“Let’s go home.”
I nodded as he went over and picked up the pile of sticks on the ice, and then once he’d grabbed his things from the locker room, I followed him to the parking lot, my heart pounding. My car was only three spaces from his truck, yet he climbed into the driver’s seat and then leaned over and unlocked his door.
I was upand out of the condo early the next morning. I’d taken a cab over to the Lair, got my car, and went to meet my father for breakfast.
“How are things with Evan?” he asked, as I took a bite of the croissant I’d ordered.
“Fine.”
“Is he treating you all right?” he questioned.
I knew my father was fishing, probably looking for anything he could to approach Evan on. Besides, I’d rather hoped he’d have asked me about the job instead.
“Yes, we had a wonderful day last weekend. We went for coffee, then we spent the day making fresh pasta and cookies.” I smiled.
“I see. What about at work? I’ve heard some rumblings that he hasn’t been exactly co-operative.”
I shook my head. “No, he has been fine. No different from any of the others,” I lied. “What was the other athletic trainer like? The one I replaced.”
My father shrugged, looking at his phone, probably checking an email that had just come in. “Like any other trainer, why?”
“Oh, I was just curious about the kind of response the guys on the team gave him. Did they co-operate when they were approached? Did he take signs of an injury seriously?”
“Of course he did.”
My father focused on his phone instead of on me, which didn’t surprise me. He began typing furiously, with that serious but annoyed look on his face.
“Do you know much about Evan’s background?” I asked.
“Lil bit, why?”
“Just curious.”
My father finally lifted his head and looked at me with a questioning glance. “What’s going on?” he barked.
“Why does something have to be going on? I just wanted to try to get to know him better.” I shrugged.
“Then ask him,” he said, going back to his phone while I took the final bites of my croissant.
“Alright, Dad, I got to get to work.”
My father looked at me and then put his phone down. “I thought we were having breakfast together? I canceled my morning meetings to meet you.”
I looked at my father. I had hoped things would have changed by my returning, but I could see our relationship was just as messed up as it had been when my mother had left. He was focused on his job, and that left little time for anything else. I didn’t want to hurt him, so I bent down and placed a kiss on his cheek.
“It’s okay, Dad, maybe we can have dinner sometime next week. I really have to get to work. I have some meetings to attend.” I smiled.
Chapter 9
Evan
I’d been awakeall night, staring at my ceiling as pain seared through my shoulder. After the rink the night before last, I hadn’t been able to face her. I’d avoided her all day, but today I had been a total coward when I’d skipped this morning’s mandatory meeting and my final conditioning appointment with Bianca. There was no way I could walk into that meeting room and sit across from her, then go work with her one on one and pretend that I wasn’t coming apart at the seams.
So, instead, I didn’t show up. The coach could be angry, and everyone on the team could speculate, but neither of those two things would have bothered me as much as sitting in that room with Bianca across from me, feeling my control slip further with every breath.
She knew about the injury. She was the one person who noticed it and would not back down.
When practice ended, I didn’t have to wait long for the fireworks to start. The moment I stepped into the locker room,Bianca was already there, waiting, her arms crossed in front of her, her foot tapping, and those beautiful eyes blazing. It was as if she were waiting to destroy me. The entire team went silent the moment the door closed behind me.
