He picks up on the second ring with a gruff, cool, “Yeah?”
“Hey. It’s Avery.”
“I know,” he replies, still gruff and cool.
“Everything okay? With you and Steph?”
“Yes.”
I pause. He is not going to make this easy. I don’t fully get it because Kate, my sister, and I don’t have this kind of sibling bond. I don’t know if that makes me an asshole or not, but it is what it is. As kids, we were never in the same place all that often. I was always off playing hockey and went to a boarding school, so we spent maybe eight weeks a year in each other’s presence. I sigh and ask the only question left to ask. “Areweokay?”
Now it’s his turn to pause. I wait patiently for his response. When he gives it, his voice is a little less chilly. “For now. Because from what she’s told me, you really like her.”
“I do. We’re really hitting it off,” I confess. “I’m sorry you found out so…abruptly.”
“Hitting it off? Abruptly? Avery Westwood, always the king of politically correct answers,” Seb chides, and I can’t tell if he’s mocking me or kidding around, so I decide to go a different route.
“Stephanie is an amazing human being and she makes me crazy in all the right ways,” I blurt. “I’ve never fallen in love before, but I’m pretty sure that’s what’s happening here.”
There’s another pause and then I hear him whisper a French swear word. Then he heaves a heavy breath that creates a static sound on the line. “She’s traveled a long, hard road to become the amazing person she is. And to be honest, I don’t know if you can handle her—the real her—and that scares the shit out of me.”
“What do you mean ‘the real her’?” I question because I’m completely baffled by that statement. “We spent a lot of time together, even before we got involved, and I know her well. I intend to get to know her really well. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I hope not, because she likes you. A lot. And that’s a big risk for her,” Sebastian replies. “You always seem to think you’re the one risking something by letting someone into your life because you have to protect your image and brand and crap. But have you ever stopped to think of what Stephanie will be exposing herself to by dating you?”
“What?”
“You’ve never deemed a girl worthy enough to publicly acknowledge, so the media will be all over this. All over her. They’ll want to know everything about her,” Sebastian explains. “And the puck bunnies will rip her to pieces on the Internet because someone got into Avery Westwood’s jock and it wasn’t them. She’s been a very private person for a reason, and because she likes you that’s going to be blown to shreds, and I don’t think she’s really considered that.”
“Did you tell her this?” I can’t help but ask. I feel a tingle of anger prick at the back of my neck and shimmy down my spine as I sit straighter on the couch. “Are you trying to convince her to end this or keep it secret? Because I’m done with all that bullshit. I want a normal relationship with a normal girl—your sister.”
Sebastian sighs again. “I would never try to get her to break up with you if that’s what you’re asking. But I’m not sure I trust you not to hurt her, and that’s the problem.”
“I won’t hurt her.” I don’t even think about the words before they come out of my mouth. They don’t need thought; they’re coming from my heart. I would never hurt Stephanie.
“Even if it means hurting yourself?” Seb counters back. “Even if it means hurting your precious image?”
“Why would it mean that?”
“If you hurt her, Westwood, I will fuck you up. I know you know that.”
“Yeah. I do, but thanks for making it official,” I mutter.
“I gotta go,” Sebastian tells me. “If we keep talking about this, I’m going to picture your hand on her ass again, and then I’m going to have to break it with my stick the next time we play each other.”
I smirk at that. “Fine. But I’m serious. I’m not going to hurt her. No matter what.”
“I want to believe you,” Sebastian replies, and then there’s a click as he ends the call.
I drop the phone onto the coffee table, switching off the ringer and setting the alarm before dropping back on the couch and lying down. I don’t even know what half that conversation was about. Sebastian was acting like he knows something I don’t. Something big. What the hell is going on?
I close my eyes, but my brain won’t shut off, and it’s starting to frustrate me because my pregame nap is a must. Everyone makes fun of me, calling me superstitious, but it’s not really that. It’s order. I play better when I follow a routine. Everything is simple, planned, with no unexpected interruptions and I can focus on what’s ahead: the game, winning.
But thanks to all this weirdness with my dad, Lizzie, Stephanie and Sebastian I’m not sleeping. I pick up my phone again and open Instagram for the second time today, which is two times more than I’ve opened it since I downloaded it this summer. Then I log into the account using the password Kate gave me over the phone earlier.
Sebastian doubts my commitment to Stephanie? He’s worried that I’ll be concerned about my image. I’m done with having an image. I want to just be me, and if people don’t like it, fuck them. I scroll through the pictures Kate has posted and I delete the most recent one of Lizzie and me because it’s false advertising. It makes us look like we were together just last week. Once it’s gone I load the picture of me and Stephanie from this morning and caption itMorning run with this beauty. Then I hit publish and immediately turn off my phone completely. I don’t want my father or Kate or anyone bothering me. I have to get this pregame nap in.
Chapter 27
