Page 10 of My Pucking Valentine

“He’s not my brother,” I whisper.

Barbara is the next to speak, and I know she’s attempting to be nonjudgmental, but how can you not be judgy when you see something like that?

“Who is he, honey? We only know him as Luke Sullivan.”

Nodding my head a couple of times, I don’t answer immediately. I’ve kept this secret for so long that I don’t want to confess it. Saying it out loud changes everything. I can’t take my horrified gaze off the image on Sarah’s phone. The image of me and Luke. The picture that is going to ruin everything I hold close to me.

“Our parents got married when he was eighteen and I was sixteen. He was already playing semiprofessional hockey. I didn’t meet him until their wedding day.”

Slowly, I lift my gaze to theirs and wait for the rest of the judgment. I brace for impact, but it doesn’t come. Instead, Sarah takes a step toward me and wraps her arms around me in an embrace.

“Okay, so you’re stepsiblings.”

Pressing my lips together, I nod as I take a step backward. “We are stepbrother and stepsister,” I say.

Those words should be liberating. I’m finally telling someone the truth. But they aren’t. The rest of the world thinks that sexy professional hockey player Luke Sullivan is screwing his sister. And that is one of the many reasons this was a secret between us. A secret that was supposed to remain that way.

“What are you going to do?” Barbara asks.

That’s the question, isn’t it? Chewing on my bottom lip, I look down at the image and the headline again and let out a heavy sigh. I know Luke is famous, at least when it comes to hockey, but it’s not like paparazzi follow him around, so I can’t help but wonder how this story broke as quickly as it did.

Those girls must have already known who he was. That’s the only explanation I can think of. God, this is my worst nightmare come true.

“I don’t know,” I confess. “I guess just wait to see what Luke has to say.”

They give me a single nod, and then Sarah wipes her tears away and jerks her chin in the air. “Let’s get you something to eat,” she offers.

Food is the absolute last thing I want right now, but I don’t argue with her, mainly because I don’t have the energy. Handing Sarah her phone back, I hold up my finger for them to wait and walk back to my nightstand to grab my own phone.

Holding my breath, I chance a look at my notifications. I have fifteen missed calls. All from my mother and none from Luke, which means he either doesn’t know or doesn’t know what to say to me, so he’s avoiding me completely.

TEN

LUKE

A banging soundwakes me up with a start. I sit straight up, my eyes wide, as I wildly scan my bedroom for the source of the noise. When it happens again, I realize it’s on the other side of the bedroom door.

“I’m coming the fuck in,” Eli’s voice booms.

I rub my hand over my face, then my head in an attempt to fully wake up. The bedroom door opens, and I realize it’s not just Eli, but it’s also Daniel, Henry, and Pavel who walk into my room.

“Guys?” I murmur.

“Have you looked at your phone?” Pavel demands.

Although to be fair, with his accent, everything sounds like a demand. Shaking my head a couple times slowly, I start to reach for my phone on the nightstand. It’s on Do Not Disturb mode, mainly because I knew I needed to sleep before my alarm went off, and I didn’t want anyone bugging me.

As my eyes take in the screen, I blink once and then blink again. I have fifteen missed calls from my father, three from the team’s publicist, and two from the coach.

Closing my eyes, I let out an exhale because I know what this is about. There is only one thing it could be about, especially considering the fact that I haven’t heard from my father since Christmas.

I love my father, but he and I are not close. We never have been. I moved out at fourteen to play hockey in another town. My mom came with me, but my parents were divorced, and he stayed in Wisconsin.

It was a fresh start for my mom and a chance for me to be able to live out my dreams. Little did either of us know that it was going to be the perfect start to my career, and my dreams came to fruition.

“Just tell me, how bad is it?”

Eli is the one who takes a step forward. “Well, I know why you didn’t want to tell me who you’ve been banging because it’s your fucking sister.”

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