Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 121734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Some of my fears lessened. “And you? If you’re ever thinking of doing something again?”
That’s what worried me now. She could hide it so well. She had hidden it, but maybe that was part of the invisible kid thing? I didn’t know. I needed to learn about it.
She drew in a breath. “I think with me, it’s going to take time. I need to find someone who can help me. Then I’ll know more about how you can help. But I can tell you I don’t want to do anything with that gun anymore. I have you. I have hockey again. I have friends. I have hope. I’d lost hope. The world went gray and stayed gray and I didn’t see any more color coming. But then it did. If I ever do have those thoughts, I’ll come to you.”
“Promise me.” If she was suddenly not here one day? “Promise me, Rain.”
“I promise,” her voice went quiet again and she repeated it. “I promise.” She released her seatbelt and clambered over to me.
I hit my seat, pushing it as far back as possible so she could straddle me. Her forehead came to mine, and her hair fell like a curtain around us, cocooning us in our own world.
I breathed her in, cupcakes and lilac, and knew I’d want this world with her forever. “Don’t ever leave me,” I said raggedly.
“I won’t.” Her mouth found mine, and I was swept up in all things Rain.
It rattled me, thinking about a world without her, a life without her. “I want to marry you.”
She stiffened before lifting her head. “What?”
“I…” I closed my mouth. “Well, fuck.”
71
TYLER
“Yo.” Bruge skated up to me the next afternoon and held out his gloved hand. “We got this.” He glanced my way but turned his attention to the Montreal skater I’d been watching for the last couple minutes.
It was warmups. I wasn’t supposed to be standing on the red line, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave. I hated this fucking guy, Daniel Connors. The second he’d taken the ice, he was skating around with his helmet off, eyeing our bench. Like he was daring Rain to come out.
“You should be stretching if you’re going to stand here.”
I grunted at Bruge.
“Coach is starting my line.”
“What?” Now he had my attention. Bruge was our enforcer. “Why’s he doing that?”
“Why do you think?” He went back to watching Montreal’s captain. “Same as with Boston. Both teams know what’s going to happen.”
“What if he doesn’t fight?”
Bruge laughed. “Are you kidding me? I could make him fight me right now.”
I smirked. “Do it.”
Bruge shook his head. “I’ve got a feeling Connors has no idea what’s in store for him tonight.”
“What was that?” The guy we were speaking about had skated past us but now pivoted back in a tight circle. I’d been dealing with his assholery all my life but knowing how he’d treated Rain growing up just made me angrier.
Before Bruge could say anything, I was in Connors’s face. “Step the fuck back, Connors. We can say whatever we want about you until that puck drops.”
“Oooh. Big guy, huh? You’re so tough now?” he taunted.
The crowd noticed what was going on and began cheering. Boos broke out as well. They wanted blood, and we were in our hometown. They wanted Connors’s blood specifically. The sport was brutal sometimes.
“Okay. Enough of this.” A ref was between us in no time, his hands up. “Save it for the game. Get back to warmups.”
“How’s my sister? She still a brat like she always was?”
I saw red. Reaching for him, I tried to yank his jersey since the fucker didn’t have his helmet. I wanted him close so when I hit him, it would land. I didn’t want him to be able to skate out of the way.
The crowd went nuts.
“Hey! Stop it. Both of you.” Two more refs got between us and shoved us away from each other.
“Keep fucking talking,” I told him. “Keep doing it.”
“Dude.” Sunny skated over, shoving me back. “You’re mic’d. Are you crazy?”
Shit. I’d forgotten. What a game to be mic’d up.
Connors was laughing. He craned his neck around the ref and his teammates that had come over to help. “I have a better question. How’s your sister doing? I’m in town for the holidays. Maybe I’ll give her a call. See how she’s doing myself.”
I went for him again.
“Fuck. Griffin. Stop.” Sunny and Jesse both helped the ref push me back.
I needed to get my shit together. If I didn’t, the refs were going to give me a penalty before the game even started.
Daniel continued laughing, loud and caustic-sounding, then suddenly it dried up. His eyes got unnaturally big, and he froze in place. His gaze moved past me.
I looked, cursing when I saw that Rain had stepped out into the bench along with a couple of the other assistant coaches. Her eyes were on her brother, but they held no fear. She wasn’t shaking or trembling. She’d told me she could compartmentalize, and I was seeing it in action. Her chin lifted, and her eyes were cool. Rock solid.