Chapter 54
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
ariana
I haven’t seen, touched, or kissed Boston in two weeks.
It’s been torture. His brother is in town with his wife and kids, and since we’re not…
you know, it would be weird if I was lingering around his house.
What would happen if Kane met my brother and asked if that girl who has been hanging around Boston’s farmhouse was his sister?
Nightmare.
I’m in the stands at the game, dressed in a handmade Pittsburgh blazer I purchased from a small shop.
I’m tucked in between Arden and Penny, with Wyatt and EJ on Penny’s other side.
Whatever happened between EJ and Wyatt seems to have blown over.
They’re acting as close as ever. Emma is here, too, and she’s talking to Shay with a big smile on her face, looking much more relaxed without the human shackle that is Morgan attached to her ankle.
Boston’s family is in attendance somewhere. With Lemmy. I’m trying not to let that mean anything. They’re friends. That’s normal. It’s not weird if Lemmy meets his brother and his kids. It’s weird if I do, though.
It isn’t a big deal. It can’t be. We’re just having fun.
When we spoke on the phone earlier, I could hear Boston’s smile when he talked about Bennett. My brother told me all about meeting him on the ice, and he said he is a literal carbon copy of Boston, which means he must be the cutest kid in the whole damn world.
I’m happy that Boston is choosing to tend to old wounds.
Something changed that night in his bedroom.
He gave me pieces of him that he has never given anybody else, and they’ve stayed with me, safe and protected.
I didn’t sleep at all that night. I slid my fingers through his hair, held him to my chest, and stared at the wall, thinking about how lucky I am to know him. To truly know him.
Boston Black is a good man. He’s a kind man.
He’s a man who has endured more than his fair share and still manages to have care in his heart.
It’s why he needed this week with his family.
He needs to remember how family can feel when it isn’t dark and painful.
Not everyone is as lucky as Carter and I.
I was initially drawn to him because he’s beautiful.
He’s a man, in every sense of the word. He draws attention just by existing.
But he’s so much more than that beneath the surface.
I was enamored by his beauty, anybody would be, but now I’m enchanted by his soul.
It’s a very irritating new development. I try not to like the guys I’m hooking up with, but here we are.
He glides onto the ice as music blares through the speakers. We rise to our feet to cheer them on. Wyatt and EJ make a quiet bet about who is going to get more points this game: Callum or Declan. I’ll let you guess who bet on who.
Declan and my brother slide by our section, but I barely notice. I’m looking for number twenty-nine.
I find him quickly. He’s chatting quietly with Oscar, nodding along with his head dipped low, expertly ignoring Reno who is goofing off by his side. They follow a few feet behind Declan and Carter, sweeping by our seats. Boston’s eyes snap upward as they pass.
He doesn’t wave, doesn’t react, but his eyes find mine for a quick second. I flash him a little wink, subtle enough that it draws no attention, and on brand enough that even if it did, nobody would question it.
I swear his mouth pulls up just a tad at the side.
“We need a win,” Penny grumbles. “I am sick of living with the crankiest man on the planet.”
Wyatt barks out a laugh. “I’ll swap you.”
She nudges his arm. “At least you have your own apartment to hide in.”
He shifts awkwardly, clearing his throat. EJ brings his beer to his mouth and starts downing it.
“The dynamic is off,” Arden adds quietly, eyes still locked on the ice. “Even in preseason, it wasn’t good.”
I haven’t been paying much attention. I probably should be, but I’ve been preoccupied by beards and biceps.
I am aware that they’ve only won a handful of games in the last little while because my brother has started vanishing more often than not to go to the gym or to practice.
He doesn’t get cranky when they lose. He’s never been one to bring work home with him, but he always focuses more heavily when they aren’t doing well.
That focus keeps his attention off me, so I was basking in it. I’m entirely selfish, I know.
“It’s fucking Danford,” Wyatt mutters, low enough that nobody around us can hear. “It threw everything off.”
“The team’s divided,” Penny agrees.
“Has he reached out to Cal?” Arden asks.
Wyatt’s jaw ticks. “No.”
Well, damn. That isn’t good. Come on, Tom Danford.
The first rule of marrying the raging she-devil is to be prepared to apologize to your friends on her behalf when she sacrifices them to her overlord.
You can’t just…put your head down and pretend she didn’t try to destroy your captain’s life.
It happened. You have to be the bigger man and apologize for it.
Penny shakes her head, bringing her straw to her mouth.
There is still a rage that simmers in her when either of them are brought up in conversation.
Sometimes, I wonder if a part of her hopes Morgan will show up to a game so that she can light her ass on fire and get the rest of what she wants to say off her chest.
Morgan, wisely, has been absent.
