Sully
Igave up on sleep around dawn and went for a run instead, out along the harbor road and back, which fixed exactly nothing but at least gave the ceiling a break from being stared at.
The hotel is just waking up when I get back, and I shower, change, and head down to the lobby, where the rest of my crew is assembling in pieces.
Bouch is slumped in an armchair wearing sunglasses indoors with a coffee in each hand, both for him.
Nelly is at the window looking rested and cheerful, which Bouch is taking personally.
And then the elevator opens, and the girls come out, Cassidy mid-story about something, and Ember behind her in a sundress with her hair up.
She says good morning to the lobby in general, to Bouch, to Nelly, to the woman at the front desk, but not to me.
"Shuttle's here," Nelly reports, and we pile in for the ride out to the house. Everyone is chatting away about last night, but I watch Ember, who seems quiet this morning, stare out the shuttle’s window, looking out over the Atlantic as we drive along the coast. The boys think I’m hungover, so they don’t pull me into any conversations, thankfully, and I can pretend I’m looking out the window while watching Ember.
Look, I get what happened last night was … unexpected, and she might be embarrassed, but shutting me out like she is stings, but also, I thought we were better friends than that. Guess not.
Man, give her a break. She’s only just separated from Kevin after a lifetime, she can be freaked out.
Shit. I’m being a dick. It probably wasn’t just a kiss, a moment in time between us on the beach, it probably felt like so much more and not in the romantic sense. It probably solidified the end of her old life, and I don’t blame her for freaking out.
She’s one of your oldest friends. You did tell her you would always be there for her, but now you’re butt-hurt because she freaked out.
Okay. Okay. I get it. I’m being a dick.
Give her time. Her life has done a complete one eighty.
By the time the shuttle drops the five of us at the house for brunch, I've decided I'm going to be completely normal today. I don’t want to make her time any more difficult than it already is.
The back lawn has been reset from wedding to brunch, with one long table under the trees loaded with enough food for a training camp, and the whole family is already scattered around it in various states of survival.
Lorraine and Claire are holding court over the coffee.
Brady is running laps of the lawn with Puck.
Harper is installed in a padded chair with her feet up and a plate balanced on her bump, and Bouch drops into the seat next to me looking rough.
"Never again," he announces.
"You said that at Pierre's wedding," I tease him.
"Yeah, I did, and I asked you assholes to make sure it never happened again.”
True.
The newlyweds come out to a round of applause, Fish with his arm around Collette and a grin you could see from the water, and brunch turns loud in the best way.
Ember settles down the far end of the table beside Jo, laughing at the right moments, and I let her have the distance and load my plate and talk bullshit with Bouch.
I'm reaching for the bacon when I hear it, Cassidy's laugh, the real one, the cackle. She's a few seats down, shoulder to shoulder with Nelly, hunched over his phone, giggling like teenagers.
Giggling.
I put down the tongs. "Nelly." Both their heads come up. "You’d better not be flirting with my sister."
Our end of the table goes quiet. Nelly freezes and his ears go instantly, catastrophically red, and my eyes narrow, and then Cassidy rolls hers so hard I can practically hear it.
"Relax, warden." She plucks the phone out of Nelly's hand and turns it around, showing me a close-up of the cheese table from last night. "He's showing me his wedding photos. He took forty photos of the cheese."
Cheese?
"It was a good table. I wanted to show my mom," Nelly says.
The boys start giving Nelly shit about his photos.
See, purely innocent. Just because you’re the one who did something forbidden with your best friend’s sister doesn’t mean anything is happening between Cassidy and Nelly. Your sister is laughing and having fun with your friends, she deserves that. I shake my head and pull myself together.
Emmett takes the empty seat next to me with a loaded plate. "You're quiet this morning."
"Hotel pillows, slept like garbage," I lie.
“Jo was a blanket hog last night as well as too many beers." He smirks, digging into his pancakes. "Good wedding though."
"Great wedding."
“But that means summer is coming to an end and we’re back at work.” He groans.
“Are you saying we’re going to need to up the workouts, old man?” I tease.
“Fuck you, we’re the same age, asshole.” He glares at me while shoveling pancakes into his mouth. “But yeah, I think we need to up the workouts. Too many young fucks on the team gunning for us.”
“So true.”
“And with this fucking shoulder giving me grief, I’m not sure how many more seasons I’ve got,” he says quietly.
“You’re still good,” I reassure him.
“Yeah, just, you know …”
I nod, because I know. “We’ve got to win the cup before we retire.”
“Hell yeah,” he agrees.
