Page 84 of What If I Knew You

Tugging at my shirt to try and cool myself down, I try to answer her. “The…you know, the…”

Shit.

I’m in so much trouble.

It only takes one more helplessly fucked glance at the guys for them to figure it out. Griffin’s jaw drops and he stares at me in complete disbelief.

“Nooooo fucking way.”

“Yes fucking way.” I nod.

“SHE’S the girl?” Harrison whispers. “Corrigan Hicks?”

I sigh loudly because how the fuck am I going to get myself out of this mess? “She told me her name was C-Cor-Corri.”

Barrett nods. “Yeah that’s what everybody calls her. We’ve called her Corri for years.”

“Duuuude.” Griffin’s eyes are bulging and his mouth has not yet closed shut. “You seriously…like, honestly, you didn’t know?”

I shake my head as everyone else murmurs around the table.

“Know what?” Ella asks, completely clueless.

“I swear to God, I didn’t even know he had a fucking daughter, man. What am I supposed to do now?”

“What’s going on?” Ella asks again. August leans over and gives her a quick rundown and she gasps. “And his private tutor was Corrigan Hicks, Coach’s daughter?”

Complete silence falls over the table as everyone takes in the news of how fucked up my life now is. God, what I wouldn’t give for one of them, any one of them, to tell me that this isn’t as bad as I fear it is. Not able to look any of them in the eye, I bring my elbow to the table and rest my forehead on the tips of my fingers.

“Why aren’t they saying anything, Griffin?”

“Uh…” He chuckles. “I think they’re all equally as flabbergasted as I am, bro.”

August leans forward and quietly mumbles, “Bro, you fingered her? That’s what you told us when you first got together with her. You fingered Coach’s daughter?”

Feeling queasy, I nod. “I did a whole lot more than that with her since then.” Palming my forehead I murmur, “I’m so fucking fucked.”

He pats me on the back. “Chin up, Roche. Don’t be so hard on yourself…oops…I said hard on….which is something you got with the help of Corrigan. The coach’s daughter.”

I glance at Griffin, not at all amused. “Really?”

“I make jokes when I’m nervous, what can I say?” He shrugs. “It was nice knowing you?”

I slide down in my seat, begging the guys with my eyes to fucking help me out of this.

“What the hell am I going to do?”

Harrison sits up and leans across the table. “Okay, let’s talk this out. So, it ended up being Corrigan who texted you all those nights ago?”

“Yeah.” I nod. “She made spaghetti for her dad and now that I know who her dad is that all checks because the guy fucking loves pasta. I’ve heard him talking about Mario’s on more than one occasion in the front office.”

Ledger leans forward. “Alright so you two got to chatting via text. Did you not tell her your name?”

I shake my head. “No, I told her my name was Alan because why the hell would I tell a total stranger she’s talking to Bodhi Roche, pro hockey player for the Anaheim Stars?” I shrug. “Alan is my middle name, so I went with it in hopes she wouldn’t recognize me, and to my knowledge, she didn’t.”

August shakes his head too. “Yeah, I don’t buy that for a second. Sorry. Not that I don’t believe you. I do. It’s Corrigan I don’t believe.”

“Yeah, I think I might agree with you,” Oliver adds. “That girl lives and breathes hockey with her dad. She knows our stats better than we do. There’s no way she didn’t know who you were.”

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