Luka’s eyebrows shoot up to the ceiling.
“You’re renting out an entire theater for my sister? What movie is worth all that for?”
“Roman Holiday,” I say. “Right? That was your mom’s favorite movie.”
Luka goes perfectly still. He looks at me as if he’s seeing me for the very first time.
“Wait.” He holds up a hand. “Let me get this straight. You are renting an entire theater… for just you and my sister… to play an old black-and-white movie she watched with our mother… and you’re trying to source her favorite childhood candy?”
“Yes,” I say, confused why he needs this repeated when he just summarized it perfectly.
“Holy shit,” he says finally. “You’re falling in love with my sister.”
I choke on absolutely nothing. How he saw through that so quickly, I have no idea. “I’m trying to make it up to her. I thought it would be a nice gesture.”
He cuts me off. “No, you’re not sticking to our agreement. You’re trying to date my sister.”
Before I can answer, Hunter pipes up from two treadmills over.
“Of course he is, genius. He’s married to her.”
I point at Hunter. “See? He has a point.”
Luka turns on him. “Stay out of this, New Jersey.”
Hunter shrugs like the chaos feeds him. Which, for the record, it does.
Luka goes back to glaring at me.
“When we started this,” he says quietly, “it was simple. You cut off my dad’s ability to force an arranged marriage for Katerina. Get my grandmother’s blessing and the visa renewal, or a green card. Then the two of you part ways. Clean break. No one gets hurt.”
“I know the plan,” I say a little defensively.
“Do you?” he presses. “Because what you’re doing… renting out entire old theaters to replicate what my sister lost so she’ll fall in love with you… It’s not temporary behavior.”
“What if it’s not temporary?” I ask.
“I trusted you with her,” he says, taking a threatening step forward, but I won’t back down from him… not when it comes to her. “You’re a goddamn hockey player, Easton. You think I wanted that for my baby sister?”
Hunter whistles low. “That sounded kind of offensive, man. We’re all hockey players.”
I throw him a glare. That's not helping. “Seriously?”
Hunter tosses up his arms like he was just trying to help, and then goes back to not minding his own business, but is pretending to. Luka takes another step into my space. Closeenough for me to know he’s taking this conversation seriously. I guess it’s about time that we did.
“You can still trust me,” I say quietly. “You can.”
“Do you actually think you can make her happy?” he demands.
“I’m fucking trying here,” I snap before I can stop myself.
Something in Luka’s expression falters. Concern? Fear? Brotherly protectiveness? A blend of all three.
He sighs, scrubs his hands over his face.
“We’re supposed to work as a team out there, Scottie. If you screw this up… you’re not just putting our friendship on the line, you’re putting our season on the line. Is she really worth that?” Of course she is, and we both know it. That’s not exactly what he meant, but I understand what he’s asking.
“Yeah, she is.”
