4. Luke
Chapter 4
Luke
My breath clouds in front of me when I hit the ice, dawn barely cracking over the horizon.
Coach would be pissed if he knew I was out here. There’s a time for training and a time for recovery. That’s what this break is supposed to be. Rest and recovery. But the only time I can clear the thoughts and memories from my mind is when I’m pushing my body to the brink.
My skates cut through the ice, the lone pair until the ghost of another soars across.
The ghost of the girl I once thought of as a dream. Now my nightmare.
Chloe deserved to be more than a dream. She deserved to be a whole person. A girl with flaws and quirks and annoying habits. A girl who chewed too loud or talked too much or never got anywhere on time. If she was still here, I could’ve learned those things about her. Maybe we would’ve discovered we weren’t a good fit at all. Maybe we would’ve realized we were better as friends.
“Luke!”
My head whips to the other side of the ice, convinced I heard Chloe calling out to me.
But when the shout comes again, it’s from the opposite direction. No ghosts in sight.
A mother shouts at her son racing for the frozen pond until she wrangles him into submission.
My heart pounds in my ears, from chasing the puck for the past hour and my mind convincing me for the briefest moment that Chloe had been resurrected from the dead.
Or that I was truly losing my fucking mind.
With the sun reflecting off the ice and families bringing their kids to skate, I pack up and head home, limbs drained and heart struggling to pump the blood in my veins.
But at least I didn’t think about Chloe until the end, my mind too consumed by the burn and strain. Too bad the peace never lasts. She always comes back to me with a vengeance—long, blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a huge smile to match her bigger-than-life personality. Now the corpse in the casket.
By the time I trudge through the front door, I want to claw my brain out of my head. My hand itches to reach for my phone and text Sienna. My favorite distraction.
Bud barks and races up to me, tail wagging.
“Luke?” Ma calls. “Can you join us in the family room?”
I ditch my bag on the floor, scratch Bud’s head, and sigh. The family room is where Ma delivers bad news. When our last dog died, when the Novaks announced the date for Chloe’s funeral, when she told me Mike would be moving in. All the shit guaranteed to upset me, she reserves for this room.
Ma and Mike are seated together on one couch, and I take the other across from them, Bud flopping at my feet. The family room is stiff and formal, decorated and organized like a staged room in a house up for sale.
I clasp my hands between my knees, foot bouncing. Already eager to get the hell out of this room and soak in the shower for an hour. “What’s up?”
Ma glances at Mike. This has to be some shit about the wedding. Ma’s going to insist on my attendance and Mike’s about to ask me to be his best man, which was obviously her idea.
He grins. “Sienna is coming to stay with us!”
To stay .
Sienna is going to be fucking living here.
It’s bad enough that we’re about to be step-siblings in the eyes of the law. Bad enough that she might show up at the wedding and somehow put all the pieces together. But to be under the same roof?
There’s no fucking way she won’t figure out Ten’s real identity. Every time she messages Ten, my phone will chime. She’s smart—she’ll catch on fast.
And then I’ll lose her forever.
“Why the hell is she staying here?”
Ma flinches but forces a smile. “I was thinking you could show her around campus. We’ll be on our honeymoon, but I was hoping you and your teammates could help her move into the dorm.”
Jesus . Living in my house, attending the same university. I always thought if I ever met Sienna in person someday, the friendship between us would grow into something more. But I never did come up with a solution about how I’d get away with catfishing her from day one.
If she moves in, that friendship has to end. I won’t be able to keep up the ruse anymore. Not when I plan on taking this secret to the grave.
My hands curl into fists. “Why is she moving here?”
Mike shifts uncomfortably. “We think it’s in her best interest.”
Does this have something to do with why she disappeared from social media? Why she suddenly wanted to live her life “unplugged”? Something’s going on that she’s not telling me.
So I guess we’ve both got our secrets now.
I stand. Because Ma wants to marry a guy she’s already dumped once, now I have to give up Sienna. The one person I’ve been able to count on, the one person I’ve trusted with almost everything. The universe is fucked. “She can find somebody else to move her shit in. Maybe, I don’t know, her dad.”
