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I stay there, watching as they walk out of the kitchen, and my idiot brother finally walks in. “Well let’s go, man. I thought you were in a rush.”
Some days, I think I have three kids under my roof.
The two of us pile into my truck for the short drive to the private airport the team uses. “You want to tell me what crawled up your ass and died, brother?”
“You want to tell me when you’re gonna get serious about something in your life, brother?” I answer him with a definite bite to my tone. “You know, Coach and management are watching you. They’re watching all of you. And you don’t seem to care. You fucks were all out again last night,” I growl, pissed-off that he doesn’t see he could be throwing away his career.
“What does it matter that we were out? No one got hurt. No one was out of control. No bad press. We listened,” Ares snaps back, pissed. “Your name was the only one splashed across social media today, Cross. Not mine.”
I grind my teeth because he’s not fucking wrong.
“What’s really wrong, brother?”
When I don’t answer, the asshole laughs. “Don’t like when the tables are turned, do ya? Come on. What’s going on? And when was blondie at the house? How did I miss that?”
“Last weekend, after the game. She left before you got home,” I grumble.
“So... what’s going on with you two? Come on. Who else you gonna talk to? Bellamy? She’s probably having more sex than either one of us right now.”
I choke on my own spit. “What the fuck, man?”
“Come on. You don’t really think little sister isn’t getting her rocks off when she spends the night on campus, do you?”
A dull throb starts at the base of my skull. “Jesus Christ, there’s something seriously wrong with you. You know that, right?”
“Whatever. I’m just saying, there’s no way you’d be wound this fucking tight if blondie was giving it up on the regular. So talk. What the hell is going on with you two?”
My grip tightens on the wheel. “I’d drop you where you were standing if I wasn’t driving right now, asshat.”
“Yeah, well you’re driving, and I’m not standing.”
Fucker.
“I don’t know... Everly runs hot and cold. She’s got some stuff to work through, but she isn’t ready to talk about it. Pretty sure she hates that I play hockey.”
“She knows that’s kinda who you are, right? Like, you’re going to be a first ballot hall of famer when you retire, and you’re only thirty. You’ve got a shit-ton more time left to play. You’re not thinking of giving that up for a girl, are you?”
I hadn’t thought of it that way before.
Could I give up hockey?
“Come on, man. Tell me you’re not fucking seriously thinking about this.”
“I’m not. I just need her to open up to me. Mom and Dad always made this shit look easy. Now here I am with two kids, no wife, and a woman I think could bethewoman. And I don’t know, man... It doesn’t feel right.” Even saying the words out loud feels fucking wrong. I just don’t know why. Or what the hell I’m missing.
“Okay. So if you ever tell anyone I said this, I swear to the fucking hockey gods, brother, I will deny, deny, deny, then kill you. You got me?”
I laugh at my idiot brother because what else can I do when he says shit like that?
“Mom and Daddidmake it look easy. And I think that was half your problem with Helene. Seriously. You just wanted the family we had and figured it wouldn’t be hard. You had the girl. You had the kid. You’re Cross fucking Wilder. Everything has always come easy for you. Things just sort of fell into place for you. Then they didn’t. And I really don’t think you would have bothered walking away if Helene hadn’t done it for you, just because it would have been easier to stay in a loveless relationship than walking away and finding someone to make you happy. You may have found her, but you’ve got a big old fucking problem. You like simple. You like easy. And Everly doesn’t seem like either of those things.”
“You don’t know her,” I grumble, not able to deny the rest of what he’s saying. Even if I wish I could.
“I didn’t say she wasn’t worth it. I said she’s not making it easy for you. You’re not afraid of hard work, Cross. And I think this girl is going to make you work for it.”
“You know you’re an asshole, right?” I fucking mumble as we turn into the parking lot.
“What did I do?” Ares laughs because he knows he didn’t do anything.
