Chapter 29 #2
"We should take this outside," I say. He's basically shouting now, and the waitress looks like she's about to call someone.
“Oh, I’m going to take it outside, all right,” Beck hisses.
Mollie slides out of the booth first and I follow. I leave cash on the table and we push through the front door into the parking lot. Beck is right behind us, his anger palpable in the air.
Mollie tries to step between us. I catch her hand, lift it to my mouth, and kiss her knuckles. "Step back, Freckles. This is between me and your brother."
She rolls her eyes so hard, I'm surprised they stay in her head. But she steps back, crossing her arms, giving me approximately ten seconds before she intervenes again.
I look at Beck. "Go ahead. Get it out."
He gets in my face. "You're too dirty for her.
You know that, right? You've fucked every puck bunny from here to Boston for the last decade.
And now you think you deserve Mollie? You think you can just have fun with her for a while and then throw her away like every other girl you've ever been with? "
I shove him back. Not a punch. A shove, one hand on his chest, creating space.
"You haven’t been paying attention. I've been in love with her for three and a half years." My voice comes out rougher than I expect. "Since the first time I ever saw her skate, at that exhibition game. Before she ever joined the team. Before I ever said a word to her. I knew."
Beck blinks. Mollie blanches, but I keep going.
"The day Mollie started working for the Havoc, I stopped sleeping around.
Not one hookup, not one girl, nothing. For over a year, Beck.
Because I couldn't lie to myself anymore.
" I hold up my splinted hand. "And yeah, I'm a piece of shit.
I lied to you. I snuck around behind your back.
I deserve whatever you want to throw at me.
But I'm not throwing her away. I'm not capable of it.
This is the most serious I've ever felt about anyone, and I'm ready to go the distance.
Whatever she needs? I'll be that for her. "
Beck hauls off and punches me in the jaw.
My head snaps sideways and I taste blood. The parking lot tilts for a second before I steady myself. Then I straighten up, reset my stance, and keep my hands at my sides.
“Beck! Alex!” Mollie gasps and her hands fly to her mouth. She tries to step forward and I hold up my good hand for her to wait.
Beck's chest is heaving. His eyes are glistening, his fists are clenched, and he looks like he's deciding whether to throw another punch.
Mollie can't hold back anymore. She moves between us and faces her brother.
"You want to be here for me? Then be here, Beck.
Actually be here." Her voice shakes but she doesn't flinch.
"I spent my whole life trying to carve out a little space that wasn't about your hockey career.
I moved to a different sport just to have something that was mine.
And the whole time, something was happening to me that you didn't see.
That Mom and Dad didn't see. Because nobody was looking. "
Beck's expression shifts. "I saw the TikTok, Mollie. I know what Savard did."
"You saw the version I could say to a camera." She wipes her eyes. "I'm telling you the parts I couldn't."
His jaw loosens. He waits.
"He didn't just comment on my body and stand too close.
He tried to kiss me. He grabbed my breast and told me he'd been waiting for me to want him like a woman.
" Her lip quivers, but she pushes through it.
"He put my hand on his… dick… and tried to make me touch him.
I froze. I just stood there and let it happen, because I didn't know what to do. "
“Hey. That’s not fair,” I say softly to Mollie. She grabs my hand and squeezes it.
The color drains from Beck's face. “Fuck. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
"He sent me a letter from his lawyer after Nationals. An NDA, buried in the coaching paperwork I'd signed as a minor. He threatened me into silence." Her voice cracks. "I've been carrying this for years because I was ashamed and scared. I didn't want to see the look that's on your face right now."
Beck sits down on the curb, hard, his elbows on his knees, his hands in his hair. For a long time, he doesn't say anything.
"If Savard thinks he's hurting now," Beck says quietly, "just wait."
"Alex already hurt him." Mollie sniffs and wipes her face. "And I launched that video. His professional life is over."
Beck looks at me. The betrayal is still on his face. The anger about the lying and the sneaking, and the months of deception from his co-captain, his best friend. “I’m still mad at you, Thorne. But I can see that this is… complicated.”
“It is.” I offer Mollie a hand and she takes it. “Just because it’s complicated doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile.” I tug Mollie’s hand, bringing her closer so I can kiss her cheek. She glances up at me, her eyes filled with emotion.
Today has been hard for her.
“I think you’ve had enough for right now.” I kiss the top of her head. “We can argue about this again later, Beck. But I don’t see the outcome being any different. You’ll have to just deal with Mollie and me being together.”
