it did.”
“You and Cal?” Her brother looked furious, but then immediately switched to amusement. “You could do worse.”
Vadim was okay with this? “I thought you hated the idea. You warned me off him.”
“Which did not work.” Her brother smiled, a little bit of Machiavelli in there.
The sneaky little … “You planned this all along?”
“You are not the only one in this family who likes to plan things.” He held her gaze. “But it seems he does not have the courage to claim you despite my approval.”
“It’s not that. He sees me as a friend, that’s all. He’s been giving me advice on how to attract a guy I liked. Someone else.”
“Tommy.”
She stood so quickly that Gordie Howe barked in surprise. “How do you know that?”
“Cal told me that you are in love with Tommy. Which will not be happening, by the way.”
Setting aside the arrogance of Vadim’s tone, she tried to wrap her head around Cal sharing the Tommy factor with her brother.
“When did this happen?”
“This morning after practice. Oh, and after he got into a fight with Reid Durand.”
“No!”
Vadim had the nerve to look amused. “For someone who likes to avoid conflict, he is certainly making up for it now.”
Cal was fighting teammates and spilling his guts to Vadim? Who was this person? She hadn’t spoken to him after her conversation with Selena. As Vadim cornered her to demand an explanation, even though Isobel had already filled him in, Cal had slipped away from the Rebels’ front office. He was ready to apologize to Selena and make up for his error, but once that was no longer needed, he didn’t wait around to celebrate her victory.
Cal cared, but not enough to be what she needed. Compromise was no longer an option for Mia, not after two years spent letting others drive the narrative.
“So, are you in love with Tommy as Cal has claimed?”
She sank back to the sofa, feeling more miserable than ever. Her heart was bursting with love for a certain rough-and-ready mouthy Southie and it hurt not to be able to deliver it.
“No, not Tommy.”
“Good. I will be firing him anyway but it would have been awkward to have to see him over holiday dinners.”
“What? Why are you firing him?”
“Because he had an affair with Bethany.”
“Cal’s Bethany?” Her mind reeled. Surely, she had heard that wrong. “That’s not—are you certain?”
Vadim looked annoyed to have his word questioned. “Yes, I am certain. Of course Cal should have told me years ago but he didn’t want to upset me. Me! As if I am prone to get emotional about these things.”
Bethany and Tommy.
This was starting to make more sense. Poor Cal. He had been so angry at the fundraiser, so determined to ensure she knew that Tommy wasn’t worthy of her. Throwing shade but always dancing around the truth. She’d asked him point blank to tell her why she shouldn’t be with Tommy and the man had kept his mouth closed, except for the kiss.
That kiss had definitely involved tongue.
“Did he say any more why he didn’t tell you about Tommy? All those years ago?”
Vadim considered this. “He said it was to benefit me. It was a strange time. I had just found out about you and Mama, I was about to move to Chicago and see my Bella again, my life was topsy-turvy. All good reasons but …” He shrugged, not buying it.
Neither did she. Cal had once talked about how we keep the pain inside so others don’t get hurt. But deep down we know the truth: we do it to protect ourselves.
It seemed so obvious. “He was worried you’d choose Tommy.”
“As if I would have done that. Cal is my friend. There is no contest.”
But Cal had just enough self-doubt to not want to test that. Bethany said he was a percentages guy, a player who calculated the odds before he took his shot. Finding out that Tommy was her target must have been such a shock. His enemy with the woman who he …
Did that same self-doubt extend to her? No, she couldn’t allow herself to hope like that. She put Cal out of her head and tried to focus on reality.
“I’ve been thinking,” she said.
“Oh, no.”
She pinched his arm. “I want to live here for a while, maybe the foreseeable future. Would you be okay with that?”
Vadim looked like he was mulling it over.
“Vad!”
He tweaked her ponytail. “Have I told you how proud I am of you?”
“Yes. It’s getting boring at this point.”
“Then I