2
Easton
The Sin Bin had thinned out around us, leaving behind sticky tables, half-dead baskets of fries, neon bleeding over empty glasses, and the kind of late-night noise that came from people refusing to admit the night had already peaked.
It was my first night as captain, the guys were loud and happy, and Cade was back in the room—healthy, upright, and smiling at Bliss like life had finally decided to stop swinging at him.
The season stretched ahead of us, and Friday was waiting.
I should have felt proud.
Instead, one sentence kept crawling through my head and setting up camp behind my ribs.
“You don’t get to take what I survived—when you don’t know what I survived—and twist it into a personality flaw.”
I reached for my water, then stopped before I touched it. The glass had gone warm thirty minutes ago.
Cade noticed because he noticed everything whenever Bliss wasn’t actively distracting him by breathing. His eyes shifted from my hand to my face, and his jaw worked once like he had been waiting for me to decide whether I wanted to be an idiot in silence or out loud.
I picked out loud, apparently.
“What did she mean?”
Briggs, Rider, and Ryan didn’t move at all, which somehow made them more obvious.
Cade looked at me for a long second. “You’re going to need to narrow that down.”
“You know what I’m asking.”
Bliss glanced over from the register, then back down fast enough to make it clear she had heard and had no plans to save me from the answer.
Cade kept his voice low. “I don’t know what she survived.”
“Bullshit.”
His eyes came up hard. “Careful.”
I laughed once, short and ugly. “That your word now too?”
“No,” Cade said. “That’s me telling you not to take a bad night and make it worse because you’re mad she said something that made you feel guilty.”
Briggs set his wing down with the kind of reverence usually reserved for funerals and championship trophies. “For the record, I am on Easton’s side emotionally, but I am also scared of where this conversation is going.”
Ryan looked at him. “That might be the most mature thing you’ve ever said.”
“I contain unexpected depth.”
Rider sighed. “You asked if blue cheese was made from sad milk ten minutes ago.”
“It tastes haunted.”
Cade ignored them, his attention still on me. “I don’t know, Easton. And if I did know, I wouldn’t tell you.”
The words hit worse than I expected. “You wouldn’t tell me?”
“No.”
“You’re my friend.”
“And she’s Bliss’s best friend.” Cade’s voice didn’t rise, but it landed heavy.
“She’s Charm’s best friend. She’s family to the people who became my family.
If something happened to her and she wanted me to know, she would tell me.
If Bliss knew and wanted me to know, she’d tell me.
I don’t get to take something private from Aura and hand it to you just because you feel bad that you stepped on it. ”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know either.”
“I believe you.”
The quiet in that almost made it worse.
I dragged a hand over my mouth and looked away from him. “Then why does it feel like everyone thinks I did it on purpose?”
Ryan finally leaned forward, forearms resting on the bar. “Because you were trying to hurt her. You just didn’t know which scab you were picking. You knew something haunted her, and you swung blindly at it.”
Briggs pointed at him with a fry. “That is where I’m at too. You didn’t know what it was, but you were swinging.”
“She was flirting with Gage right in front of me.”
Rider’s brows lifted. “After you spent seven months making sure she saw you with every puck bunny imaginable while ignoring her physical presence.”
I looked at him. “You taking her side now?”
“I’m taking the side where nobody gets to act shocked when the person they shoved away stands somewhere else.”
Briggs winced. “That was less supportive of Easton than I was hoping.”
“It was fair,” Cade said.
Ryan shrugged. “It was fair, but it doesn’t erase what she did either.”
I looked at Ryan because he was the only one in the room who sounded like he was standing in the middle instead of planting a flag. “Thank you.”
“I’m not giving you a cookie.” Ryan’s mouth flattened. “She hurt you. Bad. I watched it happen after, and you were walking around like somebody ripped something out of you and left the wires showing. I’m not going to pretend she didn’t do damage because she looked sad tonight.”
Briggs nodded hard. “Exactly. That’s what I’m saying. She made you feel like some midnight hobby with abs and a parking pass.”
Rider looked over at him. “You were doing so well.”
“I’m serious.” Briggs turned fully toward me, and for once, the joke slipped out of his face. “You loved her. You tried to make it real, and she made you feel like shit for wanting that. I don’t blame you for being angry.”
The words sat in my chest, heavy and ugly.
Cade didn’t argue. That was the thing. He didn’t jump in with some easy defense or tell Briggs he had it wrong.
He just looked at me, and that was somehow worse because it meant both things could be true.
Aura could have hurt me badly enough that the guys saw it, and I could still have gone too far tonight.
