Page 118 of Rebel Bride
Why, thank you, Summer!
Still with the snark, Shelby Mae?
After that detour, Hatch brought the conversation back to the main road.
“Carter said you didn’t have any family at all. That’s why Addy made sure all the team sat on your side.”
In a way, the Rebels were my family, so it made sense even if they didn’t quite understand how much it meant to me.
I swallowed. “I must seem like a strange duck to you. So alone I need the seat-filling services of an entire hockey franchise.”
“I’m lucky I have a big family, and the way my dad has connected with players and more over the years, it feels like this huge network I can rely on. I can’t imagine not having them. With that said, there’s plenty of love and support to go around, Summer. It’s not a finite resource.”
Tears thickened my throat. “I do love being a part of this org. I wasn’t close with my mom. She drank a lot and treated me like her property. She hooked up with this guy …”
Hatch looked alarmed.
I placed a hand on his arm. “No, it wasn’t like that. But he arranged for me to marry someone, an older man who was a pastor in Thunder Creek.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “But you were sixteen.”
“You can marry with parental consent at that age. Or you can be forced to marry because most kids are owned by their parents. I knew if I ended up trapped like that, I’d never leave. Next would be babies and a life I couldn’t escape.”
“You ran.”
“My special skill, right? I’m obviously not destined to be a bride. I thought I was making my own choices with Dash, but apparently, I was just sleepwalking into another cage, one of my own making. I think hearing Mrs. C talking about these future kids of ours was the trigger to wake me up, right after I’d quit my job. I was about to lose all autonomy, like a Stepford Wife, and Dash was completely on board.”
His thumb rubbed my wrist, its stroke incredibly soothing. “But you figured it out. And now you can do anything you want, Sunshine.”
But I wouldn’t marry. I wouldn’t cede my independence ever again. What that meant for my future with Hatch … well, I couldn’t think of that now.
Anxious to turn my mind in a more positive direction, I changed the subject. “I have something to show you.”
He gifted me a wicked grin.
“Behave, Dino Boy. Last night, I ran a couple of reports for Lauren and sent them to her.”
“Very cool.”
“It is. I love getting into the weeds of analyzing stuff, which made me think about your stats from last season.”
His face fell. “Not so cool.”
I shook my head. “Actually, it kind of is. It would be easier to demonstrate on a laptop. Do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
We moved to the sofa, and I used the guest login he had given me in Saugatuck to access my profile on his laptop, which meant I could pop right into my Box account and open the files. Hatch sat close, but not close enough, giving me the space I’d asked for, though in truth, space was the last thing I wanted from this man.
I was so gone for him.
I refocused on the task at hand. “I ran an analysis on your playing stats from last season, looking for patterns based on who you were playing with.”
“Other teams?”
“Other Rebels players. Analysts will do this to ascertain which players might be more compatible, which lines work best, that kind of thing. First off, I was interested in the times you and your dad played together versus when you didn’t. And funnily enough you played much the same regardless of whether you were on the same roster or not.”
He frowned. “Okay. So you’re saying I still sucked even if my dad was on the same ice.”