“Fuck off,” he shoots back. “And Mollie… I’m mad at you too.”
She looks down and my arm tightens around her. “You don’t get to be mad at her. You wanna be upset with someone? Be angry with me.”
“Alex.” Mollie presses a hand against my chest and turns to her brother. “He wanted to tell you, Beck. I didn’t. Because I was worried that you’d react poorly. And here you are, acting like a fucking caveman.”
“Ouch.” He looks at Mollie for a long moment, then at me. He nods once, slow and heavy. Then he gets up, walks to his car, and drives away without another word.
She blows out a breath. “Well, that sucked.”
“He’ll get over it. He’s your brother and he loves you. This is just his fucked-up way of telling you that.”
She gives me a squeeze. “Let’s go home and get some ice on that lip.”
At home, she sits me on the edge of the bathtub and cleans the split on my lip with peroxide that stings like a motherfucker. She checks my splint, adjusts the wrap, and presses a bag of frozen peas against my jaw.
"Hold that there." She tilts my chin up, examining her work. "You look terrible."
"Your brother has a decent right hook."
She smiles. "He’s played hockey for twenty-odd years. I would hope so."
I catch her wrist with my good hand. "Mollie."
She stops fussing and looks at me.
"I'm proud of you. Telling Beck?" I rub my thumb across her pulse. "You're the bravest person I know."
Her eyes fill again but she doesn't cry. She just looks at me with an expression so unguarded that it makes my chest ache.
"I love you," she blurts out.
She doesn't plan it. I can tell by the way her eyes widen slightly after the words come out, like she surprised herself. Three words, quiet and certain, while she holds a bag of frozen peas against my jaw in the bathroom of a houseboat on Lake Union.
Everything in me goes still. The words she just said light up my fucking spine.
"I love you too." My voice sounds like gravel, but I don't care. "I've loved you since the first time I saw you skate, Mollie. I just didn't know how to say it without losing everything."
She smiles. It's small and wobbly and perfect. She leans down and kisses me, gentle because my lip is split. I pull her closer with my good hand.
"Come to bed," she murmurs against my mouth. She straightens up and pulls her sweater over her head, tossing it on the bathroom floor. Her bra is pale pink, her skin is flushed, and she's looking at me with dark eyes. "I think you need to stop thinking for a while."
"Is that your professional opinion?"
"It's my girlfriend opinion." She backs out of the bathroom, reaching behind herself to unclasp her bra. It drops from her fingers in the hallway. "And my girlfriend opinion says that you should follow me right now."
Oh yeah. I’m definitely marrying this girl, whether she likes it or not. She has no choice.
I follow her. My jaw throbs and my hand aches. But right now, she's walking backward toward our bedroom, her red curls swaying, her fingers finding the button of her jeans. The look on her face says that she knows exactly what she's doing to me.
My phone rings from downstairs.
I freeze on the landing. Mollie stops, her jeans half unzipped, and we both look toward the stairs.
"Leave it," she says.
I should. I know I should. But my agent's ringtone is specific and the sound of it turns my blood cold.
"One second." I jog down the stairs and grab the phone off the counter. "Yeah?"
My agent talks for ninety seconds. I listen without interrupting. When he's done, I hang up and stand in the kitchen with the phone in my hand.
Mollie is at the top of the stairs, leaning on the railing. "What is it?"
"Savard retained a lawyer. He's filing assault charges and a civil suit. Management wants me in the building at eight tomorrow." I swallow. "And my agent says they're talking about termination."
She comes down the stairs, takes the phone from my hand, and sets it face down on the counter. Then she looks at me.
"Can you do anything about it right now?"
"No."
"Can your agent?"
"He's already on it."
"Then it waits until morning." She takes my good hand and pulls. "You know what doesn't wait?"
"Freckles." I huff a sigh.
"The woman who just told you she loves you won’t wait." She tugs me toward the stairs. "You owe me, Alex Thorne. I was very brave today and I deserve to be rewarded."
"Rewarded how?"
Her eyes flash. "Use your imagination."
I let her lead me upstairs. The phone sits on the counter, dark and silent, holding tomorrow's catastrophe in its little glass screen. Savard wants blood. Management wants answers. My career might be over in twelve hours.
But Mollie is pulling me into our bedroom with her hand in mine, her jeans sliding off her hips. I can still feel those three words vibrating in my chest.
Tomorrow will suck. But tonight, she comes first.