“It’s about her ex Darian, isn’t it?” I asked.
Bliss went utterly still behind the bar, and it told me enough that my stomach dropped.
Cade looked over his shoulder at her, and whatever passed between them was fast and quiet, the kind of thing people in love could do in a crowded room without anyone else being invited in.
I straightened slowly. “It was him.”
Bliss closed the register with careful hands. “Easton.”
I hated how gentle she sounded.
“Look, I know he hurt her. I don’t know—he cheated on her or something. I’m not asking you to tell me more,” I said, even though part of me was absolutely asking. “I just need to know if I hit that nerve.”
Bliss’s face hurt to look at. “You don’t need details to know you shouldn’t have said what you said.”
My throat worked, but nothing came out right away.
Ryan’s chair creaked as he shifted. “What did Darian do?”
Bliss shook her head. “That’s not mine.”
I nodded once, but the movement felt useless. My mind kept pulling up Aura’s face, the way she had gone silent before she got loud, the way her hands shook around those baskets, and the way she told me I didn’t get her name soft after that.
I had thought I wanted to hurt her, but I hadn’t known what I was asking for.
Briggs pushed his plate away, his appetite gone. “Okay, then what do you do with that?”
I laughed under my breath. “That sounds dangerously close to a feelings question.”
“That’s why I hated asking it.”
“You apologize,” Rider said.
My head turned toward him. “Just like that?”
“No, you’ll probably make it weird first.”
Briggs nodded. “You will absolutely make it weird first.”
Rider kept his eyes on me. “But yes. You apologize for that part.”
“That part,” Ryan said, pointing at Rider like he needed the distinction on record. “You apologize for hitting something you didn’t understand. You do not have to apologize for being hurt.”
Cade looked at Ryan. “That might be the most balanced thing you’ve said all year.”
Ryan leaned back. “I’m retired from college drama. I have range now.”
“You’re twenty-three,” Briggs said. “Stop calling yourself retired before my knees hear you and get ideas.”
I stared down at the bar. “My mom comes in day after tomorrow.”
That shut them up faster than I expected.
Briggs’s expression changed first, softening around the edges. “Gayle’s coming?”
“Yeah. Skylar and Vivi too. They’re driving up Friday morning.”
Cade leaned his hip against the bar. “For the game?”
“For the game, for the C, for Cade’s return, for the whole damn circus.
” I rubbed the back of my neck, the tightness there spreading between my shoulders.
“Skylar’s already texting me about what she should wear like anyone in that arena is going to survive telling a fourteen-year-old girl she can’t dress like a tiny menace.
Vivi’s excited, but my mom said the drive might be rough if the routine gets messed up, so I need to make sure the hotel is right, the food is right, the noise is manageable, and everything doesn’t go sideways before Friday. ”
Briggs’s face softened more. “Vivi okay with crowds now?”
“Sometimes. Depends on the day. Depends on the lights. Depends on whether someone breathes wrong near her.” I blew out a breath and shook my head.
“I’m not worried about her. I know how to handle Vivi.
I’m worried about my mom pretending she’s fine because she doesn’t want me worried about her, and Skylar pretending she doesn’t need anything because she thinks needing things costs too much. ”
Ryan’s voice quieted. “How much are you sending home right now?”
I looked at him.
He didn’t blink.
Briggs muttered, “Subtle, Decker.”
Ryan ignored him. “How much, Easton?”
“Enough.”
“That means too much.”
“It means enough.”
Cade’s jaw tightened. “Are you still working full-time at North Cut?”
“Not anymore.”
Rider turned toward me. “You told us you cut back.”
“I did.”
“How much?”
I dragged a hand over my face. “Two nights.”
Briggs’s mouth fell open. “You cut two nights and you’re still working five during season?”
“It’s not like I’m closing every night.”
“Easton.”
“What?” I snapped, then forced myself to pull it back when Bliss looked over. “I run the Zamboni, handle rentals, and help with youth lessons when they need it. I work around practice and games. It’s fine.”
Ryan’s stare went flat. “You have captain duties, classes, practices, workouts, games, family coming in, money going home, and you’re working five nights at North Cut while melting down over Aura in public.”
“I’m not melting down.”
Briggs lifted one hand. “I say this with fear and affection. You are absolutely simmering.”
Rider nodded. “Aggressively.”
Cade looked at me. “Move back into Hockey House.”
The words landed wrong.
My whole body rejected them before I even answered. “No.”
“Easton.”
“I said no.”
Briggs leaned forward. “Why? Your apartment is depressing.”
“My apartment is fine.”