Page 79 of Butterfly

Mason watched me. Concerned.

You okay?he mouthed.

You okay. You. Not him. Not embarrassed. Not worried about himself or his own reputation. Only concerned about me.

I shook my head, because I wasn’t.

He turned his vitriol on Emily. “Don’t you dare fucking talk to her that way.”

“You both make mesick,” she hissed back. “You’re fucked in the head, you know. Could’ve had anyone. Could’ve had me. And you choose your sister?”

“Emily, I don’t think you realize just how lucky you are that you’re a woman, because if you weren’t you’d be on the ground in pieces right now for hurting Leslie. If I were you, I wouldn’t test it.”

“No.”

The word left my mouth before I realized it. I moved closer to where they stood, Mason on the ice, Emily on the edge of the boards. I reached her, staring her down. She was taller than me, by a bit, but she wasn’t stronger than me. Wasn’t braver than me. Wasn’tbetterthan me.

“I’ve got this,” I told him.

A small smile slid across his sweat-covered face. “Of course you do, butterfly.”

“Emily, don’t you get tired?” I asked her. “Doesn’t the envy and bitterness and pettiness ever just…exhaust you? It exhausts me, and I don’t even live it—I’m just the person you decided to be envious of. I’m sorry Mason doesn’t want you. I’m sorry you don’t get to have everything you want in life, and the only way you’ve ever learned to cope with not getting what you want is by making other people your target. But Emily, if you spent evenhalfof the energy you spend hating me for the fact that I have someone you want, on looking in the mirror and figuring outwhythat is…well, don’t you think that might be a little more productive?”

Laughter around us. I whipped my head, catching the other players chuckling. “Don’t laugh,” I told the crowd. “Reveling in her embarrassment makes you no better than she is.”

The room went quiet again. Except for a hum of approval from Mason.

I wasn’t done. “I know you want him. I know it kills you that I’m with him. But did you ever think that, I don’t know, maybe you aren’t right for him? And maybe he and I are right for each other? Yes, he’s my stepbrother. And maybe that makes me a stepbrother fucker. But you know what? I don’tstepbrotherfucking care.”

I reached my hand out to Mason, and he caught it in his, turning it and kissing my palm, eyes on me. Burning with heat and approval and something else. Something like love.

Because he loved me. And me?

“Because I love him,” I told Emily, told the entire arena, told the world. Told Mason, whose eyes went supernova-bright. “We love each other. Legally, our parents are married, but we did nothing wrong. We aren’t actually related, and we care about each other. Wechooseeach other. And if you can’t accept that, if you’re still too jealous to let this shit go? Then Emily, I don’t know what to tell you, except I don’t know. Maybe see a therapist about that.”

Lucy giggled. Emily glared at us, opening her mouth and then closing it like a fish. I almost felt sorry for her.

I did feel sorry for her when Mason pulled his jersey off, only to hand it to me.

“Butterfly, you better be wearing my name on your back whenever you’re in this building,” he told me.

Blushing, but loving how territorial he was, I lifted it over my head. It fell over me, huge and comforting. It smelled just like him—sweat and ocean spray and oranges and danger.

Andmine.He smelled like mine.

“Sorry I’m late, Mace,” I said, a little breathless. “I was working on our presentation.”

“Who the fuck cares about our presentation?” He growled, cradling my face with his hands and lowering his lips to mine, kissing me until I couldn’t tell whose lips were whose and whose heart was whose and oh, what did it matter anyway, when he held me like this, when we loved each other? What did it matter if he was controlling, manipulative, violent and scary? Yeah, he was my evil stepbrother, but most importantly, he was mine.

Finally, he broke away. “Come on, butterfly. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

He lifted me into the air and threw me over his shoulder, skating down the tunnel toward the locker room. I lifted my head, catching something curious: Mason’s coach, staring at Lucy like he wanted to swallow her whole.

Oh, shit.

Mason smacked my ass, and I forgot all about it.

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