I nod, swallowing to rein in tears. Maybe one day, I’ll actually feel that way. Taking a deep breath, I set my hands on the area I have set up for my social media content and focus on the video I’m about to make. If I dwell on that night any longer, I’ll throw up and cancel this entire outing. It’s stupid. I know if the tables were turned, I’d want Mallory to celebrate her birthday without feeling this way, but I can’t help it. I take another deep breath, then turn on my camera with a huge smile on my face. Fake it till you make it, right?
12
FINN
Everyone wears a mask, but none wear it quite as well as Josslyn Santos. It’s a feat, considering how much of her life she posts on social media. The entire world seems to think she’s their best friend. As a popular athlete, it’s something she’s been able to capitalize on. She’s not the best college basketball player out there, but she has more NIL deals than anyoneI’veever heard of. She spends a chunk of her money funding non-profits she started—one builds basketball courts at schools in underprivileged neighborhoods, and the other provides mental health options to those same neighborhoods.
For those accomplishments, she gets a lot of respect, even from me. She was already popular when I met her, but she’s the internet’s “it girl” at the moment, which comes as no surprise since she’s fucking gorgeous. Probably the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.
Especially when she lets that mask drop, as she did in the newest pictures my PI sent me. She was on a date with some idiot from the Fairview basketball team and she was smiling. A genuine smile that reaches her eyes. I guess that happinesswasn’t worth much, since she dropped him the moment Tate Foster came running back. Tate fucking Foster. I couldn’t believe it when I discovered whotwo-daywas. My only regret was not fucking her at Onyx that night. The only thing I’d done was wait until the masked man looked up to take the blur off the glass window, so he could see her on her knees with my cock in her mouth. Neither of us had a mask on by that point, and I knew the moment he saw us from the way he pushed off the woman who’d been doing the same to him. He had two women between his legs, but I had the only one that mattered on her knees in front of me.
We both knew that, and to further prove my point, I’d grabbed the back of Josslyn’s hair, demanded she touch herself, and grinned at the fucker. I’d put the fog back on the window before either of us came, because I didn’t want to give anyone the privilege of seeing that, and I never looked back out there. I didn’t need to. Funny thing is, I didn’t even know it was Tate, and once I found out, it tasted like sweet victory. Just for a moment, because in the end, he had the girl and I only had the memory.
Not that I wanted more from her, though I had to admit it would have been a nice addition to our family feud. Our fathers have been at war for as long as I can remember, which I always thought was beneath me. It wasn’t until Tate personally attacked me that I got involved in that bullshit. I let him get in that one blow, but in the end, I had everything—the lifestyle, the hockey contract, and the women. I’d come home twice since that night at Onyx, and had seen them together once. When he spotted me, he made a show of being with her. The only thing that bothered me about it was that he was under the impression that I gave a fuck.
I’ve had her followed for a while now, so I have pictures from my PI of the moment she found out about his cheating. In the pictures, she looks upset but not distraught, as if expecting something like that from him. Cheating with Gracie, of all people, was quite possibly the worst birthday present Tate could’ve given her.
I drop my phone and exhale heavily. I don’t know how I’m going to get her to cooperate with me, but I need to figure it out before training starts. As it is, I’ve been inundated with team meetings. My days are numbered, though, and I need her to admit that she lied that night. I need her to tell me what she’s been covering up. The bad news is that she’s rarely alone and I’m sure her posse will be with her more than ever after the cheating scandal. The good news is that the Fairview Owls picked up her stepbrother in the NHL draft, and he’s a new teammate of mine. It helps that the guy idolizes me.
At the sound of the door opening, I sit up straight and pick up my drink from Lucas’ desk.
“Holy shit. It is so crowded out there, you’d think they’re anticipating Taylor Swift or something.” Ella’s eyes are wide as she lets out a deep breath.
“Or Drake,” Hammie adds, as he walks in behind her.
“Or Bad Bunny,” Lucas says, walking in behind him and shutting the door. “I haven’t had a chance to look her up, but she must have a lot of fucking followers.”
My cousin takes his phone out of his pocket and sits down in one of the chairs across from me. He doesn’t even try to kick me out of the chair he sits in every day.
“Fuck, we’ve already made double what we made last weekend, and it’s only been two hours.” Lucas’ wide eyes meet mine briefly.
“She’s a hot commodity,” Hammie says.
“She’s hot alright,” Ella adds.
I sit back and take a sip of my old fashioned, ignoring my annoyance at their words as I set my right ankle over my left knee. It’s not like they don’t know what I know. I showed them the same footage of Josslyn leaving Onyx with her stepfather in tow. From the way she’s flailing her arms in the video, it’s clear that they were arguing. At the end of the clip, she leaves, and he goes back inside for another ten minutes before he walks out with a group of guys. For some reason, she comes back and goes insidethe club again, right before all hell breaks loose. I have a PI on her stepfather’s tail as well. The truth about him will come out sooner or later. For my sake, I hope it’s sooner.
“Why did no one tell me Josslyn is hot as fuck?” Lucas asks.
I shoot him a glare. “You’re too old for her.”
“I’m…” He pauses, sputtering out a laugh. “No, I’m not. My last girlfriend was twenty-one.”
“You were too old for that one too.”
He scoffs. “I’m not even thirty.”
“You will be soon,” Hammie says, pouring himself a drink and walking up to the floor-to-ceiling window that gives us the perfect view of the downstairs area.
“You should pay her to come every weekend,” Ella suggests as she joins her brother by the window.
“Fuck yeah, I will. I’ll pay her for a lot of things,” Lucas says, still scrolling through Josslyn’s posts.
I bite back the annoyed growl that forms in my chest and stand up to walk over to the windows. There’s no way I’d be able to spot Josslyn in the sea of white. Who the hell chose this white-party theme anyway? I’m about to turn around, when, as if I’d summoned her with my thoughts, Josslyn walks inside. A few women who had been waiting by the door spot her and flock to her right away, asking for selfies.
I’ve been in the public eye for a while now, and I get recognized a fair amount, but never like this. Even Hamilton, who played for the Blaze up until last year, said the attention stopped after a while. I guess once people get used to seeing you in the real world, you lose your luster. Not Josslyn, though. She’s as dazzling as ever.
“She definitely can’t be wearing anything under that,” Hammie muses, causing me to nearly choke on my sip.
