Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hatch
My heart pounded hard against my rib cage.
“I told you once I thought she was pretty.”
Jason squinted. “Yeah, but then you said some other stuff. You’d had a few drinks, but you still said it.”
“It’s in the past. Years ago.”
He shook his head, pitying. “Maybe you need a little refresher. How about I tell you a story?”
“Always up for a fairytale, Uncle J.” I could match his sarcasm, for all the good it would do me.
“Well, this one probably won’t have a happy ending. Once upon a time, a doofus college kid clapped eyes on a girl at a Christmas party and fell hopelessly in love.”
“Lust is more accurate.”
He passed over my clarification. “But she was with someone else. Worse, she was with someone he knew, so he remained a gentleman and never made a move.” Jason wagged a finger.
“But he did spend the next five years being a total dick to her. Pretending to hate her made it easier, I suppose. Kids and their coping mechanisms.”
I examined the label of a granola box. Damn, that was high in sugar. “Kind of extrapolating from minimal facts there.”
“Okay, how about these facts? About three years ago, this same kid had a chance to take a job and work with his dear old dad, but he told his agent to resist all efforts to trade him to the Rebels. He didn’t think it would be a, quote, good move, unquote.”
“I had a change of heart and came on board, didn’t I?”
“Only because Theo said it was his last year in the pros, and it would make him so shiny-happy if his eldest jumped in. He doesn’t know you turned down the first offer because you couldn’t bear to be in the same city as Summer.”
“I told you that in confidence.”
My uncle’s expression turned sympathetic.
“I know. And I’ve never breathed a word.
Still won’t. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to talk this through with you.
Hatch, you made career choices because this woman, who you couldn’t have, was living in your hometown.
You’ve spent the last year acting like an asshole to her and now you’re harboring her like she’s a fugitive? ”
“It just … happened. I was under that window when she climbed out. Do you think I wanted to be the one who rescued her? I didn’t even like her.
Yeah, I was obsessed with her. But like?
No. And I wanted to keep it that way because even if she was no longer with Carter, no good could come out of getting to know her better.
I couldn’t help her one day and look my teammate in the eye the next. ”
Jason’s expression was one hundred percent pity now. I hated it.
“But you did help her. And from the body language I just witnessed, I’m guessing you helped her all the way to a fucking orgasm.
I’m even going to hazard another guess and say that the ‘not liking’ thing is no more.
You created a cozy little love nest in the Tuck, and this just got a whole lot more complicated. ”
How was this possible? Each passing second brought new twists and turns.
Jason’s rehashing of events was correct.
A few years ago, barely a year into my stint with Denver, I had rejected the push to trade me to the Chicago Rebels because I didn’t want to be around her.
I didn’t want to be around them. Watching Carter touch her, kiss her, own her, made me sick with jealousy, so I told my dad I wasn’t ready to move.
He was disappointed but he didn’t push it.
Then I decided to sac up. Knowing it was likely my dad’s last year in the pros, I figured that was more important than this ridiculous obsession I had for a woman I had barely spoken to.
I could be civil to Carter, indifferent to Summer, and would play my best hockey to honor my dad. I would handle it like a boss.
Then Summer and Carter got engaged.
Right after she said yes, I drove straight to Saugatuck, got drunk off my ass, and fucked a woman without a condom.
A woman—Ava—who later told me she was pregnant.
That’s how stupid love had made me. Jason was right: I had made career decisions based on my pain.
Used another woman to numb that hurt, and when she lied about being pregnant, it confirmed everything I thought I knew about Summer.
Just another bunny with her eye on a payday.
This last year, I didn’t play my best and I still had to witness love’s young dream in the form of Summer and Carter.
“Yeah, it’s complicated, but that doesn’t mean Summer wasn’t in need. Now she’s onto the next stage of her life.” And she didn’t want my help. She wanted to manage Carter by herself and not reckon with what happened between us.
What could happen between us.
Well, I wasn’t ready to give up just yet.
Thankfully, Jason moved on—to another third-rail topic. “Speaking of life stages and big decisions, how come just as I move back to Chicago you might be moving out of it?”
“And there I was thinking the agent-client relationship is sacrosanct.” Special Agent Lauren had been besties with my uncle since they played youth camp hockey together as kids.
“Nah, that’s not where I heard it. Connie seems to think you’re looking to trade.”
I really needed to have a chat with that kid.
“I didn’t have a good year, J. And if Dad’s sticking around, I’m not sure the next will be any better.”
“Listen, no one knows better than me the pressure of being in the same biz as Theo Kershaw. And I play the same position as him. I’m never going to measure up.”
Jason and I had never discussed this before. I could feel myself leaning in, desperate for whatever pearls of wisdom he had to dispense.
“Pro sports is as much mental as it is physical,” he said.
“I know the press has been on your ass with the comparisons to your dad. Believe me, I’m fully prepared to suffer them when I join up, whether my brother is on the roster or not.
In fact, I could probably take some of that heat for you if you choose to stick around. ”
I chuckled. “What, you’d flub a few passes? Make me look like ‘the good Kershaw’?”
He grinned. “Family first, Hatchling.”