Page 23 of Gloves Off

“I, um, I’m going to accept it. I’m giving it to the hospital.” I look up, meeting their eyes. “For the athlete injury recovery program.”

They stare at me for a long time. Terror spikes up my throat. I haven’t said a word about the program getting axed, but they know what it means to me.

They’ve figured it out.

“God, we’re proud of you.” My dad hangs his head, smiling. “How did we get such a good kid?” he asks my mom.

“We raised her right.” She glances down at the floor. “Hugo Greene is probably rolling in his grave at you using the money to help people.”

I laugh. “I didn’t think of that.”

“And you know what we always say,” my dad adds.

“The higher the heels,” I raise my glass, “the closer to heaven.”

My mom laughs. “That’s my girl.”

“Not quite.” He grins between us, amused.

“More sequins, more sparkles.”

He chuckles. “Also no. Money doesn’t buy happiness.”

“Hear, hear.” My mom toasts with Jordan, who knows that lesson better than anyone.

My dad looks to Jordan. “We’re proud of you, too, kid. Running that bar by yourself. Self-made, working hard.”

“Your mom would be proud,” my mom says.

“Thanks, guys.” Jordan’s eyes flicker with emotion before she blinks and it’s gone.

That’s what I love about my parents—they treat Jordan like another daughter.

My stress level descends to normal as the conversation moves on. On the ride home, Jordan looks over at me from the driver’s seat.

“They bought it.”

I nod, staring out the window as we pass the houses in my parents’ neighborhood. “Let’s hope everyone else does, too.”

CHAPTER 11

GEORGIA

“Well, now,”I say to Darcy a few days later at the Filthy Flamingo for her engagement party, wrapping her in a tight hug. “Let me see it.”

Earlier today, Hayden gave everyone a heads-up that he would be proposing to the woman who had been his best friend for eight years. The bar is filled with Vancouver Storm players, partners, and team staff.

She obediently holds out her hand, blushing, her lavender hair around her shoulders in soft waves. I inspect her ring, a sparkling cluster of white lab-grown diamonds around a pink diamond, like the cherry tree blossoms that bloom around Vancouver in the spring.

So soft and romantic. So Darcy.

“It turned out beautifully. Just beautifully.”

Seeing someone head over heels like Hayden is for Darcy makes my heart ache with sweetness. They’re so meant to be. I can already picture them living out their lives together, hand in hand, teasing each other, smiling at each other, laughing at their private jokes.

The back of my neck prickles, and my eyes cut to Volkov, glaring at me while in conversation with Rory and Hayden. He’s kept to the other side of the bar all night with rigidity, like the distance between us is court mandated.

I picture us in fifty years. I’m at his funeral, watching his casket being lowered into the ground, flipping him double middle fingers.

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