Page 77 of False Play
“Then let me be the first,” I rasped. It was difficult to breathe with the way my heart stabbed my ribs so painfully. “You’re a force to be reckoned with, Kennedy Jones.” I smiledwhen she took a sharp inhale and dropped her gaze. “Talented, fierce, and fearless. Don’t let anyone ever make you believe otherwise.” My hands found the nape of her neck, and I tilted her face, forcing her to meet my stare. “And if you, for some reason,everforget, I’ll be here to remind you. Every fucking day if I have to. Okay?”
Her brown eyes swam with an unspoken emotion. Like I somehow managed to tear down the ironclad walls she kept up to keep people out. People had this perception of Kennedy because it’s what she allowed them to see. A mask she kept so close to her face it made it impossible to break through. But it had finally cracked, just the tiniest bit, at my words.
I was a determined man on a mission. However long this fake relationship would last, I would make my damndest sure to help her see she didn’t have to be like this. She didn’t have to hide from me.Neverme.
I wanted to be her safe space.
It wasn’t lost on me I was also living under a lie and keeping people at arm’s length. But there was a key difference between us.
It was already too late to save myself. But a woman as wonderful and strong as she was didn’t deserve that kind of fate. I had become accustomed to the loneliness life had given me. The suffocating feeling that wrapped its hands around my throat with a vise grip.
Solitude was a dear old friend of mine.
But the emptiness, the anger, the desolation it offered wasn’t something I wanted for her.
EIGHTEEN
KENNEDY
IT CAN BE OUR LITTLE SECRET.
The Strikers had been playingokay these past two weeks, for the most part. But tonight was one of those nights the team couldn’t connect, despite all of their efforts. The team dynamic was alarmingly lacking, and I wondered if it had to do with a certain center who was still being kept off the ice. These guys were like family. They played well because they were like a well-oiled machine, and one of the core members had been stripped from them.
We were almost wrapped up in the media room, where reporters had been throwing question after hard questions at Liam Donovan. Thankfully, he was a level-headed guy and a total media veteran. He knew how to manage. It was one of the many reasons he was captain of the team for the third season in a row. The team trusted him, and the organization did, too.
“Kenny,” I heard Val whisper. I looked over my shoulder and found her standing at the door entrance, beckoning me with her fingers.
I glanced at Donovan to make sure he was still good. He was casually talking and making jokes with the reporters,so I turned my attention back to Val and approached her. “What’s up?”
“Have you talked to Anderson yet? He probably took the loss hard, huh?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I haven’t.”
But he had been stuck in my mind for the past hour. I hadn’t seen him roaming the halls even though we drove together today. He’d been doing a great job avoiding the media like I’d explicitly told him to.
But I also knew better.
The team had a good streak this week. We had three back-to-back away games and won all of them. But ever since he got benched, he took every loss extremely hard.
My stomach turned sour with worry. I wished there was something I could do. Henry was a typical goofball around people. But when he was away from the public, there were these flickers of moments when he looked…almost sad, defeated.
He needed to get out of his head, and the perfect idea popped into my head. “Let’s do an impromptu team dinner at Henry’s.” It was a Sunday, and they had an early afternoon game, so it wasn’t that late, and they didn’t have any games for the next two days. It was the perfect opportunity for them to get together.
I stopped to think for a moment.
Was this a good idea?
Was it even my place to do something like this?
I wasn’t his real girlfriend, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to appreciate it. I only wanted to do something nice for him. He was my roommate, and I’d like to think we were sort of…friends. He would have done the same for me if he had to. He’d proven that much already.
Val’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “I’m sure they’ll lovethat. Look at you, trying to make your man happy.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
All I could do was offer her a small smile at her comment. Any day now, I was going to explode and confess everything to her, because I needed someone to talk to about these confusing-as-fuck feelings I’d been experiencing.
“Can you put in an order for that taco place we like and pick it up with Owens? Then I’ll go back home with Henry to make sure the apartment is set,” I said.
The idea wasn’t bad. The guys could use some fun time and maybe spend a relaxing day out of the media frenzy and off the ice to regroup.
