Page 75 of The Break Out

We start on drills and I’m standing behind Dumont as we wait to run the drill when he turns toward me, “You good?”

I raise an eyebrow at him. “You care?”

“No, just thought it’s weird you haven’t tried to piss anyone off today, thought maybe you’re sick or something.”

I scoff, “Not sick.”

He looks at me for a second longer like he can see what I’m hiding and who I’m hiding but then it’s his turn to run the drill. That breaks the weird little stare off we had going on for a second. I skate forward when it’s my turn and race through the drill.

Afterwards, I skate to the bench to grab some water and Collee skates up next to me. “Wheeler,” he says, curtly.

“Collee,” I do the same.

“You talked to my sister lately?” he asks.

It takes effort to suppress my smirk, the fact that he’s actually asking me this. Especially here, it seems so out of character for him, and I can’t help that the little part of me that still enjoys pissing him off is happy about that.

Yeah, Cap, she was just screaming my name last night and I left her in my bed this morning. Hoping for round two after I’m done here.

Instead of saying that I just shrug. “I don’t really share my personal business with people.”

I know my response pisses him off even more, but I skate back out onto the ice to continue with practice. I do my best to keep my focus on hockey for the remainder of practice, but it’s impossible to forget what’s waiting for me when it’s all over.

34

Iwake up alone in Colton’s bed. It’s so unbelievably comfortable I don’t want to leave the softness of the mattress, the pillows, the blankets. Add in the fact that I can still smell him, and it makes my insides feel warm.

Throwing an arm over my eyes, I groan not liking my body's reaction. Forcing myself to leave the comfy cloud, I decide to take advantage of being alone here to do something extremely important. Snoop through his stuff.

Since I’m not sure how much time I have until he gets back, I start in the bedroom, quickly glancing in the nightstand and dresser drawers. The nightstand has a box of condoms which is to be expected. Though, despite what I said last night, I can’t help the jealous thoughts of who else has been in here. In his bed. Maybe he’s left them like this to snoop too.

I shake the weirdly jealous thoughts away and continue my searching. I make a pit stop in the kitchen to get a drink of water, which is when I see the note he left me.

Baby Collee, I had to go to practice. I’ll be back soon with coffee.

No need to run away, I’ll take you home.

XX

Colton

Glancing at the clock, I’m not sure exactly what time his practice is or for how long, but I assume I don’t have a ton more time before he comes back. I find myself peeking into rooms to see if any of them may have something interesting. Which is how I ended up finding an extra bedroom that had a pile of boxes in it.

When I open the first one, I see a variety of sports memorabilia. Mostly hockey, but there’s a stack of baseball cards and a deflated basketball. The next box has pictures. I instantly recognize Colton, he’s younger and he’s with the boy from the obituary I found. Josh.

They’re both smiling in every single photo I find. Josh is on Colton’s back; another one he’s pretending to choke him and Colton is making a dramatic face. Another is them both asleep on a couch with the tops of their heads touching. Another is both of them in hockey gear. Josh is several inches shorter than Colton, but they have matching eyes and beaming smiles as they lean on their respective sticks.

I go to pick up another stack when a deep voice behind me makes me jump, dropping the pictures instantly.

“What are you doing?” Colton questions.

I stand up instantly, even though he already caught me. “I was just looking.”

His eyes move from me to the box. “Find what you were looking for?” His voice is sharp.

“I don’t know what I was looking for,” I answer honestly, looking down at my feet. “What happened to him?” I dare to ask.

He doesn’t say anything right away and I finally lift my gaze up to his. I expect to see him angry, but I don’t. He looks…hurt. I open my mouth to tell him I lost my brother too, but can’t make the words come out, so my mouth closes again.

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