Chapter 13
MADDOX
Bentley shoves my shoulder before flopping down beside me.
The dressing room is ripe with both nerves and the always lingering smell of sweat.
There are ten minutes until we hit the ice for warm-ups, and with Coach delivering his pre-game speech just minutes ago, we’re all giving ourselves pep talks before it’s time.
It’s game three of the first round, and if we win tonight, we’ll be up by three and one step closer to the second round—opponent still to be determined.
This is my seventh season with the VW, and we’re still without a cup. I feel the pressure to bring this team to the title like a fucking dumbbell on my chest. That’s what I’m here for, yet I’ve failed every year.
I’m Oakley Hutton’s son—the face of the Vancouver Warriors. And despite what Alexander and all the suits upstairs promise me, it doesn’t stop the suffocating feeling of failure each loss brings.
You don’t pay a franchise player ten million dollars not to take you to the cup final game, and you sure as shit don’t renew his contract when he hasn’t done his part.
I won’t feel confident in my future until my lips are on the Stanley Cup.
“Your eye looks better,” Bentley notes, bending over to tie his skate.
“Feels better.”
“I’ve been waiting patiently for the scoop on that chick from the vet place, but I’m getting antsy. I’m about to be real offended if you weren’t planning on explaining.”
I roll my shoulders and pull at the neck of my jersey. It’s hot as fuck in all this gear. “Not here, man.”
“Why not? They’re all going to know about her real quick anyway.”
My stomach tumbles. Sweat breaks out on the back of my neck, and I swipe it away with a firm hand. I haven’t been this nervous before a game since I was a teenager, and despite my feelings about my looming contract, this nauseated feeling is all courtesy of Braxton.
Seeing her in the stands watching me play and cheering me on used to electrify me. It made me believe that while I was on that ice, I was invincible. Untouchable.
But now? Now I worry I could be taken out at any moment. Her presence is a weakness that I can’t afford but can’t refuse either.
“She was my best friend for most of my life. Since we were five. The last time I saw her was before I re-entered the draft.”
“That’s a long time with no contact. Seven years? Eight?”
“Eight. I was eighteen when I entered the first time and nineteen when I re-entered.”
“Are you going to elaborate, or are you going to make me use force?”
I roll my eyes. “Braxton’s father was my agent, despite my dad’s protests. Braxton was my best friend, and I didn’t think much of her dad, but I trusted him because I figured he wouldn’t do anything to piss off his daughter. It was obvious how attached to each other we were.”
“You loved her,” Bentley interrupts.
I look at him, my eyes narrowing. My guard is so high even I’m having trouble seeing over it. “What?”
“Nah, you can’t hide that shit from me. I saw it the minute you two got in the same room together. You loved her back then and probably still do now.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Yeah, I loved her when we were kids, but that was a long fucking time ago.” I block out the voice in my head that tells me I’m a goddamn idiot and push on without letting Bentley respond.
“Roy Heights wanted an easy payday and thought I could make more money if I went with a team other than the one that drafted me. But he messed up and could have cost us both of our careers. Luckily for me, he was the only one of us who lost everything. If I hadn’t had my family name in my back corner, I wouldn’t even be here on this team right now. ”
“What did Braxton have to do with it? That sounds like a whole lot of drama, but none of it explains why you two cut contact.”
My laugh is bitter and burns the whole way up. “Who do you think convinced me—”
“Game time! Get your asses out there and bring us this win!” Coach roars from the doorway. The team breaks out in hoots and hollers, and my words drift off to a place I hope they never come back from.
It’s game time. Nothing else matters. Especially my past with a woman who risked our entire friendship over the fear of losing me.
brAXTON
“Row three,” Addie says from in front of me. The steps down to the seats nearly at ice level are steep, and she is flying down them. I’m struggling to keep pace with her.
Conversations drawl on around us as the intensity inside the building grows and grows with each minute that passes. It’s a sea of green tonight, and it makes me feel a bit less awkward wearing Maddox’s jersey.
When we first arrived, I started counting the number of Hutton jerseys I saw, but I lost track somewhere along the way.
Maddox and his father wear different numbers, and yes, maybe I was keeping track of how many Hutton jerseys were decorated with a number eleven for his dad and number twenty-one for Maddox.
It made my heart swell to see more twenty-ones.
Adalyn turns into our row, and my pulse picks up as she shuffles past several pairs of feet.
The moment I see the familiar faces of Ava and Oakley Hutton, everything I planned to say slips away.
Ava’s green eyes soften when they land on me, and she’s pushing out of her seat and closing the distance between us before I have a chance to prepare myself.
“Oh, Braxton,” she whispers before collecting me in a warm embrace. I sag in her hold and hug her back as tears fill my eyes. “Look at you.”
