Page 73 of Face Off
After a long bout of silence getting lost in my thoughts, he adds, “I just don’t want you to paint this picture in your head, of Hayley, you, and Cam as a happy family. When in reality, Cam is Boyce’s. Boyce will be in his life forever. And what happens when she craves to have her family together all the time? Will you just leave?” He releases a breath. “I’m just trying to understand.”
I scoff at the hint of condescension in his voice. “Is there a problem with wanting more than just hockey?” I challenge. Just when I thought the team was on my side about Hayley being a member of the family. I guess we’re back to square one now.
Great.
“No,” he counters. “But is it worth risking your hockey career altogether?”
“Fuck, man.” I grind my teeth together while gripping the phone a little tighter to keep from lashing out.
“Asking the tough questions is all a part of the job,” he teases.
“I appreciate that, man, but it’s not necessary.”
“Whatever you say.” He sighs. “Well, on that note, I should probably get off and actually take that nap you scolded me about earlier.”
I shake my head. “Now you wanna take my advice?”
“Yeah,” he says through a chuckle. “It won’t be the same not cuddling with you, but I think I’ll survive. Maybe I can get Denizen to snuggle for a few.”
“You’re a sick fuck, you know that, right?”
“Hey, no one said I was a saint. I’ll call you after the game tonight. You can grill us on our performance.”
“Just make it into the fucking playoffs, you hear me? We’re taking the Cup this year.”
“Aye-aye, captain,” he says as I imagine his fake salute before disconnecting the call.
I drop the phone on the bed beside me, my head hanging between my shoulders as I reflect on what Halloway said. It’s like he was trying to warn me. Warn me that I’m going to make the same mistakes like in Chicago.
God, I should have known better than to open up to him about Tiffany and the Chicago incident. I almost lost my entire career back then. But I refuse to think that I will end up in thesame predicament. As I said before, Hayley is different from Tiffany.
She’d never lie to me.
Right?
Hayley
As soon as we arrive at the testing site, I know it’s a bad idea, as Boyce strolls toward us with his fiancée hand in hand.
Yeah, this is not how today is supposed to go.
Contact with Boyce isn’t supposed to be made until the custody mediation later this evening. Unless by some chance things have changed and Jess has forgotten to fill me in. However, the look on her face right now says otherwise. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this pissed before.
“What the fuck is going on?” Brooks asks, gripping my hand tighter. I pull Camden behind me.
“Stay here,” Jess says as she takes off toward Boyce, heels clacking along the pavement with purpose.
“Did you know he was going to be here?”
“No.”
“Mom?” Camden says, grabbing my free hand. “I wanna see him.”
“Camden. Not now.”
“What? Why? He’s my dad.”
“Camden.” I turn around, pleading with him. “We need to get through this test. I know he’s your father, but I…” I hesitate, observing the body language between Jess and Boyce. “We need to keep our distance for now.”
