36. Wes
Chapter thirty-six
Wes
I’m slumped on the bench at the arena, regretting my life choices of the past few days as I watch the guys scrimmage on the ice. I tapped out after a few minutes when I thought I was going to throw up.
Eating one’s weight in sweets and sleeping on the couch for two days probably wasn’t the best idea. Especially not when one is a professional hockey player.
I guess at least I’m not hungover. I had all of one glass of the whiskey before realizing it didn’t exactly go with the desserts I was eating.
So I switched to water. Although this sugar coma lethargy I’m feeling isn’t helping.
All because I ate a carrot cake and most of a tub of ice cream.
That’s not that bad over the course of two days.
Well, it wouldn’t be if I’d eaten anything else.
Which I didn’t until this morning when I forced myself to drink a protein smoothie and eat a bowl of oatmeal.
I’d hoped they would help. Clearly, they didn’t.
“Earth to Weston. You alright?” Sutton’s voice comes from behind me.
I rub a hand over my stomach. “Too many sweets.”
She raises an eyebrow as she sits down next to me. “Something going on?”
I huff out a breath, dropping my head into my hands. “How long do you have?”
“As long as it takes. Come on, let’s hear it.”
So I tell her what’s been going on with my family, or lack thereof. How the family I’d found isn’t what I thought it would be. I feel as if some of the weight I’ve been carrying around is gone when I finish explaining everything to her.
“Family comes in all shapes and sizes.” She turns to me. “It doesn’t necessarily mean blood. It means the people you choose.”
“Yeah …”
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out with your cousin.
Sometimes the family we pick is better than the one we share our DNA with.
” She sighs, shaking her head, and I wonder if she’s speaking from experience.
“Not saying that your cousin is a bad person, but you already have a whole group of brothers.” She gestures around.
“The family you were hoping to find in your cousin, you already have it. Maybe this is the family you were meant to have.”
I turn her words over in my head as I watch the guys scrimmage on the ice, the guys I have always considered to be my brothers. Even the ones who’ve retired are like family to me. Their wives and girlfriends I consider my sisters-in-law. Their kids, my nieces and nephews.
She’s right.
Except there’s one person missing who I most certainly want as part of my family. But I don’t know if she wants me anymore. She’s the woman I want to go through life with. Grow old with. Maybe start a family with. I hope I can fix things with her.
“I—” I scrub a hand down my face. “Except I fucked up with Hadley.”
“Oh, you fucked up real good,” Holt says.
I peer over my shoulder at him, arms crossed over his chest, scowling at me.
I put my hands up to cover my face, tensing my whole body. “If you’re going to punch me, get it over with.”
“Relax. I’m not going to punch you.”
“You’re not?” I put my hands down as he comes and sits on the other side of me.
“Do I want to know what’s going on?” Sutton asks.
Before I can fill her in on my and Hadley’s breakup, the other guys skate over. Might as well tell them all at once.
“I have something I need to tell you all.” I study my hands. “It was fake.”
“Fake?” Sutton asks.
“Our engagement.” I hold my breath, waiting for the shit they’re about to give me, but it doesn’t come.
“Oh, we know,” Elias says.
That catches my attention. “You know?” I tilt my head, peering around at them all. Were we that obvious? I thought we did a good job of pretending.
Sebastian shrugs, and the guys exchange a look.
“What? What was that look for?” I point at all of them.
Holt blows out a breath. “They know because we set it up.”
“Come again? How could you set it up? SportsCenter talked about our engagement …” I sputter. Am I dreaming? Is this a nightmare?
Sebastian has the audacity to laugh. “Did you see the SportsCenter clip where they talked about it?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Did you read an article?” Elias interrupts.
“No, but my agent knew.” I run a hand through my hair. Holy shit. How in the hell did they pull this off?
“He owed me a favor. I asked him to go along with the story,” Sebastian says.
John was in on it? For fuck’s sake. Did everyone know except me and Hadley? It didn’t even dawn on me that Sebastian and I share an agent. But why would it?
Elias starts laughing, and I can’t help glaring at him. He holds up his hands as if in surrender, and I turn back to Sebastian, who’s watching me process.
There’s no way. They couldn’t have.
“Except there was a company that wanted both of us to be in their marketing …” I’m grasping at straws, trying to figure out what was real and what was all a ploy.
“They were already interested. When John pitched also including your fiancée in the deal, of course they ate that shit up,” Sebastian explains.
I sputter. What the hell?
“And you?” I point a finger at Holt. “You acted as though it was a bad idea. What the fuck, man?”
He shrugs, a shit-eating grin on his face. “I had to. If I’d been happy about it, Hadley would have known something was up, and she wouldn’t have gone through with it.”
