Page 98 of Skating to Him
I stared at Dorsey. He owned the bar? How the hell did he know Knight? With my gaze landing on Rowan, I rushed to him, grabbed his arm, and helped him sit up. “You okay?” Cupping his cheek, I turned his face to mine. “Shit.” His lip was split and bleeding, and a bruise was forming under his left eye. “We should probably get you home and put some ice on your face.”
“But I wanted to take you to the gay bar.” He slumped and scoffed. “This is so fucked up.”
“I’ve got some ice.” Dorsey patted my shoulder. “You get him back to the table.” He strode away.
Teddy knelt beside us. “Rowan, isn’t that the guy?—”
“Yeah. We played his team a few months ago, and he tried to fuck me up on the ice too. I don’t know why he won’t leave it alone. Fuck.” Rowan stood with our help, and we walked him to the table. As he sat in his chair, he said, “This is so stupid. I can’t believe that fucker would come looking for me. Again.”
A busser scurried to pick up the dishes from the floor.
Sitting beside Rowan, I fingered the knot forming on my forehead and moved my aching jaw. I could probably use some ice as well.
Rowan grabbed my chin and turned my face to his. “Shit, Tyler. Your head and jaw are bruising.”
“I think we should get you both home. Let’s call an Uber.” Teddy picked up his phone.
Dorsey strode to us with rags and ice in a bowl. “Here you go, boys. That Knight kid has some nerve coming in here and picking a fight with you boys.” He planted his hands on his hips.
“I, uh, take it you own this bar?” I set a few ice cubes into a rag and pressed it to my forehead.
“I do. Justin Knight comes in here all the time with his buddies when he’s on break from school.” He tutted. “Last time he was here, he’d broken up with his girl and got hammered.”
Rowan groaned. “I wonder if it was the same one…” With a pack of ice pushed to his eye, he peeked at Dorsey. “He’s pissed at me because a few years ago, I hooked up with his girlfriend at a frat party at Boston College. Problem was, she didn’t tell me she had a boyfriend. I didn’t know.”
“The kid’s got a screw loose.” With a huff, Dorsey shook his head. “Anyway, I’ll take half off your bill. How’s that?”
“That’s very generous of you, sir.” Teddy, sitting across from me, gave him a charming smile and then focused on me. “I have an Uber coming for us.”
“Good.” I looked down as Rowan’s phone lit up on the table with a text from Aaron. “Hey, your brother is texting you.” I pushed the phone toward him. Hopefully, it wasn’t something bad about his mother.
“Oh.” Rowan tapped on the screen and held the phone up. “Shit.” With his jaw clenching, he turned the phone to face me.
An image of our kiss, taken from the side, was displayed with the text.
Aaron
WTF? You’re gay? Why didn’t you tell me?
I stared at the photo. “Knight must have taken it, but how the hell would your brother have it?” My gaze cut to Rowan’s as he dropped the ice pack and scrubbed his face. “Are you okay?”
“What?” Teddy’s gaze darted between us.
Rowan showed him his phone. “I have no idea how he got the photo. That son of a bitch.” He scoffed.
Teddy’s brows furrowed, and then he pulled his phone out of his pocket, tapped on it, and said, “It’s from your Instagram account. Knight replied to a comment from your brother withthe photo of you two and”—he pursed his lips—“a fairly derogatory comment.”
A waiter dropped off our check.
“Goddamnit.” With fire burning in my chest, I yanked my phone out of my pocket and opened Instagram, then tapped on Rowan’s profile. The image of the three of us showed, along with a comment from Aaron reading,have a great time, bro. A reply to the comment showed the photo of our kiss along with the caption,this dude sucks his teammate’s cock,watch out for him on the ice.As I reread the caption, I rubbed my fingers over my chin. “Delete the comment with the image and block that fucker.” As far as we knew, only Rowan’s brother had seen it. But that was bad enough.
“Good idea.” Rowan stabbed at the screen on his phone and then tossed it onto the table. “What the hell am I supposed to tell Aaron?”
“The truth.” Teddy shrugged a shoulder. “First, we pay our bill, then we get in our Uber and talk about this.”
After paying our bill, we all climbed into the back seat of an SUV at the curb with me in the middle. Teddy would be the first one dropped off, since he lived on our way home.
Rowan gazed at me, the purple around his eye growing and the lid swelling. The crack in his lip had stopped bleeding. “What if Aaron went to Dad?”
