Page 2 of Jesse and the Ice Princess
"I live to please."
Jesse laughed, but he couldn't get her words out of his head. The Hurricanes hadn't always been bad. When he made the team as the only freshman, they won the league. Now, in his senior year, the season was almost halfway over, and they had yet to win a game.
"We have to do something."
Cass narrowed her eyes. "Who is this 'we' you're talking about? You remember who I am, right?"
He did. Cassandra Carrigan didn't do people. In fact, she avoided them at all costs. Two years ago, she’d been walking in downtown Tampa with their parents when a gunman shot their mom. She'd watched their mother die in front of her, and since then, she refused to go out in public. Two years of taking high school classes online and staying in the house had turned her into a hermit.
Jesse never pushed her, but he invited her to the rink whenever he was sure it would be relatively empty. She watched his games, but from the safety of her bedroom on a delayed stream.
He shook thoughts of his mom and that awful day away. "Okay, I need to do something about it. It's my last year of playing. I can't let us go down in such dramatic flames."
She kicked her feet against the wall. "It's not like you can suddenly teach these guys how not to fall on their butts."
"No, but there has to be something." His team shouldn't be as bad as they were. They played in top-notch facilities owned by their coach. He lifted his eyes to the rafters where old team banners hung. Their coach played for a decade in the NHL, and he couldn’t even whip them into shape.
"I think the guys need a bit of tough love. I'd basically pay you to go all captain on Roman."
"Roman?" He laughed. "He and Damien are the only guys on the team who can put the puck in the back of the net. Besides me, of course."
"So humble, brother."
He grinned. Most people just thought of Cassie as the golden boy's weird sister, but she was his best friend. Everyone else would love her too, if they got a chance to get to know her.
Living in Gulf City, Florida was like living in a fish bowl. Everyone knew everything about their neighbors. Locals glommed together to withstand the tourist seasons. It had its benefits, to be so close to everyone you grew up with, but for anyone different, it wasn't such a good thing.
He wanted an easier life for his sister, just like he wanted his team to win a game. One.
But neither seemed possible.
"Think we should get home?" Cass hopped off the wall.
Jesse’s shoulders dropped. "Probably. Dad said he had to work today, so Will and Eli are probably driving him up a wall."
The twins were six when they lost their mom. Jesse didn't know if that made it easier for them, or if it was better to have both the years of memories and the grief.
Since that day, their family changed in more ways than just losing a mom. Jesse loved his dad and was grateful he provided for them, but he put all of his grief into his work and never quite came back from it. As a high-profile lawyer, his clients were demanding.
His kids tried to be less so.
Jesse took care of his siblings when he could. Sometimes he was all they had. He was lucky to have Cass and Mary—the twins’ part-time caretaker.
"Yo, Jess!" Roman's voice boomed across the ice. The tall, blond boy waved from his spot near the tunnel to the locker rooms.
Cassie went still. She knew Roman, Jessie's best friend. He’d once been her friend too, yet she rarely spoke to him … or anyone else anymore.
"You okay?" Jesse asked. It was a question he knew bothered his sister because she never wanted to answer it. Yet, he worried about her, and that would never change.
She nodded.
He gave her a long look before skating across the ice. "Rome, man." They bumped fists as they'd done a million times before in their lives. "What are you doing here?"
"Lifting in the weight room." He shrugged. "Have to keep my strength up.” For what, neither of them knew. Even his optimistic best friend knew their hockey season was toast.
"Some of us are actually preparing for the next hockey game."
He flashed his teeth in a half-smirk, half-smile thing Roman was good at. "Good on you, man. Still trying."
