Page 115 of Her Greatest Mistake

I can feel his glare boring holes in my back as I miss another pass from Bentley and narrowly avoid the urge to toss my stick across the ice.

Practice has been a nightmare. I don’t want to be here. My head isn’t in it. I haven’t stopped thinking about Braxton since the moment I watched her drive off, and this bad feeling in my gut won’t lay off.

“Set up again! Nobody is leaving here until Hutton makes a fucking shot.”

My forwards offer me sympathetic smiles as we set up again, and Bentley starts skating to the net, grabbing a puck along the way. I take a deep breath and move along my side of the ice, prepping for the pass. Sliding into the slot, I prepare for the pass, but as soon as I get the puck, I shoot it off and completely miss the net. It tings off the crossbar, and I lose it.

My stick comes down on the boards, and the crack that follows tells me I’ve broken it. I drop it on the ice and rip off my gloves next, tucking them beneath my arm as I throw my body over the boards and take off down the hallway.

“Maddox! Enough of the tantrums! Bring your ass back here right now before I bench you for the next game,” Coach threatens, but I keep walking.

This team means nothing to me anymore. Not after what happened earlier.

I come thundering into the locker room and start shredding off my gear. The Hutton on the back of my jersey doesn’t give me the same thrill it did a year ago. Back then, it was everything. Now? Now it’s just a name on a jersey.

It only takes me five minutes to get dressed in normal clothes again, but it’s five minutes that Alex has had to come fucking find me, most likely having been at our practice. Or more specifically, me.

“Get back out there, Maddox. Now. You’re a grown man, not a child who throws tantrums when he’s playing like a rookie,” he snaps, and I find him blocking the door with his arms crossed.

“No,” I say, tossing my bag over my shoulder.

“No? If you want to see the game tomorrow, you sure as shit are going to get back out there and finish that practice.”

“I don’t want to play tomorrow. I’m done, Alex. Now, get out of my way.”

He drops his arm and takes a step toward me. “You’re not done. You’re still under contract.”

“So don’t pay me for the next seven games.”

I try to move around him, but he follows. “Maddox, I’ve known you since you were a boy. Don’t do this. Don’t throw your career away for that girl a second time. It’ll be a mistake you might never recover from again.”

I huff a laugh. “You keep saying that, but choosing Braxton is the easiest decision I have ever made. Even if I never stepped foot on NHL ice again, I would absolutely, without a doubt, make this decision again. So, please, take your offer and your pleas, and shove them up your ass.”

His jaw falls open, and I use his surprise to shove past him, my shoulder smashing into his.

“Oh, and if I find out you’re planning anything against Braxton, I will make your life a living hell. And I mean that with every fibre of my being.”

And then I leave the Vancouver Warriors locker room for the very last time.

42

OAKLEY

The doorbell rings,and Ava’s already at the door, ushering Alex inside our home before shooting me a soft, encouraging smile and heading back to the patio where she left Adalyn. She’s putting on a strong front, but I know how hard this has all been on her, watching Maddox and Braxton struggle like this without having a solution at the ready to fix it all.

I’m tense on the living room couch, one of my wife’s favourite movies droning on in the background. My nerves are frayed, betrayal thick in my veins, and as much as I want to skip this meeting altogether, I know that I can’t. It needs to happen.

“Oakley,” Alex says gruffly, about as impressed to be summoned here as I am to have asked him to come.

His usual pristine attire has been wrinkled, a button loose on his dress shirt and a cufflink missing on the sleeve. Short grey hairs stick up in all directions, as if he’s been yanking on them for a while.

Having known Alexander since his father was the owner of the Warriors, I would have called us good friends. He’s been there for my family for over two decades, and while we weren’t the Friday dinners at six every week and Christmas gift-giving type of close, I thought we had a better relationship than I’ve come to see over the past couple of months.

He was there for me when I retired after my final shoulder injury, was there for Maddox’s first U6 hockey game, and was even one of our visitors at the hospital after Ava’s emergency C-section with Adalyn.

His betrayal hurts more now than it would have years ago. Maybe because I really didn’t see it coming. I was blindsided. My entire family was.

“Alex.” I don’t stand and greet him, choosing to let him come to me instead.

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