Page 69 of Playing to Win

“I made Braydon go to practice. He wanted to stay.”

Oh.That was a nice thought, but Luke didn’t sound happy. “I didn’t ask him to stay, and I’m glad he went. You sure you don’t want me to leave?”

“I promised I’d take care of you.”

And didn’t he sound happy about that? Right. He’d probably found the mess I’d left. “I, um, need to clean up something in your driveway, and then I can bail.”

“The driveway is fine.”

“I upchucked. When I was getting out of Braydon’s truck last night.”

“It’s taken care of.” He cracked eggs into the pan with a little more force than necessary. Had he been stuck on cleanup duty?

“I didn’t plan on coming back here. And I don’t want to mess things up for you or Braydon.”

Luke gave the pan a stir. “But you’re here. And Braydon missed his morning run and was ready to flip off practice, and he never does that.”

“I didn’t ask him to. I just…I got some bad news yesterday and ended up a little drunk. He came and got me. I didn’t ask.”

Luke turned off the burner and leaned his ass on the counter. His arms were crossed and he frowned at me. “I know you’re fake dating to help Braydon because of that video. And that’s great. But Braydon has been focused on nothing but hockey ever since I’ve known him. He’s worked hard to get here, and he never gets distracted. He doesn’t date, he doesn’t stay out late, he never skips his workouts or practices, even the optional ones. He’s like the perfect hockey player.”

I nodded.

“But now that he’s with you, he’s messing up his routine, risking this dream he’s had forever. I don’t want you to ruin things for him.”

I dropped my head in my hands. Bad enough that I was losing hockey—I didn’t need to mess things up for my fake boyfriend too. Especially when he was so damned nice. “I hear you. I don’t want him to risk anything for me.”

I drew in a breath and lifted my head. Might as well tell Luke—it’d be good practice for telling other people I gave a shit about.

“Saw the doctor yesterday. My knee isn’t going to recover enough. I won’t be able to play again.”

Luke’s arms dropped. “Damn.”

“I know.”

He huffed and then turned to grab some dishes. “You told Braydon?” he asked, setting a plateful of delicious-smelling, hashy breakfast in front of me. He passed a fork.

“Yeah. It’s why I was wasted last night. Sorry. I won’t do it again.” I took a bite and moaned. “That’s incredible.”

He let a small smile escape. “Thanks. Good for hangovers. Braydon thought you might like it.” He scooped a mound on another plate and sat across from me. “Do you, I don’t know, want to talk or something?”

I shook my head, mouth full.

“Thank god.”

* * *

I madesome decisions in the back of a Lyft on the way to my place. Once there, I threw the clothes I was wearing in the laundry and changed into comfortable sweats. With a filled water bottle to rehydrate, I sat down to go through the backlog of things I’d ignored yesterday.

First priority was calling Kira. I told her exactly what the doctors had said and apologized for missing work today. She seemed to think that was a reasonable excuse. I promised to catch up with what I could from home and asked her to keep the news quiet for a few days while I worked things out. Then I dug into emails, social media, all the things that helped me pay rent.

Megan arrived home from work—she and Faith taught skating and coached hockey at a nearby rink to support their hockey habit. She rushed to my room.

“Temps! Are you okay? When you didn’t answer messages I got worried.”

“Sorry.” I was apologizing a lot today.

“Braydon said you were with him, so at least I knew you were safe. How’d things go with the doctors?”

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