PROLOGUE
ELLIE
Of all thehorribleways I could start my week, walking in on my mother fucking my boyfriend definitely takes the cake.
My hands shake, and I can feel everything I’ve eaten today swirling in my stomach, desperate to come back up, but I’m not crying. I don’t know if it’s shock or disgust, but my eyes are dry as ever.
I make my way down the dim tunnel beneath the school’s ice arena to the men’s locker room. Technically, I’m not allowed on this side, but as a member of Westgate University’s girl’s hockey team—and the men’s head coach’s step-daughter—nobody looks in my direction.
Hudson’s office is just outside the locker room, and I’m hoping he’s actually here as I rasp my knuckles on the closed door.
“Yeah?” his familiar baritone voice barks from the other side.
I gently push it open, peeking my head over the threshold. “Hi. Do you have a minute?”
His head snaps up, ice-blue eyes assessing me with caution. “Ellie? What are you doing here? Don’t you have class right now?”
I nod. “I, um…skipped.”
My voice cracks.Fuck.I might cry now.
I’m about to destroy this man’s entire life.
He rubs a massive, calloused hand over his jaw, scratching at his coarse beard. “Have a seat, darlin’.” He nods to the chair in front of his desk. “What’s going on?”
I scurry into the room, tossing my backpack at my feet as I sink into the chair. “I need to talk to you.” A tear finally slips from my eye as I notice the photo on his desk: last year’s team at the National Championship. Hudson’s star goalie—my boyfriend—stands front and center, trophy in hand. “It’s about Mom…and Bodhi.”
CHAPTER ONE
NATALIA
The distant echoof a slamming door slices through Amy Winehouse blasting in my ears. I slip my headphones off my head and let them hang around my neck, muffling the sound of “Valerie”.
I spin in my desk chair to find Ellie pressing her back against the door, slowly sliding down the length of it until she hits the floor, pulling her knees to her chest. My own chest tightens as I take in the tears streaming from her eyes, making the green in them glisten. Her cheeks are flushed, bottom lip swollen as if she’s been chewing on it the way she often does when worried. She folds over her knees, her auburn-colored bun bouncing atop her head with the movement.
“Ells?” I ask, immediately lifting from my chair and crossing my dorm to sit in front of her. “What’s wrong, babe?”
I hate seeing her like this. I’ve only seen Ellie cry a few times in the two years we’ve been best friends, but each time guts me more than the last. Seeing her upset triggers a compulsive needto solve her problems and find her joy. I can’t stand it when she’s sad; it makes me want to start throwing things.
She takes a shuddering breath, lifting her head and knocking it back against the door as she stares up at the ceiling. After taking a moment to compose herself, she finally whimpers, “I just got a notice that beginning next semester, I’m going to lose my financial aid.” Her nose scrunches just before another stream of tears spills from her eyes. “What the fuck am I supposed to do, Nat? I can’t afford to pay full price for tuitionandhousing, and I can’t live off student loans.”
I place a hand on her thigh, rubbing soothing circles over her knee. “Well, like I said, there is always a place for you in the house I’m renting with the other figure skaters. I know all the rooms are claimed, but you and I could share one if it came down to it.”
“Doesn’t matter.” She sighs, shaking her head as she wipes her tears with a trembling hand. “If I can’t pay tuition, I’m dropping out.”
“Don’t say that, Ells,” I snap. “We’ll figure it out. What’s the reason they pulled your aid?”
“Costs were covered under the faculty family policy. Since Mom was married to Hudson, my tuition and housing in the dorm was covered. Now that the divorce has been finalized…well...” She rolls her eyes, huffing an incredulous laugh. “My mom having an affair with my boyfriend. The gift that keeps on giving.”
“Your mother is a cunt.”
I fucking hate Candace Grant—well, she’s back to Candace Harris now. She’s always been a stage mother, over-controlling about Ellie’s hockey playing and attempting to live vicariously through her young daughter since Candace clearly peaked in her twenties.
I’m sure it was a slew of insecurity and deep-seated self-hatred that led her to have an affair with a twenty-year old mentee of her husband’s, her daughter’s own boyfriend. Nothing else could explain how she would risk the fine-as-fuck man she was married to for the human-equivalent of a goblin shark that is Bodhi Granger.
And while I’m at it, fuck him too.
Ellie is the clear winner between herself and her mother, and while he may be a raging sociopath with the IQ of a gerbil, Bodhi still should’ve known better than to fuck with Ellie like that.
