Rainbow Kisses (Devils Hockey #2)

Chapter 1

ONE

Brian

Staring out the door of my rented duplex, I watched my older sister flash a strained smile at the rideshare driver before she opened the back door of the car and got out.

I already had an ache in the pit of my stomach, which had started the second I saw her number pop up on my phone about half an hour ago. For a split second, I’d considered letting it go to voicemail, but I knew I couldn’t.

This was why I’d moved to Allentown from Anderstown. To be closer to Lindsey and my niece, Maddy. To be here for them. To get to know my niece better, do all the things I couldn’t do living three hours away. Dance recitals and soccer games and chorus concerts and whatever else Maddy might decide to do.

But mainly, it was to make sure Linny knew she had someone she could count on to be there for her. To back her up. That’s what brothers did. At least, that’s what they were supposed to do. But not me. I hadn’t been around much the past ten years because I’d been playing hockey.

So I’d picked up the call, and after our usual careful greetings, she’d asked if she could stop by. I’d said sure. Of course. And that familiar ache immediately started to eat away at my gut.

Now, when I saw how skinny she was, I had to take a breath before I could dig deep to find a smile. Which turned genuine the second she saw me and smiled back.

“Oh my god, I almost didn’t recognize you with all that hair,” she said as she reached the porch and held open her arms for a hug. “Though you still can’t grow a beard, can you? It’s been a while, Bri-bri.”

The nickname immediately took me back to my childhood, as did the smell of cigarette smoke clinging to her like perfume. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her too-thin frame and squeezed, not too hard though. Didn’t want to hurt her, and I had at least a hundred pounds and a foot of height on her.

Her arms circled my waist, and we stood there for several seconds, just holding each other. But I knew this wasn’t just a quick social call.

“Hey, Linny.” I didn’t ask her how she was doing as I pulled away and waved her into the living room. I could see that for myself. “It’s good to see you. Come on in. You want something to drink? I got water and lemonade.”

She smiled up at me, her grin lopsided as she nodded. “Sure. Whatever you’re having. Thanks.” Her gaze whipped around the room, assessing everything. A habit I didn’t think she’d ever break. “Nice place. Kinda bare though. Don’t feel like celebrating the season, huh?”

Christmas was only a couple weeks away, but I didn’t decorate. Why should I? I lived alone. Hell, I didn’t even own Christmas decorations.

“It’s just a short-term rental, ’til I decide where I want to settle. It came furnished.”

I headed for the back of the house, to the kitchen, listening for her footsteps to make sure she followed me. That was my old habit, making sure she hadn’t stopped somewhere to pocket something.

I immediately felt like an asshole for even thinking that.

“Not working today? I thought you had a job.”

Her voice held a note of something I couldn’t place. Panic? Nerves?

“I do. I’m working at the lumberyard. Pays pretty well. All those years of hockey were good for something, I guess. I can deadlift a hundred pounds of concrete mix, so…yeah. I’m pulling a Saturday shift, so I’m off today.”

She sat on a chair at the table while I pulled out a couple cans of lemonade.

“Do you miss playing?”

Crossing to the table, I took a few seconds to answer that while I sat down opposite her.

“Yeah.” Understatement of the year. “But I needed a break.” Not exactly true.

Linny nodded, gaze flashing away. “You gonna go back? Or you gonna use that degree you got in…what was it? Math?”

My gut clenched. “Don’t know that a team would sign me right now. And I never got my teaching degree so…”

Her eyes narrowed, and she nailed me with a look that made me feel ten again and in trouble for breaking a window with a puck. “You never did tell me what happened.”

I took a swallow of lemonade before answering. “Disagreement with another player on the team. Decided I should probably take a little time away.”

For a second, I thought she’d ask what had happened. But that wasn’t us. We didn’t like to rehash shit. We just moved on. So she nodded, her head dropping forward, eyes downcast as she put her clasped hands on the table. Not in prayer, because we didn’t do prayer either.

I took a deep breath and braced for impact. When she looked up again, I saw the look I’d been expecting since she’d called. Desperation.

Setting my hands on the table directly opposite hers, I met her gaze head-on. “What’s up, Lin?”

To her credit, she didn’t beat around the bush. “I need help.”

Yeah, I’d expected that. “How much?”

