Chapter 54
ELI
Family skates have always been my favorite team gathering.
It’s low-key, and the focus is on the kids.
There’s no press and minimal PR. It’s just fun.
After the last two weeks, this is the sort of lighthearted day we need.
Besides, Fin is still finding her feet on the ice, which means she won’t be focusing on the shit in her head.
“I’m doing it!” Finley squeals, arms out in front of her, knees bent…
Her face is flushed with excitement, so damn happy that my chest suddenly feels too small for my heart and lungs.
JJ’s feeding off her joy as he takes hold of her waist and spins her around on the spot. The grin on his face is as infectious as the giddiness emanating from our girl.
There’s no doubt that today is exactly what we needed to take our minds off of everything going on.
Now that Fin’s got that initial injection of confidence, she’s less shaky, and we manage to get her to skate almost a whole lap on the ice without our hands on her. She’s even making the toddlers look bad when Coach announces it’s time to head up to the cafeteria for food.
JJ and I make quick work of showering and changing while Fin and Lily head up to the cafeteria with Livia and her mom.
It’s great that she’s bonding with the other guys’ families because it means JJ and I don’t have to worry about her feeling left out. We want her to have people around her that she can lean on when we’re away. A steady, reliable network. And for her to feel like part of the Comets’ family.
The noise in the cafeteria is deafening when we walk inside, from children screaming at each other and babies wailing at the commotion, to all the adult conversations going on. It is pandemonium, and I like it.
More than that, I love the possibility that one day our kids will be running around and screaming like the best of them.
“Is it me, or does this place get fuller every time we do this?” Jayden chuckles, his arm draped around my shoulders as we navigate the room in search of our girl.
“Definitely gets fuller,” I say when we walk past a few of the guys introducing their newborns to each other.
“Yeah, I swear they have mating seasons, because they come in batches every time.” JJ stops to take a long gander across the room before he sets eyes on Fin. “There she is!”
Lost in animated conversation with Livia, Courtney, and a few of the other girls, she looks perfectly gorgeous in her loose jeans and Comets’ hoodie.
It’s fitted to her slender frame with custom patches sewn onto each arm—a twenty-one with my name around it and a seventy-four with JJ’s name. One of the wives organized the custom run, and most of the other women are wearing theirs, too.
Fin’s head turns toward us, and her smile is the best of all. She’s at ease here, and nothing could make this moment better than what it is right now with our girl smiling and JJ’s arm around me.
***
Everyone brought a few dishes for the potluck, and while we were down on the ice, the kitchen staff laid them all out along with a few hot options from the kitchen.
Everyone always includes a veggie and a vegan dish with their offerings. Normally, some kind of salad that’s sat in dressing for too long. I tend to stick to whatever Scott makes, unless it’s Rio’s mom’s heart of palm salad. That dish is like crack; once you try it, you can’t stop eating it.
I’m looking for it when Matheo nudges me with his shoulder. “It’s over there,” he says, pointing towards the opposite side of the buffet.
“Is it all gone?”
“It will be when JJ’s done loading up your plate,” he chuckles, looking around the offerings while I carry on making up Fin’s plate with some of the dishes everyone always loves.
“Give her the hearts,” he places a skewer on her plate before I can tell him ‘no’ to his mom’s traditional chicken hearts. “She’ll love them, and when Andersen gets to them, they’ll be gone.”
“Umm… not sure Fin will—” I start, only for him to turn and holler across the cafeteria to where Fin is sitting with Livia and his mom, “Amish!”
Fuck. Me.
Her head spins faster than ever, along with every other head in the place, a deep blush blazing on her cheeks when she finds us.
“You up for trying new cuisine?” he calls, only to be met with a “Mine!” from Andersen as he makes a beeline for us.
It’s a freaking circus as I push past the crazy assholes trying to get to the hearts before Andersen.
On the way to the table, I snag a few of the grilled veggie and marinated tofu kabobs I made this morning with Fin’s help and some of Scott’s balsamic arugula and strawberry salad.
It’s Fin’s favorite and one of the best salads he makes.
By the time everyone is dished up and sitting around the long banquet-style tables, the cacophony of all the different conversations has died down to almost silence, with only the hum of chatter from the kids’ table.
“Have you and Tina figured things out?” Fin asks Matheo when he pushes between her and Livia.
