Page 102 of Win Big

Fuck.

“Thanks,” I say to him with a smile. “I’m just going to use the ladies’ room.” I pick up my purse and stand.

I have no idea where the ladies’ room is but I stumble blindly across the outdoor deck. I pause at the bar to ask, and they direct me down a corridor just inside the bar, to the left.

I lock myself in a stall and sit there. Okay. I got this. I don’t need to be so freaked out by it. Yes, I thought I loved Gage. Yes, I thought he loved me too, when basically he was a lying,cheating pedophile. Sixteen wasn’t even the legal age of consent in California. He was fucking a sixteen-year-old girl.

I inhale slowly. He got traded away and his career never took off after that. My dad was responsible for trading him, obviously, but as for his career tanking, I don’t know how much Dad had to do with it. I’d bet my condo Dad hadsomethingto do with it, though. I was stupid and immature and looking for attention from my dad, and I’ll regret all of it to my dying day. But I also hate Gage for his part in what happened. He should never have come near me. He should never have led me on.

He probably hates me too, and I guess he’d have every right.

I’m reliving what happened back then, until I realize I’ve been gone a while and everyone’s going to wonder what happened to me. I wash my hands, touch up my lip gloss, and swipe a bit of smudged mascara from beneath one eye. I fluff my hair and then I can’t put it off any longer.

With my chin up and my spine straight, I walk out of the ladies’ room. And there’s Gage, standing there, apparently waiting for me.

“Everly.” He gives me a cold smile. “I can’t believe we ran into each other like this.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.“Well, like Wyatt said, it’s a small world. Especially the hockey world, I guess.”

“I hear you’re working for your dad now.”

“Not really. I’m the director of the Condors Community Foundation. It’s a separate organization.”

“Sure.”

“I should get back . . .”

“Wyatt Bell, huh? Does he know what happens to guys Bob Wynn’s little girl dates?”

My jaw drops in outrage. “Are you kidding me?”

“Not really.” One corner of his mouth deepens. “I could tell him.”

My eyes pop.

“He doesn’t know about us, huh.”

For a moment my blood is bubbling so hot through my veins I can’t speak. “How many people haveyoutold about ‘us’?” I fix my most forbidding look on him. “Are you proud of dating a sixteen-year-old girl when you were twenty-eight? And married! Because I think most people wouldn’t be very impressed by that.”

His face tightens. “You were a very willing participant.”

“Hey.” Wyatt’s voice has us both jumping around. He tilts his head, a notch of concern between his eyebrows. “Everything okay?”

“Yes.” I’m sure I look guilty and panicked and terrified. “Everything’s fine. I was just on my way back.”

He nods, his gaze sliding back and forth from Gage to me. He slaps a hand on Gage’s shoulder. “I’m following you to the bathroom, man.” And he almost shoves Gage down the dimly lit corridor.

I walk back to the table slowly, my hand over my mouth. I feel like crying. I can’t cry.

Baz is there, relaxed in his chair, surveying the patio bar, his foot moving to the music. He smiles at me as I take my seat. “Nice place,” he says. “I love coming to L.A.”

I smile too. “Yeah, I guess Calgary’s a bit different in February.”

“No kidding.”

“Where did you grow up?”

“Toronto. My parents emigrated to Canada before I was born, and that’s where they ended up.”

---