Page 19 of Puck You Very Much

“Yeah, fucking great, Jack,” Dax replied flatly. “You wrote me a message saying,I’ll probably be traded to the Hawks soon. Congratulations. You did something right for once. I’m sure your medal is already on the way.”

Jack rubbed his face. “I don’t want a medal. I just want to talk.”

“Yeah, that much I gathered from all the texts you’ve been bullying me with. But you know what? Talking isn’t my strong suit. Ignoring you is. And hey, you know who taught me to focus on my strengths? You did.”

“Fantastic. So what are you planning to do, Dax?” Jack asked bleakly, his eyes suddenly hard. “Are you not going to look at me when you pass me the puck? Write little hateful messages on the foggy mirrors in the locker room? Stop passing to me so I can’t score? Give the press ammunition to tear us apart? You know as well as I do that if the team doesn’t trust me and they’re afraid of pissing you off when they’re nice to me, we’re going to suck on the ice. And, as I recall…” He narrowed his eyes. “No matter how different we are, we both love hockey. And we want to get to the damn playoffs. Besides, I’m not truly mad at you yet, just slightly irritated and annoyed. But if you ruin our season, we’ll have a completely different problem. And you know I’m still stronger than you. That much hasn’t changed.”

Dax’s entire body was now so tense he was afraid he would burst. But he wouldn’t give Jack the satisfaction of flying off the handle. That was what Jack expected from him. Yet even though so much was the same—Dax wasn’t.

“I don’t know why everyone is so worried,” Dax said calmly. “The press loves that we hate each other. Why not give them what they want?”

“I don’t hate you,” Jack replied calmly. “I never hated you.”

“Not a problem,” Dax said in a patronizing tone. “I have enough hate for both of us.”

Jack sighed and his shoulders sagged. “It’s been twelve years, Dax. It’s time to…I don’t know.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Get over it. If not for us, then at least for Anna. I plan to see her regularly. I want more. More than you’ve given me in the last few years.”

Dax clenched his hands in his pockets so that the edges of the dice pressed uncomfortably into his flesh, but when he spoke, his voice remained calm.

“You should have thought about that sooner, Jack. Before you left in the middle of the night and never came back. Shittiest birthday present ever.”

Jack sighed heavily and closed his eyes for a few moments. “I can’t change what happened, okay?” he finally mumbled, exhausted. “But you could quit keeping Anna away from me.”

"I’m not keeping her away,” he snapped. If Jack believed Dax had any say over Anna’s life, he didn’t know Anna very well. “If she doesn’t want to see you, that’s her decision. She has had a mind of her own since she was six, as you damn well know.”

“She feels like she’s betraying you if she so much as talks to me, Dax,” Jack snapped. “And I can’t be part of her life without being part of yours, too!”

“Of course you can,” he replied stiffly, even though the idea of Jack spending more time with Anna left a bitter taste in his mouth. “But maybe you shouldn’t if you’re just planning on leaving again. Last time, Anna cried for six days straight. And if she cries for seven this time, I might have to kill you.”

“Well, now you’re starting to piss me off,” Jack replied darkly.

“Great, I must be doing something right.”

Jack snorted and replied brusquely, his eyes narrowed, “I don’t care what you say or think, Dax. I won’t disappear again. I won’t leave you alone. I’m not the guy I was twelve years ago, but I’m still your damn brother. And that will never change.”

Dax’s stomach clenched and the old anger, the old disappointment that he hadn’t been able to let go of for over a decade rose inside him, burning hot in his veins and sour on his tongue.

“Half-brother,” he said between his teeth.

A muscle in Jack’s jaw twitched as if Dax had thrown his fist, but he didn’t lower his gaze. He had always been the one with nerves of steel. At times when Dax had lost his cool, Jack hadn’t so much as twitched.

“For me, it’s one and the same, Dax. Brother, half-brother, I don’t give a shit. And I don’t want your firstborn son, I just want you to talk to me! You’re my fucking family!”

Someone sucked in a sharp breath and they both whirled around in surprise.

They were no longer alone.

Lucy stood not three feet behind them.

And, judging by her shocked expression, she had heard most of their conversation.

Dax closed his eyes and sighed quietly.

Fuck.

Chapter 6

Oh, man.

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