"Join the club." Beck raised his water bottle. "To complicated situations and not fucking everything up."
I clinked my bottle against his, even though I wasn't sure not fucking everything up was possible for me anymore.
"You know what, though?" Beck said, settling onto the bench for his first set. "Maybe this community service thing is good. Gets you out of your head. Away from all the hockey drama."
"Maybe," I admitted.
"And who knows?" Beck grinned as he lifted. "Maybe you'll learn something useful. Like how to keep a goldfish alive. You killed three of those in college."
"That was your fault for putting them in my room."
"Details." He finished his set, breathing hard. "Point is, you're doing something different. That's not a bad thing."
Maybe Beck was right.
And maybe I could prove everyone wrong, starting with myself.
The week crawled by with agonizing slowness. I wasn't cleared to practice with the team, couldn't participate in games, couldn't even show my face at the arena without setting off a media frenzy. So, I stayed home, worked out in my private gym, and tried not to think about how my career was slipping away.
On Wednesday, my phone rang.
Holly.
"Hey, stranger," she said when I answered. "Are you avoiding me?"
"No, just… dealing with stuff."
"Uh-huh. Well, I'm coming over. And I'm bringing Thai food, so don't even think about telling me no."
Forty minutes later, my little sister sat cross-legged on my couch, containers of Pad Thai and green curry spread across the coffee table. She'd always had a way of making herself at home anywhere, a skill I'd never mastered.
"So," she said, loading her plate with noodles. "How's the clinic?"
I shrugged, picking at my curry. "Better than jail."
"That's not very descriptive." She gave me that look where her eyebrows rose almost to her hairline. "How was it seeing Palisade again?"
The question hung in the air. I'd known it was coming, but that didn't make it easier to answer.
"Awkward," I admitted. "At first. Then we had an emergency with some sick puppies, and we just… worked together. Like it was natural."
Holly studied me carefully. "And? Did the two of you talk about what happened?"
"Seven years ago?" I set down my fork. "Sort of. I asked why she left, and she didn't answer."
"Easton…" Holly spoke slowly, like she was choosing each word carefully. "You have to understand, Palisade was terrified that night. You were this rising hockey star, fresh off a championship win. She was a pre-vet student from a small town who'd never even…" She stopped herself.
"Never what?"
Her eyebrows lowered. "Nothing." She took a breath. "I mean, she wasn't in your league. She knew it. And she convinced herself that leaving before you could reject her was the smart thing to do."
The words hit like a punch to the gut. "I wasn't going to reject her. I had plans, Hol. I was going to call her after I got back from the away game and take her to dinner. Hell, I'd already bought her a bracelet." I laughed bitterly. "Left it on the nightstand so she could see it when she woke up. Except she didn't wake up there. She left."
Holly's expression softened. "You never told me that."
"Because it was humiliating. I'd spent one night with someone who meant something to me, and she couldn't get away fast enough." I ran a hand through my hair. "I moved on. Or tried to. And now she's back, and I don't know what to do with that."
"There's something else you should know," Holly said slowly, setting down her plate. "About Palisade."
