“I didn’t have a bonkers reaction?—”
“You basically sprinted out of the bar,” she argued. “Besides, don’t you think it’s a little weird that you didn’t mention to us that you knew one of the players on your brother’s team?”
I knew she was going to bring this up eventually. Peyton knew me way too well to hide my reaction from her. And Ihadacted weird that night. Seeing Liam O’Conner again had sent me into a panic and I couldn’t even say exactly why.
“I didn’t mention him because there was nothing to say. He went to our high school and played hockey with Andy. I tutored him?—”
“You tutored that fine specimen of a man and you never told me?” She sounded scandalized.
“It was more than ten years ago,” I said. “Seriously, it was no big deal. I just wasn’t expecting to see him. That’s why I acted weird.”
“I don’t buy it. You want to know why? Because he was acting weird too.”
That made me fumble my glass, splashing icy water onto my hand. “He was?”
Rosa nodded vigorously. “He definitely was. He was staring at you like he’d just seen a ghost or something.”
Peyton waggled her eyebrows. “A ghost he wouldn’t mind seeing naked.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I’m so sure.”
“I know what I saw, Grace. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of you.”
I swallowed, hoping my face didn’t look as warm as it suddenly felt. “He was probably just caught off guard. We haven’t seen each other in so long.”
Rosa studied me for a long moment. “There’s something else there,” she said. “You’re not telling us something.”
I sighed. I couldn’t hide anything from these two.
“I had a huge crush on him, okay? Like, the doodle his name in my notebook kind of crush. But again, it wastwelveyears ago. I haven’t seen him once in all that time.” I may have obsessively followed his career, but they didn’t need to know that. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he has a kid.”
And by pretty sure I meant I could remember exactly where I’d been when I learned the news.
“Is he married?”
“Divorced a few years ago.”
Peyton pointed at me. “I knew it! You’ve totally cyber-stalked this guy, haven’t you?”
I felt my face start to burn. “I may have looked him up once or twice.” Once or twice every few months. “He’s a really good player, his name comes up in hockey news all the time.”
“Mmmhmm,” Rosa said, clearly not buying it. “Did Andy know about this crush?”
“Oh, Andy knew all right,” I muttered. There were a lot of reasons my brother hadn’t liked Liam in those days, but what had happened just before prom was right at the top of the list.
I blew out a breath. The best way to show them that it wasn’t a big deal was to just tell them about those years in high school.
“Andy and Liam played hockey together when they were kids. Like, really young.” I scrunched up my forehead, thinking back. “I can’t think of what it’s called, the age group before peewee hockey. I think they were seven or eight when they started?” I waved my hands dismissively. “It doesn’t matter. The point is, from the time they were little, the two of them never liked each other. They were bothsupercompetitive. Most of the teams they played on, they were the two best players, so there was a rivalry there, all the way through college. And Andrew…”
I shook my head, thinking about my brother. “Andy had a chip on his shoulder. He admits it. It was hard for him—we never had any money and hockey is an expensive sport. The only reason he was ever able to play is because he got hooked up with some charitable foundation that handed out scholarships and equipment for low-income kids. Andyhatedthat.”
“It’s so hard to picture,” Rosa murmured. “I mean, I’ve been to your brother’s house. He’s like, obscene levels of rich.”
I took another sip of my water before answering, my smile rueful. “It definitely wasn’t always that way.” I shift a little in my seat, uncomfortable talking about my mom even with my two closest friends. “I’ve told you guys what my mom was like. Half the time we didn’t even have food at the house.” I didn’t mention the times we didn’t have heat. Or when we hadn’t been able tosleep at night because her druggie friends were over. Or the way she’d start smacking us around when she was really drunk.
I shook my head to clear it, hating to even think about all that crap. “So here’s this kid who’s smarter than everyone else at school. A better hockey player than ninety-nine percent of the kids he played with. The most driven person I’ve ever met. And in spite of all of that, people still looked down on him because he was dirt poor.”
Peyton makes a face. “Kids can be such assholes.”