Ma glances at Mike as if she expects him to defend her like my father would. Don’t talk to your mother like that . But he doesn’t. He’s smarter than that—he knows it wouldn’t end well for him.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, Luke,” Ma calls at my back. “But you’re a part of this family, and you’ll be at the wedding.”
She’s using her courtroom voice now. She’s not fucking around. I turn to face her and lean against the wall, arms folded because I’m not either.
If she wants me at that wedding, she’ll have to knock me out and drag me. I’m not showing up in a suit and pretending like I approve of this shit. I don’t care if Mike is a decent guy—they haven’t been together that long.
But even if they’d been together the past five years, I wouldn’t want her to marry him. I can’t stand by and let her make Sienna my stepsister with a smile on my face.
“We’re adults and we make our own decisions, with or without your approval.” Ma perches with her hands on her hips in front of me now. “I don’t care how old you are—you live under my roof and I’m still your mother. If I say you’ll be at the wedding, you’ll be at the wedding. Or you can pay for your tuition and housing on your own.”
So she’s playing that card. It’s too late before next semester to apply for loans, and there’s no way in hell I’m giving up my spot on the Diamond Devils hockey team.
Other than talking to Sienna, hockey is the only thing that clears my mind. Getting drafted to the NHL was Pop’s dream for me. I won’t let him down. Not again.
I shrug, teeth clenched. “Fine.”
When I turn to leave the room, Ma calls after me. “You’ll help Sienna move into her dorm too. Maybe you can ask Wes and Knox and some of your other friends to help.”
“Whatever. I’m going to shower.”
This isn’t how meeting her was supposed to go. We weren’t supposed to meet at all. We’d keep up this online friendship forever, and I’d never have to reveal the disappointing man beneath the mask.
Upstairs, I check my phone, the steam rising from the shower.
My heart sinks when I spot the messages from Sienna.
Sienna
So apparently I’m moving in with my father.
I’m kind of nervous.
Before, I would’ve responded the second I read her texts. Would’ve reassured her that I’d help her get through anything. Would’ve told her she’s the bravest girl I know.
Instead, I turn the sound off on my app notifications and lock the screen.
I’m ghosting her when she needs me the most. Ghosting my best friend.
Sienna is a no-show at our parents' wedding. The tight knot in my chest loosens. Maybe she changed her mind. She’s staying with her mom and I won’t expose my secret after all. I won’t lose her.
At the reception in the hotel, my family bombards me with questions about hockey and classes and girlfriends. Doesn’t help that a lot of hockey players marry young, so everyone expects me to find a college sweetheart who will become my wife.
By the time I escape to the hotel bar, I want to rip off the stiff, starchy suit and down a bottle of their hardest liquor.
I grab a stool and nearly mutter a prayer when the bartender doesn’t ask for my ID. He must read the need for a drink all over my face.
Sienna texted me a bunch of times since the reception started, explaining the car troubles she had before she could leave for her father’s wedding and how she showed up late to the reception and now can’t gather up the courage to go in there.
I wish I could be the support she needs. Hold out my arm and help her face her father and all those strangers, but I can’t. I slip my phone back into my pocket.
When I glimpse the only other person at the bar adjacent to me, my breath catches. Somebody who’s having a worse night than I am.
A few empty glasses sit in front of her that she must have downed before the bartender could clear them away. The glass in her hand is half empty, the liquid inside dark and promising a blackout.
She’s heartbreakingly gorgeous. Long, soft brown hair drifting in waves down her back, delicate nose, and a round face that’ll keep her looking twenty for the next ten years. Her lips and nails are painted a vibrant red like she’s planning on meeting someone here. A girl who keeps glancing at her phone like she got stood up.
Or like she’s on the run from whatever asshole gave her that nasty bruise on her temple.
Her piercing green eyes land on me.
