Chapter 16 #2
The table quieted. My fork stilled. Catherine’s face changed fast, but I saw it.
The small flinch. The quick tightening around her mouth.
She recovered almost immediately, but not before anger moved through me.
A deep, steady dislike for a man I had never met.
Julian had made her question things she never should have had to question.
“I have a life,” Catherine said.
“You have school, the hospital, and hockey,” Holland said gently. “That’s not the same thing.”
“I’m busy,” Catherine countered.
“You’re twenty-four,” Cole said. “Busy is allowed. Hiding isn’t.”
Catherine looked at him. He held her gaze, and his voice softened. “You don’t have to prove you’re fine by never wanting anything.”
Well. That one hit close. For both of us, apparently. Catherine looked down at her plate. I wanted to take her hand under the table. I didn’t, though, because I liked breathing.
Jaden groaned. “Are you guys talking about feelings?”
Cole pulled his wallet out and handed him a few bills. “Go play the game near the front. Stay where we can see you.”
Jaden slid out of the booth so fast he nearly took Holland’s purse with him. “Don’t talk about kissing while I’m gone,” he called over his shoulder.
Catherine covered her face. I was going to pass out.
Jaden disappeared toward the small arcade machine near the entrance, and the energy at the table shifted.
Holland took a sip of water and looked at Catherine. “For the record, I don’t think you need a relationship. But I do think you need to remember Julian doesn’t get to be the last man who made you feel anything.”
Catherine’s throat moved. I felt that sentence in my chest.
Cole leaned back. “Your mother’s right.”
“Mark the calendar,” Holland said.
Cole gave her a look. “I say you’re right all the time.”
“No, you say, ‘I hear you,’ which is husband for I disagree but value my life.”
“Amen,” I muttered.
“You use that term too?” Holland asked me.
“I have a mother and a woman I was married to for one night. I’ve used every survival phrase.”
The second I said the words woman and married, I regretted it. Not because it hurt the way it used to. Because Catherine went quiet beside me.
Holland’s expression softened. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to dig around in old bruises.”
“It’s okay,” I assured her.
Cole looked at me. “You handled that whole thing with more class than I would’ve.”
I shrugged, even though there had been nothing classy about how it felt at the time. “Didn’t feel like it.”
“Betrayal never does,” Holland said.
Catherine’s knee brushed mine under the table. This time, I knew it was intentional. A touch that said she was there for me. My chest tightened hard enough to hurt. Cole looked between us, and I shifted my leg away.
“So,” Holland said, either not noticing or choosing mercy, “what would you tell Catherine? Since you’ve been through it.”
Catherine’s head snapped up. “Mom.”
“What? Hunter understands. Better than most.”
That was the problem. I did understand. I understood too much. I set my fork down and tried to answer like a man giving advice to a friend’s daughter. Not like a man who had tasted the inside of her thigh less than two hours ago.
“I’d tell her not to rush,” I said.
Catherine looked at me. I kept my gaze on Holland because looking at Catherine would give me away.
“And not to let one person’s betrayal become the voice she hears every time someone new tries to get close.”
Holland’s expression softened. Cole nodded once. Catherine was very still beside me.
I swallowed. “The hard part isn’t dating again. It’s trusting yourself to know the difference between someone who wants access and someone who wants to earn a place.”
The table fell quiet. I felt Catherine’s gaze on the side of my face. If I was smart, I would’ve stopped there. I didn’t.
“Whoever she dates next should understand what a privilege that is.”
Holland’s eyes got suspiciously shiny. Cole looked at me like I had just said something he wanted to approve of and investigate at the same time. Catherine looked down at her lap.
Fuck. Too much. Way too much.
I reached for my water and then remembered what had happened last time I tried drinking sparkling water during a crisis. I put it back down.
“That was a good answer,” Holland said.
“Yeah,” Cole said slowly. “It was.”
I nodded once and picked up my fork again. Catherine was silent, and I hated that I couldn’t check on her. I hated that I was sitting with her family, giving advice about a future boyfriend, while every possessive part of me was thinking, me.
Lunch wound down after that. I managed to eat most of my chicken. Catherine managed to avoid looking at me for more than three seconds at a time. When the bill came, Cole snatched it before I could reach for it.
“You were invited,” he said.
“I’m also a grown man.”
“And I’m older, richer, and currently holding the bill.”
Holland rolled her eyes. “He loves doing this.”
“I do,” Cole said.
Catherine stood from the booth, grabbing her purse like it contained state secrets, which it did because of a pair of very incriminating underwear.
I looked away before my brain could betray me again.
Outside the restaurant, the late afternoon heat hit hard.
I kept a careful distance. Catherine glanced at me once. And that was exactly the problem.
Holland hugged Catherine. “Come home soon. Don’t hide at Taylor’s all day.”
Catherine stiffened for half a second. “I’m not hiding.”
Holland smiled. “I didn’t say you were hiding from us.”
Catherine blinked. I almost swallowed my tongue again. Cole was watching me.
Jaden ran ahead toward the car. Holland followed, calling after him to stop running.
Catherine looked at me, just for a millisecond.
A small, private look. The kind of look that made me forget where we were.
Then she turned and walked toward her car.
I should have left. I should have gotten in my SUV, driven home, taken a cold shower, and started mentally preparing for the disaster that was clearly my life now. Instead, Cole said my name.
“Hunter.”
I turned. He stood by the curb, keys in one hand, sunglasses pushed up on his head. My stomach dropped.
“Yeah?”
He nodded toward the side of the restaurant, away from Holland and the kids.
“Hang back a second. I want to talk to you.”
Every muscle in my body locked. Catherine heard him. I could tell because she stopped beside her car. She didn’t turn around. I looked at Cole. My coach. My friend. Catherine’s father. And for the first time in years, I had no idea how to read him.
“Sure,” I said. My voice sounded steady. Nothing else about me was.
Cole waited until Holland, Jaden, and Catherine were near the car before he turned back to me. For one awful second, I was sure he knew. I could feel Catherine watching us from across the lot, but I kept my eyes on Cole because looking at her felt like a confession.
Then Cole clapped a hand on my shoulder and said, “I’m glad you came today. Catherine seemed lighter lately. I know she’d never admit it, but she’s had a rough few months. Keep an eye on her at prospects camp this week, okay? The place gets chaotic, and I trust you.”
I trust you.
The words landed harder than any hit I’d taken on the ice. I nodded because I didn’t have a single safe thing to say. Cole headed for the car, and Catherine looked back at me once before slipping inside. My phone buzzed a minute later.
Catherine: Are you alive?
I stared at the message, then at the car pulling out of the lot.
Me: Barely.
Then I added the truth before I could talk myself out of it.
Me: He doesn’t know, so don’t worry. But that might be worse.