Just then, Fish stands up and taps his fork against his glass. The table quiets, chairs scraping as everyone turns toward him. Collette is tucked against his side, glowing in a simple white sundress, looking like she still can’t quite believe yesterday was real.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” Fish starts, voice thick.
“To every single one of you for being here. For making yesterday the best day of my life. I still can’t believe she said yes …
again.” He looks down at Collette with this stupid, lovesick grin that makes half the table groan and the other half aww.
“And to my boys, thanks for not letting me get too drunk last night. Barely.”
Laughter ripples down the table. I force a smile and raise my champagne in his direction, but my eyes keep drifting to the far end where Ember sits.
She’s smiling, too, small and genuine, clapping along with everyone else.
I wish she would smile at me like that, just for one moment.
And as if she can read my mind, she turns, our eyes meet, and for half a second the whole brunch disappears, the clinking glasses, the laughter, the ocean in the distance.
It’s just her. Then she quickly turns away again, but I notice the tips of her ears have gone pink.
Good, she’s not as unaffected by last night as she’s pretending to be.
Fish keeps talking, but I only catch pieces of it.
My attention stays on her. Every time she laughs at something Jo says, something tightens in my chest. I don’t have time to have a crush on my best friend’s sister.
Fish eventually finishes his toast and sits down to more applause.
Collette leans into him, glowing, and for a second, I let myself imagine what that would feel like, having the woman you love look at you like that in front of everyone.
Like you’re her whole world. I want that.
And yet you keep looking for it in all the wrong places.
My gaze drifts back to Ember. True.
I laugh when Emmett makes a joke. Pierre comes over to talk about next season, and before I know it, the rest of the guys are joining the chat, and we are getting pumped, it might be our year.
It feels good to talk hockey, it’s what I need to get out of my head.
I lean into it, throwing in my two cents about line changes and how the young guys are going to push us all year.
Bouch is already hyped, Nelly’s nodding along, and even Evan cracks a rare smile.
For a few minutes, it’s easy to forget everything else.
When the conversation finally slows, I lean back in my chair and take a sip of my champagne as my eyes drift down the table without thinking.
And there she is.
Ember and Ledger are talking again. They’re close, he says something that makes her smile, that real, bright smile I haven’t seen much of lately and she leans in a little, touching his arm for half a second as she replies.
He’s looking at her like she’s the most interesting person at the table while openly flirting with her.
Something tight and unpleasant twists in my stomach.
“Um, what the fuck?” Bouch says. “Is the hot footballer chatting your sister up, Cap?” he asks.
Emmett sits up and pays attention to the giggling going on further down the table. His eyes narrow and his brows pull together, and I can see he is holding himself back from saying something, which is pretty hard for him.
“Good for her.” The guys freeze. Then he looks at them. “Don’t get any ideas, he isn’t a teammate,” he warns.
“I mean, you could do worse for a brother-in-law. Ledger Crawford is going to be a Hall of Famer one day.”
“What the fuck, Bouch?” Pierre punches him.
“What?”
“She’s literally just separated from her husband,” Evan adds.
“I was just saying …” He moans, rubbing his arm.
“That’s Cap’s sister …” Pierre tells him.
“I know, I was just saying because you guys are all protective over your sisters, that Ledger’s a good guy. And I didn’t want Cap to worry,” Bouch explains.
“Ledger is a great guy. He’s my cousin,” Fish says, joining the conversation.
“And he’s flirting with Cap’s sister,” Bouch adds.
Fish’s eyes widen. “Oh shit. Sorry, Cap, he didn’t know.”
Emmett shakes his head. “It’s all good. I haven’t seen her smile in such a long time.”
She is smiling a real one that lights up her whole face and makes the corners of her eyes crinkle. Ledger says something else, and she laughs again, soft and genuine, leaning in just a fraction as she replies.
It shouldn’t bother me, and it’s none of my business.
She’s allowed to talk to whoever she wants.
She’s allowed to flirt, she’s single, and I know she’s trying to move on.
And Ledger’s a good guy, like Bouch said.
He’s young and successful with no baggage.
He’s exactly the kind of distraction she probably needs right now.
So why does it feel like someone just kicked me in the ribs?
I take another sip of champagne and force my eyes back to the guys.
Bouch is still muttering something about Hall of Famers, Pierre’s giving him shit, and Evan’s just watching the whole thing with that unreadable expression of his.
I laugh at the right moment, add a comment about next season and keep the conversation going.
But my attention keeps slipping, and every time I glance down the table, they’re still talking, still close, still smiling.
It’s just a crush, nothing more, you’ll get over it. You’ve done it once, you can do it again.