Chapter 5
Logan
Miles and I applauded his fiancée’s nerve, watching Mr. Winters’ face turn purple there on the grand, floodlit driveway.
The unreality of this moment made me dizzy.
This was so far from my imagined apology-meeting with Miles it felt inconceivable.
Also felt way better than it should’ve, him and me working together to outsmart the man now sputtering and calling his daughter names.
“I’ll throw your clothes in the trash,” Winters blustered. “You’ll never see your mother’s diamonds again.”
“I don’t care,” Avery said. “Throw them in the trash too.”
“They’re worth over two hundred grand. Beautifully matched stones that took months to find.” Winters stared at her.
“What part of ‘I don’t care’ wasn’t clear?” Avery’s eyes glittered. I didn’t know her well enough to tell if that was hurt or anger. “You could give them to the golf charity. Apologize for making such a scene.”
“I didn’t make a scene,” Winters bellowed. “You did.”
“Then you should be glad I’m leaving.” Avery pivoted away. “Goodbye, Dad.”
Miles fell in at her right shoulder, so I stuck close on her left.
“Don’t you walk away from me!” Winters shouted as Avery trudged down the drive between us. “Get back here!” He called her bitch and whore, lunging after us.
Miles whirled and stepped between them. “Don’t you touch her.” I’d never seen Miles really angry before, but I’d have stopped as short as Winters did in the face of Miles’s fury. “Keep your fucking hands to yourself.”
“Your car’s not going anywhere,” Winters blustered. “I’ll have it towed. Don’t you dare walk away.”
Avery laughed without turning, sounding bitter. “I’d walk on broken glass for ten miles to get out of here.”
“You don’t have to,” I told her softly as she trudged on, leaving her father raging impotently behind us. “My car’s down on the street. I’ll give you a lift wherever you’re going.”
Miles added, “And I’ll carry you down there like a princess, if you like. Save those bare feet.”
“I’m not letting him see me weak,” Avery said. “But I’ll definitely take the ride. Sorry about your car, Miles.”
Miles shrugged. “Meh. I can afford to get it out of impound, and if he damages anything, his insurance will pay. No worries.”
Winters receded in the background as we strode toward the gate, still yelling slurs I’d punch someone for using about my family.
Miles said, “He’s repeating himself. No imagination.”
Avery’s snort sounded half laughter, half tears, but she jerked her head higher and kept going. As we neared the main gates, they swung shut, presumably triggered by a remote in Winters’ limo. Avery punched a code into the panel beside the human-sized door next to them and pulled it open.
Miles held the door for her and me to pass through, and swung it shut with a clang behind himself. “Where are you parked, Logan?”
I gestured left. “Next house that way.”
Miles said, “We’re far enough away now. You want a lift, Aves? I bench press twice your weight.”
The image of her cradled in his arms like some fantasy princess made me say, “I’ll go start the car and turn on the heater.” I sprinted the half block, popped the locks, and got in. A quick check of the back seat reassured me there wasn’t too much crap and I cranked the heat to seventy-five.
When I glanced in the rearview mirror, Avery was still limping along on her own two feet.
She had more grit than I’d expected from those ethereal online photos.
Miles opened a back door, and I twisted over the seat to say, “You should both get in back there. Miles, try to warm her up. I think there’s a blanket in the footwell somewhere. ”
“Thanks.” Miles shut Avery’s door, jogged around, and climbed in beside her. “Here, Aves, wrap this around you. Come on. Turn sideways and you can put your feet in my lap. I’ll warm them.”
I faced forward resolutely. “Where to?”
“My house,” Miles said. “You remember where—”
“Of course.” I cut him off, pulling away from the curb.
“I can get a hotel room.” Avery’s voice trembled. “Although I bet Dad’s canceling my credit cards right now.”
“No hotel. Rachel would kill me, and I don’t want you alone tonight.” Miles lowered his tone to that soft rumble I’d always loved in our quiet moments. “Aves, you did so good. I’m so proud of you. It’ll be okay.”
She gasped and then broke into loud sobs, muffled a moment later, no doubt against Miles’s broad shoulder. He murmured to her, little phrases of, “It’s okay,” and “Get it out,” and “You’re safe.”
God, I shouldn’t have envied a traumatized woman a decade my junior who’d just taken a nuclear bomb to her family relationship, but I did.
My body hurt like I’d been cross-checked into the boards.
