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“You guess?”
“Yeah, man. I can barely get face time with Lindy now. I don’t know how much worse it’s gonna be when I move out.”
“I hope your girl’s worth it.”
“My girl’s always been worth it, dick,” I tell him and throw my napkin at his face.
“I knew she was your girl.”
Yeah, deep down, she’s always been my girl.
* * *
Lindy manages to avoid me all day.
She was gone by the time I came down this morning, and she’s not home when I get home from practice that night.
My whole fucking body aches from the extra conditioning Fitz threw at us when Jace and I got into an argument in front of the team during practice... again.
Neither of us touched a puck for the rest of the session.
It was all suicides and sprints until we were both puking in trash cans.
My mood is shit, and I leave tomorrow.
The stairs outside of the loft creak, and I look up just before Kenzie pops her head in.
She looks at the bruising on my face and gasps. “Oh my God, E. Your face.” She rushes over to me like I’m a kid who just got hurt on the playground.
“It’s fine, Kenz.” I shrug her off. “It happens all the time.” As soon as the sentence is out, I know I shouldn’t have said it.
Her eyes narrow, and her mouth tightens into a line. “Okay, am I supposed to be okay with you getting hit all the time? Aren’t goalies supposed to be out of most of the fights, Easton?”
“It’s professional hockey, Kenz. Shit happens.”
“Oh yeah? You’re supposed to get into a fistfight with your captain?”
“It wasn’t a fight. Jace is pissed because I married his little sister.” Looking at my own little sister, I can understand why he’s mad. But it doesn’t change anything.
She plants her hands on her hips. “Did you hit him back?”
“Sometimes words land harder than fists, Kenz.”
She blinks up at me, shocked. “That may be the smartest thing I’ve ever heard you say, Easton Hayes. But I’m still going to kill Jace Kingston.”
I laugh and tug her hair. “You’re not gonna kill Jace, sis.”
“Fine,” she huffs. “I’ll do one worse. I’ll tell Juliette, and she’ll do it for me.”
She pulls her phone from her pocket, and I yank it from her hand before she can sic Jules on Jace. I don’t need anything to make things worse for me with my new team. They’re already not sure what to make of me, judging by today. They loved Jonesy, their former goalie. But whether they want to accept it or not, his injury from two weeks ago was career-ending. And the backup ain’t cutting it. Jace is the fucking captain, so they’re gonna take their cues from him, which means, right now, it’s not looking too good for me. “No, you’re not,” I tell her and stick the phone in her pocket. “I don’t need Jules fighting my battles for me.”
I bend my knees to bring myself eye to eye with my sister. “I’m not even sure Jules would fight them right now anyway. She’s pretty pissed.”
“No, she’s not.” When I lift my head in disbelief, she laughs. “She’s not. Well, not exactlymadyou two got married. She’s hurt you didn’t tell her. She’s coming home from DC tomorrow morning.”
Kenzie smiles when Myrtle makes her way into my room and rubs herself against Kenz like a cat instead of a fifty-pound bulldog. “I swear to God, if you tell Jules I told you that, I’ll sic Jace on your other eye.”
I touch the pale bruising from when he hit me the other day and cringe. Not a great week. “I won’t say anything.”
