Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
AARON
I am so screwed.
Well and truly screwed.
It’s only a matter of time before the entire situation with Declan blows up and fucks me in the ass. The guy still looks at me as if I keyed his truck and stole his prom date.
And to make matters worse, Bailey has texted me from a new number, threatening to tell the press the dirty details about our breakup.
She could use the money.
What looks like a plea feels a whole fucking lot like blackmail, and I stare at her last message in disbelief.
As if my life couldn’t get any more complicated.
I delete Bailey’s most recent message, block her contact, and send a text to my sister.
Aaron: You around?
Sutton: Yes, why??
Aaron: I need advice.
Sutton: Okay, give me like, 5 minutes
Waiting feels like a goddamn eternity, and I barely last the entire five before calling her, pacing my kitchen while I wait for her to pick up the video call.
“You look terrible,” she says by way of greeting when she picks up, her shower curtain in the background.
“Gee, thanks.”
Sutton squints at me through the screen, setting herself on her toilet; she often does this to hide from her kids so she has peace and quiet.
“What happened?”
I rake a hand through my hair. “Nothing.”
Her eyebrow lifts.
“Okay—lots of things.”
She nods slowly. “So… where do you want to start? ’Cause last time we spoke, you were having a friend over? Did that not go well?”
“No, it’s great. It’s been great. That’s part of the problem.”
My sister is quiet a few seconds. “Hmm. How is it a problem? You’re a commitment kind of guy; I’ve never known you to shy away from a relationship.”
I blow out a puff of air. Tip my head back and stare at the ceiling. Christ, where do I start? How do I explain this to my sister? Sutton is almost always on my side—she’s my ride or die, loyal to a fault. This may be the one time she is not.
Not after she learns my motive for dating Juliette.
“First, I should tell you the reason Bailey and I split.”
Pause. “Okay…”
“She cheated.”
Sutton inhales a small gasp. “That bitch.”
Despite everything, I huff out a short laugh. I walk to the living room and plop down on the couch, falling back against the cushions.
“Well.” I close my eyes, stealing a few seconds before telling her the full truth. “It gets better. Or worse, depending on how you look at it.”
Her eyes narrow. “Do I even want to hear this?”
“Way worse.”
“Oh jeez…” My sister braces herself. “Just tell me. Who did she cheat with?”
A long stretch of silence.
“Declan Kennedy,” I confess.
There’s a full two-second delay before Sutton explodes.
“Are you fucking kidding me! That scum bag, he’s supposed to be loyal!” She stands, pacing around her primary bathroom, back and forth in front of her double vanity. “I’m going to burn that piece of shit’s condo down.”
“Please, don’t commit arson,” I mutter.
She ignores me, still pacing. “You break bro code on a teammate? Trash. Garbage I say!”
“Well, there’s more.”
Sutton stares into the camera. “How can there be more?”
“The woman I’m seeing…”
“Yeah, what about her?”
“She’s Declan’s sister.”
My sister blinks.
Blinks again.
And again.
“What are you telling me?” She leans closer to the camera. “Did you know this when you slept with her?”
I hesitate.
“Aaron Bishop, your answer right now better be no.”
“I slept with her after I found out.” I don’t bother sugar coating it. Sutton respects facts, no matter how harsh they might be. “That same night, as a matter-of-fact. I was pissed off and humiliated and looking for a diversion. I hadn’t wanted to come home and be alone.”
“Holy crap.” She breathes. “So. Wait. Does Juliette know?”
“No, but Declan knows I’m sleeping with her.”
Sleeping with her. Makes it sound so crude—as if I don’t give a shit about her actual feelings.
“How does he feel about it?”
“He hates me.”
“He hates you?” Sutton shouts. “Fuck that guy! He has no right to hate you; you’re the wronged party here.”
Right.
Those were my initial thoughts on it, too.
“Pause. I have a question.” My sister goes back to the toilet and takes a seat. “If you knew Juliette’s brother was a horrible friend, why would you mess with that family?”
I wait her out, letting the puzzle solve itself. Watching as she does the mental gymnastics, moving the pieces around. Timelines. Motivation.
“Aaron?”
“What?”
“Is this some sick revenge plot?” She laughs as if I’m about to tell her no, it’s not a revenge plot and this is all a coincidence.
I shrug. “It was.”
The disappointment on my sister’s face is a look I haven’t seen since I borrowed her car without permission, then drove it into a snowbank during a storm.
