“She did,” I reply and then clear my throat awkwardly. “We broke up.”
Trey sighs. “I thought maybe something like that was going on. She’s been showing up at work every morning with her eyes all red and her skin blotchy. When I asked her if she wanted to come to the recording today, she acted like I asked her if she wanted to drink a salmonella milk shake.”
I smile, but it’s mirthless. We don’t say anything for a long time. I glance at the script, which he assures me is a guideline and not something I need to repeat verbatim. I can tell he’s just so thrilled we’ve agreed to endorse his place. It was Avery’s idea. After that night at Jordan’s, he seemed really broken up about not helping Trey out, so he did the second best thing, he asked us to. It made me realize that Avery never wants to hurt anyone and that maybe I was giving him a harder time than I had to about not re-signing with the team.
Owen comes back in, and we sit quietly and listen as Chooch records a few versions of his endorsement. He sounds articulate and believable, but Owen complains about the mic quality and disappears back into the other room.
Trey leans back and rests his ankle on his knee. He’s looking at me but his expression is unreadable. Our brief conversation from a few weeks ago when he found out I was dating his sister surfaces in my cloudy head. I sit a little straighter. “So is this the part where you kill me? Because I would recommend you do it after I record so you can use my endorsement posthumously.”
“You use big words for a French kid. No wonder my sister likes you. She’s always loved vocabulary and wordy people. It’s why my quietness makes her insane,” Trey jokes. I’m kind of kidding also, about him killing me, but I wonder if he will make good on that threat eventually. He smiles. “I know you didn’t hurt her. If you hurt her she’d be furious, but she’s crying, so that means she did this to herself. And she knows it.”
I feel like I need to tell him the whole story. “I saw something I should have told her about but I didn’t. So I kind of annihilated what little trust she’d let herself build in me.”
Trey looks confused by that, and I realize I’m probably going to have to tell him I watched his dad cheat on his mother. Dear God, when did my life become a telenovela?
“Your dad…” I begin awkwardly. “I saw him at his jersey retirement…he was getting close to…”
“Lacey Millbury?” Trey finishes for me, and I nod. “Yeah, that’s been on and off since I was a kid.”
“Your dad and his teammate’s wife?” I have to reconfirm because it seems insane to me. Not only are you fucking with your marriage, but you’re fucking with the second most important relationship you’ve got when you’re a hockey player: the bond with your team.
“Shayne caught them when she was fourteen,” he elaborates. “We were having a Cup party and dear old Dad and Lacey disappeared to bang in the upstairs bathroom. Shayne walked in on them. Doggie style.”
I grimace and so does Trey. Because really, no one wants to see their dad like that. Ever. With anyone. Trey swallows down the visual and continues. “She was devastated and angry and would have made a huge scene, but my mother grabbed her and took her to her room. Mom was more angry at Shayne for wanting to announce her discovery than she was at her own husband. Looking back, I realize my mother knew it had been going on, but she was all about public image. Still is. She’d rather look like a happy home than be one.”
“That’s horrible,” I can’t help but say, and I have a new respect for my own mom, who got out of a loveless marriage, even though it wasn’t easy on her financially or emotionally.
Trey shrugs. “Yeah, well, it’s not my marriage. And I promised myself it never would be. Sure, I had my fun in college, but I always knew if I ever did settle down, I would do it with someone I wanted to be faithful to.”
“I know.” I nod because he’s describing my philosophy.
“Shayne took it a lot more personally, though. Not only did she blame the hockey lifestyle, but she also developed trust issues. And she became…closed off. Until you.”
Owen walks back in and sits down at the console, hits a button, and leans into a mic and tells Chooch to go again. We listen to a take or two and then Trey leans toward me. “The one thing I have to say about my sister is that when she makes a mistake, it guts her. And if you give her another chance, she’ll never make it again.”
I turn my eyes from him to the carpet beneath my shoes because I don’t want him to see the conflicted look I’m sure is all over my face. Is he saying Shay thinks ending things with me was a mistake?
If so, then I guess it’s a game of who’s willing to risk the next move…
Chapter 44
Shayne
As soon as class is over, Audrey marches to the front of the room and pulls me to her sweaty body. Normally I would fuss and push her away. I’m not one for PDA with men or women, but I’m on the verge of tears for the hundredth time in a week, which makes her embrace comforting. I hug her back, and she kisses the top of my head like a mom or big sister.
“Shaynie, call him,” she urges softly.
“I don’t even know what to say,” I admit, my voice wobbling. “I don’t think there’s anything I can say to make him change his mind. You didn’t see the look on his face, Audrey. He just totally shut down.”
“You were being a bit of a lunatic.” Audrey pats my head as she lets me go. “Men never know how to react to that, even if it’s justified. And in this case, it kind of was, Shayne. Don’t forget that. He should have told you about your dad.”
“Yes. He should have. It just triggered every negative experience and every stereotype I’d developed about hockey players and I just…” I pause and take a deep breath and wipe at my eyes because I think tears might fall again.
“You used it as an excuse to screw up something that terrifies the shit out of you anyway,” Audrey finishes for me as she bends to roll up my yoga mat for me.
“Yeah. That’s exactly what I did.” I sniff. “Maybe it was for the best. I mean the whole thing started off so crazy. He was a one-night stand, and then he wasn’t. He knew I hated hockey players so he didn’t tell me he was one. That’s lying. This whole thing started with lies.”
Audrey finishes rolling the mat and stands up but she doesn’t speak, so I continue. “I mean how many relationships become lifelong love stories when the people have seen each other naked on multiple occasions before they even know each other’s last names?”
