Chapter 23
“Iknow this game doesn’t mean anything in the standings, but I want them to win so badly,” I tell Angie. We’re in a suite with a few other players’ wives, but no one I know.
“Because you want them to be the better team and win. Best of the best.”
“I still can’t believe Cash got in. I mean, I can, but I can’t.”
“Believe it, Piper. He’s going to help the team make a run for the playoffs when the season picks back up.”
“You’re really going to have to help me deal with those nerves when it happens.”
Angie stands, giving me a warm smile. “You know I’m here for you. I’m going to grab a drink. Need anything?”
I shake my head. “Just a water.”
“You got it.”
The intermission is going by with the teams’ mascots playing a round of musical chairs on the ice. I take the time to settle my brain with mindless scrolling, looking through past text messages with Cash.
All the way back to when this thing started. It’s hard to believe how much time has passed, yet it’s still flown by.
Pictures of the two of us.
Puck.
Articles talking about how he’s an asset to Colorado.
Sexy texts.
Those are my favorite and ones I should not be looking at in public.
But with the All-Star break ending with the game tonight, we don’t really have a reason to keep this thing going. Cassie said this weekend was it. It’s hard not to look at everything we had and hope for more.
Because…do we really have to give this thing up?
I know Cash is a loner, doesn’t like people. I’m hoping that maybe he’s changed his mind. That when we get home we can have a conversation about making this thing permanent.
I’m not ready to let go of Cash.
“Enjoying the game?”
My phone flies out of my hand as Ava chirps in my ear. She pops a piece of popcorn into her mouth with a smile on her face that has ice sliding through me.
“I thought you weren’t coming?”
How Duncan got into the game, I still don’t know.
“Duncan changed his mind. I’m glad he did. Who knew seeing you here would be so fun?”
“Sure you don’t want something stronger?” Angie asks, eyes glaring at Ava as she retakes her seat.
“I’m good.”
“Nothing for me,” Ava tells her, like she was offering to get her something.
“Excuse me, are you Angie Hollins?” A woman comes up to Angie from the bar.
“I am.”
“Hi. My husband plays for Nashville and does work with Team Rainbow, and I just wanted to introduce myself.”
“Of course!”
Angie pops up from her seat to go talk with her. Ava is rolling her eyes at them. “God, some people are just so…what’s the right word? Fake.”
Dread settles in my stomach. “What are you talking about?”
Ava rests her elbow on the armrest between us, and her chin on a closed fist. Her brown eyes are menacing as they roll over me.
“Don’t play dumb, sweetheart. It’s really not a good look. You know what I’m talking about.”
“What?”
“You know, you shouldn’t read things in public for anyone to see. Tsk tsk.”
Oh God. The teams come back onto the ice for the start of the second period. Instead of being excited for the action to start again, I’m ready to crawl into a hole and die.
Ava saw what I was looking at?
“Piper, you okay?” Angie’s back and has a worried look on her face. The two of us sitting together would be worrisome for anyone who knows my history with Ava.
“I’m good.” I swallow around the lie that slips out. “Ava and I need to go chat for a minute.”
I squeeze by Angie and slip out of the suite, finding a quiet corner to have this conversation.
“What in the hell are you doing, Ava?” I hiss at her as she saunters toward me.
She twirls a strand of black hair around her finger. A bedazzled jersey stretches tight across her chest, clashing with the leather pants she’s wearing.
“You know,” she starts, looking me up and down with a scathing look, “I don’t understand how you keep getting these guys to fall for you. But then I realized, it’s all fake. Clearly you’re lying to get everyone to love Cash, and Duncan? Well, I don’t know what he ever saw in you.”
“What do you want, Ava?”
“Break up with him.”
“What?” I rear back as if she slapped me. “With Cash?”
Ava rolls her eyes at me. “God, you’re such a blonde. Yes, with Cash.”
“But why?”
Ava takes a step forward, and I retreat farther back into the corner. I can’t stand breathing in the smell of her perfume.
“You have been a thorn in my side since I started dating Duncan.”
“You mean when you were cheating with him?”
She waves my words off. “Something about you keeps pulling Duncan back. And now I know why.”
