Page 38 of Power Play with My Brother's Irish Friends

21

CHARLIE

The month since I’d seen Miranda dragged in an endless cycle of practice, games, and sleep. I skated every day until I fell exhausted into bed each night. It helped keep the dreams at bay, but the days were a struggle.

“Dude, we’re kicking butt on the ice.” Austin fist-bumped Duncan and sank into the couch with his drink and bowl of chips.

I deepened my slouch and hid my scowl behind a deep pull on the beer bottle, desperate to keep Austin from noticing how deep I’d slid into depression since Miranda left. I missed her with the kind of ache that left my chest feeling hollow, a gaping maw of gloom and doom. The dark poetry of my pain caused a snort of disbelief. Leave it to Miranda to drag out the soft side of my personality.

“We’ll crush it next game.” Duncan raised his bottle in a mini salute and clinked it against Patrick’s.

We’d left practice a few hours ago and drove straight to Austin’s house for a night of drinking and video games. Austin’s seventy-two inch 4K flat screen called our names. We used to get together every weekend, but things had slacked off since Austin started hanging out more with Samantha. Dude had a serious crush. I gripped the bottle so tight my fingers ached. Austin got to have a relationship with any girl he wanted while we were left lonely and withering away without Miranda, the one woman none of us could have.

I’d expected to forget my feelings. The whole “out of sight, out of mind” mentality sucked ass and was the biggest lie I’d ever believed. My phone screen lit up, and I dove for it fast enough to make Patrick’s slapshot look like a slo-mo move. My thumb grazed the screen. “Fuck.” I deleted the spam message and flung my phone back down on the coffee table.

“Problem?” Austin leaned forward and chucked his empty bottle into the trash can. It hit against the other bottles with a clink, and he grinned. “Three point shot.”

“Too bad we’re not playing basketball.” Patrick picked up his controller and scrolled through the menu. “We playing split screen or what?” The side eye he shot my way held a warning.

I’d talked to him and Duncan a couple times about Miranda. We’d all agreed not to see her, but at the time, I’d not realized how furious I’d become at her absence. I’d picked up my phone to call or text her a hundred times, even typing out whole messages just to delete them. Nothing sounded right. Every time I thought about calling her, I froze over my confusion on what I’d say. How did I start a conversation that ended with, “Will you come back and sleep with me even though your brother made us all promise we’d keep our distance?”

If Austin found out, he’d never forgive us.

“Sure.” Austin and Patrick worked on setting up the game.

Patrick handed out controllers. “Anyone want a headset?”

“Nah.” Duncan motioned around the room. “Don’t think we need one in here.”

The white walls around us remained as bare as the day Austin moved in. He’d updated the furniture to a pair of luxurious leather couches, two recliners, and a loveseat in dark brown. The cushions were deep enough to make me want to lean back and take a nap, but I’d end up with Sharpie drawings on my face if I fell into that trap.

“How’s Miranda?” My casual tone stayed intact despite the desperate way my heart hammered in my chest. “Figured she’d have called or something by now to tell us how awful we were that first game.”

Austin smirked and scrolled through the character selections. Asking him while we played was my best chance at flying under the radar. “She’s okay. She mentioned she might come to our next game.”

“I’m sure she’ll have tons to say about our performance.” Duncan frowned at the TV and changed his character’s shirt in a rapid flick before going back to the shirt he’d had in the beginning. “What’s the point of this game?”

“Wrestling.” Patrick pointed. “We’re doing tag team matches. Me and Austin against you and Charlie.”

I pretended to work on my character but my ears strained to hear Austin pick up the conversation about Miranda. “Should we plan another party for her?”

“What? Who?” Austin grabbed another beer and cracked it open.

“Miranda.” Patrick’s frown matched mine. He tried to stay casual too, but even Duncan perked up at the sound of her name.

Damn it. We were all still interested. I’d hoped at least Patrick would move on. His reputation had given me hope, but he’d been as celibate as me and Duncan this past month. All our talk about keeping things platonic between us and our publicist was a load of horse shit.

“Maybe this time we’ll convince her to move to Washington.” Duncan pushed his luck, showing too much interest.

I picked up on it the same time Austin did.

The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees when Austin lowered his controller and faced Duncan. “You don’t mess around with my sister.”

Duncan held up both hands in a placating gesture. “Just saying she seemed happy here.”

Sure she was. She had all of us, even though we’d done our best to keep things professional. Surely she knew we’d break ourselves in half to make Austin change his mind. One word from her and I’d challenge Austin myself. The guy protected his sister, and I respected that, but he was also keeping her from a beautiful relationship.

Or maybe that was my ego talking. “Why does she stay in New York?” It was a legit question, and one I’d wanted to ask for months.

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