Hot Shot (Hot as Puck Book 2)

30. Branton

It doesn’t take me long to find Landon.

He’s in the basement smacking the shit out of puck after puck in the small rink Andrew built for us all to practice our shooting.

I let him finish the bucket of pucks before I interrupt. His form is good. If anything, it’s a little sharper than it was a couple of years ago. The last time we played together.

“You want to get in goal and let me fire some of these at you?”

Landon’s words bring a small smile to my mouth. “No. I suck at goaltending. You know that.”

The grunt he gives is neither agreement or argument and he continues to fire the pucks into the net.

When the final slap is complete, the puck buried in the back of the net, Landon lowers his head and doesn’t move.

I don’t know if I should get closer, say something, or let him work it out. He’s always been the one to initiate. His hot-headedness, his lack of filter, always meant he was the first to speak, the first to react to any situation.

The fact he seems to be struggling to do anything right now worries me more than any of the arguments we had when I married Celeste. “Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing her?”

With a deep sigh, he reaches for the bucket and lifts it. Glancing over his shoulder, I see the ravaged expression on his face and for the first time in a long time I wish I could reach out and draw him into a hug.

We used to be close, the three of us; from the age of six up, we were inseparable. That changed during college, but when we all ended up contracted to the Knights, we rebuilt our friendship back to what it had always been.

Until Celeste turned up on my doorstep.

Then again, maybe the change had come when she’d gotten her claws into Landon.

“I didn’t tell anyone.”

His words have my gaze snapping up to his face. I’d been watching him scoop the pucks together ready to put them back in the bucket and hadn’t noticed he’d turned to look at me. “Not even Corbin? Why?”

“She didn’t want anyone to know. Said it would make it harder for us to be together because the media would be all over it. Because of her history.”

“And you believed that? Accepted that excuse to hide behind closed doors?” I’d never know Landon to be secretive which makes this whole situation more fucked up. That she had that kind of control over him.

He shrugs. “Wasn’t my finest moment.”

“I get that, but I thought…”

“I know.” His gaze drops to the ice before bouncing back up. “I let us all down, most of all you. I had no idea she was going to do what she did. I should have. The morning I caught her coming out of your room?—”

“What?” His words have me taking a step back. “You saw?”

He gives a quick nod. “She was still doing up her shirt and I could see through the gap in the doorway that you hadn’t bother to get dressed yet. You weren’t even out of bed.”

“I didn’t see you. I told her to get out. Pretty sure I yelled it.”

“I didn’t hear if you did, but the smug look she gave me as we passed”—he shakes his head—“I knew it was my fault, knew she’d hooked up with you to get at me and I should have warned you but by then I’d had enough of her. I just wanted her out of my life. Figured you’d be shot of her soon enough. We all knew you were waiting for Blake.”

“We were waiting for each other.”

“I never understood that.”

I shake my head, a rueful smile curling my lips. “I’m beginning to think I don’t anymore either.”

“You planning to fix that now?”

“We’re working on it.”

“Are you going to sign on with the Rogues?”

“Yeah.”

We’re quiet for a few moments. Both caught up in our own thoughts. Then Landon lets a deep sigh loose, his shoulders lower, and his gaze meets mine.

“The week before you got married, I bumped into her. Celeste. She gloated about the great guy she was seeing and how I’d regret letting her go. I told her the only regret I had was meeting her in the first place and I was glad she was out of my life. Wanna know what she said to that?”

“I’m sure it was a blade to the gut.”

“Might as well have been.”

“What did she say?”

“She said I could go fuck myself and I wouldn’t be rid of her like I thought because her and the guy she was seeing were planning to get married. Have a family.” He looks off to the side. “You know one of the only arguments we had other than about Corbin was the fact she didn’t want a family. Ever. Which now, looking back, seems like a stupid discussion to be having with a woman I’d been with for only a handful of months.”

“She told you she was going to do what you wanted but not with you?”

“Yeah. Then she married you.”

