“Yeah,” I agreed and cleared my throat. I knew he was in it for the long haul, but it was reassuring knowing how much he valued his relationship with my daughter and their boyfriends.
“What are you waiting for, then, Roe? Go get ’em,” Ezra encouraged, and I grinned, my belly swooping with excitement and anticipation. We needed to start communicating, and that’s what we’d do.
***
“Hey,” I greeted Cara as I slipped onto the team bus. We were catching a lift with the team to the arena, and there were people everywhere around us. But I needed to know whether she was okay. “How are you?”
“Okay.” Cara paused. She looked up and pressed her lips into a tight smile as Gauthier passed us in the aisle. Then she shook her head and sighed. Her shoulders slumped, and a frown tilted her lips down. “Angry. Upset. Confused. I don’t know what to think. Everything just imploded.”
“It’s not over yet, beautiful,” I murmured.
Alec chose that moment to walk past us. He paused, just for a millisecond, before he continued, but it was enough. He straightened his shoulders, and the smile that instantly tilted his lips up was blinding. He’d clearly noticed we were both wearing number 10 jerseys—his number.
Cara turned into me, shifting her body so she was sitting sideways on the seat. She leaned her head on the rest and I reached for her, threading my fingers through hers. “I’m going to fix this, Cara. We’re going to get Alec back.”
Her smile was slower to grace her lips than Alec’s had been, but when it did, it was breathtaking.Shewas breathtaking. Like sunshine emerging from behind a storm cloud, her smile lit up the room, and it took everything in me not to lean in and kiss that pretty mouth.
Then I reconsidered that decision. I hooked my finger under her chin and brushed my thumb over her lips. “Can I kiss you?” I whispered.
Cara closed the distance between us, pressing her lips to mine. I pulled back, then brushed my lips over hers again. It was the barest whisper of a kiss. Delicate and sweet like her. I sucked in a breath when Cara’s eyes fluttered closed and she leaned in again, touching her tongue against my lip. I opened for her, and she surged forward, tangling her tongue with mine. Warmth spread through me as she controlled our kiss. Her touch was no longer hesitant. She was no longer shy and fumbling, and I loved seeing her embrace this side of herself.
twenty-two
Cara
The team had killed it. Alec had played one of the best games of his life—two goals and five assists was a spectacular effort.
Monroe and I had watched every second of play from the front row at centre ice—the best seats in the house.
We were already in the stands when the Seals hopped over the boards for their warmup. Monroe and I had stood up, holding hands and cheering ourselves hoarse. We’d screamed Alec’s name for the whole sixteen minutes. He’d heard us loud and clear, too, if the shy smile he shot us as he left the ice was anything to go by.
The game was fast from the puck drop. The Seals only got stronger as the time ticked by. Each period, they were faster, and they looked like they were having a blast on the ice. I hadn’t seen that jubilation in any of the games they’d played here. There was no doubt they were good—amazing, in fact—but it wasn’t why I’d become a fan. When the Seals had joined the league, the whole team looked like they lived for moments on the ice. They’d played with a kind of joy that couldn’t be faked. But it’d been missing since they’d flown into Brisbane. They still played witha level of skill that was mind-blowing, except that they weren’t having fun. It was as if they were crumbling under the pressure, but now I understood that it wasn’t the game. It had been everything else.
Now that I knew what had happened, I understood. TMZ’s story had been the catalyst. The cheating scandal had left the team scrambling. Their loyalties were divided and their bond, their brotherhood, had been left teetering.
Not knowing what else to do, they’d iced out Alec and he’d retreated into himself.
But I had seen the old Alec shine through tonight. He hadn’t hesitated, even for a moment. He didn’t overthink anything. He got his stick on the puck and every time he did, it was like magic. He had made every play look like he could do it with his eyes closed.
I refused to think it was because we were on the outs. We were there cheering for him. He’d blown me a kiss after he’d scored the first time. That wasn’t walking away. That wasn’t an I’m-better-off-without-them reaction.
Now, two hours after the game finished, Monroe and I were standing in the hotel lobby waiting for him. We wanted him with us.
We’d left the Tennis Centre shortly after the buzzer. The arena, which hosted anything from the Australian Open to concerts—and now apparently ice hockey games—was only a short ride away, barely even out of the city. But it was taking forever for the team to arrive at the hotel.
I’d spoken with Zali earlier. She’d encouraged me to go for it. She’d reminded me that things weren’t always as they seemed, especially when the media twisted it. Alec wasn’t my dad. I may be angry and frustrated by the way he had reacted in my hotel room, but this thing between us—whatever we could become—was too important to let it go. I owed it to Alec not to painthim with the same harsh brush as I had my dad, and I owed it to both Monroe and myself to prioritize our happiness together. I had jumped to conclusions, and I shouldn’t have. After all, Alec might have had a perfectly innocent reason for being at his teammate’s house that night.
Out of everything, though, I just wished that someone had stood up for him. The team’s press release was decidedly neutral, and no one else had come out denying the rumours. Not even Alec. I guessed that he had a reason for it, but it left everyone to speculate, which I’d learned the hard way was so much worse.
Zali asked me if I trusted him. I had before I’d heard the gossip. He’d been kind and sweet to me. He’d let his walls down with us, and I’d seen who the real Alec Huxley was. The man was undeniably sexy, but there was so much more to him. He’d taken care of me. He’d been kind and introduced me to sex by showing me ecstasy, not by taking advantage. I hadn’t had much sex, but I knew the difference between a transactional hookup where the guy was after a hole and what we had. It meant something to all of us. It wasn’t just sex.
Maybe I was projecting, but in my heart, I knew that there was something real between us.
When Zali asked me if I believed that he could have intentionally hurt his teammate, that he could have lied and deceived him, I realized I didn’t need Alec to deny it. I didn’t believe that he was capable of hurting anyone like that.
I trusted him.
And that was enough.
