Chapter Seven
ASTON
The ice in my tumbler has melted down to a single sliver, floating in two fingers of bourbon.
Around us, the low hum of American Whiskey in Midtown Manhattan is punctuated by the clink of glasses and late-night traffic outside.
It’s the kind of place two famous athletes can sit at a table without being bothered.
Which is exactly why I brought Aiden here.
We have a standing rule between us. When Aiden’s hockey schedule brings him to New York for a series, whether it’s against the Rangers or Islanders, we meet up.
No exceptions. We’ve always shared a different kind of brotherly bond, different from the one I have with Ace.
Aiden’s older and steady, and he never coddles me.
When my head gets cluttered or the pressure gets to me, Aiden is the one I go to, to give it to me straight.
“I’m just saying, if you don’t get after that left tackle on Sunday, he’s going to wash you out of the play,” Aiden says, his voice carrying a rough edge after he’s spent his winters getting slammed into plexiglass.
He leans forward, resting his forearms on the oak table, eyes locked on mine.
“I watched the tape from your Minnesota game, Aston. You’re cheating inside too early on the snap.
You do that against Cleveland, and you’ll be in the dirt before the ball even leaves the quarterback’s hands. ”
“I was crushing the B-gap because the linebacker missed his cue, Aiden,” I say, rolling the glass between my palms. “I know how to play my position.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” he mutters, though a faint smirk flickers across his face. He takes a slow sip of his drink, never breaking eye contact.
Our burgers arrive, and we eat in a comfortable silence. We take our food seriously. But my mind wanders to the phone in my pocket that feels like a lead weight.
I fight the urge to pull it out to check for a notification or a text. A single line. Anything from Eva. We’ve texted back and forth, but it doesn’t feel like enough. Mostly just flirty banter and her incessant teasing, which I secretly love.
Eva: *picture of Aston in uniform*
Eva: I love your cosplay.
Aston: Cosplay, huh? You didn’t notice my haircut?
Eva: Oh, I totally did. Love the pixie cut. ;)
It’s been six days since I left her loft. Six days since I woke up with her dark hair spread across my bare chest. We’d spent the night fucking, and when I woke up the next day, I didn’t want to leave.
I look at my watch. 9:15 PM.
She’s probably still working.
At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
Eva wants to hide what we’re doing, and I completely get it. If the network executives, or worse, her father, found out she was sleeping with the defensive lineman of the very team she’s assigned to, her credibility would be shot. She’d likely be reduced to a tabloid headline.
I, on the other hand, want to keep what happened with us—twice now—a secret for a different kind of survival.
I look at Aiden across the table. My family is a fortress, and loyalty to my brothers is the foundation of everything that I am. We don’t keep secrets.
Except I am.
Every time I think about Ace, a slice of guilt pierces me.
Sure, Ace is in Florida, and I’ve already justified my actions by the fact that he has a girlfriend, but if my family found out that I crossed a line, the fallout could be radioactive.
The allegiance that defines us brothers would turn, and I would be standing on the wrong side of the line, like a traitor.
“Hey, Aston.” Aiden’s voice breaks through my thoughts sharply.
I snap my gaze to his, realizing I’ve been staring at my plate with my burger in hand. “What?”
“You’ve been dazed out,” he says, his eyes narrowing as he studies my face. “You’ve barely eaten your burger, and you’re completely tuned out. What’s going on with you?”
“I’m fine,” I say defensively, setting down my burger. “Just tired. Been a long week.”
“Don’t give me that shit,” he says, his knuckles tapping on the table. “I’m your brother. You don’t get this quiet unless something is wrong. Are you hurt? Hiding an injury or something?”
“No,” I say instantly. The last thing I need is for him to call our mom and tell her he thinks something is wrong with me. “I’m perfectly healthy.”
“Okay, then what is it?” Aiden pushes, his gaze intense and unyielding. “Because if it’s not an injury, it’s mental. You nervous about the game this weekend?”
I stare at him, and the urge to tell him about Eva presses on me until I can hardly breathe. Sure, he would understand the pressure Eva and I are under, but he doesn’t know what it’s like to feel like to betray his own blood.
“I, uh, I’m seeing someone,” I admit before I can stop the words.
Aiden’s brows shoot up in surprise, a slow knowing smile tugging at his mouth. “Seeing someone? That’s what has you so distracted?”
“Well, yeah, I guess. It’s just complicated,” I say quietly, my hands clenching into fists on top of the table. “Incredibly complicated.”
Aiden’s smile fades, his brotherly radar locking into the stress on my face. He leans back, eyes searching mine. “Okay. I’m listening.”
I rub my palms over my face. “She works in the industry. On the media side. She’s working as a field producer right now, trying to prove herself, but she’s worried that all the good ol’ boys in the business wouldn’t take her seriously if they found out she was sleeping with one of the players on the team she’s covering.
She doesn’t want to lose her credibility while she’s building her career. ”
Aiden nods slowly. “Okay. That makes sense for her. Sports media is brutal for women. I get why she’s drawing a line to protect her job. But Aston, why are you worked up about this? The league doesn’t fine players for dating producers to my knowledge.”
