Avery
Chapter Sixteen
Our team didn’t linger at the bar for too long.
Most of them went to the house after one drink, but a few remained.
Sawyer had worse things to worry about than disciplinary actions hanging over his head.
He had a boyfriend to explain this to. And I insisted on being there.
Noah watched so few of our games that this was just terrible timing.
And even when Sawyer explained his side of the story, Noah was angry.
“You hockey boys and all your testosterone,” he grumbled. “That was a ridiculous risk and just a terrible thing to do.” He turned his gaze to me. “And you? Do you condone this?”
My tongue was tied. Noah was easily the nicest guy ever. Until he wasn’t. Bristling like a disgruntled kitten, he was genuinely scary. “I…no. Not condone. But…”
“But?” he asked. “But what?”
I folded my lips like a scolded child. Sawyer glanced at me as if we were just boys in primary school, caught sword-fighting with umbrellas.
Noah slumped in his chair and took a gulp of his beer. “Seriously,” he exhaled. “I get it. I really do. If he ever broke my heart like that, I would want someone to kick his ass, but…not like that. And not for real. Violence isn’t the answer.”
“You’ve got a loyal guy here,” I said. “Loyal to friends and to you.”
Noah softened a little, visibly relaxing.
He glanced at Sawyer and love pooled in his eyes.
“I do.” He put a hand on the back of Sawyer’s neck.
I could have been mistaken, but it looked like Noah was feeling a little more attracted to his boyfriend than usual.
The glassy look in his eyes and the heated cheeks told me it was time to go home.
The thing about a sweet boy like Noah? He had a weakness for the trouble-makers.
And Sawyer had unlocked a whole new level tonight.
I left the lovebirds with only a slight sense of envy tainting my heart.
As I headed back to the team house, I wondered if Grayson was alright.
He hadn’t made a fuss about it. A cruel part of me said that it was the least he could do, but most of my heart still bled for him.
He had been chivalrous beyond my imagination.
Damn him.
When I saw him sprawled out on the ice, blood coming from his nose, mouth red, and eyes distant, I wanted to fall on him and protect him. I wanted to hold him and kiss the pain away.
Why did I feel this way? Why couldn’t I kill it already and feel nothing? I was torn between all the pain over the betrayal and all the admiration at how he had taken this disaster.
Grayson remained in my thoughts despite my best efforts to block him out.
He was there when I undressed for bed and there when I woke up.
The somber atmosphere in the house on Saturday was the worst for distractions, so everything I did was observed by the imaginary Grayson I carried around.
I didn’t want him there, but his quips and teases whispered into my ear throughout the day.
Caden admitted he had had a lot of pleasure in crashing Spencer into the boards.
“Now we get to gloat, too,” he said. I hadn’t realized how many details everyone knew.
I’d told most of the story to most of my teammates in bits and pieces, but it looked like they put the entire thing together between themselves. And they did a good job of that.
“Thank you,” I said. I was at a loss for anything smarter or more appropriate.
Beckett bristled. “I wish I’d gotten my hands on one of them.” He looked at me. “You got Cole, didn’t you?”
I shook my head. “Not like that. He was in the way.”
“Fair play,” Beckett said.
I shrugged. I didn’t doubt that Cole had participated in the dare that had made me look like a fool. Even so, he hadn’t fucking reveled in spoiling the best time of my life.
Neither had Grayson, to be fair, but I was still furious with him for lying to me.
There was no news about Sawyer that day.
He wasn’t going to drills. Most likely, he would be suspended, but nobody knew for how long and to what end.
The whispers were that he could be made into an example, which would suck.
Beckett vowed he wouldn’t let that happen, but what he could do wasn’t clear to anyone.
Sebastian and Tyler stood like his bodyguards when we left the rink after practice. They had trailed him all afternoon, saying they would leave nothing to chance. “You never know if Grayson plans a revenge. Maybe that’s why he didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.”
I doubted it, but it was nice to see this level of camaraderie in the team.
We hadn’t had that since before Cameron had joined the team last year and began his rivalry with Riley Brooks.