I kept my eyes on the road and didn’t look in the mirror, even when I should’ve, so I wouldn’t see Miles cradling the person he now loved in his arms.
Miles lived in a fairly ritzy suburb himself, only ten minutes away.
His house wasn’t an ostentatious mansion with columns, but he had a wall of glass windows looking out on a pond, plus a pool, and a basement gym, along with four bedrooms, three of which I’d never slept in.
Miles’s bed was custom-made for his size, and luxurious.
Avery probably looked like a doll in it.
He also had a long circular drive, but no fence, no gate. I pulled around the circle and stopped by the front door. “Logan’s taxi service aims to please. No need to tip the driver.” My tight voice made the joke sound weird.
Avery’s sobbing had died down to little gasps by then. Still, I didn’t look back until she’d opened her door.
“God,” Miles said before she got out. “You two haven’t even met. Logan, this is Avery. Aves, my… friend Logan.”
I twisted to extend a hand over the seatback. “Good to meet you.”
She laid cool, trembling fingers in mine for an instant. “Hey, there. I’m not usually this kind of a mess.”
“No worries. Miles’ll help you through it.”
“Miles is the best.” Her damp eyes shone.
I turned back around, pretending to fiddle with something on the passenger seat. “Yeah, he is, and the best should get you into his house and into a hot shower before you get hypothermia.”
Miles started to say, “The car’s pretty warm—”
I rode over him with, “And don’t you have to meet the moving guys later? They said something about a storage unit.” Because I was a masochist, I added, “Would you like me to help with that?”
“God, no,” Miles shook his head. “You’ve done enough. Thank you. I can’t tell you what a relief it was to see that truck make it off the property.”
“The guys you hired did the work. I just supervised a bit.”
“Even so—”
“Really,” I urged him. “Get Avery inside, get her warm, do what you need to do. We’ll catch up sometime, right?”
“You should come inside too,” Miles urged me.
“God, no.” That came out too forcefully. I softened it with, “I’m beat. We just got back from a roadie this afternoon. I’m going to go home and crash.” Fact was, in no universe did I want to go into Miles’s house, where we’d been together, and watch him comforting his new fiancée.
“For a minute?”
“Get that freezing woman out of my car, Buckner. We can catch up another time when you don’t have six vital things to do before you sleep.” When he still hesitated, I said, “Go!”
“Okay, but I’ll call you later.” Miles slid out of his seat.
“Tomorrow,” I told him. “I’m hitting the sack and you’re busy. Call me tomorrow. Or the next day.”
He paused, a hand on the open door. I didn’t twist around to look up at his face. I had time to take three tense breaths before he said, “All right. Thanks, Logan. You were a lifesaver tonight.”
“Call me Batman,” I joked, hoping I’d hidden how much tonight hurt. “Avery, take that blanket with you. I can get it back another time.”
“Thanks. I’m glad Miles has a friend like you.” She wrapped the fleece tighter around herself and let Miles give her a hand up.
A friend like you. A friend. That cut way too close, but I waited till the car doors were shut, waited till they’d climbed Miles’s front step and he was tapping in his door code, before I hit the gas and drove away.
All the way back to my place, I tried not to let myself think about Miles holding her once they were inside.
How safe she would feel, despite all the shit that went down, folded into Miles’s big arms. Trying not to miss the times he’d done that for me, welcomed me home and made the outside world go away, at least for a moment.
I gave that up for a shot at the gold ring I fucking knew wasn’t going to come true.
Even then, I was aware, down inside, I had no chance.
If I managed to stay in the AHL after the guy I replaced healed from his injury, that was the best I’d ever do.
I was never heading up to the NHL with the fame and the money and the Stanley Cup.
But I’d been chasing that dream all my life, and I hadn’t been able to let my ridiculous hopes go when it’d really mattered.
So, now here I was, driving my crappy car back to my crappy apartment while Avery moved in with Miles.
My roommate, Noah, was in the kitchen making grilled cheese when I walked in. He said around a mouthful, “Hey, dude, I figured you’d be sleeping. Want a sandwich?”
“Did you make extra?”
“No but I fucking can. You’re always hungry this time of year.”
Noah was one to talk. As far as I knew, the most athletic thing he did was walk from one classroom to another, but he put away the calories like he had a tapeworm.
For a second, I was tempted, but that bed and the solitude of my dark room called to me.
“Nah, gonna hit the sack, but you’re a good guy. ”
Noah blinked and dragged the back of his hand across his crumb-scattered lips. “Thanks. I try.”