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He nodded slowly. “So here’s the thing Adds…” The name rolled off his tongue so easily, but it made my chest tighten. It was his brother’s nickname for me. No one had called me that in years. “I want to do you a solid, I really do…” He cocked his head to the side. “But only if you do me one first.”
I felt taken aback by that.
“This is more for you than me–” I started, but he shook his head and began moving toward the ice.
“Wait!” I called out, closing my eyes tightly for a second. When I opened them again, he was standing there patiently waiting for me to ask. “What do you want?” I grinded out.
He narrowed his eyes to mine. “For you to call up Case. I don’t care if you leave him a nice message or not. But call him. I don’t care if you leave him your fucking grocery list.” He laughed dryly. “But you do that,” he pointed his gloved finger at me, “you get an exclusive interview.”
A mental picture of his face slammed into my mind, and it hurt my heart.
I swallowed but my throat felt bone dry. My entire body suddenly felt shaky at the prospect of talking to him again.
“Exclusive?” I forced out.
“Yeah. I’ll turn down all those other emails and phone calls and only talk to you,” he said with a smirk. He turned and ran out onto the ice without looking back.
He showed his hand with those parting words. He was waiting for this. He somehow had to know that I’d be coming and asking for this interview… and he was waiting it out, not talking to anyone else just so he could make me do this one thing.
This one thing that I swore I would nevereverdo…
Talk to Casey fucking Jettersen.
_________
I sat at my tiny dining room table in my apartment with the bottle of red wine in front of me. I still had work to do– all my stuff was still boxed up and pushed against the wall of my bedroom. Well, bedroom and living room. My apartment was so tiny that my bed was technically in the only living area, and you could walk five steps and be in the kitchen. Other than that, there was just a tiny bathroom off to the side.
I looked around at my mess and drank straight from the bottle. There was no use of dirtying a glass, especially when I knew I’d just end up letting it sit there for days.
I stared at my phone.
What was Tyler’s angle here?
From my intense google searching earlier, I found that neither Jettersen brother had given a single quote to the press regarding anything other than game play. Nothing extra, nothing personal. So no one really knew their backstory…
No one except me…
I drank another gulp and cursed Hank.
Why the fuck did I have to be put on this story? It wasdefinitelya conflict of interest for me to even write it considering I already knew way more about that family than anyone else in the world. I probably should’ve let on just how well I’d known the family during the pitch meeting at the office. Then again, I needed this story. I needed this job. Especially considering I’d rather eat my own hand than move back home again. I’d already done that too many times in the last decade. I was turning thirty on December 26th, and I wanted to feel secure in at least one area of my life by then, and it’d have to be my professional life. Because I could control how hard I worked. I was the captain of my professional life’s metaphorical ship. I could not say the same for my personal life. I wanted what Claire had– a husband and surely a baby as soon as the 2026 Winter Olympics competitive season was over… But I’d pretty much given up the idea of ever meeting anyone that I’d want to settle down with.
I decided a while ago that my problem was that I had found my soulmate…
We had that passionate, crazy connection that people sacrificed everything to find. At least I thought we did because that’s how I felt with him. But I wished I never knew that kind of connection existed. I wished I could be completely ignorant that someone could affect me in such a magnetic way. Because if I never knew that existed, I’d be fine with settling down. I’d marry any old regular kind of stable love that I was able to find…
But I wasn’t ignorant.
And I knew I’d always be searching for what I used to have… So, I made it easier on my heart and gave up looking completely.
And that’s why I really needed to make a name for myself in the sportswriting world. Everyone else my age was spread thin with their time. They had to focus on their jobs, husbands or boyfriends, their babies, and all their babies’ needs… I had none of those things–yet– so what would be my excuse if I didn’t find success with all my time?
My professional life was all that mattered to me at the moment. I needed to make myself valuable enough so that taking a break wouldn’t hurt my position. So, I really needed to make this story work…
But something told me Tyler didn’t even want me to write an article about him in the first place…
So why not just flat out turn me down?
I stared at my phone until my eyes burned.
