Page 103 of Branded
My voice cracked.
I pushed on. “For never making me feel like a disappointment.”
A hand on my cheek, brushing lightly against my beard. “Baby.”
I smiled. “Thanks for standing up for me.” A breath. “I clearly have some things to unpack with them. I…Brandon has done shit like that before, and I’ve always laughed it off. Never to that point,” I added. “Never that overt. But, yeah, he’s made the occasional sharp or snarky comment.”
“Maybe he saw you were happy and couldn’t take it.”
“Maybe.” But it seemed like more than that, more than just being jealous, and I didn’t know what to do with that.
Brandon was my older brother.
I’d always looked up to him.
Wanted to be like him.
To think that Brand had fostered this antipathy for years made me feel off-balanced.
Wrong.
Despite my mom’s assurances. Despite what Kailey said.
If my brother could think those things about me…then who else might?
“Baby?” Kailey whispered.
I blinked, pushed the question away. “It’s cold. Let’s get out of here and go home.”
A flex of her fingers, but her hand slid away, drifted down, and wove with mine. “Yeah, baby, let’s go home.”
I went out with my parents for breakfast the next morning.
Brandon had flown home early, and I was glad I hadn’t had to deal with my brother, not when I felt both settled because I fucking loved Kailey for speaking up for me when I knew how difficult it was for her, and that she’d done it for me…yeah, that fucking slayed me.
But I was supremely rattled.
I hadn’t known my brother had that much dislike for me, disdain for my abilities.
My parents had made it clear they were proud of me, and I hated that a part of me had needed those words, that they’d been like water to a parched desert. It wasn’t like they’d ever shirked on praise, and it concerned me that part of me needed that praise, especially since I was a fucking adult.
Maybe that wasn’t fair.
Maybe people always needed that from their parents.
Maybe so much had shifted in my mind in the last months that I needed that, especially now.
Lots to think about when I should be focusing on hockey.
I’d asked Kailey to come for part of the road trip. The team would be going to some big cities, places that would make for fun nights out. There were a few restaurants I’d love to take her to, ones I’d found on my walks through the cities, little hole-in-the-wall places and underrated tiny bistros with the best fucking food.
But Kailey couldn’t come.
She’d been working on that side project for Marcel’s dad in her spare time and was nearly done, so she’d decided to pass on the road trip, promising to get it done, so we’d spend my free weekend when I got back from the travel together.
I had plans for that weekend.
Plans that would get me through the next few days.