She flinched like I’d hit her, something I’d never fucking do, not ever. And I felt like a total asshole for jumping to that conclusion. But we’d done this before. Way too many times. A couple bucks here and there. Sometimes a couple hundred. Always for Maddy.

Shaking her head, she blew out a breath and visibly straightened her shoulders.

“I don’t need money. At least, not…” She paused, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip and sucking more air. “I need you to take Maddy.”

My brain skidded off track, and I swore I heard the screech of a needle over a vinyl record. “You need what now?”

Her eyes had gotten watery, but the tears weren’t flowing, at least not yet. “I need you to take Maddy for me.” She took another breath, and I knew there was more. “I found a program, a good program. But it’s inpatient. Six weeks.” She blinked, willing those tears to just disappear. “I need to kick this monkey off my back for good. I have to do it for me. For Maddy. This is my chance. But I need your help.”

Linny was an alcoholic. Had been for years. Ran in the family from our dad. I’d somehow dodged that bullet, but Linny… Linny had fought this demon for fucking years.

Jesus. This was totally not what I’d been expecting, and my mind raced.

She wanted me to take my niece. Maddy was twelve. What the hell did I know about caring for a twelve-year-old girl? My mouth opened, but words wouldn’t form, my brain just clicking like it was stuck.

She pressed on before I could think of anything to say. “I can’t leave her with Mom and Dad. You know that.”

Yeah, I did. Our mom would love to have Maddy, but our dad was a fucking powder keg who could blow at any second. It’s why neither of us went home, like, ever. Still… How the hell did I become the best option to care for a twelve-year-old girl?

Maybe because you’re her only other family.

My sister took an audible breath. “I know it’s a huge ask, but I need to know she’s gonna be taken care of while I’m gone. And you’re the only one I trust with my daughter.”

My heart flopped like a landed fish at the sincerity in her voice.

When we were kids, it’d just been her and me, a united front against our drunk dad and our codependent mom. But the teen years had hit Linny hard, and I’d been so wrapped up in playing hockey and school I hadn’t understood what was going on with her until it was too late. She’d never once blamed me for leaving for college and leaving her behind. Even though she was almost two years older than me, I’d always taken care of her. But I still felt guilty as hell sometimes for making that decision to go away to college and to stay away to play hockey.

She continued to stare at me with that look, and I knew what my answer had to be. Knew what I had to do.

“I’m out of options, Bri.” Linny’s voice held a despair I’d never heard from her. “I need to do this for Maddy. I need to do this for me. And I need your help.”

I reached across the table and took her too-thin hand. “Of course. Anything for you and Maddy. Anything.”

The door closed behind Linny fifteen minutes later, after we’d gone over the legal details. She’d come prepared. She’d had legal documents for me to sign and Maddy’s school records, everything I’d need to take legal guardianship of my neice. The program she was working with had helped her with everything.

Now, I sat on the ugly-ass, uncomfortable-as-hell couch and stared at the beige wall. No pictures. No window. Just a bland blank canvas. The neighbor’s television blared the news through the thin wall. The volume battled the traffic noise from the busy street. Usually, I could block it all out, but right now, it combined to make me twitch.

This was no place for a twelve-year-old. It wasn’t what you would call a great neighborhood. Hell, no one would call this a good neighborhood, but it was what I was willing to pay so I wouldn’t have to put a dent in my hard-earned nest egg.

I was going to have to move. Like, immediately. But where?

Linny’s apartment was in an even worse neighborhood. She’d told me that, after the first few weeks of school this semester, she’d pulled Maddy out and enrolled her in online classes. When she’d found out Maddy was being bullied, she’d ripped the school principal a new one then demanded another option. For all her faults, Linny had always made sure Maddy was taken care of.

Linny loved her daughter. I’d never questioned that. And while I’d worried that Linny’s drinking would become an issue, I’d let myself think she’d been holding it together. Obviously, she hadn’t.

How had I missed it?

Because you hadn’t been fucking looking.

Shit. I couldn’t go down that rabbit hole now. I had shit I needed to figure out. I needed somewhere for Maddy and me to live. Somewhere safe. Somewhere with a little breathing room for both of us, where I’d have backup if I needed it.

I could only think of one place.

I picked up my phone and dialed.

“Hey, man. I need help.”