For a breath, it had seemed like things cooled down, but then Beckett and Caden spent this semester fighting over the captaincy.
Ironically, both pairs resolved their differences with the lights off.
I hated that my broken heart was what the team needed to unite.
Even more, I hated that they were so invested.
I was doing my best to feel as little as I could, but my teammates weren’t letting the apathy take me away.
They cared an unhealthy amount. They cared without shame.
And it touched me. It was a quicksand that wouldn’t let me build the walls around my heart.
Truly, Grayson Reed couldn’t have picked a worse moment than that.
All my weaknesses were on full display and my guard was at its lowest. I was anxious about my friend’s fate, touched by the love my team nurtured for me, desperate to kill the different kind of love I had nowhere to put, and worrying about Grayson’s wounds — and to a small extent, his bruised pride — when he shouted. “AVERY! AVERY!”
“What’s happening?” Beckett asked from the kitchen island.
Caden was with him, frowning, and Sawyer had joined us for the evening with Sebastian and Tyler flanking him. I was on the sofa furthest from the door, so Sawyer marched across the room and moved the drape away from the window to peek outside. “Oh, shit,” he said.
Sebastian’s muscled arms bunched. “Is he looking for trouble?”
“Let’s get him,” Tyler said.
“My turn, guys,” Beckett said.
Caden was the only one to advise caution because I was speechless, my mouth dry with fear. “Just wait,” he hissed at everyone.
“AVERY!!!” Grayson’s voice boomed like he wanted to tear the house down.
Sawyer spun as if poked, leaned against the window, an unreadable expression on his face. “I guess he wants to see you.”
“Is there danger?” Tyler demanded.
“I got you covered,” Beckett announced, and Caden grabbed his upper arm to hold him still.
“Avery!” But that voice wasn’t threatening. It was his joyful one. I knew it. It was the voice he used when he had a surprise so nice and big and clever that he could barely contain his excitement.
“Seriously, you should go,” Sawyer said, his lips quirking slightly.
“We’re right behind you if this goes wrong,” Sebastian said, his biceps still swollen with tension, veins becoming visible.
Sawyer grabbed my coat from the rack and urged me to come.
Finally, I got my limbs to move. It wasn’t fear that stopped me.
It was the shock. Well, there was a bit of fear mixed into it all.
I didn’t want to get hurt again. I didn’t want to fight or hear how he had meant nothing with the dare.
I didn’t want him to justify his lies and insult me.
And I didn’t want my friends to see me when Grayson said all the wrong things and my emotions poured out.
I had learned my lesson. Emotions only made things worse.
But I put on my coat and walked toward the door like I was weightless in the clouds. I didn’t look out the window but opened the door right away.
Ten or so paces away from me, on the street that bordered our front lawn, stood Grayson Reed in his most handsome edition ever.
A black tux with a white shirt and a sleek black top hat, he might have looked like a cheap magician entertaining children’s birthday parties, but he didn’t.
The fit of the tux was too perfect and Grayson was too good-looking to appear cheap in anything.
Behind him, drawn by two beautiful black horses, was a closed carriage with orange light bulbs hanging from its roof.
It was as charming as if he had plucked it from some animated movie classic.
With gold lettering on the door, a gold-plated handle, and a decorative golden accent, it was a fairytale carriage.
The man sitting up front, holding the reins, was solemn and uninterested in what was happening here.
My heart thrashed in my chest, but I stilled myself as the door shut behind me.
“Ave-” he half-yelled. “Oh. I didn’t think you’d come out so soon.”
I bit my lip for a moment, forcing away a smile. “Do you want me to hop back in?”
“No. I’m ready.” He stepped toward me and I walked a couple of paces forward. We didn’t meet yet, but we were close enough for normal voices. “I did it,” he said. “The carriage. You kept saying no, but I had to do it.”
I blinked, not sure what I felt. Too many things and none dominant. There was grief soaring through me and there was the warmth I associated with Grayson. But there was spite, too, as well as flattery. “You’re in a tux.”