Page 108 of Man Advantage

I was no expert at the sport, but there were nights when Trev seemed to understand the game even less than I did. When he’d get the puck on his stick and suddenly not seem to know what he should do with it. Or when a teammate would send him a pass because he was wide open, and the puck would just go sailing past him; that happened sometimes anyway, but it was conspicuously frequent now. The commentators noticed. His coach evidently noticed, because Trev had been knocked to the third line for the last couple of games. Even the boys noticed.

“I don’t think Dad likes hockey anymore,” Zane said one night as we watched a game on TV.

“You don’t?” I asked.

He shook his head. “He’s playing like my friend Hayden did right before he quit soccer.”

I almost whistled. The lack of enthusiasm was definitely coming through if a seven-year-old could pick up on it.

And I didn’t imagine any of this was going to get any easier for Trev as long as he had to keep coming home to me. It wasn’t getting any easier for me either.

Maybe waiting for the end of the season was a bad idea. Maybe I needed to rip off this bandage sooner than later. Or be proactive and find some people in the area who might be able to take my place, so once he hired them, I could exit stage left. Or… something. I needed to do something to break this tension before one or both of us lost our minds, or before it started doing serious damage to his career.

One way or another, something had to give, and soon.

I couldn’t keep hurting Trev or myself like this.

CHAPTER 33

TREV

“Oh. I wasn’t expecting—”Bryan stared at me through the condo’s open door. Then he recovered, put on a smile, and greeted the boys, who were standing behind me. After they’d gone to put their stuff down in their rooms, he turned to me, and his momentary confusion had returned. “I… thought Cam would be bringing the kids by.”

“He’s busy,” I said flatly. “And they are my kids, you know.”

He pursed his lips. “Yeah, but you had—there was practice, so?—”

“Well, it’s me today.”

Bryan studied me. “Did you two… you and Cam…”

I winced. “We’re, um… We’re working on some things.”

That was a half-truth. Yeah, we’d broken up. I hadn’t been able to give Cam an argument for why weshouldn’t—not without compromising his sense of safety—but for the last few days, I’d been tying myself in knots trying to come up with a solution. Now I was almost certain I’d found one, but I had no idea if Cam would go for it. I had no idea if there was any saving us. All I could do was try. I’d just wanted to wait until the boys were outof the house so they didn’t overhear anything. Now they were with Bryan, so…

“I need to get going,” I told him.

“No about updates about the boys?” Bryan demanded. “There’s absolutely nothing?”

I paused. Truth be told, I didn’t know if there was. I’d been too distracted and too much of a mess to be the parent my sons needed. And things had been too weird with Cam for me to check in with him to see if I needed to pass something on to Bryan. God, I was just winning all over the place, wasn’t I?

I made a mental note to make up for it when the boys were back at my place, because they sure as shit deserved better than that. Cam did too, and hopefully I’d have the chance to smooth things over with him.

And Bryan…

Well, I wasn’t usually one to be petty, but he could figure it the fuck out this week. God knew he’d left Cam to do the same a few times. Hopefully I could be forgiven for being petty this one time. I was exhausted. From Chats. From Bryan. From this canyon between me and Cam. I needed to have a conversation with Cam and unfuck our situation, and I?—

“What is going on with you?” Bryan snapped. “Look, whatever drama is happening between you and your boyfriend, it shouldn’t be interfering with how we parent our?—”

“But it’s okay foryourboyfriend’s bullshit to drive wedges in all over the place?” I threw back with sudden fury, making both of us jump.

And now that I’d said it—fuck it. I wasn’t taking it back.

“Did he tell you he outed me and Cam to the team?” I demanded.

Bryan’s eyebrows jumped. “He—what?” Then he scoffed. “Everyone already knew you two were?—”

“No, they didn’t. They suspected, but nobody confirmed anything untilyour boyfrienddecided to trot it out. And not only that, but he managed to insult the hell out of Cam in the process.” I glared hard at my ex. “What’s it like, huh? Being with a man who thinks someone like Cam isbeneathhim? Just because he’s a nanny?” I made a disgusted sound. “I knew you loved the high life, but I didn’t think you were into the hardcore elitist types.”

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