The moment I’ve been anticipating since Ma announced the wedding. I’m not the mystery man behind the mask anymore, and she’s not just a pretty face online. She’s real.
Sienna Carter.
Except she wasn’t supposed to show up battered and bruised. My teeth grind together, fists clenching. Who the fuck did that to her? I’ll kill him.
Her lips purse and she stands, heels clicking with every step.
She flops onto the stool beside me, her dress rising dangerously high on her thighs clad in dark tights. My mouth goes dry. Never in a million years would I have imagined meeting her looking like this .
“It’s rude to stare.” She sighs, taking another swig from her glass. Her voice is this delicate soprano, soft and breathy and I want to hear it again. Need to.
“So I’ve heard.” I snatch the whiskey in front of me and take a sip.
Up close, she’s even more beautiful. Natural beauty hidden under a thick layer of makeup—a failed attempt to conceal the nasty bruise.
Now is my chance to come clean. Tell her who I am, reveal Ten’s true identity. I’m not actually from California. I used an app to text you from a number with a California area code. I wear a mask so you never find out who I really am. Now I’m your stepbrother.
I pull out the disposable camera and set it in front of her. She picks it up tentatively, a confused but delighted smile crawling across her lips. “What’s this for?”
Heart pounding in my ears, I try to force my tongue to form the words. But all that comes out is: “They’re passing them out at the reception. I swiped one.” I gesture to her dress. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
“If I was here for the reception, why would I be out here with you?” She snaps a photo of me, and despite that bruise and whatever hell she’s been through, she’s still managing to smile at someone she believes to be a stranger.
“That’s what I’m wondering.”
When she catches me staring at that bruise, she sighs. “Before you ask, I fell.”
God, she’s a terrible liar. No way in hell she got that bruise from a fall. No way in hell that bruise isn’t related to exactly why she’s here in the first place. But I play along. “Yeah? Where at?”
“On ice.” She smiles sweetly, and those red lips make my cock twitch. Fuck .
Don’t imagine them wrapped around your dick, don’t imagine them wrapped around your dick— I’m one hundred percent imagining them wrapped around my dick. Wouldn’t be the first time. “You skate?”
“No. Hence the falling.” She tucks the camera in her purse and takes another gulp of her drink before her gaze rakes over me. Her sultry green eyes set me on fire. She better stop fucking looking at me like that before I bend her over this bar. I’m already sporting a semi. “What’s with the suit?”
“I own the hotel.”
She snorts at my equally obvious lie. “Oh, good. Maybe you can upgrade my room then.”
I swirl the liquid in my glass. “Meeting someone?”
She bats her lashes at me. “If I was meeting someone, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you. I like my men jealous and possessive.”
Wouldn’t know any other way to be. I take another gulp of whiskey. Already starting to catch a buzz. Abstaining from alcohol for hockey has turned me into a lightweight.
“What’s your name?” I ask, because I’m not supposed to know.
A smile plays on her ruby lips. “Mystery.”
So no real names then. That’s fine. I’m used to that.
“What’s yours?” she asks.
“Investigator.”
This pulls a genuine laugh from her, and it’s the most magical sound I’ve ever heard.
Her palm lands on my thigh, red-painted nails skimming along my pants and sending chills down my spine. “I think I have an idea to shake up our miserable evenings. If you want to come up to my room with me.”
Jesus . This isn’t at all how I expected tonight to go. Through text, she’s the sweet, caring, funny girl. Not the seductive vixen. But I like this side of her.
No, I fucking love it.
I shouldn’t go through with this. Not when I know exactly who she is and she has no clue who I am. Not when I know that we’re already step-siblings.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to get attached or ask for your number or stalk you on social media.” She squeezes my thigh. “I just want to get fucked.”
Well, shit. Hard to say no now. Especially when my cock is rock-solid.
Fuck it. If Sienna wants me to fuck her, I’ll give her every inch. I’ve daydreamed about a night with her for a while, and this may be the only chance I get once she finds out who I really am.
I let her pull me off the stool. “Where’s your room?”