I hadn’t thought about what he must have gone through. “Does that really happen?”
His laugh wasn’t just bitter. It was horrifying. “Haven’t you seen the signs at the arena?”
“This past Wednesday, yes. I noticed they were there, but I didn’t read them.”
“Well,” he chortled. “Take the time when you come on Wednesday to see what they’re saying about the brand-new Gators player. It doesn’t matter that my brother is a friggin’ hockey star who singlehandedly won the Stanley Cup for the Chicago Wild Dogs. Or that I’ve been compared to him, but many coaches say I’m even a better player. And before you ask, I don’t use my special attributes. Ever. That’s something my brother pioneered last year. He had to. He was treated as if he was a freak so he had to prove he could play hockey without using his shifter abilities. You have no idea how difficult that was for him.”
He snarled and in an act of aggression that wasn’t geared toward me, he smashed his fist on the steering wheel.
Right now, although I had no idea what to say to him, I hated the silence. “How long have you played hockey?”
He seemed relieved I was curious about a sport I thought I hated. Well, I did hate it, but the reasoning now seemed silly. His face lit up.
“Since I was two years old. Believe it or not, there’s a picture of me in tiny little skates. My dad had made me a hockey stick after I broke my mother’s long ruler. Even then, I wanted to be like my brother Saint, who adored hockey. I was always on the ice. It’s in my blood.” He rubbed his hand across his jaw. “Just like being a shifter.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t seen you play.”
“The first game is tomorrow night, believe it or not. Right now? I’m playing like shit. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m missing my family in Chicago. But you don’t need to hear my sob shit. Why did your mother insist you can’t skate?”
It was my turn to shy away from the truth and I wasn’t certain why. “I had a bad fall and she worries.”
“Could have fooled me. And that was shitty of me.”
“No, Steven. Very accurate. What about theToday Show?”
“I’m sure you’ll find it archived somewhere, but your father tried to pit brother against brother on national television. Because of that, my brother didn’t talk to me until recently. People like your father are trying to pick fights so we’ll shift and terrify people.”
“To give his crusade credibility.”
“Exactly.”
I pulled out my phone. “So if I look you up, I’ll find you on social media?”
Every time he snorted, a strange tingle drifted down my spine. That was silly, but it had occurred more than once. “You will, but it’s mostly shit. According to the media manager, who is a real ball buster too, I’m being remade into something I’m not. Something salable to the public. Anyway, do me a favor and don’t look.”
“Now I need to look.” I flipped through the screens, moving to Instagram. As soon as he noticed I was searching, he reached over, trying to grab the phone from me. “Oh, no, you don’t.”
“Come on. Don’t look. I’m not that person. Not really anyway.”
But I did look and after struggling to deal with the fact he’d lied to me about who and what he was, seeing him with a beer bong wasn’t what I’d hoped to see. “Is that Jell-O?” I asked and even in the darkness, I could see him cringe.
“Like I said, I’m not that guy. I’m trying to clean up my act so maybe I’ll get a few sponsors. As if that’s going to happen. At least you know why our social media guru had placed a moratorium on what I post.”
“Yeah, I can see why.” I wasn’t exactly angry, but I wasn’t the kind of girl who could handle worrying about whether he was enjoying the comfort of another woman. And I certainly didn’t look like the girls in the photographs.
How weird. I was freaking jealous.
“I’m sorry about my father. He’s a horrible man.”
“Yeah, well, I can handle it. What I can’t handle is losing you.”
Sighing, I didn’t know what to say. Hell, I didn’t know what to feel at this point.
“Maybe you could come see me play sometime.”
The thought of being in the arena while he was playing wasn’t tolerable. At least not right now. Not until I made peace with everything.
If that was even possible.
