Chapter 10
Ten
Sean
“You’ve been banging weights around like a mad man all morning. Want to talk about it?” Cal asks, spotting me.
Red faced and blowing out a breath, I push the bar up and grunt, “Nope.”
Inhaling a breath, I bring the bar back down to my chest. I came here to work off some steam, not talk about Hannah leaving my ass in fucking Moab two days ago.
I knew the second she stepped around me to go to her room, something was off.
The shower ran for over an hour before I realized she was gone.
With sweat pouring down my temple, I rack the weights and sit up.
“Give her time. It’s a marathon, not a race,” Aiden offers as the soles of his shoes pound against the treadmill.
“You know, that’s the wisest thing I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth, Brodie,” Carter responds as he pulls dumbbells off the rack and sits down on a weight bench. “Look at you finally maturing.”
“Nah. I wouldn’t go that far, but hanging around you old bastards is starting to rub off on me a little,” Aiden counters.
With my elbows braced on my knees, I hang my head, wiping the sweat from my face and the back of my neck with a towel.
Hannah has been all over the place with her emotions and rightfully so.
I can’t even imagine how she must feel about all that’s going on with her.
How confusing everything must be. Can’t say if I was in her situation I wouldn’t be an emotional fucking wreck too.
Doesn’t mean I’m not hurt and a little pissed off, but I’m giving her grace.
Am I throwing in the towel? Fuck no.
I said I’m giving her grace, not space.
“Bulldozing your way back into her life isn’t the answer,” Carter says as if reading my mind. “Trust me.”
“Says the man who tricked his wife into a date, then ended up married to her the same night. Tell me, Doc, how the hell did you pull that one off?”
“Putting the cart before the horse, don’t you think, Mac?” Cal interjects.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I just mean everything comes easy to him.”
“Ha! You really think that?” Carter asks.
“Sean’s not wrong,” Aiden pants, slowing down his speed from a jog to a walk. “You do seem to have it easy.”
“Did everyone forget that I was shot?” Carter argues, curling his bicep.
Aiden smarts back, “But did you die?”
“Yeah, actually, I did . . . twice.”
My head rears back at his admission. I knew we almost lost him, but fuck, I didn’t realize it was that close. The air in the room shifts, and a melancholy mood settles over everyone.
“Anyway,” Carter continues, breaking the silence. “All I’m saying is just because someone’s life appears to be fucking gravy doesn’t mean that it is.”
“Hey, Sunshine! What brings you here?” Aiden asks, stopping his treadmill.
My head whips around and my eyes widen. Holy fucking shit! This is not happening right now.
“Thought I’d take my brother to lunch,” Cammie replies, stepping further into the gym.
“Did you just call my sister Sunshine?” Carter asks, glaring at Aiden.
Oh, fuck. Oh, no. This is like seeing a car wreck in slow-motion before it even happens.
“Yeah. She’s always happy like sunshine.”
Goddammit, Aiden Brodie. I want to palm my face, but I can’t look away. Carter drops the dumbbells and crosses the gym as Aiden steps off the treadmill.
“I have an exceptional memory, Brodie. What was it you once said? Sunshine pussy makes you all happy and glow inside? Now you’re calling my sister Sunshine? You keep your whore hands off my fucking sister!” he yells in Aiden’s face.
“Carter!” Cammie runs over, placing her hand on Carter’s arm, but he shrugs it off.
“Please don’t do this here,” she begs.
I fully expect Aiden to jump over a weight bench and run around the room like he normally would when he’s fucking around, but he stays in place and lifts his chin. His head snaps to the side when Carter throws a right hook.
Aiden stands there, stunned for a few seconds, but then he spits out a mouth full of blood, looks Carter in the eyes, and says, “Fucking worth it.”
All hell breaks loose, and fists start flying.
“Stop. Stop. Stop. You’re his fucking coach now, dude!” Cal yells, pulling Carter back as his fists swing at Aiden’s face.
I rush to grab Aiden, pulling him back.
“You have no business fucking around with her. You hear me?!” Carter points at Aiden. “No fucking business! You don’t have any idea what the fuck she’s been through!”
“Carter, stop!” Cammie cries, trying to push him back.
“And you.” He sneers down at his sister. “He’s a fucking kid, Cameron! A 24-year-old punk kid. You’re a 32-year-old grown ass woman!”
“You’re right, Carter. I’m a grown ass woman, capable of making my own choices. You wanna call him a punk?” She tosses a hand in Aiden’s direction, then places both hands on her hips. “The only person acting like a goddamn punk is you!”
“He’s using you!”
“I’m using him!” She tosses up her hands.
“What in the hell is going on in here?” Coach’s voice booms over the yelling.
