Chapter Seven
Colton
I kicked the covers off me and sat on the edge of the bed, running my fingers through my hair.
I needed a haircut and made a quick note to get one today while I was out and about.
Six had come quickly. I’d listened to her tapping away on the keys of her computer until almost one in the morning, followed by her murmured frustrated voice through the wall our bedrooms shared.
Judging from the phone call earlier, I assumed it was this Mark guy, and by the sounds of things, her relationship was far from the perfectly happy status she claimed it had.
I ran my hands through my hair again, yawned, and then made my way to the shower.
Then I got dressed in my usual attire for practice, shoved a change of clothes into my bag for after, and made my way to the kitchen.
There was no way she’d be up yet, so I was looking forward to having a quiet breakfast before spending a couple of hours with the boys, only that was quickly pulled out from under me as I rounded the corner.
Emma sat at the kitchen table, already dressed, her computer in front of her, eating a bowl of oatmeal. The moment she noticed me, she smiled.
“Good morning. Hope you are ready to tackle the day,” she said cheerily.
I didn’t respond. I wasn’t a morning person, never had been, and honestly, she shouldn’t be especially after being up most of the night. All I wanted was to spend ten minutes drinking my protein shake in peace before I had to train until I felt like I’d be sick.
I went over and opened the cupboard where I kept my protein shake to find that the canister wasn’t there. I opened the one next to it and found it wasn’t there either.
“Ah, where did my protein go?” I muttered.
“Oh, silly me, I forgot. I hope you don’t mind, but I moved it to the cupboard next to the fridge,” she sang, her voice grating on my nerves.
I glared at her. She’d been in my home less than twenty-four hours, and she was already rearranging things.
“Why?”
“Well, it made more sense to move it over there because the blender was under the cupboard, and that way my oatmeal was closer to the stove and the pots.”
I took a deep breath and closed the cupboard door, then made my way over to the other cupboard and made myself a shake. I cleaned up my things and was about to head into the living room to sit and drink it down in peace when Emma stood up.
“We should get going.”
“We?” I said, clearing my throat.
“Yes, I told you last night. I was coming with you to practice, then I’d be shadowing you for the day.”
“You can’t be serious?”
“I am. Now, we don’t want to be late, and I always enjoy a Cafe Mocha each morning to start my day.”
I gripped the cup that held my shake.
“You shouldn’t drink that crap.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s full of sugar and a lot of other things your body doesn’t need.”
“Well, thank you for your concern, but it’s my body, and I like it, and if we leave now, we should be able to get through the drive-through and make it on time.
I’ve already looked up the drive time, and to make it even easier, I placed an online order that will be ready to be picked up in ten minutes. ”
“Great,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“You should be excited. Today is the start of Operation Fix the Fox,” she said, grabbing her bowl and making her way over to the sink.
My eyes washed over her body. I could only imagine what my teammates were going to say when I showed up with her tagging along beside me.
“Operation Fix the Fox?”
“Yep, Fix the Fox. It’s the title I gave to this project. Cute right?” she said, crinkling her nose as she stuffed her things into her bag.
“Yeah, really cute. Why on earth would you give this project a title? Let me guess, because you think having a cute title is going to somehow magically help the situation?”
“Cute titles always help. Just relax. I’m only going to shadow you this morning. Like I told you yesterday, I want to note your habits.”
“Note my habits?”
“Yep, I want to have you adjust things that perhaps you shouldn’t do.”
“What, like drink beer?” I questioned, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Yep, exactly like drinking beer. When you drink, you lose the ability to maintain control, and I think that may be one reason you keep getting yourself into these situations.”
Out of the pair of us, if anyone knew what drinking did to someone, it was me. I’d not only spent my time dealing with a drunk father when I was younger, but I also watched him drink himself to death in his later years.
“You know what I think?” I questioned.
“What?”
“I think someone in this kitchen needs to mind their own business. I also think she needs to get more sleep at night instead of staying up all hours keeping the person on the other side of the wall awake while arguing with Mr. Perfect.”
She didn’t even skip a beat; she kept shoving things into her bag and then zipped it closed.