I throw my hands in the air. “I cannot believe this. So was any of it really fake?”
I should be madder, but honestly, how can I be? I mean I won’t tell them that, but it got me and Hadley together, and I’ll never complain about that.
“The part where Hadley told her ex she was engaged and the party were real. That’s how I got the idea,” Holt says.
“Why?” I ask.
“We were tired of you two dancing around each other. Pretending you didn’t like each other,” Holt explains.
I roll my eyes, fighting the smile that wants to break free. “We’re not in middle school anymore. Or high school.”
“I would hope not,” Sebastian says.
“And you,” I whirl around to Sutton. “You knew too?”
“Not at first, but they filled me in after I couldn’t find where SportsCenter was talking about your engagement, regardless of how hard I searched. I tried to find you, but you were already gone for the day. Elias told me what was going on,” she says.
“And the whole ‘date for social media content’?”
“It was a good idea, right? Forced you two to go out on a date.” I narrow my eyes at her. “We did post those pictures to social media. Everyone ate it up like I knew they would.”
“For fuck’s sake. I thought I was the meddler,” I mutter.
They laugh, and I shake my head.
I’ve been bested at my own bullshit. Okay, not really, because this was next-level meddling. But again, that’s not something I’ll be telling them anytime soon. I scowl at each of them in turn to keep up the ruse of being upset.
“Not that it matters now.” I’m back to staring down at my lap, my stomach rolling. And not from all the sugar I’ve consumed in the past few days, but from the fact that I don’t have Hadley.
The past couple of months were for nothing. I’m still alone. Well, not exactly alone—I have the guys, my brothers—but I don’t have my person. And that hurts.
“We did it because we love you,” Elias finally says.
“You both needed a push because otherwise we’d all be old and gray before you two decided to act on your feelings,” Holt adds.
“And we wanted you to be happy. Together,” Sebastian says.
“But now what? It didn’t end well. She broke up with me. I thought it was a nice gesture to try to help her get a job, and clearly, I don’t know how to read the room. Or her.” I pull on the collar of my shirt.
Holt gives me a pointed look. “She thinks you don’t like it that she doesn’t have a steady job.
That you’re trying to change her. Her words, not mine.
Apparently, what all of her other exes did.
” He frowns, muttering something that sounds like, I want to have words with all of them, but I can’t exactly be sure.
“I wasn’t. I’m not. I don’t care if she never has a job. I told her that. I just didn’t want to see her stressed about finding one. Plus, she’s an amazing photographer. She’d have gotten the job without me if she’d applied for it. Right, Sutton?”
“She’s definitely talented,” Sutton agrees. “Had she applied, we would have interviewed her, even if you hadn’t recommended her.” She turns to Holt. “And not because you’re her brother.”
He nods.
“That’s all fine and great, but how do I fix this? Prove to her I’m all in.” Because even though it started as fake, I really am all in.
“You need a grand gesture,” Elias says.
“But what?” I rack my brain for ideas of what I can do to prove that I love her, because I most definitely do, and that I don’t want to change her. I want her exactly the way she is.
“I’ve got it.” I hold up a finger. “I’ll get her name tattooed on my chest.” I smack a hand on the spot.
Sebastian rolls his eyes. “Mate, that’s so overdone.”
“It’s a bit … corny,” Elias agrees.
“But it’s so him,” Holt says, turning to me. “While I agree it is a bit corny and overdone, it’s also romantic as fuck and something you would do.”
“Come on, we can think of something better,” Elias says, scratching his chin and glancing around. “Any ideas, Sutton?”
“I am the least romantic person ever, so no, I don’t have any ideas.”
“But what if a guy wanted to get back into your good graces? What would he have to do?” Elias’s gaze cuts to Sebastian for a second before focusing back on Sutton.
“Nope, that’s it.” I hold up a hand before she can answer the question. “Tattoo it is. Then I’m going to go to your house, Holt, so don’t be surprised, with a boom box and stand outside her window and serenade her with a love song.”
Holt chuckles. “Do you even have a boom box?”
“Shit, no.” I run a hand through my hair. “I know, I’ll make some signs confessing my love for her and apologizing, and I’ll show up at the door. Like in Love Actually.”
“That’s so cheesy it might actually work. She loves that movie,” Holt says.
“Then when she forgives me, because I know she will.” Sebastian snorts, but I ignore him. I’m on a roll. “I’ll get down on one knee and ask her to marry me, for real.”
“Don’t you think that’s rushing it?” Sebastian asks.
I shake my head. “When you know, you know. She’s it for me.”
“You know her best, and if you think that’s going to work …” Elias says.
“I gotta go.” I stand, grab my gear, and practically sprint down the hallway toward the locker rooms.
I’m on a mission to win my woman back. Make her mine for real.