Page 75 of Power Play

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Dillon admonished. The girl chewed and swallowed.

“Your brother is my favorite player.”

Of course he is.

“How about you?” I turned and asked Matt, who had a sketch book on the table in front of him and was ignoring his eggs. “Is my brother your favorite player or are you the twin with some sense?”

“I hate hockey,” he said.

Blinking, I looked over at Dillon. “It’s true,” he said. “Coffee?”

“Sure,” I said and Dillon poured me a cup and set it down on the bar. He sat down next to me and we both sipped coffee.

“How’s the house?” he asked.

“Fantastic,” I said. “Thank you again.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said. “My grandmother, rest her soul, would have liked that it was filled with families. Even if one of those families was the daughter of the man who robbed me blind.”

There was a long, shocked silence and I didn’t know what to say. Dillon laughed.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. If her being here is a problem…”

“I’m fucking with you, man.” Dillon shook his head. “Kit’s not the problem. You are,” he said, and clapped a giant hand on my shoulder. I remembered when I’d met him and he did the same thing. Dishing out wisdom to anyone who would listen.

“You got a choice to make, kid. All that talent of yours and you can be an asshole or you can lead a team all the way to the top. But it’s your choice.”

Ever since, I have worked hard to be the kind of player Dillon could respect.

“Me?”

“What the hell did she mean that sheowesyou?”

“What do you think she meant?” I said. “She and her dad took me for six figures.”

Dillon turned his head to check on his kids. The scar, where a blade had nearly cut into his forehead, catching the light from the kitchen. He’d been terrifying on the ice. I imagined Kit being so young and having to come here and apologize to this man who hated her.

Then I thought about how I treated her every Sunday.

I wanted to punch myself in the face.

“Didn’t she pay you back?” I asked him.

“She tried,” he said. “But I wasn’t interested in punishing her any more than she’d already been punished.”

“Well, to be fair. Her dad went to jail,” I reminded him. “Not her.”

He nodded and took a sip of coffee like he was the most relaxed man in the world. Meanwhile, I felt like the puck was about to drop on a game I didn’t know I was playing.

“You didn’t go to the trial?”

“I didn’t get called as a witness. So I figured there was no point.” I didn’t tell him how I wanted to turn my back to that night. Pretend I’d never been such an idiot.

“You didn’t follow it?” He asked. “I mean, it was in the papers. Guys were talking to me about it all the time.”

“I didn’t follow it,” I admitted. “She hadn’t gotten to anyone else on the Bruisers, so no one talked about it with me.”

“So…you don’t know?”

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