Page 5 of Rainbow Kisses

Another man’s face popped into my mind. A man with auburn hair that he kept short because otherwise it got curly, hazel eyes, and a nose that’d been broken not just once, but a couple of times, including once by my brother, Rebel.

Damn the man for continuing to pop up in my thoughts when I least expected it and for no reason whatsoever. Except for the fact that he had coldcocked my shitty ex, who I should haveknown was an asshole. But no, of course I hadn’t listened to my brother Rebel, who thought he knew how I should live my life better than I did.

Except he hadn’t been wrong about Mo Zelinsky, had he? As much as I hated to admit it, Rebel had been right about Mo. Total dick. Supreme asshole who looked like god’s gift to women.

Brian… Not a dick. But also… Gone. After he’d coldcocked Mo, who’d been the captain of Brian’s old team, Brian had disappeared. I’d asked Rowdy, just once, where Brian had gone. Rowdy had said, “Home,” like I was supposed to know where that was. And since I didn’t want Rowdy to wonder why I was asking about Brian so much, I broke down and asked Rebel, who’d shrugged and grunted, which was guy speak for, “Don’t know, don’t care.”

Sometimes I slapped Rebel upside the head just because I could, and because I’m sure he deserved it for something.

So I’d searched for Brian online and found out he hadn’t played at all the rest of last season. And he wasn’t on a roster this season. Anywhere in the world. Trust me, I’d checked. And his social media hadn’t been updated for at least a year.

Okay then.

You really need to stop obsessing.

“I am not obsessing,” I muttered under my breath as I pulled up the Devils’ social media accounts and added a few more posts to the queue. The season had started more than two months ago, and while Dad wasn’t worried about it, ticket sales were down slightly. I know, I know, high school football was just winding down and the holiday was almost here?—

“Rainbow! Come up here for a minute.”

My dad’s voice boomed down the hallway, scaring the shit out of me because I hadn’t realized he was here. We weren’t supposed to meet for another hour.

I muttered, “Oh for fuck’s sake,” while putting a hand over my chest as my heart pounded against my ribs.

“Dad! This is why we installed a phone system!”

And yes, of course, I yelled back at him without using the phone. Because that was how we rolled around here. I hadn’t known anyone else was in the building, which was kinda creepy, because anyone could’ve walked in and murdered me. Hey, it could happen. There had to be some people out there who didn’t like me. Probably none who wanted to take an ax to my?—

You know what? I should probably lay off the crime podcasts for a while.

“That wouldn’t be as much fun!” my dad yelled back. “Just come up here.”

With a heavy sigh, I pushed away from my desk, my dreams of a quiet, uninterrupted morning dashed. Oh well, there was always tomorrow. I said that a lot around here.

Halfway up the hall, I yelled, “What’s the problem?”

I got to his door before he had time to answer. And what I saw in his office made my mouth drop open and my brain skip like a needle on a scratched record.

“Brian? What the hell? Where have you been? What happened to you? And why the hell didn’t you?—”

I stopped before I could finish that question because it would raise way too many other questions from the other occupants of the room. Mainly, my brother Rowdy. Who was staring at me like I’d just revealed I was a secret superhero.

My dad’s brows were arched and curious too.

Snapping my mouth shut, I focused on my dad, because I didn’t want to have to deal with Rowdy. That was a conversation I wanted to avoid.

“What’s going on?”

Dad paused for a second before he said, “Just wanted to let you know we’re bringing Brian on for the rest of the season.”

The bottom fell out of my stomach. At least, that’s what it felt like. And my lungs constricted until I felt like I was going to suffocate. I had so very many questions, most of them for Brian, but I couldn’t ask them, not with Dad and Rowdy in the room.

I slid a quick glance at the man who had punched his then-captain because the guy was being a dick to me. And then he’d left the league and disappeared before we could discuss it. Before I could yell at him for stepping into my business. And thank him for coldcocking the aforementioned dick. What the hell I’d seen in that man, I couldn’t tell you now. Maybe I’d been blinded by his looks. Maybe I’d dated him because I knew it would piss off my brother Rebel, who still treated me like I was twelve and should follow his every order. Which I never had, anyway.

So I asked another question farther down the list. “I thought we had a full roster?”

I looked at my dad with raised brows because Iknewwe had a full roster, but that sounded more diplomatic than, “How the hell can we hire this guy? We don’t have the space for him.”

Had something happened to another member of the team? Why hadn’t anyone told me? I wasn’t just in charge of marketing, I was also serving as the entire HR department because our full-time HR director, Tabitha, was out on maternity leave and wouldn’t be back for a few months.

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