Carina
“So,Jacques?”Kamirahaskedwith a curious smile.
She was married to Chris Minns, the teammate who Alec had fallen out with. It was the first time I’d met her—they’d come to the house for Chris and Jacques to talk, and I was struggling to be polite.
I was oddly protective of my daughter’s boyfriend. Alec was a sweetheart who seemed so alone in the world. He’d had a tough run of it, too—the controversy between Chris and Alec had nearly ended his career, and he’d been cast aside by much of the team. Jacques and Carter Hewitt had been the only people to speak to Alec for much of their trip to Australia. He had no family, and he couldn’t talk to any of his friends—at least not from what Cara told me. He’d been alone and hurting. Cara and Monroe were the light he’d needed during a dark time, so Chris and Kamirah were lucky I was only ambivalent about them, not outright hostile.
I understood that Jacques was the team captain and it was his job to foster a relationship between the whole team. He’d had Alec over most days, sometimes with Carter and other times with more of the team to skate, do weight-training sessions, and even a mock firefighter-training physical that Trav set up. There were quite a few barbecues and pool parties, too, starting with the one that everyone had just shown up for the day after we got back from Vegas. But today was the first time Chris and Kamirah had come.
I respected that he and Kamirah were still together and they both needed time and help to get over whatever had almost caused the team to implode at the end of the last season. But it didn’t mean I had to like the fact that my daughter’s boyfriend had been hurt.
I adjusted the kaftan I was wearing and kicked my feet in the pool. The shade was so much cooler than the baking sun, but it was still hot. Boob sweat was very real and gross.
“Yeah, he’s wonderful,” I hedged. I was being evasive, but I didn’t trust her.
Kamirah nodded and pressed her lips together. “Are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?”
“I’m sorry?” I asked, genuinely unsure of what she was talking about. Was she referring to Jacques and me or something else?
Kamirah sighed and moved off the sun lounger she’d been sitting on. She wasn’t at all what I’d expected. Many of the wives and girlfriends were glamorous, slim, blonde, and beautiful in a Scandinavian runway modelesque kind of way. Kamirah was beautiful, too, but she was so very different to those women. I felt an immediate kinship with her because of it, too, and it didn’t sit comfortably.
Neither of us was going to become part of the popular girl clique with the Kamirah/Hux scandal still fresh in their minds, and there was also my age. The women seemed nice enough—the whole team did—but the judgy comments I’d heard at the get-together had soured me on them. Kamirah seemed to be genuinely trying to build a connection with me. That didn’t feel right either.
She kicked off her slides and sat down next to me, then dropped her feet into the water. Kamirah was as curvy as me, but where I was top-heavy, she was pear-shaped with thick thighs and hips and a rounded belly. The black bikini she was wearing under the short black see-through robe contrasted beautifully with her pale freckled skin and fiery red hair. It was that perfect copper color, bright and unmistakably natural.
She lifted her foot out of the water, and the drops there gleamed in the sun as they ran down her leg. She perched her sunglasses atop her head among the mass of curls and looked off into the distance. “Chris and I lost a lot of friends when TMZ broke the story about me and Hux—”
I held up my hands, halting her conversation. I needed to be honest with her and set the record straight before she divulged anything she wouldn’t feel comfortable saying to someone who had a connection to Alec. “You should know that my daughter is dating Alec.”
She gave me a small smile and nodded. “I’m glad he has her and the other man. Sorry, I don’t know his name.”
“Monroe. He’s good to Alec too.”
“That’s real good.” She was quiet for a moment and sighed.
Kamirah paused for a long moment, then added, “I promise you, Carina. We aren’t bad people. We both regret that Hux was the scapegoat. He and I were painted as the villains, but we aren’t.” She shot me a small smile and added, “But I’m sure you already know that about him.”
“I do.” I nodded slowly, taking in the way she was lounging. At first glance, she looked casual, like she didn’t have a care in the world, but the more I looked at her, the more I could see the weight she was carrying.
She looked forlorn. Lost and lonely. I’d had Sophia when my world had imploded. Did Kamirah have anyone? The initial discomfort that was niggling at me when we’d started speaking had disappeared, disbursed like a fog rising in the morning sunshine, and I realized that I wanted to be there for her. I wanted a friendship with her.
“People suck sometimes,” I commiserated.
“They do. Especially when you thought they were your friend and knew you better than to believe some dumb rumors created to sell a story.”
I nodded, not really knowing what to say to that. I’d never had experience with being under such an intense media spotlight like she had. Every time I’d gone out with Jacques, we’d managed to maintain a fairly low profile. But I didn’t need experience to understand that she was hurting.
“You know, I could always use a friend,” I offered. “I don’t know many people here except Jacques, Trav, Linc, and Alec.”
Kamirah smiled, and the cute piercing on the side of her bottom lip caught my eye. “I could too. I don’t have many left.”
“I get it. I’ve lost some too,” I sympathized. I missed Sophia, but I was coming to realize that I’d done everything I could to repair our friendship. Even if I walked away from Jacques—whenI walked away from him—she wasn’t going to magically forgive me.
Compassion welled up inside me. I didn’t believe that she’d cheated with Alec either. In the few minutes we’d been talking, I’d been given an insight into her, a tiny glimpse at a person who my gut told me was a good person. Aside from that, though, I’d gotten to know Alec. He wasn’t capable of hurting anyone, much less a teammate, and especially not in such a vicious way.
I reached out and clasped my hand over her joined ones and squeezed. “I believe you.”
She looked at me, her brows drawn, and lips pursed in confusion.
