Page 63 of Dirty Pucking Tease

"Late," she muttered, shifting back into her seat and buckling her seat belt. "Practice starts in fifteen minutes."

"Shit."

"We'll make it in eight minutes." She smiled through the rearview mirror as she started the engine. "Giving you enoughtime to brush the alcohol off your breath and get into your uniform."

Cam saved my ass not just last night but this morning. "Thanks, Cam."

"That's what friends are for," she said, putting the car in drive and swerving into traffic. "You were pretty messed up last night."

"I had too much to drink."

"That's not what I'm talking about, Jax." My gaze flicked up, meeting hers in the rearview mirror. "I'm talking about what happened with Kai." I hadn't remembered until just now that I'd poured my soul out to her. My heart clenched painfully tight. "I'm not going to get in the middle of this, but I am going to say this; I know you're hurting right now, and we all have a tendency to do dumb shit when we are hurting to try to ease the pain." She leaned forward, checking for oncoming traffic before surging forward. "But if you choose now not to fight for her and move on, it's over. There's no coming back from that."

Swallowing hard, I nodded. I knew she was right, but I didn't know what to do at this point. I needed to clear the fog out of my brain to figure out where to go from here.

She eased the car into the parking lot. "Kai is my best friend, and I don't want her to get hurt either, so if you know you don't want the same thing as her, move on, but I don't believe that's the case."

"I need some time to pull my head together, and then I will talk to Kai."

"Don't take too much time, Jaxy Boy. You'll miss your chance."

Cam and I walked into the rink together, quickly going our separate ways when we made it through the main entrance. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, added some fresh deodorant, dressed, and met them on the ice on time.

But I played like shit the entire practice.

"What the fuck, West?" Coached shouted when I missed the puck and tumbled to the ice. "Bench," he shoved his pointer finger dramatically toward the bench, "now!"

Shit.

I pushed off the ice, gliding towards the bench behind the wall, the last place I wanted to be right now.

"What is wrong with all of you today?" Coach shouted, this time louder. Thankfully I wasn't the only one playing like shit today. "Hit the showers." Coach stormed off the ice, and I knew we'd all pay for this tomorrow.

"What happened to you?" Owen said, skidding to a stop in front of me. I shook my head. "Not only are you playing like shit, you look like shit."

"I had too many drinks last night."

"By yourself?" He drew the words out. I nodded. "What happened with Kai?"

"What?" I scowled. "What makes you think anything happened with Kaia?"

"You only drink alone when something happens between you and Kai."

My gaze flicked up to the stands at the exact moment that Kaia, Cam, and the fighter bounced down the stairs with their skates in hand. Seeing her with him felt like a punch straight to the heart. I didn't expect it to feel this bad. Owen's brows pinched as he followed my line of sight. "Oh." His eyes went wide. "Who is that?"

"The fighter that rescued her at the Cages."

"And?" His gaze flicked back to me. "They are dating?" I shrugged. "I thought you were dating Kaia."

My eyes narrowed in confusion. "Why would you think that?" I don't know why I said that because, at this point, I knew that everyone knew, but old habits die hard.

He huffed out a humorless laugh. "Oh, are we still pretending you two weren't a thing?" I didn't respond. "I see why she left."

"She's my stepsister. How would I tell my mother that I'm not just dating but fucking my stepsister?"

"How do you let that," he pointed to Kaia in the stands, "get away because you're a grown man scared of his mother." He was right. How could I push Kaia into someone else's arms so easily?

"I just don't want to cause any more hurt for my mom."

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