Page 32 of Skate the Line

I sort of feel bad for him.

His gruff, sarcastic chuckle breaks the silence.

I nibble on my lip and debate whether or not I should insert myself.

Marco nods when I look back to him, and I take it as encouragement.

A shaky sigh leaves me. “Anything we can help with?” I ask, roping Marco into the situation too. We’re a team, even if he doesn’t know that.

Rhodes twists his neck and stares at me. His knuckles are white from the pressure he’s forcing onto the quartz counter. “She climbed the fence on her playground today and walked over to the middle school playground to play soccer with the older kids.” He drops his head again and clenches his jaw tightly. “Her teacher keeps saying that Ellie rebukes against any socializing with kids her age. I just don’t understand.”

Oh.

I step forward. “I do.”

Rhodes pops up from the counter and stares at me.

“The other little girls were playing ‘family’?” I ask, using quotations around the word family.

He nods. “Yeah, whatever the fuck that is.”

I rest my hip against the counter. “It’s where they play pretend.” I put a finger up for each role that I list. “Someone is the dad, mom, and then the baby. Occasionally, they’ll throw a pet in there too.”

Rhodes and Marco share a look, and each man looks equally confused.

I shrug. “It’s something little girls do. We like the whole make-believe, perfect-family thing. My guess is that Ellie feels uncomfortable playing that because…” There’s a twinge in my heart, keeping me from explaining the rest. I’m not sure if Rhodes and Ellie’s mother were in love or close in that regard. There aren’t any photos of them on the internet, according to Ruby’s deep dive, and the only one in the house is one where she’s alone. Ellie isn’t even in the photo.

The scruffing of Rhodes’s hand moving against his five-o-clock shadow pulls my attention.“Fuck,” he mumbles.

“Do you want me to go find her?” I ask softly. “I can sort of…relate.”

Rhodes doesn’t make eye contact with me. He only shakes his head and spins, heading in the same direction that Ellie went.

Marco and I follow him with our eyes before it’s just us in the kitchen.

There’s a sadness in the room—one that wasn’t there before. My own mother died when I was too young to remember her, so I know the emptiness that void brings. It’s something she’ll eventually fill, maybe not all the way, but little by little, she’ll fill it.

The clearing of Marco’s throat brings me back to the present. His smile warms the sadness lingering. “Where are we headed this evening, Sunny?”

I sling my bag over my shoulder and pull out my phone for the address to the new Airbnb. It’s in a completelydifferent neighborhood, and when I show Marco the address, he grimaces.

Must be in a great neighborhood.

“Don’t worry.” I pat Marco’s arm. “I’ll be fine.”

He sighs disapprovingly before leading me toward the front door.

Fourteen

RHODES

“Get some new legs out there!”Coach is nervously pacing the space behind the bench. Kane and I both stand, and the second we get the chance, we change the lineup. We’re down by one, but it’s only the second period, so I’m not worried.

Yet.

Malaki stays in, playing defense. We let Kane control the flow on the ice, setting the pace. We work together like an old squeaky machine. Hockey is a team sport. I learned that well before I hit the Peewee level. It took Kane a little while to understand, but once we got Emory as our goalie, things started to shift.

The team grew stronger and more serious.

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