He looks at me and, with a shrug, tells her, “She’s playing hard to get.”
Oh, boy, I see the instant she prickles at his remark. I don’t know what’s going through her head or why she’s bothered, but I feel totally responsible for his misstep.
“Matheo didn’t mean that in a bad way,” I say, skimming my thumb along the back of her neck.
“I’m sure you didn’t.” With a narrowed stare leveled on his, she spears her fork into one of the hearts. Gesturing between them with it, she goes on, “Because Christina isn’t a game. She’s a highly defensive person with very real and deep feelings… and she hurts big.”
“Dude,” Matheo groans at me.
“I didn’t tell you she was playing hard to get,” I grumble, focusing on my plate so I don’t have to watch Fin turn her glare on me.
“Really, Eli?”
“Oh, shit, trouble in paradise,” Andersen mutters to Reinhardt.
The only date these morons have had to the family skates in the last couple years is Reinhardt’s son. It’s safe to say they know nothing about paradise.
“Man, he’s all flustered and shit,” Ansel laughs back at Erik.
“Preacher, man…” Erik snickers.
“Fuck off!” I snap at the stooges, turning to Finley.
Big mistake, she’s still glaring at me.
“Don’t take it out on him,” Livia sighs. “My idiot brother has a way of misinterpreting things. You could put the translation right in front of him and he’d call a gerbil a donkey.”
“What the fuck, Liv?” Matheo jumps from his seat, fork clattering onto his plate as he yelps like a girl, rubbing his chest. “You fuck! What the hell?”
“For God’s sake, keep your hands to yourselves,” their mom groans, hiding her face in her hands like this isn’t normal.
“You’re such a baby. It was literally the worst titty twister ever,” Liv grumbles.
I’d feel bad for Matheo, but Finley’s totally distracted by his outburst. Laughing so hard that she’s snorting. “Oh, God, I’m going to pee myself. So bad…”
After she excuses herself for the bathroom, Matheo sits down, still scowling between me and his sister.
“I can’t believe you. Either of you,” he mutters, going back to forking his food with so much gusto that the cherry tomato he stabs squirts everywhere.
All over my pristine white shirt. Before it has a chance to settle, I go clean myself up. Jayden and I are taking Finley to the movie theater. I’d rather not have Matheo’s angry tomato juice all over me.
The practice facility is starkly quiet outside the cafeteria. As I turn the corner to the nearest bathroom, my heart drops to my feet.
“Get it through your head. I don’t have to listen to anything you have to say,” Finley barks, shoving Ryker’s chest.
“There are always two sides to every story,” Ryker coos back, hands in the air.
“Only one that matters in this one. I know what you did. I know the kind of person you are and—”
“You don’t know me for shit,” he scoffs back.
The instant he takes a step toward her, I launch forward.
“Elijah’s no innocent lamb. Whatever he’s told you…
Whatever lie he’s telling himself now doesn’t change the fact he’s not straight.
He’s not now, and he wasn’t then. You don’t become queer overnight, Sweetie. ”
It happens in slow motion. His hands close around her biceps and, before he can do anything, I push between them, slamming him against the wall.
“Keep your hands off my girl,” I bark, hands gripping the collar of his jacket.
“Is she your girl or your boyfriend’s girl?” Ryker chuffs with a leering laugh. “Do you even want her or is she just there to make you feel less gay?”
“You don’t know anything about us.” Fin’s growl cuts through the spittle of my curse as she grabs the hand I rear back. Her whole body weight is pulling it down forcibly, but it only means I tighten my grip on his collar with the other, twisting it so tight that it’s pinching his air supply.
“Don’t I?” Ryker’s stare flits between the two of us.
“Look at me,” I demand, squeezing my hand around his jaw. “Whatever game you’re playing ends now. You’re going to stay away from us—”
“Maybe tell your girl that,” he chokes, hands closing around my wrists, attempting to pry my hold off him. “She cornered me. Isn’t that right, Finley?”
“Why are you even doing any of this?” Finley grasps the top of my jeans, trying to tug me back when I slam him against the wall and drop him like the sack of shit he is. “What do you want?”
“I’m just here on community rink business… minding my own…”
Lies! “Liar,” I grunt.
“What the fuck?” I glance back at JJ’s cold snarl.
