Page 86 of Puck Prince

I study Callie’s face as she sits in silence. Until, slowly, a smile tugs at the corner of her mouth.

“What’s that?” I point at her lip, my finger close enough I almost touch her. “Why are you smiling?”

“Why are you so secretive about her? Are they the secret you’ve been trying to keep? Isthis—” She gestures between the two of us. “—because of them?”

“It’s more complicated than that.” I guess if I am already this deep, I might as well keep going. But Nicky has actually stopped crying and the walls are too thin. I lower my voice. “Can we move to the balcony?”

Once we are outside, I sit down. Callie does, too.

“It’s not that it matters if people know I have a sister,” I explain haltingly. “What matters is that Nicky’s dad is a piece of shit.”

“Oh.” Her lips tip down in the corners.

“Yeah. Apparently he was a charmer… until he wasn’t.”

“I get that.” Callie’s sapphire eyes shift to a stormy blue. She’s somewhere far away. “Twice over.”

“He’s been out of the picture since the beginning. Ever since…” I have to pause and collect myself because, no matter how many times I think about it, my stomach always goes sour. “Ever since he attacked Summer.”

Callie isn’t breathing. She doesn’t even move.

I toy with the paper label on my beer. “I, uh, I don’t know the extent of it. But it was bad. Bad enough for us to have to go to the ER. And bad enough for her to hide in my bathroom for what felt like months until we found out she was pregnant.”

“Jesus.” Callie is staring at a spot on the tile. Her eyes are brimming with tears as if that sudden, shifty storm in them is about to break. “That’s so awful.”

I swallow back the hot ball of bile threatening to break my own floodgates. “So, yeah. I am just trying to protect them. I let her stay here when she’s freaked, and I help financially where she’ll let me. She’s very stubborn about it.”

“A family trait.”

“Encoded in the DNA, I guess.” I finish my beer in one long pull. When I turn to throw it away, I blink hard several times before I turn to face her again.

“Well,” she says softly, “I think it’s pretty amazing that you take care of them.”

“I’m doing the minimum. If I knew who the asshole was, I’d do a hell of a lot more.”

“You don’t know who Nicky’s father is?”

I shake my head. “She won’t tell me. She’s afraid I’ll kick his ass.”

“Would you?”

“If he was lucky.” My voice takes on a dark, sharp-edged quality I can’t shake. “If he wasn’t, I’d kill him.”

Callie sucks in her cheeks, and I hate that I’m scaring her. Even for a second.

“I’m not into violence. Funny, coming from a hockey player, I know. But I’ve had enough experience with it outside the rink to have had my fill. But… mess with the people I love? With the people who belong to me?” I shake my head, working my jaw from side to side. “That man—whoever the piece of shit is—would be smart to find a hole to hide in and stay there. Because if he comes around me or my sister again, I’ll bury him in it.”

I peek over, but Callie doesn’t look scared anymore. The storm in her eyes has cleared. Now, she’s biting back a smile.

“What’s that look?” This time, when I point to her smile, I touch the small dimple on the corner of her mouth.

Her lips part on an exhale I feel against the back of my hand. “It’s me realizing that you are stubborn and hot-tempered. Maybe we should call that ambulance, after all, becausethatis the perfect storm.”

“Only when I’m angry.”

“Are you angry now?” she asks.

I shake my head. “No.”

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