Page 17 of Man Advantage

As my thoughts caught up, though, I peered at him. “If this is just about getting your schedule into a groove—why the short notice?”

He tsked and rolled his eyes again. “Because hockey season is about to start? And I didn’t want?—”

“And you weren’t willing to give me some time to make a solid long-term plan?” I flailed a hand. “I get it, okay? But you couldn’t even cope with our current arrangement for a few extra weeks while I locked something down?” I gestured at the house behind me. “Andyou get pissed at me when I do the best I can in the very, very tight window you gave me? What do youwantfrom me, Bryan?”

He held my gaze for several long, uncomfortable seconds.

Then he turned on his heel and headed for his car, throwing over his shoulder, “I’ll see at the usual time to pick up the kids.”

Before I could respond, he was in the car. The engine rumbled to life, and he pulled away, leaving me alone on the porch steps of the house we’d built together.

What the fuck did I everseein you?

Whathappenedto us?

CHAPTER 6

CAM

I could tellby Trev’s gait that Bryan’s departure hadn’t gone well. They’d been out there a little longer than I’d expected, and now Trev was practically shuffling through the foyer and back toward the kitchen.

And like, was I even surprised? Though things had settled down enough for us to get through that uncomfortable conversation, the animosity between them had been impossible to ignore. The first couple of minutes after they’d gone outside, I’d just closed my eyes and taken a few deep breaths, relievedthatwas over.

Trev hadn’t had a chance to decompress, and from the way he was moving—from the way he looked ready to faceplant on the nearest horizontal surface—I suspected he’d been far more stressed by the whole thing than I was.

I rose from the couch to join him in the kitchen. “Hey. Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” He gave a heavy sigh as he trudged to the fridge. “I need a beer. You want one?”

“Uh. Sure. Yeah. I’ll take one.”

He pulled out two bottles, cracked them open, and handed me one. In silence, we moved back to the couch where we’d sat earlier. He dropped onto the cushion, then he took a deep pull from his beer. With a heavy sigh, he let his head fall back against the couch and closed his eyes.

Ugh. Seeing him like that was heartbreaking. Some part of me struggled to fathom the two of them together. That there’d ever been a time when they were all about being in love and planning a future and starting a family. They’d married and adopted kids. They’d built a house. It was hard to picture that with the way they were now.

Except I knew all too well how a relationship could take a hard downward turn, leaving a smoldering crater where love and a future used to be.

I sipped my beer. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” He wiped a hand over his face. With a heavy sigh, he pressed his beer bottle to his forehead. “I swear, he and I were happy once.”

God, that was heartbreaking. The exhaustion radiating off him. The sadness and resignation in those words.

“It’s hard when things go south.” Ugh, that sounded so stupid and useless, but I didn’t know what else to say. “You, um… Do you think he’ll still let you hire me? Like, he won’t find some way to weasel out of it?”

“Nah, he won’t try to get out of it.” Trev lowered the bottle and looked at me with exhausted eyes. “He’s not happy, and he’ll probably find reasons to bitch about you for a while, but he’ll let it go.” He stared at nothing for a moment. “Honestly, I think once he’s had a few weeks of a normal every-other-week custody agreement during the regular season, he’ll back off.”

“You do?”

He gestured toward the front of the house with his beer. “He said something out there about how hard he’s been strugglingwith having chaotic custody exchanges for half the year. Where both of our lives are dictated by the team’s schedule, even though he shouldn’t have to deal with that now that we’re not married anymore.” He brought the bottle up again. “Pretty sure he’ll get over any issues he has with you after his first taste of the new schedule.”

I thumbed the label on my own beer bottle. “Maybe? I mean, hopefully. But I don’t think he likes me.”

“Dude, I could’ve hired his own mother, and he’d have found reasons to complain,” Trev grumbled. “He used to be really chill and easygoing, but ever since we separated, he’s insisted on digging in his heels and pushing back on everything. Literally everything.”

“Exes,” I muttered. “What can you do?”

“Right.” He took another drink. “By the way—that thing about the ice cream toppings…” He gave a little nod. “That probably got his attention and made him realize you actually give a shit.”

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