He actually has thegallto look sheepish and winces, “Sorry, Cap. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“What would you call it when you see two people talking and walk over to ask a question in the middle of their conversation?” I snap and immediately feel bad. Aiden is a quiet guy that keeps to himself so if he’s asking to talk I know it’s got to be about something important.
“I really am sorry. We can talk later,” Aiden answers.
I blow out a frustrated breath, not at him but at the situation. I’m confused that Millie would tuck tail and run like that. If she doesn’t want to talk about it, that’s okay. I can be patient. It’s not like she owes me anything but her expression right before she drove off has alarm bells going off in my head. “It’s okay. I'm sorry, I didn’t mean tooverreact.”
“You sure? You can go after her?” Aiden’ssuggestion is more of a question. One, I don’t know the answer to because even though I want to I don’t think I should. We don’t know eachotherwell enough for me to understand what exactly just happened.
“It’s okay. I’ll catch her later. What do you need to talk about?” I ask. Aiden looks uncomfortable and a little nervous himself which is a rarity for the dude. He’s usually our cool, calm and always collected. Something has him rattled.
“I— umm—” his hand goes up and cups the back of his neck.
“You got a girl pregnant or something, Graham? What the hell’s going on?” I ask, half joking, the other half worried I might be right.
“Fuck no.” He looks offended as he drops his hand down to his side. “I always wrap it before I tap it.” He drops his head before lifting it back up to look at me. “My dad is coming to the game Friday,” he rushes out.
My eyebrows pull together in confusion before the implications of what he’s saying sink in. “Oh.”
“Yeah,oh.” I hear his knuckles on his lefthandcrack under the pressure of his right.
Aiden Graham is the son of Isaac Graham, a famous hockey player and the bane of Aiden’s existence. “Talk to Coach about it yet?”
He looks off to the side, “No, not yet. I was kind of hoping you could help me out with that. I know you know how I feel about my father, but Coach Cunningham—” He leaves his statement hanging in the air.
I nod my head, already seeing where he’s going with this. Coach will be all but salivating over the prospect of having a two-time StanleyCupwinner grace The Kings of Hart U with his presence. Even though last time he was at a game it didn’t end so well.
Daddy Graham has only attended one game and that was Aiden’s freshman year. The whole damn thing turned into a shit show of epicproportionsand Aiden ended up in so many fights he was ejected from the game. Theonlytime he’s ever been ejected.
Isaac Graham is a pompous asshole, who craves attention more than anything. Needless to say his little visit had nothing to do with watching his son play and everything to do with Hart U’s board and admin staff falling all over theirassesto keep the man happy. That and the horde of college puck bunnies that followed.
I wince, remembering when the jumbotron at the game panned to Isaac rightashis tongue was halfway down a girl’s throat. A girl that was old enough to be Aiden’s sister anddefinitely notDaddyGraham’s wife. “What do you want to do?” I ask, not sure how to navigate this situation again.
Aiden’s head rolls back as he groans. “There isn’t shit we can do. I’ve already tried to talk him out of coming but he won’t listen.” He throws his voice even deeper to imitate his father,“It’simportant for me to be there, to show my support.”
Myscrubmy hand down my face in discomfort. This is the last thing I want to deal with right now but I’m sure my discontent isn’t anything compared to Aiden’s. “I’ll do whatever you need me to,” I answer in support.
Aiden shifts uncomfortably, probably because he isn’t used to asking for help. In the three years he’s been playing for us, he’s come to me awhoppingone time, two if you include this. One guess as to what the other time was.
“I was kind of hoping you could talk to Coach and ask him if he can tell my dad he can’t come, that it was too big of a distraction last time.”
Now it’s my turn to groan, “I can’t do that, man. Coach isn’t going todo it, and you know it.”
“You don’t think he will consider it? I mean last time the college was in the newspapers for weeks after, the headlines slamming Hart U for his inappropriate display in front ofimpressionablecollege students.” He uses air quotes aroundimpressionable.
“Yeah, some of it was bad press but the vast majority of it wasn’t. Coach was practically giddy for weeks afterwards, man.”
I hear Luka call out from across the parking lot as he makes his way over to us. He’s been talking with Wyatt and Stella since we got out of the restaurant. After all that shit went down with Stella, Luka has been working on forgiving Wyatt and rebuilding their old friendship. I won’t go as far as to say I’m jealous but the fact that they seem prettybuddy-buddynow, after everything, kind of grates on my nerves.
“What’s going on?” Luka asks just as he reaches us.
I look over to Aiden questioningly, not sure if he wants word getting out. Luka won’t tell anyone but it’s still not my news to share.
“Doesn’t matter if he knows. Shit’s getting out anyway, whether I want it to or not.”
“He won’t say anything,” I answer in reassurance. “The more heads we put together on this one, the better.”
“What happened?” Luka asks, concerned, just as Wyatt walks up behind him. I bristle at his presence but work to control my reaction to him being here. I need to let the shit go with him, Stella and me. The first step to that is letting go of the urge to punch his face every time I see him.
