Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Hatch
I had spent the last six weeks of the summer following in my sister’s wanderlust footsteps: Split, Brasov, Helsinki, Edinburgh. I left Summer alone, except for a couple of cheese deliveries, but Addy kept me informed. She was smashing it in her internship as I knew she would.
By the time training camp was ready to start, I was determined to put my best skate forward.
New season, new teammates, new attitude.
I was even feeling magnanimous toward Carter who had moved on in a public way.
Summer had to have known that—it was all over the tabloids—and the fact she didn’t reach out to me hurt.
I understood the obstacles, but that didn’t make being apart from her any easier.
On day one of training camp, Carter blew into the locker room like he’d just landed in his family’s private jet, high-fiving everyone in his path. “Hey KJ, how was your summer?”
“Not as good as yours.”
“Yeah, you saw that? Definitely leveling up.”
“Glad to see you’re back in the game, man.”
“Fuck, yeah. Now let’s skate!”
So, we did, and I wondered if what had happened between Summer and me in Saugatuck was merely some hazy dream.
I wanted to hold on to everything: that first kiss, parking at the lake, cheese nights and summer breezes.
But the longer we stayed apart, the more those memories faded and the dimmer my hopes became.
Training camp provided a semi-decent distraction.
It was nice not to feel like a Rebels rookie anymore, and hanging with the guys made me realize how much I’d missed people, especially goofs like Boden and Dingaling.
I also missed my dad’s energy in the locker room.
He was finally taking a well-earned rest while he contemplated next steps.
But it was great to be playing on the same team as my uncle.
Jason was so solid in the back third and having him in my life on a more regular basis was going to do great things for my mental health.
Because, fuck, I needed it.
I needed my support system. My family. My people. Most of all, I needed Summer.
I wondered who had her back. Was she getting what she needed in Rockford? She didn’t know anybody there but maybe that was how she liked it. Lone-wolfing it to prove she could. At least she had Rosie and Addy checking in.
On the last day of camp, we had just finished up a hard session.
I had felt really good out there, like things were connecting.
Someone must have run some analysis because Coach didn’t put me on the same line as Carter.
(Did I dare hope that Summer had provided her reports about me to the coaching staff? You bet I did.)
Instead of Carter, I ran with Gaultier and a new kid called Asher, which sounded like a name you gave a supermodel.
As for C-Dog himself, he might have been enthusiastic at the beginning of training camp, but there was only so far that would take him.
It looked like he’d drunk a bit too much tequila and eaten a few too many of his personal chef’s French meals over the break.
He came out slow and never really skated his way into form.
Sixty guys were fighting for a place on the roster, and I had to wonder if Carter would make the cut.
While the team player in me worried about that, the lovelorn idiot in me didn’t mind at all.
Back in the locker room, I took a seat on the bench ready to untie my skates. My head was down and the only reason I looked up was because a shadow fell over me.
The punch, when it came, hurt like a mother.
I held my jaw and took a good look at a wild-eyed Carter, who loomed over me with his fist clenched and cocked, ready for another. Slow on the ice didn’t translate to slow in the locker room, evidently.
“You fucking asshole. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”
I had no idea what exactly he knew or how he knew it. I wasn’t going to deny it, though. If anything, it was a relief.
“This isn’t about you, Carter.”
“Oh, really? You’ve been screwing my girl for fuck knows how long and it’s not about me?”
“Could we talk about this in private?”
“No, we cannot.” He lunged at me, only to be restrained by Jason.
“Let’s not, Carter,” Jason said. “You want the world to know your business?”
The world already did—or at least had a heads-up. The rest of the team was watching us, double-fisting metaphorical buckets of popcorn.
“How long?” Carter bit out. “How long have you been fucking my fiancée?”
“Nothing happened …” I caught my uncle’s eye. “Until after the wedding.”
Jason winced.
Carter’s mouth fell open. “Don’t believe you, dude! Do. Not. Believe.”
“It’s the truth.” Maybe Summer had told him? I had to admit the punch would be worth it if that was the case. It might mean she was ready to move forward.
Ready for us.
“You took her to your secret little love nest? Acted like a couple mere freakin’ hours after she left me? What kind of teammate does that?”
