You Had Me at Hockey (Bears Hockey #2) - Kelly Jamieson Page 0,78
and tug him toward the bar.
He comes willingly and when I stop next to Easton and Lilly, he’s still smiling. We’re all at the far end of the bar, away from the rest of the gang.
“Okay,” I say. I pause and take a deep breath. “Josh and Easton…you two need to talk.”
Josh frowns. “What?”
“You never told me that Easton was a Warrior,” I say quietly. Well, as quietly as you can in a noisy bar. “Why not?”
He stares at me.
“What the fuck?” Easton mutters.
Lilly takes his arm. “Just talk to him, Easton.”
Easton straightens. “Okay. I’ll talk to him. What the fuck is your problem?” He glares at Josh. “You’ve acted like we don’t know each other and you hate my guts ever since you got here. What the hell did I ever do to you? We used to be friends.”
Josh’s face tightens and his eyes flicker. “What the hell did you ever do to me? You have to ask that question?”
“Fuck yeah!”
“Okay, here’s what you did to me. You deserted me. You never came to see me in the hospital. Never bothered to find out if I was okay. Never bothered to find out if I’d ever be able to play hockey again. I thought we were friends too, but apparently I was wrong.” He pauses. “You just went on about your life, getting drafted, playing in the NHL, and never looking back. Did you ever talk to Hunter? What about him?”
Hunter? I don’t even know about Hunter. I meet Lilly’s eyes.
“Did you ever talk to Hunter?” Easton challenges him.
“I was kind of laid up,” Josh says bitterly. “But he disappeared off the face of the earth anyway.”
“Until a few years ago,” Easton says.
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t fucking desert you,” Easton says. “I tried to text you and call you.”
“When?”
Easton closes his eyes. “I don’t remember.” Then he opens his eyes and they flare with anger. “I was going through my own shit, you know.”
“You were fine! You walked away without a scratch, I heard. So did Hunter. Meanwhile, I was in the hospital for months.”
Easton narrows his eyes and slowly moves his head from side to side. “You think that’s what happened?”
“That’s what the news stories all said.”
I bite my lip and meet Lilly’s eyes. They’re talking, yeah, but they’re both pissed. I suck in a breath and let it out slowly.
“Okay, yeah, physically I was fine. But Bryce died in that crash too. I held him in my arms, trying to tell him he was going to be okay.”
Josh’s face shifts, his mouth slackening, his eyes shadowing.
“I kept telling him Dad would find us. I didn’t know my dad was lying twenty feet away in the ditch…dead.” Easton swallows. “And Bryce died on the way to the hospital. I found out when I got there. I found out about Dad”—his voice cracks and he shakes his head—“and everyone else who died. I saw you there. In the hospital. I talked to you.”
Josh blinks slowly. “I don’t remember.”
I slide my hand into his because he keeps clenching it into a fist. I squeeze gently.
“I don’t remember much of that,” he admits. “I had a concussion.”
“I wasn’t in great shape myself,” Easton says. “A lot of it is a blur. Then my mom came…and she totally fell apart. She ended up in the hospital herself.”
Josh focuses on Easton, his mouth pulled down at the corners. “I didn’t know that.”
“She’s never really gotten better. I mean, she’s a bit better, but she still lives in a home. She needs help. I lost my whole fucking family that day, man.” The anguish in his voice spears into my heart. “I had to plan their funerals. I didn’t know what I was doing. There was so much shit to take care of and my mom couldn’t do it. So I’m sorry if I was kind of busy.”
Josh stares.
Lilly makes a small sound in her throat. She glances at me and her eyes are wet.
Easton swallows and looks away. “Yeah, I got drafted in June. And then I had to go to Vancouver for their prospect camp. Then training camp in the fall. I was focusing on hockey because that…was all I had left.” He returns his gaze to Josh. “You didn’t even know what I was going through, asshole.”
Josh makes a noise. His jaw clenches. I squeeze his hand again, but he shakes it free. He turns to me and his lip curls.