Page 128 of Rebel Bride
Before I could respond, my phone rang with a call from Lauren.
“I’d better get this.” I stood and headed outside. “Yeah?”
“Don’t ‘yeah’ me, you asshole! Is this true?”
“It might be.”
“Might be? Don’t fucking mess with me, Kershaw. I will end you!”
I believed she would. “I helped her leave the wedding. Not planned or anything, I just happened to be there. She needed a place, so I kept her hidden for a bit.”
“Well, obviously not well enough! Wait until Carter hears.”
“Yeah, about that.” I filled her in on the latest episode in the Hatch-Summer-Carter psychodrama.
That earned me another profanity-laced tirade. Finally, she calmed down enough to come up with a plan. “I’ll put a call into Natalie in Rebels PR and try to get ahead of it. As for you? Go home and do not show your face until I tell you.”
As was my habit in times of stress, I headed to my parents’ house. I walked downstairs into the den to find Dad kneeling in front of the media cabinet.
“If it isn’t scandal in the flesh!”
“Oh, shut it. I’ve already heard about it from Mom and Lauren. Aurora thinks it’s great though.”
“That woman does love the drama. You can sell naming rights for her next martini. Rebels Love Triangle has a certain ring to it.”
I took a seat on the sofa. “What’s up?”
“I’m looking for the DVD from the first time I won the Cup.”
“That’s in the cloud, Dad. Addy digitized them all.”
“I know. I just like watching it on the old media—there it is!” He popped the disc in the player and sat beside me. It was Game 7 against LA, a game I’d watched a million times as a kid.
“This is one of your best.”
“Yep, I was on fire that game.” We watched for a couple of minutes, long enough for my dad to get whatever he needed from a twenty-five-year-old hockey game. Retirement was hard for him, and I expected he would be reliving the glory days for a while.
He turned to me and assessed my bruised jaw. “Carter?”
“Yep.”
“Within his rights, for sure. But now that it’s out in the open, you and Summer can finally figure this out.”
I groaned.
“No?”
“She doesn’t want to be second-best in any relationship.”
My dad nodded his understanding. “Listen, I know all about waiting out a woman. Your mother tried my patience to the extreme before you were born. She was spooked, and I was fucking perfect.”
I rolled my eyes. “Can’t say I’ve been perfect. But I have been all in. Once I knew she was truly free from Carter, I pursued her. I knew she wanted a job in this business, and I made that happen. But it was the wrong move.”
A grimace this time. “Did you really think that taking away her agency was the way to go? She wants you to sympathize, empathize, listen. Not throw your weight and wealth around.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from personal experience.”
My dad gave me a wry smile. “So, you know a lot about how your mom and I got together.”