“Well, thank you for that. Oh, and we weren’t fighting. Now, instead of worrying about me and my habits, how about we focus on the problem at hand? Now, we need to get going.”
I rolled my eyes and then drank down the rest of my shake, half listening to what other garbage she was going on about. The moment she stopped speaking, I rinsed out my cup and grabbed my keys.
“Let’s go,” I said, leaving her in the kitchen.
I grabbed my bag and headed out the front door, climbed into the truck, and started the engine while watching Emma struggle to lock the door with the key I’d given her. When she finally got into the truck, I began backing it up before she’d even closed her door.
“Wait!” she screamed.
“What?”
I stomped on the brake, causing the door to slam shut, and that was when she turned and looked my way.
“Rule number one: don’t kill the love of your life while leaving your driveway,” she muttered, her jaw clenched as she quickly fastened her seatbelt.
“Relax there, baby girl. You are far from the love of my life.”
I never wanted to laugh so hard as she spun her head around and glared at me.
“Stop calling me that.”
“Why? You used to love it once upon a time.”
“Well, I don’t love it now. So, stop.”
“Oh come on, baby girl.”
I couldn’t help myself when she turned her annoyed eyes my way.
“You know, cute titles always help,” I said, mimicking her voice from earlier.
“Just drive.”
“I plan on it, and don’t worry, I won’t forget about your cup of sugar.”
When we arrived at the arena, Emma got out of my truck without a word and headed inside.
I’d have thought she’d have waited for me, especially since she wanted to shadow me, but she’d taken off and was nowhere to be found.
She could have been in the women’s washroom for all I knew because I didn’t really look for her either.
Instead, I kept my head down and started making my way to the locker room.
I pushed the door open and came face-to-face with my teammates. The room was quiet, and they all sat there looking at me, questions in their eyes.
“What the hell are you all so quiet about?” I questioned, dropping my bag on the bench in front of my locker.
“What the hell is this?” Knox said, standing up, shoving his phone into my face.
I looked down at his screen, seeing the article she’d told me would go out later today had been published an hour ago.
“A phone,” I bit back, knowing full well he was talking about the article on his screen.
“Cut the shit. Who’s the chick?”
I looked down at the phone, at a photograph of Emma and I together just outside the back of the arena.
“You’ve mentioned no one to us. If you were having relationship troubles, you should have told us,” Levi said.
That was because there was no one to mention, because this was all fake as fuck, and if there was one thing I hated, it was lying to my teammates.
While some would say I’d led them to believe that my bedroom was like a revolving door, that was what they’d assumed, so I just continued to allow them to think that.
The last thing I wanted was for Lorelai, Aurora, or the other girls to set me up with someone or for my teammates to think I couldn’t get a girl.
“I like my privacy.” I shrugged.
“Yeah, but not to mention to us you’ve been seeing someone seriously for over six years. We’re like your brothers, man. You know everything about us.”
I just about choked, and grabbed Knox’s phone, quickly scanning the article again. When I’d read it the first time, I didn’t recall seeing anything about a timeline, but then I’d only skimmed it, but there it was in black and white—six years together.
“I have little to say. I guess, like you guys, I would rather not bring my private life to center stage. Besides, we’d been having issues for a while, long before I got traded, and I really thought we were over, so I figured there was no point in mentioning anything.
You know, the whole trade thing and moving to another city, then add in the long-distance thing into an already struggling relationship.
It’s bound to bring stress into a relationship and to end one quickly,” I added, flashing back to when we were younger, seeing her tears when I’d announced I was moving to Boston.
“Well, we wish you had told us, man. Did you mention anything to Lorelai that night? Is that why you wanted her to take you home that night instead of me? She said you were adamant about her taking you. Was it because you wanted a woman to talk to?”
Thank you, Knox. There was my out. I grabbed my skates and laid them on the floor, then looked at the boys. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but yeah, that was exactly it. Only I didn’t talk with her. That stupid paparazzi appeared out of nowhere.”
“Yeah, but it said in the article that they wanted to know more about your breakup. Lorelai didn’t mention that to me?” Knox added.
I thought for a moment.