I had no defense, but I tried all the same. “It was over between you before anything started. I might not have behaved well, but I can assure you of that, Carter.”
His expression shifted from anger to disgust. “You want my sloppy seconds, Kershaw. Have at it.”
This prick. “You know what? I feel sorry for you. You had this amazing, loyal, incredibly special person in your life and you couldn’t see it.
But let’s be clear here. If you say one more harsh word about Summer or so much as breathe in her direction, make no mistake, I will fucking annihilate you. ”
His eyes widened, and his mouth moved wordlessly. Finally, he yelled, “Asshole!” and broke a stick against a bench before crashing out of the locker room.
“Holy shit,” New Kid Asher said.
Gaultier muttered something in French that didn’t sound all that complimentary.
“How do you think he found out?” Jason asked.
NoBo held up his phone. “Tabloids, dude. Someone saw you in Saugatuck.”
I retrieved my phone from my cubby. The screen flashed several missed calls from Special Agent Lauren, along with a text notification from her.
Urgent. What the FUCK is this?
A link blared ominously from the message bubble. I clicked into an article from everyone’s favorite tabloid, Hot Goss:
Dash Carter’s Ex in “Summer” Hideaway Shocker!
It looks like Summer Landry, ex-fiancée of Rebels player Dash Carter, has found comfort in the arms of his teammate, Hatch Kershaw, son of Rebels legend, Theo.
We all wondered where she had run to after her wedding day escape—and it looks like it wasn’t very far.
The new couple were spotted in a coffee shop in Saugatuck, Michigan, where the Kershaws have a vacation home, the day after the wedding that never happened.
While Summer was wearing a Detroit Motors ball cap pulled low to hide her pretty features, there was no doubt that this was the blonde beauty who threw the entire wedding day congregation into turmoil when she jilted Dash at the altar.
And just in case you have any doubts, Hot Goss spoke with various townsfolk who confirmed that Summer stayed at the Kershaws’ lake house and was even spotted with Hatch at dinner and on a boat outing during her stay there.
Neither Hatch nor Summer have been seen together since.
We do know that, until recently, Summer had been rooming with Hatch’s sister, Adeline.
Sounds like they’ve had plenty of opportunities to build on their acquaintance, though we have to wonder if they knew each other better than everyone thought prior to the abandoned wedding?
And what impact will this have on the Rebels team dynamics this season?
Now that Theo Kershaw is no longer around to shield his son from criticism, Hatch will have to skate solo on this one—or call on his uncle Jason Isner’s defense skills to come to the rescue.
A hush had fallen over the locker room as everyone read the article. What a joy for us all to have this united experience. Team building par excellence.
“Someone gave them the photo,” Jason said, referring to the one in the article.
“Coffee Shop Gemma sent it to Mom, and she sent it around.” I stared at Jason. “You don’t think someone in the fam leaked it?”
He gave me a look of how dare. “More likely they got a tip-off that Summer was seen in the Tuck, and they headed down there and started showing her picture around. Once they got to the coffee shop, I’ll bet the woman who runs it handed over the goods.
End of the summer season, probably looking to juice her sales.
” He leveled a serious gaze at me. “Better out than in, H.”
“Is it? Summer doesn’t even want to see me. She told me to stop sending her cheese.”
“Cheese?” NoBo, who had been pretending not to listen, weighed in.
Before I could respond, my phone rang with a call from Lauren.
“I’d better get this.” I stood and headed outside. “Yeah?”
“Don’t ‘yeah’ me, you asshole! Is this true?”
“It might be.”
“Might be? Don’t fucking mess with me, Kershaw. I will end you!”
I believed she would. “I helped her leave the wedding. Not planned or anything, I just happened to be there. She needed a place, so I kept her hidden for a bit.”
“Well, obviously not well enough! Wait until Carter hears.”
“Yeah, about that.” I filled her in on the latest episode in the Hatch-Summer-Carter psychodrama.
That earned me another profanity-laced tirade. Finally, she calmed down enough to come up with a plan. “I’ll put a call into Natalie in Rebels PR and try to get ahead of it. As for you? Go home and do not show your face until I tell you.”
As was my habit in times of stress, I headed to my parents’ house. I walked downstairs into the den to find Dad kneeling in front of the media cabinet.
