Page 13 of Center Ice
“But he was already advising me, so it wasn’t like I’d have used you to get closer to him. I’d already committed to him being my agent once I was drafted.”
While everything I said was true, of course he’d have to go and notice that it wasn’t true forus. I wasn’t worried he’d use me to get to Jameson. I was worried that he’d use his professionalrelationship with Jameson as a reasonnotto get close to me. And I craved my time with him, even while I pretended that nothing about him impressed me.
“I wanted to keep Jameson as far away from my relationships—both friendships and romantic—as possible. He was always a little…overbearing.”
I feel guilty saying it because my brother is amazing. He retired early from the NHL when our dad left so that he could make sure Jules and I had as normal of a high school experience as possible. Without him, I have no idea what my life would look like. But it certainly wouldn’t have involved the elite private high school I attended in Boston, nor going to Boston University, nor having the help I needed when Graham was a baby so I could get my architecture degree. And Jules and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to save our dad’s construction company. My entire life—all my successes—are because Jameson stepped in and stepped up when we needed him to, at great personal expense.
“Is that why you never told him I’m Graham’s father?” He asks the question so casually, and I don’t understand how this news isn’t flipping his world upside down.
How is he so calm?
“Why are you not freaking out about the fact that you have a kid you didn’t know about? I mean, you’re so unbothered about it, it’s kind of freakingmeout.”
“Believe me,” he says, leaning back in his chair, “I spent a good part of last night freaking out, especially when you didn’t call me back. It’s why I’m here now, in person. Would you rather if I wasn’t handling this well?”
“No,” I say slowly, considering my words. “I guess I’m just projecting how I’d be feeling if I were in your shoes.” I don’t mention that—having watched his life as closely as I could for these past six years, and determined he was an impulsive andunreliable guy—I’d expected him to run away from this news, not toward it.
Drew gives me a half-smile. “I can’t imagine you ever being anything but calm and collected. In college, I’m pretty sure you were the most mature person I knew.”
Yeah, well, I had to grow up quickly,I think to myself. But I don’t say it out loud, because if there’s one thing I excel at, it’s holding in my feelings.
“So…” Drew continues when I don’t say anything. “How exactly did you manage to keep my paternity a secret when your brother is my agent? Andwhy? When I didn’t call you back, why didn’t you just tell Jameson and have him reach out to me?”
A laugh bursts out of me. “Are you serious?”
He nods. “Yeah. That’s the thing I don’t understand. You had a direct line of communication to me, through your brother, and you didn’t use it.”
“Drew, I called you twenty times.” I feel like a broken record player with how often I’m emphasizing this fact. “Andyou didn’t even call me back.How do you think Jameson would have responded to the news that you knocked up his baby sister and then refused to take responsibility for it?”
He draws back, his eyes boring into me as they rake over my face. “That wasn’t me not taking responsibility. I didn’tknow.”
I give him the same look I’d give Graham if he was telling me he’d eaten all his dinner when he’d clearly just shoved his food in his napkin and left it wadded up next to his plate.
“I only listened to the first message, and you didn’t tell me you were pregnant in that one or I would have called you back.” Drew has the good sense to look ashamed when he says this.
I hear exactly what he’s saying, it’s what I’ve known all along:Iwasn’t worth calling back. Maybe if he’d known why I was calling, then he’d have called. But he wasn’t going to call just because it was me. I didn’t matter enough to even return my call.
“It didn’t feel like the kind of information you should leave someone in a voicemail. What should I have said?Hi, remember our night together before you moved to Vancouver? Well, I’m pregnant. Call me back, thanks.”
“Yeah. That’s exactly what you should have said. It was a dick move that I didn’t call you back, and that’s on me. But also?—”
The door at the top of the stairs swings open, and Jameson’s voice fills the space. “Hey, Audrey,” he calls as he jogs down the stairs, “have you seen the… What the hell happened here?”
He’s stopped on his way down the stairs and is looking at the plate and salad spread all over the floor. He hasn’t noticed Drew yet, and my eyes slide over to him in a look of pure panic. Under the table, Drew squeezes my knee in what I’m sure is supposed to be a reassuring gesture, but instead sends a full-body shiver through me.
“Uh…a client knocked on the door as I was coming down the stairs and it shocked me. I dropped my salad. I’ll pick it up later.”
Jameson’s head snaps over to me then, noticing Drew sitting there for the first time. Thankfully, his hand is already back in his own lap. “Drew? What are you doing here?”
“I have some work that needs to be done at my mom’s place,” he says without missing a beat. “Colt mentioned that your sisters run a construction company, and I stopped by to see if the project is something they might be able to squeeze in. Audrey was kind enough to see me on short notice.”
Jameson’s eyes flick between us. I recognize the look of suspicion because he used to do the same to me and Jules when we were teenagers and he was trying to catch us in a lie.
“It’s lucky she happened to be around.” Jameson’s voice is flat, and I can tell he isn’t quite buying what Drew’s selling.
“Indeed,” I say. “Jules would have flat out refused to even talk to you.”
“Why’s that?” Drew asks, relaxing back in his chair casually, like this isn’t the most awkward possible moment for my big brother to have walked in. Like we’re not in the middle of lying to him, as if we’re children caught doing something wrong instead of grown-ass adults in the middle of an important conversation about our child.
