Hooking - Kristine Allen Page 0,82

you do it soon?”

“Sure,” he replied cautiously.

“You never answered me. Why are you here?”

“Do I need a reason to stop by to see my little brother?” He took a pull on the beer as he sat at the breakfast bar. Then he set the bottle on the granite and spun it in his fingers as he appeared to think.

“No, you don’t, but it’s not like you to stop by on a random Monday afternoon,” I said as I grabbed a bottle of water.

His blue eyes met mine. “I wanted to see how you were holding up. Avery said they came and got the little guy this morning.”

“Avery talks too much,” I muttered as I swallowed half the contents of the bottle.

“Don’t let Gunny hear you talk shit about his ol’ lady,” he said with a snort of laughter. I rolled my eyes. “There’s no shame in admitting you’re hurting.” My brother seemed to be full of philosophical bullshit again.

“Whatever,” I said in tired tone.

“Why don’t you have Sydney come over? I think you need something to get your mind off this shit. Quit being so damn melancholy, busting up your hands and shit.” He raised his beer in salute, but I shook my head.

“I don’t think she’ll be coming over anymore.” At least not if I couldn’t find a way to have her without fucking shit up for her. The last thing I wanted to do was be the reason she lost her job or got her ass in a sling.

“What? Why? You were crazy about her,” he said, incredulous. I shrugged.

“Shit changes,” I said as if it was no big deal. Except it was. A really big deal.

My phone pinged with a message. It was Sydney asking about what she should wear for dinner. First, I placed it facedown and ignored it. Then I replied to bail on her.

It was impulsive, and after I hit Send I regretted it, but for once I was thinking about what was best for her. I was used to getting what I wanted, and I’d wanted her. Bad. Looking back, I’d essentially bulldozed my way into her life again and used her attraction to me to get her to overlook the precarious situation I’d placed her in with her job.

Instead of giving me relief from responsibilities and the ties of a relationship, it sucked. It left me feeling like someone had hit me in the chest with a slapshot.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” he muttered. I glanced in his direction as I ran a hand over my mouth in frustration.

“I think I was beginning to love that little kid, and then I found out he wasn’t mine and they just—took him. To top it all off, her uncle is the team attorney. He threatened to get me kicked off the team if I didn’t stay away from her,” I finally admitted. He was the first person I’d mentioned any of this to and it felt good to get it off my chest.

“He can’t do that,” he said with a disgusted scrunch of his face. “You have a contract, and you’re one of the best players on the team. What’s he going to do, have some shit made up to get you terminated? Please. I’d like to see him fucking try, because I promise you, I have connections that would fuck up his life if he tried.”

“You think I should test him?” I sighed.

“Maybe some things are more important than fucking hockey. Did you ever think of that?” He set the bottle down and spun his chair to face me.

“Of course I have. But I’ve also thought about the other side of things. Like what if things go to shit and I don’t have Sydney or hockey?” I rested my elbows on the bar and held my head that was pounding. Because regardless of the words I spewed at my brother, trying to be a tough guy, I had a feeling losing Sydney would be worse than never playing another day of hockey.

“Maybe you won’t know if you don’t try. Just remember… you won’t have hockey forever. Then what?” He stood and tossed the empty bottle in the trash. “Let me see what I can do. I’ll do some digging.”

I shook my head. “Whatever,” I muttered, knowing in my heart he was spot-on about hockey.

At the game the next night, I was still angry. It resulted in a handful of penalties.

Truthfully, the last couple of games, I’d played like absolute shit. The beginning of this