“You were going to break her heart on purpose?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
“Why? To hurt her brother?” Sutton sounds disgusted.
Why lie? “Yes.”
“How is that working out for you?” she sneers.
“Horribly.”
“You are an idiot,” she says, shaking her head.
“I know.”
“No, Aaron, you don’t. This is a fucking disaster.”
Why is she cursing so damn much? Sutton swears, sure—but this? This is rapid-fire, sailor-level fury. It’s throwing me off.
“Listen, I didn’t think that far ahead,” I snap. “I was pissed. They humiliated me. I wanted leverage.”
Sutton watches me through the camera.
She is so unimpressed…
Clicks her tongue. “Men and their stupid pride.”
I rub a hand over my face. “If you met this woman, you would kill me.” I pause. “She’s… Juliette is…”
My sister waits for me to finish my sentence.
Doesn’t rescue me.
“Juliette is beautiful inside and out.” Truly. “When she looks at me, Sutton, it’s so full of…”
Love.
“And you were going to break her heart. On purpose.”
I was.
I am an asshole.
“You’re in love with the sister of the guy who slept with your girlfriend,” Sutton says finally. “It’s written all over your dumb face.”
I crack a morose smile. “I’m not in love.”
Sutton laughs for the first time since answering my phone call. “Lies you tell yourself.” She nibbles her lip. “So, now what happens? How do you get yourself out of this mess?”
“I have no idea—she works for the Ice Wolves, so I was thinking that maybe I would…” I hook a finger through the strings of the decorative blanket on my couch and start pulling at them.
“Speak to the human resources manager and let them know, so she doesn’t have to sneak around.
The last thing I want is for her to get in trouble because of me. ”
“Oh, you’re sooo concerned about her getting in trouble.”
“Can you stop being sarcastic?”
She shrugs. “I’m having a super hard time wrapping my brain around all this—and I have to tell you, Aaron, I don’t actually think you deserve someone who puts you on a pedestal. You’ll walk all over her.”
I stiffen. “She doesn’t put me on a pedestal.”
“She works for the organization you play for,” Sutton counters. “There’s a built-in power imbalance whether you want to admit it or not.”
My sister has it so wrong. “She isn’t impressed with any of this—her brother is a player. She’s used to it.”
“That’s not the point.”
“You said I’d walk all over her,” I snap. “I wouldn’t.”
Sutton studies me.
“You literally already did,” she tells me with a frown. “What you’re doing is so gross.”
Does she have to keep reminding me? Christ.
“I haven’t gone through with anything, Sutton. I haven’t dumped her. There is nothing here to beg forgiveness for.”
She goes quiet. “So, there is no one who knows about this who could rat you out?”
Garrett Storm comes to mind.
And of course, there’s Declan himself, who has no trust for me.
“What happens when Declan comes for you? Or Bailey rats you out to the media? When you’re used to winning, you don’t always consider who you trample on the way there.”
I open my mouth to argue.
Then close it.
Because six months ago?
She’d be right.
“I’m not that guy,” I claim. “I have never trampled anyone.”
“Puh-lease,” she lets out. “I watched your last game; the cameras were zooming in on you getting in Declan’s face. If you weren’t that guy, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. How long have you been seeing her? Is fourteen days long enough for a man to un-asshole himself?”
Un-asshole myself. Is she inventing verbs now?
“You have no faith in me.”
Sutton scoffs, tossing her long, dark ponytail. “Oh please—I am a girl’s girl. You weren’t going to win this argument.”
I laugh. “That is so unfair.”
An eye roll. “You don’t get points for realizing you have feelings after plotting to crush someone’s heart.”
I wish she would stop phrasing it like this.
It makes me sound unhinged.
“You were with Bailey for a year. Then you jump straight into this? So suspect.”
“Okay,” I mutter, rubbing my temples. “You are not helpful.”
For a split second, I consider hanging up on her in the guise of saving myself from a full dismantling of my character.
No one is more ruthless than a sibling.
My sister is proof.
Sutton must see something shift on my face because her expression changes, and if we were in the same room, she’d be pulling me in for a hug.
“Hey.”
I look back at the screen.
“I’m not trying to annihilate you.”
“Feels like it.” Am I pouting? Sounds like it.
She smiles. “I’m trying to make sure you don’t annihilate yourself.”
