Page 146 of Play the Game

A new set of teeth too.

“Scottie married me for money, yes, but to respect her privacy, I am not going to tell you what that money was going toward. But the last thing this woman should ever be called is a gold digger.”

All they’d have to do is see the car she drives to know that.

If they knew the heart she hid from everyone so well, they wouldn't be saying that either.

“I’m here to set the story straight. My marriage started off as a ploy. I was attempting to fix my reputation and to silence the constant rumors, but it wasn’t her idea. If the league wants to ban me for extortion, then that’s their right. But I can’t play another second of hockey with everyone thinking that ScottieOlsonis anything but a selfless, self-sacrificing, kind, yet sometimes spirited, and compassionate woman that I’m in love with.”

I stand and leave, with my heart bleeding right through my hockey uniform.

The arena has cleared out,and the parking lot is mostly empty. The cleaning crew hesitantly asked me to leave after they attempted to clean the locker room around me and my gear, so I finally gathered everything and left without saying a word.

I silenced my phone because I already know that my post-game interview is everywhere, and most people I know have seen it.

The only one that needs to see it is Scottie, though, and I have no way of finding out if she did.

Not until she emerges from wherever she’s hiding.

I’ve checked everywhere I could think of several days ago.

There aren’t many places she can go to, yet I can’t find her.

A thick gust of chilly air whips around me as I head for my car. I click the key fob a few times to light up the area and pause when I see something on top of my car.

What the fuck is that?

The closer I get, the more I can make out.

Two glowing eyes stare at me, and my first reaction is to scold the cat for being on top of my car, but that’s when I see the blue collar I wrestled onto Shutter the day before Scottie left.

“You let him get on top of my car?” I ask, hoping like hell I hear her voice answer me back.

Please.

I hear her scuffed-up Converse step on the loose gravel. When she appears from the other side of my car, the breath leaves my body.

Thank God.

“He insisted,” she says quietly, like she’s afraid to talk.

All I want to do is reach out and grab onto her, but I play it safe. I walk closer to the driver's side door and reach my hand out to pet Shutter. He stands on top of the hood in between Scottie and me and, surprisingly, lets me pet him.

“Are we going to have a custody battle over Shutter?” I joke, trying to break the tension.

She crosses her arms over that tattered Blue Devils shirt that I now know was her father’s. “Why did you do that?”

I shrug off my hoodie and slide it across the hood of my car. She stares at it for a second before moving it away from Shutter and pulling it over her slender frame.

“Why did I do what? Tell the truth?”

“That wasn’t the deal,” she whispers. “We had terms.”

“Fuck the terms,” I say, matter-of-fact.

She huffs quietly. “Then what was the point?”

“The point?”Fuck this.I round the front of my car, and it stuns her. She attempts to step away but stops when I move into her space. I put one arm around her waist and grip her face with the other. “You,” I snap. “Us.” I shake my head and stare into her eyes. “That’s the point.”

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