Chapter 53 #2
Finally, when I can’t take it anymore, I tug her hand and nod toward the path around the small pond. “Want to walk with me for a bit?”
With a glance around the circle, she sighs. “Yeah, I could use a break.”
We sneak away without being stopped, and when we’re out of earshot, I tuck her into my side. “You okay?”
She’s quiet at first. Like maybe she won’t respond. But after a moment, she sags against me and whispers, “No.”
Stomach plummeting, I stop and turn her to face me. The dim lighting of the lamps throughout the park is likely soothing to most. The lapping of the water against the small dock nearby too. But in this moment, my nerves are set on edge. “What’s going on?”
Her shoulders droop. “Ezra saw us at Allure.”
Fuck. My stomach lurches, but I temper my reaction. I was not expecting the conversation to go there. “What?”
She shifts on her feet, looking everywhere but at me. “He saw us. You and me. And Garreth.” Her eyes dart up to mine before skittering away again.
I take her hand and squeeze gently. “Okay.” The situation is not fucking ideal, and it guts me that he saw Sienna like that, but the pain radiating from her now tells me there’s more to the story.
“He’s blackmailing me,” she explains.
“What the fuck?” My muscles lock up, and it takes me a second to realize I’m crushing her hand. I ease off, but I don’t drop it.
She shakes her head. “He doesn’t want to renew your contract. He says if I don’t go along with his plan, he’ll tell my brothers.”
The sound of water lapping on the dock is drowned out by a buzzing in my ears, and my vision goes hazy. “What else did he say?” I grit out.
She shrugs and licks her lips, once again avoiding eye contact. “He offered to take your place.”
“That motherfucker.” I finally release her hand and give in to the urge to clench mine into fists. I will kill him.
“It’s fine.” She gives me a pleading look. “I took care of the video, and our attorneys are working out an agreement.”
“Sienna.”
“And I’ll find a way to keep you here. A different contract—”
“Sienna,” I growl. “If you think I give a fuck about my contract after what that asshole did to you, you’re out of your mind.”
She flings her arms out, matching my anger. “You have to care. Ollie lives in Boston. You can’t leave. I won’t be responsible for cutting down what little time you have with him already.” She squeezes her eyes shut and heaves in breath after breath, like she’s fighting the urge to cry.
Oh, my sweet girl. She’s always trying so hard to keep her emotions under wraps. I love her and her big feelings so damn much.
By some miracle, I find the strength to take a calming breath. The last thing she needs is to have to manage me while I lose my mind. What she needs is my support. My encouragement.
I step closer and squeeze her hand. “Look at me.”
She opens her green eyes, keeping her head lifted so the tears glistening there don’t fall.
I brush my mouth over hers, and when the first tear falls, it rolls along my lip. “Baby,” I coo. “I don’t need the contract. I don’t need the game. All I need is you and Ollie.”
With jerky movements, she backs away. “What? Hockey is your life. Where will you play? What if the only offers you get come from teams on the other side of the country?”
“Then I retire.” The words come out quickly, easily.
She scans my face, studying every inch, as if it’ll help her make sense of my explanation.
She doesn’t need to decipher anything, though.
I make it easy on her. “I told my agent to go in high. I—” I shake my head.
“I love the game, don’t get me wrong. And if I could play and still be around for all the big moments in Ollie’s life, I would.
But I’m missing so much. He’s growing up so fast.” I cup her cheek and swipe at another tear.
“And if we’re lucky, there will be more children who’ll need me to stick close to home. ”
She smiles through her tears. “I’d really like that.”
My vision blurs as my own eyes go misty. “I’ve never known a love like this. You and Ollie and our future are all I want. So even if the Bolts offered me everything my agent asked for, I think I’d still want to walk. I’m just—” I shrug. “Hockey isn’t the love of my life anymore. You are.”
She launches herself at me, her mouth on mine and her hands in my hair.
Our tears mix, but so does our hope. It grows with every kiss, with every murmured word.
So does our love. This woman is my everything, and being open with her, supporting her, being the rock she needs so she feels safe enough to open up, is only going to make us stronger.
I pull back, cupping her cheeks. “So you tell me how you want to handle the situation with Ezra. Take my career out of the equation. I want to kill him. But since going to prison would give me even less time with Ollie, I’ll settle for confronting him and ensuring he knows exactly how I feel about what he’s done to you.
This isn’t right,” I urge. “I don’t want to tell you what to do, but I think your brothers need to know what kind of man their GM is. ”
She sucks in a breath and blows it out, the sound choppy.
“I always thought if I ran to them with my problems, it made me weak. That it was pathetic to ask them to fix them for me.” She bites her lip.
“But if the situation were reversed, I would want to know if someone was hurting one of them. I’d want to have their backs. ”
I press a kiss to her soft lips. “Of course you would. Because you’re a natural protector.” With a steadying breath, I smooth her hair away from her face. “It’s one of the many reasons I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“I know, baby.”
Movement nearby catches my eye, and when I register the source, I nod up the path. The four men who care deeply for her have wandered our way. “It looks like they have questions. Think they’ve figured out that we haven’t just started dating?”
Another tear slips down her cheek, though as she brushes it away, she laughs. “Probably. I guess it’s time to tell them everything.”