Page 68 of Put a Rink on It

Uh…

“At first, I didn’t think too much of it. She’s been on your socials before, we all know you’re friends, she lives closer to you, blah, blah, blah. But then.” She pauses for dramatic effect, and I scoot from the bed, stopped by Nero’s hand on my wrist. His head shakes, and I stay. “But then I read the caption. Want me to paraphrase it for you or read it word for freaking word?”

“Word for word would be best. Make this call a little less intrusive.”

“‘Nero Champion, new defenseman for the Hartford Nautilus, spotted at a local Connecticut rink, chatting with his fans as his fiancée…’ Your fiancée. Since when is Marina Keeley your fiancée?”

“The more times you repeat it won’t make it less true,” Nero cracks.

“Nero Sam Champion, this isn’t the time for jokes. What in the ever-loving world is going on? Is this true?”

Nero blows out a breath. “Yes.”

“It’s true?” she screeches over the line. “You’re engaged. To Marina. And this is how I’m finding out, big bro?” Her reaction mirrors Juliet’s, and shame for what we’re doing rears its ugly head inside me.

“We planned to tell you when we were out there in February.”

“Did you plan to explain how this all went down? How you went from loving her from afar to fucking engaged?”

A loud gasp tears from my mouth at her words. Against his wanting me to stay in bed, I can’t.

Loving her from afar?

What in the hell does that mean?

“Marina,” Nero pleads, hopping from the bed, stopping my pacing.

“She’s there?” Kaitlyn shrieks. “WHY AM I THE LAST TO KNOW THESE THINGS?” Even from across the room, her voice booms.

“If it’s any consolation, Mom and Dad don’t know,” Nero tries.

“Nope. That’s not helpful. Marina, care to explain what’s going on?”

I march over to the nightstand, preparing to salvage this conversation. Instead of getting any answers out, the phone in my hand lights up with a FaceTime call.

I angle the phone to Nero. “If you don’t pick up, she won’t leave us alone. Tell her the story we told your family.”

“And ignore the whole ‘loving her from afar’ comment?” I chide.

Nero runs a hand through his already messy hair. “Yeah. For now.”

My finger swipes hastily across the screen before Kaitlyn’s haggard face appears. Wavy strands of her caramel hair fall out of the knot on the top of her head. A combination of anger and sadness display on her face, and her brown eyes are tired.

Rather than let her dictate the conversation, I charge ahead. “No one knew, Kaitlyn. No one. Not any of my family, not any of my friends, no one. We weren’t leaving you out of the loop intentionally.”

“I don’t understand how it happened. How you kept it a secret. Did you know he was going to propose?”

I go with the truth. “Not when he did it.”

“But you had an inkling?”

I glance at Nero’s defeated face, the lies beginning to take their toll on him, too.

“We kept our relationship hidden from everyone, and when he proposed last weekend, it came as a shock to me. One minute we’re hypothetically shopping for rings, and the next, we’re on a private jet to Minnesota.” Her face loses some of the hard lines as her fury ebbs.

“Please tell me there’s a video somewhere. Because if he planned this all on his own, I’m gonna need evidence.”

“I’ll text it to you when we hang up,” Nero calls from the edge of the bed.