The game gets off to a really strong start. Saltzy scores a goal four minutes in, which EJ claims is ‘nasty,’ and Reno gets a penalty for tripping directly after. The second he’s out of the box, he’s hammering toward the net, and he gets the second goal of the night.
If he wasn’t such an overexcited puppy, I think Reno Rossi could be quite a catch.
Lark Waters is unstoppable tonight, but when Danford is on the ice, our defense looks a little bit worse for wear.
It’s very clear that this is pissing off his teammates.
Luka keeps shaking his head and throwing up his hand when Danford does something stupid.
My brother is trying his best to balance out his poor performance the moment he steps on the ice to take over.
Thankfully, Boston manages to score right before the end of the first period, and seconds before the siren blows, my brother smashes right into the back of Rosden and they immediately drop the gloves.
I stand on my tiptoes, wincing when Carter hits Rosden’s head so hard that his helmet flies off.
EJ and Wyatt go absolutely feral beside me, urging Carter on, screaming in support.
I risk a glance at Arden. She stays seated, shaking her head, but she doesn’t hold her breath or look away. We both know Carter isn’t losing this fight. He never does.
Rosden tries, bless him, but when he winds up flat on his back, Carter still swinging on top of him—the ref hauls my brother from his corpse. Carter, of course, is smiling like it’s school picture day. His face appears on the jumbotron as he winks down at his prey.
He gets hauled to the box, raising his arms to the crowd like some kind of god, and his fans erupt.
As if performing a miracle, Carter has successfully changed the mood of this entire arena. He’s always been good at that.
Danford does not play any better for the remaining seconds left.
“He needs to get out of his fucking head,” Wyatt mumbles, shaking his own.
“He needs to stay on the fucking bench,” EJ counters. He reaches over, slapping Wy on the shoulder. “Beer?”
Wyatt nods, glancing at us to see if we want anything. I decline, and so does Arden, but Penny goes with them. That leaves Arden and I in our row, with a bunch of empty seats between us and the other girls.
“Exams coming up?” she asks, offering me a sugared donut.
I pull one out of the bag. “Yeah, and my final project is due.”
“How do you feel?”
“Ready,” I admit. School has always been easy for me. It’s never been something I stress over, but it does exhaust me. I tend to overwork myself to achieve perfection. “It was a good first semester, though. I feel like I learned a lot.”
“That’s good,” she says, snatching another donut for herself. “You’ve barely been home. I’ve missed you around the house.”
I glance at her, a pleased grin pulling on my mouth. “I knew my presence was a nice reprieve from my brother.”
She laughs under her breath, shaking her head. “Your brother gets particularly annoying when he worries about you.”
“I’m just doing school work,” I remind her, uncapping my water. “Which he practically forced me into.”
“For your benefit,” she says, shooting me a look. “And you’re sleeping out a lot again. You’re letting him know, so he’s a bit more relaxed, but he’s starting to ask questions and it makes me want to scream. I feel like your keeper.”
“Questions?” I arch a brow. Not good.
“Yeah,” she says, studying my face. “Like if you’re seeing somebody, and if that person is Jared.”
“Jared doesn’t even live here.”
“Jared could be visiting.”
“I'm not so sure Jared is allowed to leave the state of California,” I admit, and she lets out a shocked laugh.
“I know, I know. I told him I doubt Jared is involved and that I think you’re just…having fun. Meeting people. Enjoying your time here.”
That’s exactly what I’m doing, except it’s only with one person and it’s a person I’m not allowed to do it with. That’s all need-to-know, and Arden definitely does not need to know that information.
“There are only a couple of them and they’re both good guys,” I lie, sipping my water. “I’m sure I’ll cut them both loose eventually.”
“I’m sure,” she echoes back, and when I glance at her, her eyes are burning into mine, like she can smell every single lie that leaves my mouth. I smile. She smiles back. They both feel fake as hell.
“EJ insisted on buying you guys a round,” Penny says, shuffling back down the row. She hands me a glass of white wine and Arden a glass of red.
I lean forward, over Penny’s body, now intent on proving a point. I raise my glass toward him. “Thank you, handsome!”
He grins wide, winking at me, looking happier than I’ve ever seen him in a while. “Anytime, Little Fork.”
I wince. “Ew.”
He shrugs. “I thought it sounded cute.”
“It didn’t,” Arden and I say at the same time.
His eyes snap to my side. “You can be Future Fork.”
“Please stop,” Arden begs.
“Penny, you can be Friends With Fork,” he continues, and Wyatt is now laughing against the rim of his beer, his shoulders shaking.
“I’ll wear it as a badge of honour,” Penny promises, placing her hand over her heart.
We end up winning by one, Danford ends up sucking the whole time, and Declan wins EJ a nice, twenty-dollar bill in his pocket.