Page 75 of My Best Bet

The next day at the rink, I snuck into the ice dancers’ locker room.

“Mer’s out in the lobby working on lifts,” Piper said, not even looking up from her phone.

“Patrick, a word?” I asked Piper’s skating partner.

Patrick’s head popped up, his face etched with surprise. He raked a hand through his sweaty ginger hair. We’d only ever hung out in group settings a couple of times, so he probably thought it was weird that I wanted to talk to him.

Piper looked from Patrick to me, wondering what was going on.

Thankfully Patrick didn’t question it and he followed me out to the hall.

As soon as we were alone, I muttered under my breath, “What do you think of Andy?”

He looked around us to make sure no one was listening, then his face scrunched. “Eh… Not really a fan.”

I blew out a breath.Great.

“He’s just… said some things.”

“Like what?”

“Well,” he shifted his weight and crossed his arms over his chest, “you didn’t hear this from me, but… I overheard him joking with a couple of the other guys, just saying some stuff that rubbed me the wrong way.”

“What do you mean?”

His face creased. “He made this joke that if a girl gets too heavy, then you gotta drop her to let her know.”

My blood went cold. “When? When was this?”

He scratched his forehead. “Uhh, a while back. I can’t remember.”

“Try,” I demanded.

“I don’t know,” he shook his head, “it was… sometime last winter.”

When Mer’s hip was fucking purple. I was going to be sick. My hands balled into fists and went to the side of my head. I was about to fucking lose it.Too heavy?Iwanted to scream. Mer was already a fucking stick. This was getting out of hand. This was gettingdangerous. Dropping her? Wasn’t that against rules or laws or… something?

“Dude, breathe,” Patrick whispered, looking around again to make sure no one was watching us.

“We need to report him.”

Patrick’s shoulders fell. A forlorn expression came across his face. “How? He’d just say it was a joke. He’s just an asshole. He loves to act all tough, but it’s not real.”

Fuck.What the fuck was I supposed to do?

Patrick patted my shoulder. “Sorry, kind of sucks Mer’s with him. But I wouldn’t be too worried. He wants to win badly, and to win, he needs Mer.”

I blew out a breath, trying to rein in my temper. He was right. Andy needed Mer. “Can you keep an eye on him? Just let me know if he says anything else?”

“Yeah, no problem,” he said, patting my shoulder again.

Turning on my heel, I stalked away, reeling over what Patrick just told me. I’d for sure be telling Mer, and it would for sure start another fight between us, but I didn’t care.

A couple seconds later, Patrick called out, “Oh! And can you tell Kappy thanks again for the tickets?”

Turning to face him again, my eyebrow kicked up. “Tickets?” Kappy had been traded away halfway through last season. He still called JP and I on the phone almost every day, but hearing that felt like I’d missed something.

“Yeah, he gave me some when I was visiting my family in Montreal. My brothers loved the game. Just… ” His eyes darted back to the locker room door. “Don’t tell Piper. She hates that we’re friends,” he said with a snort.

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