Page 44 of Face Off
Hayley doesn’t say anything, just continues to stare as if she’s a deer caught in the headlights. I give her hand a squeeze as she looks over at me, a petrified look on her face. “Cam, why don’t you go wait for me by the door with Cassidy and Brooks?”
“Are you sure you want me to leave?”
She gives me a slight nod before placing a chaste kiss on my lips. “I’ll only be a minute.”
“I’ll be right over there if you need me,” I say before turning to stand with Cassidy by the visiting team entrance.
I step next to Cassidy, still keeping an eye on Hayley as she talks to Boyce. I can’t help but wonder how she knows him and why he is so gung-ho on talking to her. The possessive side of me wants to go over there and claim her, protect her, but I respect her wishes enough to know that whatever is going on, now is not the time to intervene.
“How does Boyce know Hayley?” I ask, glancing at a nervous Cassidy.
She clears her throat and looks down at her hands. “We all went to high school together.” Her response is clipped and short.
I nod as I continue watching Hayley. She looks clearly upset. Is there more to this than Cassidy is leading on? I can’thelp but want to confront the asshole. I clench my fist to my sides as I ask the dreaded question that’s now eating at me.
“Did Hayley and him date or something?”
“I think it’s better if she explained things to you.”
I go to interject but don’t because Hayley storms over to us, pissed off and upset over whatever Boyce said. I should knock his ass out for whatever he did to make her so distraught. I take her by the waist, pulling her close to me as she buries her head in my chest.
“Everything okay?” I ask as she nuzzles deeper.
Pulling back, she looks at me with red-rimmed eyes. “No, but I will be. Let’s go. You have a game to win.”
As much as I want to drill her on what he wanted, I know now isn’t the time or the place. Yet, the pit in my stomach tells me a storm is heading our way.
Hayley
“Is that him?” Boyce says as I put some distance between us and them.
The last time I saw Boyce, he was playing for the New York Edge. Camden was two at the time, and I had brought him down to the glass to watch the guys warm up. Boyce skated right by us and didn’t even bat an eye in our direction. It cut like a knife. Reminding me of the harsh reality that he left me, abandoned us. I swore if I ever saw him again, I’d let him have it. And I guess there’s no better time like the present.
“Why does it matter to you, Boyce?”
Boyce stands a little taller, straightening out his suit jacket before crossing his arms over his chest. “Well, for one, he’s my child as you claimed all these years. I think I deserve that right to meet him.”
He can’t be serious.
He’s had years to message me, call me, write me for Christ’s sake to meet Camden. In fact, if this would have been years ago, I would have been open to it. Prime example was atCamden’s first game when he was two. But that was then, and this is now. He’s lost the right to see Cam.
“Really?” I can’t help but scoff. “You think you have the right to waltz into his life. Tell him you’re the absent father who’s been missing from his life for the last ten years and want to have a relationship with him. I think the fuck not, Boyce.”
“Hayl,” he says, reaching out to grab my wrist.
I yank it away roughly, narrowing my eyes in disgust at him. “Don’t Hayl me, Boyce. You’ve had years to meet him, but you’re not doing that now. He doesn’t need his life fucked up.” I glance over to where Brooks, Camden, and Cassidy are waiting for me. “Why are you doing this… Is it because you’re engaged? Is this some sort of ruse to make your future Mrs. think you’re this stand-up guy?”
“Vince said…”
“Vince said what?” I look at him as his eyes drift to Brooks. “Oh, I see. Vince said that Brooks was involved in my life. Involved in Camden’s life, and you just can’t stand the fact that someone has finally come into my life to make me happy. To make Camden happy. To be there for us like you should have been,” I whisper shout at him. “Am I wrong?”
“Hayl…”
“Babe?” a modelesque blonde calls out, walking toward us. “I thought you’d be inside now, warming up. You know how my father is. Needs his top player at his best!” she says before glancing at me as if I’m trying to steal her man. Believe me, honey, I don’t want him; he’s all yours. “And you are?”
“Just leaving. Have a nice life, Boyce.”
“Hayley, we need to talk about this,” he yells as I walk back toward Brooks, Camden, and Cassidy.
