Page 23 of Broken Promises

“Good night, hockey boy.”

The door pings and opens, revealing Jo eyeing me suspiciously. “What are you doing?”

“Uh, going to my room,” I say, stepping around her. I never hit a button for a floor, so I’m still on mine.

“Right,” she says, hitting the lobby button. Her eyes stay on mine as the door shuts.

“Perfect,” I grumble to myself and head back to my room. I walk in to see Belle and Mav on my bed watching ESPN. “What are you doing?” I ask, my voice shaking. Do they know about me marrying Declan? I have an alert set, but the news is quiet so far.

“Mav wanted to watch the interview with Jasper. That baseball player that knew Ezra. He threw no balls or something,” Belle says.

“A no hitter?” I ask, instantly relaxing. Belle knows nothing about sports. Mav might know even less. Kai and Cal are huge sports fans. I’ve worried about them figuring something outbefore I can tell them. “He threw a perfect game?” I ask Mav after Belle shrugs.

“That’s what her dad said.” He gestures to Belle. “Hey, where are the snacks?” he asks when he looks at me.

“There wasn’t anything good,” I say, crawling in bed next to Belle. She turns to face me, examining my face like she can find all my secrets written there.

“Are you seeing someone?”

“Who?” Mav asks. “Her options are Jon or your dad. Actually, I think Harrison is single too.” He looks around Belle so he can see me. “Do you have a thing for older men?”

I roll my eyes. “No, I don’t have a thing for my friends’ dads.”

“But you’re seeing someone?” Belle asks.

“No, I’m not.”

“Promise? You’d tell me, right? I know I wasn’t around for a few years, but I thought we were close again.”

Well, that hurt my heart. “I promise I’ll tell you if I’m seeing someone.” I lean my head on her shoulder. “We’re good, Belle. It’s like those missing years never happened.”

“There he is!” Mav says, pointing at the TV where Jasper is speaking with an ESPN analyst.

“Why are we watching this?” I whisper to Belle.

“He thinks he can get some clues from Jasper about Ezra,” she whispers.

I lean up so I can see her face. She shrugs and turns a worried look towards Mav. Jasper may have known Ezra, but he told us he doesn’t know where he is now. So I’m not sure what Maverick thinks he’s going to get out of this.

My eyes feel heavy, so I let them close, letting sleep take me while snuggling up to my best friend. But in the moment between awake and asleep, I can’t help feeling like it’s the wrong best friend.

TWELVE

declan

“How much longer?”

“Twenty-four days,” I answer Gideon.

“I don’t know how you guys do it. Away games are bad enough for me and Maggie.”

“Her tour was supposed to be over by the time the season started,” I say, sulking. Gideon nods in understanding.

“Listen up,” Coach says. “We have a new team photographer.” A man steps out from behind Coach. He’s tall, maybe an inch or two shorter than me, but he’s muscular. His build plus the burly beard and long dark, curly hair make him look like he lives in the mountains and chops a lot of wood. “This is Ben Miller. We poached him from New York.”

“Are you the guy that takes those shots from crazy angles? Your work kicks ass,” Davis says. He’s a d-man on my line and usually pretty quiet.

Ben smirks and nods.

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