Then he looks over at Erin again, completely unaffected, like he’s casually asking her to pass the salt. “Can you lift up your shirt?”
My brain short-circuits, and my eyes practically fall out of their sockets.
What the fuck?
“Dude!” Oliver shouts in disbelief.
Rudy throws up his hands in surrender. “Whoa! No. No. NO! I am not asking her to lift her shirt to see if we might have slept together by identifying a birth mark on her left boob or something. That’s… fucking gross.” He gags, shaking his head as though someone just dipped his favorite candy bar in vinegar.
He glances at Erin, who looks completely mortified by this whole exchange.
“Not that you’re gross or anything. You’re, uh, pretty. You just… don’t do it for me.” There’s a pause, and then Rudy freezes, eyes narrowing. “Wait. You… don’t have a birthmark on your left boob, do you?”
Hayes pinches the bridge of his nose. “Whatever point you’re trying to make is getting lost. You arenothelping yourself here, kid.”
Rudy waves his hand around, dismissing his own question, suddenly irrelevant. “If you do, that’s just pure coincidence at this point. The reason I’m asking is because if you’re who Ithinkyou are, you’ll have a scar just off to the left side of your belly button from a knife wound.”
My stomach drops.
“Holy shit!” Our captain’s head whips to Erin, his mouth open for just a second before it morphs into a grin. His reaction tells me he knows exactly who Erin is to Rudy.
Erin’s eyes turn to saucers, and her voice shakes. “H-How do you know that?”
“Because that knife and scar was always meant for me.” His words nearly steal the air in the room. Erin’s eyes well, and every bone in my body constricts.
“See.” Rudy sniffs. “My ask is completely innocent. Nothing sexual about it, not in the slightest.”
“Okay… yeah, that makes sense now, I think?” Oliver says, scratching his head. “Actually, I’m still confused.”
“G-griff?” Erin chokes out.
“Hey, Goose.”
As soon as the words leave Rudy’s lips, Erin bolts past me and throws herself into Rudy.
A jealous breath rushes out of me. I’ve never seen her cling to anyone that way—not even me. Rudy holds her like she’s his raft.
“You didn’t get very much taller, sissy.”
“You got huge.” She laughs.
He’s her brother.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You changed your name and you didn’t seem to recognize me the first few times we met. I thought maybe you wanted to forget,” Rudy explains.
Erin shakes her head. “No, Griff. You’ve changed so much. You were seventeen the last time I saw you—chubby face and long hair. Now you’re this muscly hockey player.”
“I guess I have changed,” Rudy answers.
“Griff, I’ve never forgotten you. Not for a second,” Erin sobs. “I’m so sorry, Griff. You got hurt because of me.”
“No. Never. I always look out to the crowd to look for you, Goose. I’ve never had any idea of what you’d look like as an adult, but I always searched for you, hoping that I’d know it if I saw you, but that sense never came. To actually see you out there this time, I couldn’t believe it,” Rudy says, smiling wide.
“You think Brax will arrest me if I kick Buckley’s butt?” Erin says, and it gets a laugh out of all of us. “I can’t believe it’s really you.”
“Tell me your life was peaceful, Goose. Tell me you found a home? A loving family. Tell me you’ve been happy, please?” Rudy begs.