“If it isn’t scandal in the flesh!”
“Oh, shut it. I’ve already heard about it from Mom and Lauren. Aurora thinks it’s great though.”
“That woman does love the drama. You can sell naming rights for her next martini. Rebels Love Triangle has a certain ring to it.”
I took a seat on the sofa. “What’s up?”
“I’m looking for the DVD from the first time I won the Cup.”
“That’s in the cloud, Dad. Addy digitized them all.”
“I know. I just like watching it on the old media—there it is!” He popped the disc in the player and sat beside me. It was Game 7 against LA, a game I’d watched a million times as a kid.
“This is one of your best.”
“Yep, I was on fire that game.” We watched for a couple of minutes, long enough for my dad to get whatever he needed from a twenty-five-year-old hockey game. Retirement was hard for him, and I expected he would be reliving the glory days for a while.
He turned to me and assessed my bruised jaw. “Carter?”
“Yep.”
“Within his rights, for sure. But now that it’s out in the open, you and Summer can finally figure this out.”
I groaned.
“No?”
“She doesn’t want to be second-best in any relationship.”
My dad nodded his understanding. “Listen, I know all about waiting out a woman. Your mother tried my patience to the extreme before you were born. She was spooked, and I was fucking perfect.”
I rolled my eyes. “Can’t say I’ve been perfect. But I have been all in. Once I knew she was truly free from Carter, I pursued her. I knew she wanted a job in this business, and I made that happen. But it was the wrong move.”
A grimace this time. “Did you really think that taking away her agency was the way to go? She wants you to sympathize, empathize, listen. Not throw your weight and wealth around.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from personal experience.”
My dad gave me a wry smile. “So, you know a lot about how your mom and I got together.”
“‘A lot’ is putting it mildly.”
His grin was wry. “I only tell you so you can learn from my mistakes. Well, not only was your mom determined to handle her pregnancy with you as independently as possible, we also had the problem of your grandparents.”
My mom’s parents were once grifters, meaning they bilked people out of their savings and used their daughters, my mom and my aunt Amy, to help them with their scams. Mom was well out of their schemes by the time she met Dad, but she kept her past a secret because she was worried he would think she was out to swindle him.
The woman didn’t know Theo Kershaw at all.
But I did. I knew exactly what my dad would have done. “You tried to deal with them?”
“Uh huh. I paid them off. In my defense, I felt that this was the best way to keep your mom stress-free in the final months of the pregnancy. She didn’t quite see it that way.
According to her, I was patriarchal and infantilizing and a whole bunch of other big words I can’t remember.
So I hear what Summer’s saying. She gave up her job because someone she thought she loved or she thought loved her told her she didn’t need it. That job meant a lot to her, right?”
I nodded. “And I thought getting it back for her or something like it would make her happy.”
“But were you thinking of her happiness or were you thinking of your own? And I know we like to assume that they’re one and the same.
But not always. When I paid off George Butler, I convinced myself this was for Elle’s benefit, but really it was so she would see me as her protector.
Her savior. I had ulterior motives that aligned with my preferred self-view. ”
This sounded a little too familiar.
“I want Summer to be happy. I thought the job would make her happy. I also thought it would keep her in Chicago. With me.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Is it so selfish to want her with me? To want to carve my own path?”
So we weren’t just talking about Summer.
“No, son, it’s not. But she needs to figure out what she wants first, without pressure from you.”
“But what if she figures out this job is all she wants? Or that she doesn’t love me like I love her?”
My father looked at me, more serious than I’d ever seen him. “That’s always possible.”
So not what I wanted to hear. “She said that I fell for someone I didn’t even know.
That I couldn’t possibly be in love with her because that person didn’t exist. She was just some princess I put on a pedestal.
And maybe that was true, once. But not now.
I got to know her, Dad, the real her. That’s the Summer I fell for. ”
She had never told me she loved me, though, and for the last two months, I’d sat with the knowledge that the debacle with the job was just an excuse to cut me loose.
“You’ve given her time to think on it. You have a couple of days after training camp ends and the pre-season games begin.” My dad leveled his gaze at me. “Time to make your play, Dino Boy.”