Page 66 of Spite Crush

“That…is an excellent idea,” Ford said. He pushed away from the wall and walked out, slamming the door shut behind him.

“Kellen,” Tim said softly, finally looking up at me. “That was a mistake.”

“Look, Tim, I’m sorry. I know you probably think this isn’t fair.” I was so relieved that when he finally spoke he wasn’t screaming. I wasn’t sure I could take a round two of that.

“It’s not that,” Tim insisted, getting to his feet and walking closer to me. “I totally understand why you want to finish this. I’m not even mad about it. I feel bad that you didn’t think you could come to me, but that’s my fault. I let Ford drag me into his bullshit and we weren’t supportive of you. But he’s…I’m worried about what he’s going to do.”

“What can he do to me now?” I asked. “We’re done.”

“Maybe you are a little stupid,” Tim said, but there was no bite in his tone. “It’s not about what he can do to you.”

Oh God.

Iwasstupid.

“Well, do I run after him?” I asked, just as all of our phones started chirping with notifications. “What did he do…call a reporter from my fucking driveway?”

Craig went for his phone first, swiping it open and scrolling for a minute before looking up at me with the most apologetic look I’d ever seen on his face.

“I’m so sorry,” Tim said softly as he scrolled a finger over his screen. “Kellen, I should have—"

“No, this is on me.” I opened my own phone and read Ford’s social media post. “Well…fuck.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

~Zak~

“No, I’m not mad at you,” I insisted, blowing an irritated sigh into the receiver as I answered Kellen’s question for the fifth time since he’d called. “We were going to go public soon anyway. Yeah, I wish it could have been on our terms, but I don’t blame you for this.”

“You should,” Kellen said. “I misread everything. I just never thought Ford would do this to me.” He sighed. “How pissed is your coach?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “He told me to stay home and not talk to anyone.”

“Do you still want me to come out there?” Kellen asked. “I understand if you don’t.”

“Fuck that,” I snapped. “Yes, I want you here. I’ll have to send someone to the airport to pick you up though. I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to go out right now. I don’t want Sutherland more pissed at me than he already is.”

“That’s fine,” he said. “I can get an Uber.”

“No, I’ll send someone,” I insisted. “Just…get the next flight out, okay?”

“I have an appointment I can’t miss in an hour,” he said. “But I’ve got a charter scheduled for this afternoon,” he said.

“How rich are you?” I asked him. I mean, I’d seen his net worth when I’d Googled him to find out if he really did have more money than I did, but I’d kind of assumed the number on the screen was a gross over-estimation. But this was the secondtime in a month he’d chartered a private jet like it was no big deal.

“I do okay,” he said, and for the first time since he’d called, I could hear a smile in his voice.

When we disconnected I opened the app to read Ford Jones’ post again.

Kellen Fox disbands HSF to devote more time to fucking Zak Dempsey.

The bitterness in the post was almost enough to discredit the whole thing. And for a minute, when Naomi had sent it to me, I’d considereddoing so. She’d offered to publish a rebuttal statement for me on Hockey Tonight’s site, but I’d wanted to talk to Kellen first.

As soon as I heard his voice, I knew that I didn’t want to deny it. If we did, how would we ever have the courage to backtrack the lie?

So, it was time to face the music.

“Naomi, we don’t want to make a statement at this time,” I told her when she answered her phone. “But, I do need a favor.”

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