Page 56 of Dirty Rebound (Slayers Hockey 3)

Getting off the plane, the guys are quiet, heading to the cars without the usual trash talk and joking around. We’ll bounce back tomorrow. Tonight, all I want is to see Cammy. I want to get lost in her kiss and her smile and the smell of her hair when I hold her close and bury my face in it. I want that feeling of peace and contentment I only ever really find around her. The calm that doesn’t come easy to me.

Once I dump my gear in the trunk, I climb into the driver’s seat and pull out my phone to text that I’m on my way. There’s a voicemail from an unknown number. My agent mentioned I’d be getting a call from one of the companies we closed an endorsement deal with last week, so I click through to listen. I’m expecting some overly enthusiastic voice to boom through the line looking to coordinate meetings. I’m not expecting the hesitant voice of the ghost from my past.

Beth.

My gut turns to lead and my skin feels itchy and tight as she stammers about getting my number from my mother. How she’s sorry for calling after all this time but a reporter contacted her. That he was asking questions. She didn’t tell him anything, but she thought I should know.

I disconnect the phone and climb out of the car. I need to breathe. I need to move. I need to put my fist into the concrete pylon in the garage, but somehow there’s enough going on upstairs I don’t do it.

She didn’t tell him anything.

It won’t be a story.

No one is going to know.

Cammy and Matty won’t—

I walk a few feet, stop in front of the garbage bin, and vomit.

Chapter 20

Rux

Fucking Jeremy.

This guy is on my list. And yeah, the last couple weeks haven’t been the most chill of my career, but I’m handling it. And I’m standing firm in my assertion…it’s him, not me, who’s the asshole.

I get that he wants to spend time with Matty. But lately, the guy seems to be finding one reason after another to be around. Particularly when I’ve got a game night or I’m out of town.

Case in point, the chode is parked on Cammy’s couch, looking for all the world like he’s settled in for a night at home with his family.

Babe, I’m already at the store. Just tell me what you need and let me save you a trip.

What a guy.

And with thebabebusiness again. Every time he “slips up” it’s followed by that sorry, not sorry shrug and some bullshit about old habits dying hard. I’m never calling her babe again.

Fuck. Him.

I should have pushed harder when I offered that grocery service six months ago. Because now Matty’s gone and invitedSpecial Delivery Dadto dinner and Cammy, being the softy she is, said yes.

My teeth are about to turn to dust with the way I’m grinding them.

It’s the perfect night to be up against the Epics. I need an outlet. That said, I really don’t want to leave, but O’Brian’s downstairs waiting for me.

“Time to go?” Cammy asks, looking up from the meal I won’t be able to stay for, but Jeremy will. Matty vaults over the back of the couch, apologizing to his mom even as he skids up to me.

He grins. “I’ve been practicing jumping the boards so I can be like you.”

And hell, my heart melts right there, my mind blinking back to that night right before Jeremy moved back. It had been him and me while Cammy was out with the girls. He’d looked up at me with those solemn little eyes and told me he wished I could be his dad.

I’d had to take a couple of breaths before I could answer. Before I could tell him the truth, that I would have been the luckiest guy in the world if I’d gotten to be his dad. But that I was happy I got the next best thing—which was being his friend.

He’d wrapped his arms around me while my heart fucking broke.

There are not words for how much I love this kid.

Cammy laughs, ruffling his hair, and I go down on my knee and give him a hug.

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