“Where she is right now?”
Chris sounds affronted. “Don’t tell me she’s keeping in touch with you while ignoring calls from her big brother?”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I saw Riley in Lucky Falls, but something stops me. Maybe my frontal cortex is reaching maximum development or maybe it’s a sixth sense, but I somehow get the feeling that I shouldn’t be the one to spill the beans.
“Where did you see her?” Chris demands.
I clear my throat. “Online. On her profile. She was with some guy.”
“She was?” Chris makes a huffing sound. “The kid tells me nothing. I didn’t even know she was dating.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know if he was a boyfriend or anything.” Sweat pops out on the back of my neck. I hate lying to my best friend.
“It better not be,” Chris warns.
“What do you mean?”
“She keeps picking bozos who don’t treat her right. I’ve lost all trust in her ability to choose decent boyfriends. At this point, she’d be better off a nun.”
I gulp. “I’m sure there’ssomeguy who’d treat her right.”
“No one is good enough for my baby sister.”
“No one?”
“Nope. Not even you, Campbell. I know too much.” He laughs.
“Me and Riley would never be a thing. It’s not something you have to worry about,” I say quickly. A littletooquickly.
“Oh, I know you and Riley wouldn’t ever—“ He snorts like the thought is ridiculous. “You made sure of that.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Remember that journal we found?—”
My dashboard lights up with another call.
I stiffen. “Just a sec. It’s my agent.”
“Sure, man. Do what you gotta do.”
I hang up on my best friend and answer my agent’s call.
“Hey, Renea,” I say as a foreboding feeling winds through me. “What’s up?”
“Nat, hey! How’s training camp? You impressing Max and Chance McLanely?”
My fingers tighten on the steering wheel, even as I infuse my voice with confidence. “Of course. I’m a legend, baby. Highest scorer. The best team player. All around golden boy.”
Laughter fills my ears. “That’s good. That’s good.”
“You know I’ll always make you proud, Renea.”
She deserves it.
My agent is an absolute angel. It would’ve been easy to write me off after the accident, but Renea didn’t. She was right there in the hospital room with my parents. And, when I insisted that I wanted to play despite the doctors’ warnings, she got me into the best rehab in the state.
At this point, I’m not making a single cent for the company and I feel like I owe it—not only to myself, but to Renea to try my absolute best to make it back to hockey.