“Why’s that?” I cross my arms, trying to keep my insides where they should be. My stomach has plummeted to my feet, and my heart is threatening to beat out of my chest.
“He wants what he can’t have. And based on how your relationship started with Cash, I see an opportunity.”
“Can’t you let us be?” I plead. “We have nothing to do with your relationship.”
“If you’re not dating Cash, then Duncan will want nothing to do with you and will want me.”
“God, Ava! Are you even hearing yourself? Why would you want to be with someone who doesn’t want to be with you?”
“Duncan doesn’t know what he wants.”
“So how do you know he wants you?”
Ava taps a bright blue nail against my forehead. “Because when he sees me in his room tonight, he’ll change his mind.”
“Ugh.”
That’s the last thing I want to be thinking about right now.
“And by the time we get home, you’ll have dumped Cash and all will be right in the world.”
“What if I don’t?”
“Don’t break up with Cash?”
I nod.
Ava leans in close. I can smell the gum on her breath. “Then I’ll tell everyone that what you two had was fake to win over the media.”
Bile rises in my throat. It would serve her right for me to puke all over her designer shoes.
“Why are you doing this?”
“To get what I want.”
“I don’t want Duncan, Ava!” I shout. A few people are lingering near the restrooms and turn to face us. The last thing I need is for people to find out about me and Cash from my big mouth.
“But I do!” she hisses. “And until you’re no longer the forbidden fruit he can’t have, I won’t be able to have his entire heart.”
“So I break up with Cash and that’s it? You keep my secret?”
A wicked smile takes over her face. It’s ugly. Cunning. Cutting so deep that I feel it down to my bones.
“Yes. If you want your pretty little boy toy to stay with the Black Diamonds, you’ll do as I say.”
“Ava—”
Ava walks backward, wiggling her fingers at me. “I know you’ll make the right decision, Piper. Break up with him or the world finds out the truth.”
I have no claim on Duncan. I never felt a fraction for him of what I feel for Cash. I didn’t know I could have feelings this big until Cash came along.
And now?
Now I have to break both our hearts in order to protect him.
Cash has done a one-eighty in the press. They are eating out of the palm of his hand. Anytime the two of us show up on social media, they’re talking about what a well-balanced player he is. How his presence has helped the entire team and how it’ll carry them through a playoff run.
I don’t see any other way out of this.
Tears well in my eyes as I sink into the corner.
I can’t even focus on the game now.
I can delete our text conversation, but with one anonymous source, it’ll be spewed all over the tabloids and Cassie would have a nightmare of a time trying to clean it up.
How could I have been so careless to be flipping through our messages where anyone could see?
There’s still one period left to play. I have no idea how I’m going to pull myself together to make it through tonight.
Better yet, I don’t know how I’m going to make a decision on what to do.
We were going to break up regardless, so why not end it and make a clean break of it?
What a conniving bitch she is. It’s not enough that she’s ruined my life once already, but now she has to ruin it again.
God, what am I going to do?
Sucking in a deep breath, I try to push every thought out of my head to make it through the rest of the game. Rainbows and unicorns and princesses.
Princess.
I hear it in Cash’s low rumble and it makes my heart crack. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to manage this.
I peek my head inside the suite, making sure Ava isn’t in there before grabbing another drink at the bar.
“Make it a double, please.”
The bartender doesn’t think twice as she passes over my drink. I take a healthy swallow before heading back to the suite.
Piper, are you okay? Angie asks, as I drop into the seat next to her. The score is tied, with the second period almost over.
“I…”
I don’t know how to answer. I’m so far from okay, I’m not even in the same realm. It’s the truth.
My heart is slowly breaking as I stare out at the ice. Cash is out there, skating with ease, not a care in the world.
I don’t know what’s going to happen with Cash and me, but a decision needs to be made.
If I have to break up with him to protect him, I will.
Fucking Duncan. I never should have dated him to start with.
He’s done nothing but ruin my life since the moment I met him.
“Piper, you’re worrying me.”
I wave Angie off. What could I tell her? This thing with Cash started out as a PR scheme to win over the press and now I fell in love with him, but my ex-roommate is threatening to tell everyone that it was fake to make my ex stay with her?
“Must have been something I ate. I’ll be fine.”
If only…