“I know I won’t meet them—wait, unless they’ll come to one of your games with the Revelers?” she asks. “But what will they think about us dating?”
“Oh.” Well, hell. How do I tell her that I didn’t intend to tell my family much about my time in Louisiana without hurting her feelings? I think I have to just tell her. “I wasn’t really intending to talk to my parents much about my time in Rebel.”
She pauses with a piece of cheese to her mouth. “Oh.”
In all of the articles about me, and Astrid for that matter, our family has been painted as being very close. And it’s true that our parents have been supportive, both verbally and financially,of us pursuing our sporting dreams. But my sisters and I are the tight family unit, less so our parents.
“They don’t come to many of my games. They watch them on TV. Sometimes. The king of our country—well, our past king, who just stepped down from the throne—had a major satellite system put in so that everyone could follow Astrid and me when we came to the States.”
“It must’ve been a big deal for your little country,” Nora says. She wipes her hands on her napkin. “I’ve read up on your country. It is really small, right? So you and Astrid are big stars.”
I nod. “We are.”
I study her for a moment. She is extremely close to her family, the entire town she’s from, but not her mother and father. Maybe she’ll understand what I’m about to tell her. I never talk about this stuff with girlfriends, but there’s something about Nora that is so warm and accepting that I find myself wanting to tell her.
“My sister Linnea, the oldest one, was supposed to marry the prince. The one who’s king now.”
Nora’s eyes widen slightly with interest and surprise. It’s definitely an unusual story.
“But Torin married Abigail.”
I nod. “Right. He fell in love, and he and Linnea agreed that he should marry Abi instead.”
“Abigail is my cousin,” Nora says. “She’s like a second cousin or something. But yeah, I know all about her and the prince, now king.”
Damn. That’s right. Abigail’s last name was Landry. She was from Autre.
What a small fucking world.
“But Torin almost marriedyour sister?” Nora shakes her head. “That’s wild.”
“Our grandfathers set up the arranged marriage a long time ago.” I roll my eyes. “Actually, if I go way back to the beginning, Linnea was supposed to marry Declan since he’s the oldest of the O’Grady grandsons.”
Nora blinks. “Declan. Your sister Astrid’s husband?”
“Yep. Linnea and Declan were promised to each other when they were toddlers.”
“Whoa. That still happens?”
“I don’t think so. Not anywhere but Cara. And this was a long time ago.” I start smiling. I haven’t told this story in a long time. Nora is also grinning. I have to remember that she is from a town with people who are also a little…unique.
“Anyway, long story—okay, several long stories—Linnea ended up falling in love with one of the prince’s bodyguards.”
“Go on.Please,” Nora tells me, plucking another piece of cheese off the plate.
I relax and lean in as well. See? She’s so easy to talk to. Accepting of even the craziest things I could say. “Okay, so my sister Linnea was betrothed since before she can even remember. She grew up thinking she was going to be queen and that she had no choice in the matter. Because her entire life was mapped out for her, and she was weighed down by expectations from our family, the royal family, and really the entire country, she wanted Astrid and me to have more options. Every option possible. She realized that us leaving Cara and making our own money and having our own names would open up opportunities and would give us a lot of power.”
Nora is chewing her cheese, her eyes glued on my face.
“So she became our agent. She found training facilities for both of us, pushed us, gave us all the emotional support and financial backing we could need. I mean, our families were fine with all of it, too. Linnea was—is—a great saleswoman, explaining to our families and the king how we could bring fameand honor to the country.” I pause. “And money. Our parents were very interested in that.”
Nora reaches without looking for a piece of fruit. “But that comes with a lot of pressure for you too.”
I shrug. “It didn’t feel like that. Hockey was easy for me. And I was basically told from a very young age that that’s all I had to do. Just focus on hockey. Everything else would work out then.” I take a breath. “But for Astrid, it was different. Some of the “opportunities” that were offered to her were more sleazy.”
Nora frowns. “Of course.”
“And then she got hurt.” I swallow. “And that changed things. She wasn’t going to be a gold medal Olympian. The doors that would have opened with that medal were suddenly shut. Without warning. And with no plan B.”