“You don’t think I know I fucked this up?” I lean back against the couch, exhausted. “I do.”
“I know you do,” she replies gently. “You want advice?”
“Yes.”
“Actual advice?”
“Yes.”
She nods once, decisive. “Okay. Stop thinking about how to get yourself out of this mess.”
I frown.
How does she know?
“That’s literally what I’m trying to do.”
“Duh, I know. That’s your problem. You’re in crisis management mode.” Sutton leans back against the bowl of her toilet. “First, you need to tell her all this before someone else does. All of it, starting from the beginning.”
I nod slowly.
“Yeah, I can do that…”
It’s going to be awful, but I’ve dealt with worse.
I exhale slowly as she continues.
“Second, don’t talk to HR before you speak to her.”
“Really?” I ask. “That was me being responsible and proactive.”
“It reads like you trying to get ahead of a problem—which says you’re only thinking about damage control.”
I guess she’s not wrong…
It might appear that way.
“Third,” she says, holding up a finger. “When you tell her, don’t make excuses. Don’t tell her how hurt you were by her brother and his actions.”
“I was humiliated,” I argue feebly.
“And that’s valid,” she says. “But that’s between you and Declan. Not you and her.”
I go quiet.
“And last,” Sutton adds, her voice going softer. “You have to be prepared for her to send you packing. Because if I were Juliette, I would dump you so freaking fast—”
“Thanks,” I mutter. “I get it.”
I do not need her to belabor the point.
She shrugs unapologetically. “I’m serious. I would light you on fire.”
“I feel so supported right now.”
“You asked for honesty.”
“I literally did not.”
Sutton laughs, delighted with herself. “You know that saying—if you love someone, let them go. If they come back to you, then you were lucky, and you better spend the rest of your life not being an asshole.”
Right.
I huff out a breath. “Now you’re making shit up.”
She grins. “The point stands.”
Silence settles between us again, but it’s not heavy anymore. Not combative.
“You going to call her?” Sutton asks.
I glance at my watch.
She’s at work, and I have to be at the gym. Shitty timing for a life-altering confession.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I shouldn’t do this over the phone.”
“Good.”
“I don’t want to blindside her, either.”
“I think it’s a little too late for that,” she says gently. “It’s unavoidable. She thinks you hung the moon.”
Ouch.
She studies me. “You’re not a monster, Aaron.”
My eyes go to the ceiling. “That seems debatable.”
“You were hurt. You handled it badly. That doesn’t make you irredeemable,” Sutton tells me. “You’re like one of those rakes in a historical romance. You’re like… Simon from Bridgerton.”
Pfft. Hardly.
“Simon was afraid he was going to wind up like his father and swore off children—and don’t ask me how I know this,” I grunt.
And I would know because I’ve binged all seasons.
“Ah ha! Exactly.” Sutton points at me like I’ve proven her argument. “Fear makes men do stupid, stupid shit. Like, super stupid. It doesn’t make them villains.”
“I haven’t sworn off children,” I argue.
“You’re missing the point.”
Right.
Well. “I should go—I’m meeting my trainer in an hour.”
Sutton tilts her head at me. “Thanks for telling me all this. I don’t love it, but… I’m glad you trust me enough to tell me.”
I nod. “You’re the only person I could tell.”
“That’s mildly concerning,” she says lightly. “But we can discuss the reason you have so few friends another time…”
“You’re so annoying.”
She makes an exaggerated kissy face at the camera. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
She ends the call.
I shove away from the counter and pace the kitchen, bare feet on the hardwood. My place smells like the chicken my chef prepared when he was meal prepping, the broccoli and rice lingering in the air.
I check my watch.
My trainer can wait. He’ll survive if I’m a few minutes late.
What I can’t seem to survive is the image that keeps replaying itself in my head: Juliette’s face when I shit on her feelings for me.
Am I being a coward?
Is that what all this is about? Fear?
Fear of what, exactly?
Shit.
I lean forward on the counter, staring out the windows down into the city, wondering when the hell the thought of losing Juliette seeped into my being. When did I start caring this much? What will I do if she discovers the truth first, and tells me to piss off?
That doesn’t make you unredeemable, my sister said.
I exhale slowly.
“Figure it out, Bishop,” I say to my empty kitchen.
Because one thing is painfully clear.
I might not know the solution yet—
But walking away from Juliette isn’t one of the options.
I won’t do it.