “Thanks, Grant,” he says for my cooperation. “Let’s go, Jon.”
They go to turn around, but I stop them because I’m curious. I want to know what was so wrong with what I said, but I decide to go with the next best thing. “What was her favor?”
Patrick walks backwards as he answers, “She wants to learn about hockey. She’s the main photographer for it now, and she wants to understand it. You’re the only person Luce knows that plays.”
Oh. “Tell her to see me after the game Saturday.”
Patrick nods and then they disappear around the corner.
“What the fuck was that all about?” Bo asks from next to me.
“Hell if I know.”
“Are you really going to teach her about hockey?”
We finish the walk to my car. “Yeah,” I answer simply. I kind of feel bad that I upset her, but I don’t understand why a few stupid comments upset her so much that she wouldn’t even tell her brothers. She clearly has a close relationship with them. Now I’m too curious not to find out more. Let’s just hope my curiosity doesn’t bite me in the ass.
“Is Neil working again tonight?” I ask. Bo nods. “Why did he get a job anyway? We don't have rent and his parents give him a monthly allowance. Why does he need more money?” It doesn't add up to me. Something is off. Or maybe Neil wants extra money to save for something. Who knows.
Bo shrugs. “He's got some stuff going on. That's all I'm allowed to say.”
“And this won't affect his play? Working nights?” It's not but like six hours, I think, but still. He's always catching up on sleep and homework. So far, it doesn't seem like it's affected him too much.
“No, but there are more important things than hockey, Grant.” Bo sounds irritated, so I stop asking questions. It's not really my business anyway.
God. Look at me. I’m so freaking curious about everyone’s damn lives. At least I can say that I don’t gossip. I like to listen and learn, not discuss it with the world. All curiosity is pushed aside once we arrive back at the house. This week, I'm studying like crazy for one of my classes. Somehow, I managed a B on one of my papers, so I'm trying to make sure I get an A next time.
That's pretty much how the week passes leading up to yet another intense game. I have a love/hate relationship with games like tonight. I love the energy, love having to put forth all that concentration to make sure I play my best, but afterwards? Not so much. I’m exhausted, physically and emotionally. Unfortunately, we lose, our first loss of the season. Thankfully, that means no party tonight. I'm in no mood for any of that.
I'm one of the last to leave, and Lucy is waiting outside the locker room for me. I completely forgot about her. She lifts her head at the sound of the door opening and immediately starts talking.
“I apologize for my brothers, Grant. You don’t have to teach me because they forced you into it. I can learn on my own. That’s all I wanted to say.”
She goes to turn away, but I stop her when I laugh. “Your brothers didn’t ‘force’ me to do anything.” Her brows come together. “Do you really think they could make me do something if I didn’t want to?”
Lucy looks a little embarrassed. “Well, they can be intimidating when they want to be. I shouldn’t have assumed they were, I guess.”
“Do you want to learn hockey?”