“Only because she was pregnant and asked for money to fix the problem.”

“Fuck!” Landon pulls back his stick and sends a puck at the wall. It’s quickly followed by several more before he launches the stick after them. “She was mine, wasn’t she? That’s why you’re here, why Dad called us home and sent Oakley fucking James’s jet to get us.”

“Yes. But I didn’t know. Not until after Celeste killed herself. After she?—”

“I hate to speak ill of the dead but good fucking riddance.”

“I agree.”

“What the fuck do we do now, Bran? Where the fuck do we go from here? I missed—” he chokes on his final words.

“I’d like to share her with you. Laura. I have pictures. Videos.”

Landon is nodding but his face says he doesn’t want to see anything.

“We can wait. I have everything in storage. Some other things in a safe deposit box.”

“I...” He skates over to his stick and picks it up. Checks it for damage. “I need time to process everything.”

“I can understand that. I’ve spent a couple of years processing. It wasn’t until Blake showed up. Until Oakley dumped a bucket of water on my head.”

A short bark of laughter escapes Landon before he mutters, “A story for another day.”

“Yes.”

“We’re good. We will be. I just…”

“Need time.”

“Yeah.” He looks at me, sorrow and apology in his gaze and I want to tell him he has nothing to be sorry for, that I’m sorry. “I don’t know if I’ll be ready before I leave tomorrow night.”

“I’m okay with that. But if you could unblock my number, that would be good.”

My words get a smile, which was the aim, and I hope he doesn’t take as long as I did to process. I hope he has questions I can answer. I hope he wants me to share Laura with him. He deserves to know her even if she hadn’t really begun to show her personality yet. Even if the smiles I swore she gave me were only wind.

“This is totally fucked up.”

“Not going to argue that.” I can’t. Everything about my interactions with Celeste were fucked up. Everything except Laura.

“Can you tell them I’m okay? I don’t want them coming down here. If you can run interference for the rest of tonight.”

“I can do that. But I need to tell you one more thing before I leave you to process.”

“Yeah, what?”

“After I read Celeste’s note, the one fueled by alcohol and sleeping pills, I had Laura’s birth certificate changed.”

“To what?”

I can see the hope in his eyes, the yearning for something he’ll never really have, and I need him to understand why I did it the way I did. “I changed her name. Left mine as the father but changed hers to Laura Jean Lattimer Watts.”

I watch as Landon’s eyes fill with tears and I know he can see mine have done the same.

“There were legal reasons to keep me listed as her father, but I don’t think I could have given you that anyway, but she needed to have part of you. She was part of you.”

“The best part.”

I offer him a smile. “Yeah, the best part.”

“I will want to know. To see. Just not yet. I…”

“I get it. When you’re ready, I’ll be waiting.”

“In Baton Rouge?”

I can’t stop the grin spreading across my face. “Yeah. In Baton Rouge. With your sister.” I have to add the last part. Need him to know, like I did the rest of her family upstairs, that I’m serious about being with Blake. She’s my future and I’m not talking about her being my coach.

“You deserve to find happiness. Both of you. After you got married… Blake, she…”

“We’ve talked about it. Will talk about it more I’m sure. But neither of us is putting our careers ahead of our relationship ever again. I’d never play again if it means being without Blake.”

“She’d never make you choose.”

“She never did before.”

“No. She wouldn’t.”

“She stood back and let me take the lead. Look where that got us. From now on she calls the shots. Both on and off the ice and I’ll be the happiest man in the world if she’ll do it for the rest of my life.”

“You love her.”

“I’ve always loved her. Will always love her. Never thought I stood a chance until she was there for me after Mom died. Pulled me out of that darkness and showed me the light. And she’s doing that all over again now.”

“She loves you too.”

“I hope so. But even if she only feels a fraction of what I do, I’ll be the luckiest guy on earth.”

“You should probably buy yourself a lottery ticket.”

“No need. If Blake loves me, I’ve already hit the jackpot.”