“Till you’re back in the States, maybe?”Rachel’s tour would end in a month.“Then you can persuade your wayward fiancée to move out of her father’s dungeon, and I can break up with her.”
“I’ll tell her she has to break up with you publicly.That’s only fair.”
“I don’t much care.I don’t have a reputation to protect.”
Rachel snorted.“Says the schoolteacher.This may be a blue part of Oregon but they still have some narrow ideas about teachers and coaches.”
“I guess.Whatever works.We can figure it out when you get back.”
“Take care of my girl until then, okay?”
“You know I will.”I liked Avery a lot, and I’d take care of anyone Rachel loved.
“You’re the best.I’ll call you sometime when it’s not ass o’clock to tell you my sad stories about the shit-show of this tour.”
“Do that,” I told her.“I want to hear all the details.When I’m awake.”
“I’d send you an apology fruit basket but I’m broke and you hate fruit.”
I chuckled.“Tell your fiancée to buy me good chocolate if her dad actually opens his wallet.”I was still careful about what I ate, determined not to pile on the pounds like lots of retired players did, but chocolate was my weakness.
“Mocha truffles.I promise.”Rachel lowered her voice.“I love you, Miles.You know that, right?And you’ll find a good man, someday.Better than Logan.”
My stomach knotted.“I’ve forgotten him already.”A lie I wished was the truth.
“Okay… Sleep well, babe.”
“You have a good evening.Don’t drink too much sake.It gives you headaches.”
Rachel murmured, “You are such a good guy, Miles.I hope you find a man who appreciates that.Good night.”
“’Night.”I set the phone back on my nightstand but didn’t flatten the pillows and lie down.Envy was a bitter tang in the back of my throat.Rachel and Avery might be hiding their relationship, might be broke and facing family opposition, but they had each other.I’d had that once too, till Logan Valliere broke his word and threw us away.I shouldn’t want him back, at all.Shouldn’t, but I sat there in the dimness, staring at the shadowy recesses of my room, and clenched my teeth against how much I missed Logan.
Chapter 3
Logan
I couldn’t help checking stories about Miles and his pretty young fiancée during our road trip.ECHL roadies were one long exercise in boredom, hours spent on buses and in airport waiting rooms, in crappy hotels and less-than-stellar arenas.I don’t know how players survived back in the days before smartphones, but we mostly lived on ours.
The mainstream press didn’t much care about another retired gay player, of course, even one of Miles’s caliber, but Avery’s wealthy father was Eugene royalty, so the local outlets kept the story alive.They grubbed for details, quoting some unnamed source about Miles’s bisexual orgies, hiding behind “our reporter was told” to shield them from a this-is-bullshit lawsuit.Another story noted that the happy couple hadn’t been seen in public since the announcement and what were they hiding?
Avery’s background was long on “attended this” and “won an art prize for that” but skimpy on personal information.Apparently, she was some kind of sculptor.Honestly, I didn’t “get” the abstract pieces they showed, but I gave her props for not being mundane.
Miles had never been a big fan of the arts, other than music.It wasn’t likely those towering metal, wood, and found-materials sculptures had appealed to him so much he asked for the artist’s hand in marriage.Although the artworks’ sheer size suggested more strength in her slender body than was revealed by the slinky gowns she wore in society portraits.Miles had always liked strength.
We were six days into the road trip, one win, three losses, and heading home, when I slid over on my screen from laughably bad birthday cakes to “Miles Buckner.”Again.The bus was quiet, my teammates too beat to chirp and be rowdy like at the start of the trip.Most of them slumped in their seats, earbuds in, which meant that only Bubs, who’d become my default seatmate, raised an eyebrow when I hissed, “Shit!”
“Huh?”
I turned my screen away to hide the photo from his curious glance.“Just a stupid story.”
Luckily, Bubs was easygoing.He nodded and went back to the movie he was watching.
Keeping my poker face in place in case Bubs glanced my way, I swiped down the story with the headline, “Miles Buckner had sex with me the day before his engagement.”The tattletale was some guy with a gym body and a toothy smile.
The reporter’s text varied between “Miles is a cheater” and “the marriage is fake” with a small nod to “this guy might be lying.”A short video clip showed a reporter sticking a camera in Miles’s face in the parking lot outside his school and getting a “No comment” for his pains.
Miles must’ve hated the paps showing up with their cameras around the kids.Last year, he’d waffled for a long time over waiting to come out till summer when school would be on vacation, until he decided the banquet was the perfect venue.Now they were hounding him again.
