Page 50 of Slash & Burn

His head swiveled between me and the crowd still filing out at the other end. A bitter laugh puffed his chest up. “You want me to call ‘em over? Give your ego a nice fluff?”

“No thanks,” I muttered, switching legs. “But I do need to talk to you about something.”

His jaw clenched, the corners of his eyes squinting at me before he gave a rough nod for me to go on. Might as well just get it over with.

“I’m seeing Jill.”

It wasn’t as though I’d expected him to blow up at me, but the way he didn’t move and didn’t even blink unnerved me more. It was only from the twitch of his eye that I knew he’d heard me at all.

Another guy on the team, Benny, skated up with a wide grin and buoyant energy as he skidded to a stop beside Joey. “Hey, man, good to see you. You gonna team up with us tonight? Have some fun?”

I nodded, giving him a quick glance before locking eyes with Joey again. Benny looked between us and let out a bark of a laugh before skating away toward the rest of the guys lining up along the boards. We all knew the look Joey was giving me.

“Say something, man.”

“Fuck you.”

“Joe, come on. She’s not a kid, we like each other. We have fun?—”

Joey’s head jerked back. “You’re having fun?” His voice was still low, but I could feel the other guys looking our way. “I told you to stay away from her. Jill doesn’thave funlike you do,” he spat, reminding me of just what my friend thought of me. My past was what it was, and as a loyal, married man for over a decade, I’m sure it looked pretty bad.

“We’re on the same page. We’re going to enjoy this summer. No lies, no broken promises. I know about that Adam asshole. I almost punched his face in. I’m not going to hurt her, man.”

The way he was laughing set me on edge. It was worse than him being pissed at me. It was like he thought I was stupid or he knew something I didn’t.

“Well, in that case, congratulations. By all means, have fun fucking my sister on your vacation. Just let me know when you bail out back to Boston okay, so I can make sure she doesn’t go off the rails again.”

“She’s tougher than you think. And I’m not just fucking her, damn.” I scrubbed a hand over my face, trying to shove down my own frustration. “Give me a little credit will you? Christ. It’s like you don’t know me. I’m not trying to mess with her or use her, Joe. She’s too fucking special for that. I care about her.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You think she’s special? You care about her?” He spun, repositioning his skates on the ice. “You hardly know her, Grady. And you sure as hell don’t know how bad this can go. So, I hope you’re right. I hope she’s as tough as you think she is.” He skated off, calling over his shoulder, “But thanks for letting me know.”

I finished warming up, meeting the rest of the guys. Most I knew, some I didn’t. It was a decent team, with a lot more speed than I remembered last time I’d played with Joey. With only a minute left to go we were tied up, 1-1. I was chasing down the puck behind our goal with two guys from the other team right behind me. As I came around the boards and up the side with the puck I saw Joey headed my way. I thought he was going to block the defender, and that was who he hit first, but his momentum was so strong he carried on full-force until he slammed me into the boards too.

My shoulder—the good shoulder, thank god—hit the wall hard. I hadn’t expected the hit and with the wind knocked out of me, I lost my footing and slammed into the ice. I was coughing for air when someone kicked my stick from my hand. Joey glared down at me.

“You better not fuck this up.”

Pushing up onto my knees I tried to tell him I wouldn’t, but he skated away before I could get enough air to speak. I sagged back against the wall, slowly regaining my breath as the clock ticked down and I watched Joey take off for the locker room without looking back.

CHAPTER 21

JILL

Grady telling me to let myself in when I got to his house to ride together to our next event was the first notable shift in our ‘relationship’ since the other night. He’d texted to let me know Joey had been informed, but he’d offered no other details and I wasn’t sure if I should ask.

Grady might have felt guilt for screwing around with his friend’s little sister, but I had my own for getting between them. Joey didn’t have a ton of friends—hazard of his job—so losing Grady, especially over me, felt particularly senseless.

“Hello?” I called, poking just my head inside the door.

“Come on up.” His voice had come from atop the wide central staircase of his parents’ gorgeous colonial home. I’d only been inside once before, to go to some holiday party my whole family had been invited to. Half the town had been invited. It was the last Christmas Grady was home before heading out to Michigan. I’d hunkered in the corner, desperately trying to watch him and my brother with their friends, but not let them catch me looking.

The smooth dark wood of the banister slid under my hand, the cool feel of it in stark contrast to the nervous sweat starting to mist the skin at the back of my neck. I wasn’t sure what I was nervous about exactly, but as I climbed the stairs my feet slowed.

“Grady?”

“Hey,” he said, popping only his shoulders out of one of the open doorways. “I’m still getting dressed, but I am, in fact, awake. So, I feel like I haven’t totally broken my promise.” His hair was still wet, pushed upon on one side and slicked down on the other. “Come on in.”

I couldn’t tell if he was wearing anything, so when he disappeared again I stayed where I stood. After a second he popped around the corner again.

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