“That’s enough!” I roared. “Mom, you have no idea what you’re talking about.” It was on the tip of my tongue to come clean, to tell her everything. But I couldn’t. It wasn’t just my decision to make. I looked up at Travis, and he’d paled, his eyes wide and his swallow labored.
“I won’t let you insult Carina or me. Yes, we got married—”
Another call came through on my phone, Keeley Fisher’s name lighting up my screen. Fuck. She was the team’s PR person. No doubt Michael had been speaking with her.
“Mom, I need to go. The team’s PR person is calling me. I’ll speak with you later about this.” I hesitated. “Just don’t say anything about us, okay? No reporters, no friends. Nothing.” I didn’t give her a chance to respond before I hung up. Mom would have questions that I couldn’t answer—not until I’d spoken with the three other people in this room. But first, I had another call to deal with.
“Keeley, hello,” I said with as much forced cheer as possible.
“Congratulations, Jacques. On behalf of the team, we’re very happy for you to have married your long-time girlfriend who’s managed to stay out of the spotlight for the entirety of your relationship.” Her words were more an order to toe the line than a genuine congratulations.
“Ah, yeah. Thanks,” I replied.
“Yes, the news came as a surprise. A happy one. Shall I organize a press conference, or are you honeymooning?”
She was lying through her teeth, but I could play that game too. I appreciated where she and the rest of the team were coming from. We were new entrants into the NHL. We hadn’t had a chance to develop a long-standing, die-hard following. The Kings still dominated the supporter numbers in San Diego, and we were fighting to keep growing our fanbase. The scandal with Minns and Hux came on the back of our last game of the regular season. We’d had the win in Australia to redirect the focus, and Keeley had done a lot to foster a friendly rivalry that the fans ate up.
But a second PR transgression so close to the first without any more hockey to talk about had the potential for disaster written all over it. I wouldn’t lie to her face, but I could delay things to take the heat off us for just a moment.
“It was only a weekend away. We’re at home now. But I’ll speak with my agent about whether to do something as formal as a press conference. I’ll have him call to liaise with you so there aren’t any more surprises.”
“Good. I do like happy surprises. But scandals not so much.”
“I understand, Keeley. Thanks for your call.” I hung up and powered off my cell before another call could come through. Whoever else wanted to get a hold of me was going to have to wait.
When I turned around to talk to the others in the room, my heart sank. Carina had tears in her eyes. Her arm was wrapped around her waist, and her other was covering her mouth as if she was trying to hide her crying. Travis was paralyzed next to her, still and pale. He looked like he’d seen a ghost, fear written clear across his face, in his blown pupils, and the way his chest rose and fell rapidly. Rusty was curled into himself, his head down and a white-knuckled grip on the countertop.
Fuck. I had to fix this. I had to fixus.
fifteen
Carina
We’dwalkedinonsomething heavy, and it only got worse with Sophia’s call to Jacques. She’d screamed at him—I’d never heard her raise her voice before. Even when he was an unruly teenager getting into trouble all the time, she sat him down and spoke to him calmly. Sophia believed in gentle parenting—she was strict, but never loud.
But this time was different. She was hurt and angry. Her disappointment in Jacques was obvious in her scolding. The betrayal in her voice when she mentioned my name—the way she’d spat it out with venom behind her words—was enough to rip my heart out and tear it to shreds.
I knew she’d be upset. Drunk me hadn’t understood the gravity of the decision I was making. Stone-cold sober me knew all too well. I’d destroyed a lifetime of friendship with one night of fun.
I’d naïvely hoped that she’d laugh it off and say we were family now. But I’d been kidding myself.
When Cara told me she was dating her best friend’s father, I’d been angry that an older man was taking advantage of my innocent daughter. I’d known she’d never even been kissed before. Then she ended up in a polyamorous relationship with a man accused of cheating with his teammate’s wife and another man nearly twice her age. I’d barely managed to keep my opinions to myself, and it wasn’t because I was understanding and well adjusted. It was because my life was such a mess that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else.
Sophia was reacting exactly the same way I had. But then I’d come around. I’d seen the photographs on social media of Monroe and Alec with Cara. I’d seen the way they looked at her—the adoration in both their gazes was unmistakable.
Maybe Sophia would come around too. But even if she did, our friendship would never be the same. I’d broken her trust. I’d had sex with her son. Repeatedly. I may have loved it and fifteen minutes ago was still contemplating how we could do it again, but now I’d been schooled on exactly what it had cost.
The phone call with his team’s PR rep had been just as bad. From the one-sided conversation I’d borne witness to, it seemed pleasant enough on the face of it, but there was an underlying current of discomfort. Jacques was schooling his answers and his tone, hiding more than what he was saying.
“Darlin’,” Trav said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “This is Rusty. Rusty, meet Carina.”
“Lincoln,” he corrected and held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Same. Trav’s told me a lot about you.”
Lincoln raised a brow and looked to Trav, a question in his expression.
“Can we talk?” Jacques asked. “All of us?” He gestured to the open-plan living room behind us where there was an oversized corner sofa.