Dylan and Lily are marching hurriedly behind him. When Dylan notices us, he pauses, assessing the situation.
“Go back to the cafeteria, Sweetheart,” he tells Lily, taking a few steps back to watch her follow his instruction before he asks us, “Is there a problem here?”
“I don’t know, Thompson,” Ryker smirks, fixing his clothes. “Why don’t you ask your boys and their girl?”
“The fuck are you doing here?” Jayden growls, stepping around Finley. “Always hanging around like a fucking stench.”
Ryker doesn’t get the chance to breathe a word—at the whisper of his grin, Jayden fists his shirt and drags him to the top of the stairs leading to the main atrium. He’s got Ryker over the banister, back bowed over the thick glass as Dylan stands ready to intervene.
I give Fin a check over. I don’t like that she was out here on her own with him.
“Did he hurt you? You okay?” Fin looks at me, my questions bouncing around her head while big, panicked eyes dart between me and Jayden as she nods, “Fine.”
“Morrow…” Dylan attempts to grab JJ’s attention.
“Don’t,” I stop him from interfering at the same time as Finley rushes to JJ’s side.
“He’s not worth it,” she tells him frantically. “Let him go, Honey. Just let him go.”
“No.” Jayden shoves Ryker farther over the edge, so that Dylan pushes past me to grab Ryker’s flailing arm. “Not until we get a few things straight. Until I know he’s got it through his thick fucking head that we’re done with his bullshit.”
“Fuck,” Matheo mutters, bounding around the corner with a few of the other guys hot on his heels. “Jay…”
“Here’s the deal, asshole: I let you walk away now, and this is the last time we see you. Hear of you. You don’t exist anymore.” Jayden’s tall, looming frame swallows up Ryker when he yanks him back onto his feet.
“JJ, let him go,” Fin whispers into his shoulder.
When he looks at her, it’s the only time he takes his eyes off Ryker—giving me an in to intervene. Because Ryker is my problem, and there is no fucking way I’m letting it affect Jayden.
“Take Fin back inside,” I tell him, nodding to the cafeteria. “Get her a drink, settle her nerves… make sure our girl is okay for me.”
“I’m not leaving you with him,” he retorts, releasing Ryker with a hard push that whooshes the air out of his lungs when he smacks into the glass balustrade with a hard thud. His arms wrap around Finley’s shoulders, drawing her into his body while he takes stock of her. “You okay, Baby?”
Finley swallows, ready to tell him what he needs to hear to disarm. “I need a water. I’m shaking so bad.”
It’s not a lie; she’s visibly trembling.
“Come on, Morrow,” Auguste coaxes him while Matheo gives him a reassuring nod. “Dyl’s here for Sylkes.”
“Eli…” He’s looking at me, begging me to go with him, but I’m not done here. This is a battle I have to fight for myself, because I’m not a coward.
As soon as Jayden turns his back, Ryker tries to edge past me—to slink away after all the shit he’s stirred. Exactly like he did all those years ago. He took me to that party under the guise of being my friend, and after it went down, he walked away like it was nothing.
While I want to never lay eyes on him again after today, he doesn’t get to leave without acknowledging his part in everything. He doesn’t get to twist the knife without getting blood on his hands.
“What?” he spits at me when I stretch my arm out, halting his escape.
“I know it’s you. The photos and story in The Chronicle, the texts… You stole Fin’s number at the bar, and it was you who posted it in the forums.”
He chuffs, “Do you? Really?”
“I don’t know why, but I know it’s your shitty game, Ryker. You’re still the same manipulative, backstabbing piece of shit you were all those years ago. Still a damn worthless liar.”
“Prove it.”
White-hot rage scalds through my bloodstream at his smirk. I don’t see red, blue, or fucking purple. I see nothing. Black.
Dylan’s hand curls around my shoulder, stopping me from launching at the cretinous fuck.
“Go near Finley again, and I will kill you. You so much as breathe near Jayden, and I will rip your fucking throat out. You’re done. We’re done. Stay the fuck away from us.”
With a shake of my shoulder, I walk away. Not another glance behind me, the way Ryker left the night he fed me to the wolves. Except this time, I’m not scared or ashamed. I’m not one bit confused as I pull my phone from my pocket and text Parker.
Eli Sylkes
Hey, Parker. If your offer is still open, I’d like to take you up on it. Thanks.