Page 109 of The Rebound Plan

Radio silence is the only response, for what feels like ten minutes but is probably thirty seconds. And then Kiley calls me.

“Hey, babe. Sorry about the drama. First of all, everyone is okay.” She sounds calm. Too calm.

I squeeze my shaking fingers into a fist and try to breathe. “Then why was Ani asking about the hospital?”

“We might have overreacted a little.”

“To what?”

“There was a brawl in the dressing room.”

Russ’s text message flashes through my mind. Oh no.

Russell, whatdidyou do???

“Okay. Is, um… Who is injured?”

“Who isn’t?” She sighs. “Ty thought Max was going to the hospital, but apparently he’s being treated by the team doctors at the arena. It’s his jaw.”

“Oh my God.” My heart is in my throat. “And…everyone else?”

“Cuts and scrapes, I think.” She pauses for a second. “It sounds like emotions were running high at practice today since they’ve lost the first two preseason games.”

That’s a line if I’ve ever heard one and I think we both know it. “Okay. I’ll, um, reach out to Max.”

On the other end of the line, Kiley is silent. But she doesn’t say goodbye.

I wince as I realize what she must be thinking. And the worst part is, she’s not wrong.

Before Ty, Kiley was cheated on repeatedly by her ex. Infidelity is a sore point for her—as it should be. It’s a horrible feeling to be cheated on.

It’s a horrible feeling to have your friend judge you for getting between teammates, too, though.

“If you talk to Rusty, too, let me know how he’s doing?” she finally says.

“I—”There’s strength in honesty.I swallow hard. “I will. But Kiley?—”

“It’s okay. I love you, babe. Whatever those two dummies were fighting over, that’s between them.”

“I owe you a long story sometime soon.”

“Is it podcast worthy?” She retracts that almost immediately. “Forget I said that. Bad instincts. But if you want to share a bottle of wine when you get back, I’m all ears.”

“Thank you. I love you, too.”

But when I hang up, I can’t stop thinking about her first instinct. A podcast about breaking up a hockey marriage is radically different than my original idea.

It’s scarier.

More raw.

More dangerous in so many ways. I don’t know where it would go. I can’t imagine how to craft a story that is still unfolding.

I look at Russell’s text message.I fucked up.

But here I am, sitting in another city, secretly arranging to meet up with someone from my past to benefit someone else who I want to shove into my past, when my heart is back in Hamilton, worried about Russ blaming himself for something that was probably inevitable. Between the two of us, I’m the one who is fucking up more.

I need to reply to him.

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