“No! It’s fucking treason, Lucy! Everyone knows that. Moreau and I have been on the ice together for five fucking years. He’s my fucking friend and he seduced my sister behind my back!”
Lucas snorted. “Are you living in the eighteenth century, Temple?” he whispered. His voice was dangerously soft.
His colleague’s expression darkened as he took a step forward. “You better shut up, Moreau. The only reason I haven’t knocked you down yet is because we need you conscious if we’re going to win the Cup.”
“You have no reason to knock me down,” he replied calmly. After all, he and Anna were siblings — and he strongly suspected it would upset Dax to hit him as much as it would upset her.
“I don’t, do I?” Dax gritted his teeth. “Anna up and disappeared yesterday! She’s ignoring my calls. She won’t talk to me. She won’t answer her fucking door. And I fucking blame you!” he said, his voice menacingly low. “Anna and I never argue. Not really. Before you two…”
“Hold on a moment, Dax,” he said abruptly. The longer he talked to him, the angrier he became. “Stop attributing Anna’s behavior and desires to anyone other than herself! Because what you’re saying is bullshit.” His toes bumped Dax’s as he glared down at him angrily. “Anna was too damn exhausted and overworked to argue with you. She wanted to please you too much. She thinks she owes it to you to tolerate your fucking intrusive behavior. Why should you be mad at me when I seem to be the only damn person who cares about what she wants? Not what suits you. You’re the one who should be apologizing to her. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Dax’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What the hell...”
“I’m not done yet,” he interrupted hastily. “She moved to L.A. for you. She never had as much contact with Jack as she wanted because of you. She kept ten thousand secrets for you. And she felt incredibly guilty about having contact with your father because of you. And honestly, Temple, she doesn’t deserve to feel bad because you can’t bring yourself to ask what she wants! Only because she feels like she owes everything she’s accomplished to you and Jack.”
“Wow,” Leon whispered. “I didn’t know Moreau knew so many words.”
“You’d be surprised,” Fox replied.
Lucy and Dax, however, just stared at him. Lucy was shocked, and Dax...
“What?”
Dax was confused. Offended. Hurt. Yes, maybe that was the word.
“But she doesn’t. She owes us nothing. She’s brilliant. Everything she’s achieved is thanks to herself.”
“I know that,” Lucas snapped. “You don’t have to tell me that.”
Dax blanched and stared at him as if he’d seen a ghost. “She told you that?” he muttered. “Shit.” He narrowed his eyes. “How come I'm still the asshole?” He looked back at Lucy for help. “I thought you cured me!”
Lucy laughed. “I’m your girlfriend, not a miracle worker, Dax.”
“Fuck,” he whispered, giving Lucas one last icy look before disappearing out the door past the cubbies.
Lucy watched him go and sighed heavily. “Wonderful. Then there were four of us. Wait here, okay? I’ll let them know we’re ready.” With that, she scurried off in the opposite direction.
Fox merely shook his head and Leon stared at him open-mouthed. “They’re right. You’re a mystery.”
Lucas snorted as the door Lucy had just disappeared through reopened. He thought the PR consultant had returned, but instead, Melody strolled into the coatroom.
“I heard you. You were very loud,” she said with a grin, hugging Fox’s legs and then Lucas’s before whispering seriously, “Today is the best day ever. Because you’rebothhere. And I know you, but no one else does, and you’re totally famous and rich!”
Lucas laughed and patted her head. “That’s all correct.”
Her grin widened. “Is Anna coming too?” She tilted her head back to look at him. “She said she’s your colleague. And you said you’d bring colleagues with you.”
“No,” he mumbled, ignoring the pain in his chest as he crouched next to her.
“Oh.” She stuck out her lower lip in disappointment. “But I want to give her the picture.” She pushed a piece of paper toward his face so he could examine it.
It looked a bit like the picture she’d drawn for him a few months ago, only this time, it showed four deformed stick figures with dark hair. Three were standing on a light blue surface, with the fourth again on a blue cloud with eyes.
“Is the cloud your mom?” he asked softly.
Melody nodded. “Yes. And that’s you.” She pointed to the biggest stick figure of all...the one who didn’t look grumpy. It was smiling. “That’s me and that’s Anna,” she said, pointing at the remaining figures. “We’re ice skating and having fun. And that’s Anna’s saw.” She pointed to a gray spot at the edge of the picture that he hadn’t noticed.
He just stared at the little figure that was supposed to be Anna.
