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“He told me!” She dropped her hands and screamed.
“Dad?” That seemed unlikely.
“No! That despicable man! Is that why his daughter is staying here? She’s not welcome anymore. She better not have the gall to step back on this property after what her father did.”
“First, stop yelling. I won’t talk to you if this is how you’re going to act. Two, Astrid had nothing to do with their affair. And you realize it takes two to have sex, right? It wasn’t just Astrid’s dad.”
I wasn’t trying to defend Astrid’s dad. Not at all, but she was being deliberately obtuse, throwing blame at the wrong people.
“Get out,” she whispered.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I can’t—I can’t look at you right now. I don’t want you here.”
“If you do this, you’ll never see me again. You know that?”
“Good. You look too much like your father anyway. Leave the keys on the table.” She stumbled away, never once looking back.
What did I do? I watched her go into the house, without one fucking thought in my head.
Until the door slammed shut.
The fuck?
I waited for the pain and anger to come, but just like before, I shocked myself with what I did feel.
Relief.
That maddening woman just made it easy for me to cut her out of my life for good. And she didn’t even fucking care. Which did surprise me. As horrible of a mother as she’d been the last several years, I didn’t actually think she could just wash her hands of me.
Glancing at the clock, I scrubbed a hand down my face, my day-old stubble scratching against my palm.
I didn’t have a lot of time before the farewell team practice. And not a chance in hell I was going to miss that, for her or anyone else, unless those someone else’s were Astrid and the guys.
But they’d never ask me to skip it unless it was an emergency.
With more anger than I’d thought I had, I stomped to the kitchen and grabbed some trash bags and started the hours long process of bagging up Astrid’s and my clothes.
I wasn’t going to bug her with this. She deserved a nice evening with Thatcher and Trinity. Trinity also didn’t need this shit touching her special day. Instead, I dropped a quick text to Thatcher so he’d know not to let Astrid come back here.
Once I had everything of ours packed up in the Rover, I headed toward the rink. Hopefully, Beck would be able to house us until we settled on a place. Which better be fucking soon because Beck’s place was tiny.
* * *
“Good job, son.” Coach stopped by my bench where I was taking off my skates.
The practice was exactly what I hoped it would be. A closing of one chapter of my life.
“Thanks, coach.” I slipped one shoe into my sneaker, nodding to some of the other seniors as they passed by.
“I spoke to the head coach in Denver. He said you accepted their offer.”
“Yeah, I did.” I stood up, packing my skates in my bag. It would probably be a few weeks before I could skate again with us trying to move. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention it to you. There’s been so much going on lately.”
Coach nodded. “I know. That’s the thing about having such a high profile family in a small town, everyone knows your business.” He cleared his throat as red deepened in his face.
Like everyone else, he probably saw the articles on Astrid and the guys. Only now, I was beyond caring. They were right. No one else mattered but us. Our opinions. At least when it came to who we loved or let in our lives.