I swallow hard, the dryness in my throat making it feel like sand. I look around, mainly to avoid direct eye contact, before I meet his gaze. “I’m going along with it because of our family,” I confess. “Because of Ace.”
Aiden stiffens. The casual, relaxed posture gone. His eyes narrow as the pieces of the puzzle come together.
“Ace?” Aiden whispers dangerously low. “Aston, tell me you didn’t do what I think you did.”
“I guess it depends on what you think I did,” I say.
“It just happened. I didn’t plan it. We ran into each other a while ago before the season started, and the connection was there.
It’s always been there if I’m being honest. Like, since college.
But I never did anything about it then because of Ace. ”
“Evangeline Carrington,” Aiden says with a sigh. “You’re fucking Eva.”
Hearing her name come out of my brother’s mouth makes my stomach drop. And now that I’ve told him, it settles between us like a brick.
“Hey, it’s not like that. She’s not just some hookup,” I say defensively, my jaw tight, my eyes steady as I look at him. “But, yeah, we’ve slept together.”
Aiden doesn’t react badly; he just stares at me with an unreadable expression. Then he takes a long, slow drink of his bourbon and leans forward.
“I fucking knew it when I saw you,” he says.
I blink, confused. “What do you mean you saw me?”
“At the wedding. And I warned you to stay away,” he says, shaking his head. “While everyone was dancing and distracted, I was outside grabbing some air. I saw you two leave together. I watched you walk across the yard. I saw the way you were looking at her, dancing with her.”
A cold sweat breaks across the back of my neck. I stare at him.
“You saw us?” I say, my chest tightening. “You didn’t say anything before now about seeing us leave together.”
“Well, I guess I didn’t want to think about you two fucking,” he says, his finger pointing at me. “I also thought maybe you had enough sense to leave it one night. That you’d wake up and realize you were playing with fire, and leave it alone. But you didn’t. You kept going.”
“Aiden. It wasn’t a fling though,” I argue.
“I did leave before she woke up, and I feel like a world-class asshole for it. But the guilt hit hard the next morning. Then I saw her again, and it was like she was in my veins. What happened between us isn’t a casual hookup for me.
I wanted her in college before she and Ace got together— hell, while they were together, if I’m honest— and I want her even more now.
I won’t make the same mistake of not taking my shot twice.
But I feel like I’m trapped in this twisted nightmare because she wants to protect her career, and because I don’t know how to tell my own twin, who has seemed to move on, by the way, that I’m into her. ”
Aiden just stares, his disapproval turning into something like pity. He sees the torment on my face. He knows out of everyone in the family, he’s the only one I could ever lay this burden on.
“Secrets in a family like ours have a shelf life, little brother,” he says, his voice returning to a protective rumble.
“We’re too close. You think you can keep this buried for a whole season while she’s standing on your sideline with a headset on?
You think no one else will notice the way you look at her? ”
“I can manage it,” I mutter, although I don’t believe my own words.
“No, you can’t,” he says, leaning back in his chair. “You’re drowning in it right now. You’re trying to carry her secret and your own guilt. That weight will break you fast.”
“What am I supposed to do then?” I ask, a desperate plea slipping into my voice. “Tell me how to handle this.”
Aiden looks at me for a long minute, letting my question hang.
“Listen, I can’t even pretend to have an answer for you.
I’m not exactly a pro with relationships,” he mutters.
“But I can tell you to respect her boundaries, especially at work. The second this season wraps up though or before Ace gets a whiff of this, you tell him the truth yourself. You can’t let him find out from a reporter and definitely not as a rumor.
You look your twin brother in the eye and take it like a man.
Because secrets destroy pretty things. But the truth is something we can actually fight through. ”
He lifts his glass to his lips, giving me a solemn nod.
Then my phone buzzes.
I pull it out beneath the table to shield the screen.
Eva: Just left the office. It’s been so crazy lately. Heading back to my place now. I’m literally exhausted.
I can’t help the smile that breaks across my face. Yes, the conversation with my brother hangs between us, but the breath I feel like I’ve been holding releases.
I type out a response, my thumbs flying across the screen.
Aston: Get some sleep. I’m out with my brother Aiden, but I gotta say … I’m wishing I were heading to your loft right about now. I’ll be patient though and wait until I see you on Sunday.
I slide my phone back into my pocket because I know if I keep texting with her now, I’ll toss some bills on the table and go to her.
Aiden is right though. The weight of this is terrifying, and the expiration date on keeping this a secret is already very much on my mind.
Eventually, the truth will come out, and I will need to man up and tell my twin brother that I’m falling for his ex. Maybe I never stopped.
But for now, I raise my glass to clink against Aiden’s and make a decision. “I hear you, brother. I’ll take care of it.”
I’ll play the game. I’ll protect her career, and I’ll keep the peace in my family for as long as I can. And when the truth comes out?
I’ll take it on the chin because Eva Carrington is worth every single grain of the fallout.