am I supposed to help you if I don’t know what’s wrong?”
And I was tired of being a stronghold against the world. The walls cracked, the tough-girl façade came tumbling down and I didn’t even try to stop it. “Everything is wrong. Somehow I managed to fuck up everything in my life all at one time.”
Rather than a trickle of tears, she got a flood of them.
But my little sister took it all in stride. She didn’t let go when I clung to her. She didn’t ask questions, she just let me babble.
And cry.
When the biggest sobs started to subside, she parked me on my couch with a box of tissues and an admonishment not to move.
Dani returned with a tray with two steaming cups of tea. She wrapped my hand around one mug and took the second one for herself. “Now. Start from the beginning.”
I started from the night Tyson dumped me—maybe as a test to see if she’d protest. But she didn’t. How Nolan had hurt my feelings. I’d confronted him, we’d talked and realized that without our mutual preconceived ideas, we liked each other. I broke down again when I talked about Nolan helping me prep for the interview even knowing if I got hired, it’d put his brother in a bind. How much fun we had together. How hot the sex was. How with the perceived nepotism of an LI subsidiary buying Wolf Sports North, I might lose the job I’d fought so hard for. A job that I’d neglected to mention to Nolan would entail me moving. Plus, Jax being pissed at both Nolan and me for keeping him in the dark and messing up his staffing for Lakeside.
Following the spewing of that word vomit, I literally felt stick to my stomach and ran to the bathroom to vomit for real.
Afterward, Dani tucked me in bed and then she lay down next to me, her body curled around mine like I used to do for her when she was upset.
That made me cry harder.
She didn’t go Pollyanna on me and offer chipper advice that it’d all work out—just another sign that Dani had grown up.
“Thank you,” I managed without crying.
“Anytime.”
“You don’t have to stay.”
“Sucks for you then, because I am staying.”
I didn’t want to sleep, since it was still . . . oh, morning . . . but I dozed off anyway.
When I awoke, Dani remained right beside me.
I struggled to get up, crafting some crack about being a lazy crybaby, but she kept me in place with a simple, “Don’t.”
Okay.
“Now I have a few things to say.”
That rarely boded well.
“You’ve been my role model my entire life. I could’ve gotten annoyed hearing, ‘Wow. You’re Gabi Welk’s sister?’ from every coach and every female hockey player I ever met. But not me. It’s been the greatest thing being your sister and your protégée. I know you could’ve made big money privately coaching another player and she’d be the one with the Olympic gold medal instead of me. Or you could’ve tried out for the national team and you’d have that medal for yourself.” She paused. “I know you sacrificed your dream of gold for me, no matter how you deny it by claiming you were ‘too old’ to train that hard.”
Busted.
“I’ve never taken you for granted. Never expected you to do half the things you’ve done for me, yet you do them. You are this bright shining beacon, sis, and I’m humbled that I’ve gotten to stand in your light. Because you always made sure that’s what it was for me—your light, not your shadow.”
I was too stunned to speak.
“I also know that the past year and a half has been difficult for you. I—we—didn’t want to add to that by falling in love. I’m not saying this to justify anything, but the reason you and Tyson didn’t work isn’t because he was supposed to be with me; it’s because you were destined for someone else.”
Destined. Now she sounded like Dallas.
“When you were on the ice for the NHL game and got hurt? Nolan lost his shit, Gabi. He bailed out of the VIP box and I knew where he was going: straight to you. I don’t know where you were in your relationship with him at that point, but he sees everything in you that a man who adores you is supposed to see. That’s what I saw in him. He loves you, Gabs. And let me tell you . . . you are