“It doesn’t matter now. That was years ago,” she said over her shoulder. “And my mother’s no longer able to defend herself.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured.
Hana snorted. “Your condolences areyearstoo late.”
I fisted my hands, my anger with my parents blooming hot. “I didn’t know,” I said again.
She glanced back at me, frowning. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. I…I thought you sent me a message, telling me you never wanted to see me again.”
“I see…” Hana blinked up at me, but the distance between us had grown, and not just with the physical floor space. The skinny shit moved closer to Hana, his hand on the back of her neck, his glare toward me hotter than the sun.
I wanted to rip his hands from her. He shouldn’t be touching Hana.She is mine.
But she wasn’t, and it was my fault. We all knew it, which is why the skinny shit smirked.
“I think you said what you needed to, so why don’t you leave, like she asked?”
Much as I didn’t want to leave her, especially with him, I needed to regroup—to find out what else I’d missed in Hana’s life over the past three years. I looked over his shoulder, wanting to connect with her just for another second, but the skinny shit stepped closer.
“She’s mine now,” he said, his voice smug. “Whatever was between you islongdead and buried. Leave it there.”
His words got to me more than I wanted to admit. Because Hana did seem to belong in that lab. And now that I’d seen him, I had to agree that the skinny shit was just the type of man she should have gone for—smart, suave, well-dressed, and solicitous.
I enjoyed astrophysics nearly as much as Hana did, but I wasn’t built for the kind of work she loved. I resented having to sit still for too long. Sure, I could code and even create prototypes—I’d chosen to study in a field similar to Hana’s before I left college—but honestly, I preferred the physicality of hockey.
Even now, thanks to the emotions flowing through me, I fidgeted. The need to run, hit, skate was strong. So strong.
I willed Hana to meet my eyes again, to see everything in my expression that I didn’t want to say, to give me the second chance I hadn’t been able to carve out with her because I’d arrived at her house too late that next morning three years ago. I gritted my teeth. Twenty-year-old me was a fucking moron, and twenty-four-year-old me was suffering the consequences.
The skinny shit leaned toward Hana and whispered something in her ear. She stiffened but didn’t look up again. “Go away, Paxton,” she murmured. “Please.”
The skinny shit smirked as I turned on my heel and left the lab. As I walked down the hall, I heard him coaxing her, followed by Hana’s clipped response.Thatactually brought pep to my step. She might be with the guy, but Hana wasn’t content.
I used to make her happy. Deliriously so. Just as she had made me.
I could do that again, given the chance. Being a professional athlete, I was known for my stubbornness, and I wasn’t ready to give up. Not after one meeting.Nope. I’d just have to up my game. Try harder. Do better. Like I did on the ice.
Except… Except Hana was more important than my hockey career, which could end maybe next game or, if I was lucky, in fifteen-years’ time. Either way, I wouldn’t be able to play in the NHL after some point, but I could still have Hana.
Maybe. Possibly. If I didn’t fuck this up worse—or again.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Cruz, who was waiting in the car at the edge of the small green space that I supposed was a lawn. “So?” he asked, picking up on the first ring.
Cruz, for all his size and sheer brutality as a defenseman on the ice, was the biggest marshmallow of us all. Dude watched those Hallmark movies andtold the rest of usabout them. He loved happy endings and was a sad sap whenever there was a puppy or a baby in a commercial. No one laughed or ribbed him for any of this.
We couldn’t. He was too invested, too sincere. Too good of a guy. If anyone deserved a happy ending, it was him. So it shocked me that Cruz was single.
“So, Hana was with her skinny-shit boyfriend…” I touched my cheek. “She threw a stapler at me.”
“Aggressive,” Cruz rumbled with approval. Not that he condoned violence off the ice. He didn’t, but he also had three sisters and a widowed mother. Cruz appreciated women who could take care of themselves.
“Not typically.” I sighed. “Clearly she wasn’t expecting to see me.”
“And you brought out heightened emotions?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to win her back.”