In his presence, a pin could drop, and it would be deafening.
“This little prick is fucking my sister,” Carter snarls.
“Graham, upstairs to Aspen’s office! Brodie, go ice your face! And you, young lady, time to leave!” Coach instructs, pointing in the direction of the door. “Leave! Now!”
“Don’t fucking yell at her!” Aiden snaps, then turns to Cammie, thumbing the tears from her face. “Go out to the car. I’ll be right behind you, okay?”
Sniffing, she nods, and as Aiden presses a kiss to her forehead, Carter’s nostrils flare. A few minutes later, Cal and I are left alone, racking weights and wiping down the equipment.
“You don’t seem surprised,” he says, turning to me.
“Nothing really surprises me anymore.”
And it really doesn’t, not after all I’ve been through.
Plus, I heard Cammie’s voice on the other end of Hannah’s call the other night, so I knew they were fucking around.
It put me in a really bad spot. If I said anything, I would be betraying a friend.
By keeping my mouth shut, I betrayed another one.
I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.
“Well, the cat’s out of the bag for him. You better hope Coach doesn’t catch wind of your extracurricular activities before it’s out of the bag for you too.”
And with that, Cal leaves me in the middle of the gym, overthinking everything.
Passing by Carter’s office on the way to Coach’s, I catch him packing up his things. My knuckles rap on his doorframe as I walk in and take a seat in front of his desk.
“Everything okay, Doc?”
“Well, I’m not fired, so there’s that. Aspen suspended me, but at least she’s putting it in as paternity leave.”
“And what about Aiden?”
“What about Aiden?” he counters.
“I’ve never seen him like that over a woman. He nearly lost his shit on Coach for raising his voice at Cammie.”
Carter pauses with his laptop halfway in his bag. A curious expression crosses his face before he shakes his head.
“I can’t think about Aiden right now,” he says, shoving his laptop down further into the bag. “Or Cam for that matter.”
“Fair. But hear me out for just a second. I know what happened to Cammie in college is fucked up, but she’s not a fragile teenager anymore. You know deep down, underneath all the juvenile bullshit Aiden pulls, that he’s a good guy. Try to have an open mind.”
“And if it was your sister?”
“If he’s good enough to be your friend, then he should be good enough for your sister, don’t you think? Just some food for thought.”
“I don’t know, Mac.”
“Weren’t you the one who sat here a couple of weeks ago and told me to trust him with Hannah?”
“What about Hannah?” Coach asks, stepping into Carter’s office.
Fuck!
Turning around in my seat, I meet Coach’s eyes dead on and pray he didn’t hear all of that. “Well, I was going to go straight to the woman who fucked up my game, but now that you’re here, I guess I should talk to you about it.”
Coach moves further into the room and leans back against the wall with his hands in his pockets and asks, “What’s going on?”
Dick move, Sean. Don’t do this.
You want her back, don’t you?
She’s going to hate you.
Or love you.
Fuck it!
Shifting in my seat, I fill him in. “Hannah came down onto the ice a couple of weeks ago, spewing some bullshit that got in my head. I only think it’s fair since she’s the one who fucked me up, she should be the one to fix me.”
Coach’s eyes flick from mine to Carter’s. “Is this true?”
I silently beg Carter with pleading eyes to go along with it.
“It’s true,” he finally says and I release a breath. “She really got in his head, and I can’t help him now for obvious reasons.”
“We have other coaches for that, Mackenzie. Use one of them,” Coach says, pinning me with a skeptical glare.
“It’s about accountability,” Carter surprises me by saying. “I agree with Mac. Maybe if she has to fix her mess, she’ll think twice about doing it again.”
Coach plops down on the sofa sitting adjacent to Carter’s desk and rubs the back of his neck.
His eyes volley between the both of us, then he releases an exasperated sigh, “I don’t know what’s been going on with that girl.
She hasn’t been herself in months. I’ll go talk to her after I’m done talking with Carter. ”
Guilt gnaws at me for knowing what he doesn’t but it’s not my place to tell him, so I settle with a simple, “Thanks, Coach.”
“No problem. Now, mind giving us the room?”
With that, I clear out of Carter’s office, nearly pumping my fist in the air after closing the door behind me.
Take that Hannah Fucking Houdini!
My phone vibrates in my back pocket, and I pull it out to find a text from Carter.
Doc
You fucking owe me!
With a smile on my face, I head home knowing that the days ahead are going to be much better.
* * *
“This is bullshit and you know it!” Hannah yells across the ice as she shoots another puck my way. “There’s not a damn thing wrong with you!”
Dropping lower, I reach to the right and let the puck fly past me on the opposite side, hitting the top left corner of the net.