Page 29 of Face Me Off

Once they leave, I grab my phone without thought and text Ryan.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

RYAN

Dad: Congrats on tonight’s win. Wish I could’ve been there. Hold the line. It won’t be long.

I stareat Dad’s text a moment longer before responding. He means well. He really does. But part of me regrets the choices I’ve made. I should’ve accepted the team’s offer. Blake did with no remorse. I turned it down, bound and determined to take care of Dad. With my mediocre grades, I wonder if caring for him would’ve been sticking with hockey. It was the riskier path, or so I thought.

“Good game. I love what I see.” Some guy in his mid-thirties slaps my back. Guess I get the attention now that Blake skipped out on us.

“Thanks, man. The team’s looking great.”

The waitress brings our round of drinks, and he meanders back to his table. I love this bar. Anyone who’s anyone goes to Barton’s. It’s near campus and caters to students. The place is a legend.

“Here’s to the win!” Easton says as the rest of the crew shouts above the bar sounds.

“To the win!” I echo, lifting my beer with a flourish. The cool condensation from the bottle against my palm feels like a physical reminder of our victory on the ice.

“The goal you scored was epic, dude.” Easton shakes his head in disbelief.

“Yeah, Sorenson. That was some NHL-level stuff right there,” another teammate, Drew, pipes up. I brush off the compliments with a shrug and deflect the attention back to them.

“We all killed it out there tonight,” I insist. “Couldn’t have done it without all of you.”

We clink our glasses and take the celebratory drink, but my smile becomes forced when my phone vibrates on the table and lights up with a new text.

What does the old man want now?

It’s not that I don’t want to talk to him, but the entire situation makes me edgy. He’d freak out if he knew I was spending time with Maddy. We expect a settlement for the lawsuit any day. He doesn’t want anything to jeopardize it. The last thing he wants is for this to go to a jury trial.

I get it.

I don’t want that either.

But I can’t seem to stay away.

She has this pull, this magnetic quality that gets me in the gut every time.

“You okay?” Easton asks, jarring me from my thoughts. His eyes narrow with concern.

“I’m good, just my dad … again.”

“Gotcha.” Easton nods and turns his attention back to the group as they engage in some heated debate about the latest rookie in the NHL.

With a grunt, I pull my phone out and stop breathing. The text isn’t from my dad. It’s from Madison.

Maddy: Why is my best friend going out with the hockey team captain? Did you know about this?

After practice the other day, Blake asked if I’d be okay with him taking Amanda out. I was skeptical. But I knew what he was getting at. He was feeling me out, much like Maddy did the other night. After reassuring him that nothing remotely romantic happened, I warned him about hurting her. Amanda’s a good friend. I’ll always have her back, not that he hurts girls intentionally. Nope. That title goes to me. One was deliberate, and the other was a fallout from my mistake.

I never should’ve taken Madison’s best friend to prom Junior year. It was disastrous, to say the least. It may have been a save-face date to get Madison off my trail, but the betrayal still stung.

And to top it off, I hurt my date in the process.

If I had to do it all over again, I would’ve told Mr. Grimes to go fuck himself, lawsuit be damned.

I shake the memory free and type out a response.

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