Seeing Cara watching me in the stands had made me feel invincible. I’d never had a game like it. It was the first hat trick I’d ever scored. The closest I’d come before was getting two goals and two assists. And seeing Roe here needing comfort and being unable to give it to him tore me to shreds.
“You’re Alec Huxley?” Ezra asked. “I read about you—”
“How do you two know each other?” I interrupted, gesturing between them. The sooner he dropped me being in the news, the better.
Roe lifted one side of his lips up in a half-smile and huffed out a laugh. “Ezra tried to arrest me.” My eyes bugged out and Roe’s smile turned more genuine. “I was having a tough time getting my ex’s name off our telephone bill. Someone allegedly hacked into the telecommunication provider’s system and shut them down. Ezra tracked the hack to my IP address and came to arrest me. When he realized that my talent for computers extended to logging into my emails, he took my daughter under his wing, and we became friends.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. Opened it again. “Your daughter shut down a telecommunications provider?”
“Allegedly. It was never proven.”
“And it never will be,” Ezra confirmed, his voice taking on that same hard tone.
“So, you’re a police officer?” I asked Ezra.
“I was a federal copper, but I’m not anymore. I work with Zali, Roe’s daughter, and our partners in our charity now.”
“Ez is one of Zali’s boyfriends,” Roe explained and nudged his shoulder into Ezra’s.
“One of?” I asked. I wanted to know everything about Roe and his family.
Ezra smiled, his eyes lighting up. The love in them stole my breath. “Zali, myself, and our partners Tristan, Flynn, and Ryder are all together.”
“Cool,” I breathed, my chest tight with want. I couldn’t even fathom having that many people who loved me. It must be nice.
We sat in silence for a moment. Ezra was younger than Roe, but he was older than me. I knew that Zali and Cara were only a couple of years apart, too, so that meant there was a decent age gap between Zali and the little boy Roe carried a picture of in his wallet.
“Is that your son in the picture in your wallet?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me. “Is there a big age gap between him and Zali?”
Roe looked away, drawing into himself, and panic filled me. Ezra’s gaze shot to mine, and the tension that appeared around his eyes begged me to stop. I snapped my mouth closed and kicked myself. Why hadn’t I just shut my mouth?
“That’s Asher, and no, not much difference at all.”
“Oh, old photo,” I said, relieved that I hadn’t put my foot in it too badly.
“Something like that,” Roe whispered. “Ez, ah, I might—” Roe gestured to the elevators, and Ez nodded.
“I need to head off anyway.” He stood up and held out his hand to shake mine. His grip was firm. “Good to meet you, Alec.”
“Yeah, you too.”
Roe shoved his hands in his pockets, and Ezra squeezed his shoulder. “Call me anytime.”
“Thanks, man. I’m just gonna crash.” I watched him go, torn between chasing after him to make sure he was okay and giving him the space he seemed to need.
seventeen
Cara
The team was pretty chill. They had travelling down to a fine art and really didn’t need me with them.
But that’s where my chill ended. The missed-call notifications started again the moment I turned airplane mode off. Five from Dad in the space of a one-hour flight. I’d ignored three of them while we were waiting to board the Seals’ jet.
The team milled around, sitting on the white leather couches overlooking the tarmac, talking and laughing. I watched Alec interact with them—or not interact, more accurately. He held himself apart from them. He seemed close to Jacques and the other forward he was on the ice with, but there was a wall between him and the other guys. It was as if he was distancing himself, already halfway out the door. Psychologists discussed team sports in the context of synergy. Sports people talked about teams being a family, a brotherhood. Alec looked like he desperately wanted to belong but didn’t know how to. He was fluid on the ice, knowing exactly where his teammates were at any time, but off it, he was completely different. He was quieter than the others and a heck of a lot more introspective too.
Roe was good at mingling. He was talking to Rune, the goalie, and Sawchuck, one of the assistant coaches. I hadn’t seen him yesterday except in the morning when we’d woken curled around each other. He’d been quiet over breakfast, leaving immediately after, but from what Zali had told me, they’d both had a rough day. The memories from last year and the events that led to it were still very fresh in all their memories, especially because of the podcast. It was a raging success, but I’d seen the toll it took on my friends, so celebrating that felt wrong.
Another missed-call notification lit up my phone, care of the call I’d just ignored. Dad wasn’t giving up.