She smells just how I remember. Like freshly brewed coffee and oranges. If she notices me smelling her, she doesn’t say anything. Our hug lasts for what feels like a lifetime, but with her rubbing her hand up and down my back and just simply holding me, I don’t rush to back away.
“Mom. Sit down, please,” a deep, rough voice says. Ava jolts away like she’s just remembered where we are, and I fight back the urge to glare at the man who dared interrupt our reunion.
I find him over Ava’s shoulder, sitting between Oakley and Adalyn.
He’s already looking at me with tar pits for eyes and a scowl that would have me running for the hills had I not known this man since he was in diapers.
His aura screams fuck off, and I choose to smile at him instead of glare.
When he curls his lip at me, I take that as a win.
“It’s good to see you, Noah,” I say.
“Wish I could say the same,” he sneers.
Ava sucks in a sharp breath. “Noah.”
“Don’t be an asshole,” Addie scolds.
Noah ignores them all and turns back to face the ice, dismissing me. It’s easy to brush off his attitude because I know I deserve it.
“We’re glad you’re here tonight,” Oakley says, his piercing green eyes digging deep into the blue of mine.
The protective papa bear has arrived, and he’s assessing the potential danger I could bring his family. I’ve always loved this side of Oakley. He would do anything to keep the people he loves safe. I just hate that right now he’s eyeing me like I’m the potential threat.
“Me too.”
I give him a smile as I take a mental step back. Feeling like a burden has got to be one of the worst feelings, and I hate that that’s how being here makes me feel. Maddox’s family can paint a pretty picture of how happy they are to see me again, but it won’t change how I see this situation.
I’ve gotten their son into this mess, and now tonight, when they should be having a blast cheering him on at a playoff game, they’re stuck babysitting me. The girl who broke everyone’s heart and then ran away while they stood bleeding.
Ava, as if sensing the change in me, grabs my fingers and sits on one of the black fold-down seats. Her eyes are warm as she looks up at me and pulls ever so slightly on my hand. I sit beside her and cross my ankles beneath the seat.
Addie is sitting too far away for my liking, but I’m not about to call her over and ask everyone to shift down a seat so I can use her as a human-sized comfort pillow.
“I’m sorry about Noah. He just . . . doesn’t like these things,” Ava says softly.
“Hockey games?”
“It’s not so much the game but the crowd that comes with it.”
“You don’t have to apologize for him.”
I remember she’s still holding my hand when she squeezes once before releasing it. With a tight release of breath, I pull it back and clasp my fingers together on my lap.
“This must be so nerve-racking for you. Of course I have to apologize for him. We want this to go well.”
“Well, I appreciate it. Thank you.”
My spine snaps straight when players from both teams start flooding out from the dressing room and push onto the ice.
The Colorado players take one end while the VW take the other.
Like magnets, my eyes are drawn to Maddox as he skates a few quick laps around half-ice and then comes to a dead stop by the blue line.
My heart clunks around in my chest when our eyes collide, locking together in a heavy embrace.
With a quick shake of his head, his shoulders drop, and the end of his stick pushes backward, nearly tripping one of his teammates as they skate behind him.
White noise bubbles in my ears when he adjusts the stick and tucks it beneath his right arm before pulling off his left glove.
I shake my head woodenly at him a single time, but he acts as if he doesn’t see it. This wasn’t part of the plan. We hadn’t planned on doing anything yet besides having me here tonight. Ava gasps, and I know she wasn’t told about this beforehand either.
As if in slow motion, I watch as he drops the glove and then covers his heart with his fist before pulling it away to point at me.
A swell of emotion builds and builds inside of me as I push myself to press two shaking fingers to my lips and kiss them before pointing right back. Just like I used to.
The moment shatters like a broken mirror.
Hurt and anger flash across his face seconds before he’s spinning around and quickly grabbing his glove off the ice.
Shock and disbelief have me in a chokehold, but it’s the searing pain of our beautiful past being tainted by our broken present that does the most damage.
Girls giggle a few seats away when Maddox pulls his helmet off and squirts water from a Gatorade bottle over his head before shaking out his wet curls.
He’s only been on the bench for a minute, but he’s already leaning over the boards, ready to get back out there.
It’s only a junior game, but that doesn’t matter to him.
Every game is as important as an NHL game.
His features are tight with determination, but his eyes are light when they find me in the stands. He grins at me, and I wave back. “You got this,” I mouth.
He glances at his coach before looking back at me and mouthing, “For you.”
Then in one quick motion, he has his glove left off and pounds his chest with his fist before pointing across the rink at me. My laugh is pure and raw as I kiss two fingers and point back.
Ava’s hand on my knee has me jolting back to the present just in time to see the teams clearing off the ice, preparing for their big entrance that comes ten minutes later.
I spend the entire time sitting in silence, and nobody tries to get me to speak.