Page 142 of Never In My Wildest Dreams

“Yeah, I know. You didn’t miss a beat.” Jaime’s gaze lowered to the floor. “You went to Yale, got a job at Elite right out of law school. You turned a shit situation into a great career. I get it. It all worked out. But we were best friends, and you never talked to us again. Even after Kurt died, you couldn’t stand to be around us.”

Anger ripped through his body. “Inever talked toyouagain?” He shook his head. “That’s an interesting take, but okay.”

“What does that mean, ‘an interesting take’?” Jaime asked. “We’ve all reached out to you over the years, and you’ve blown us off. At the barbecue after the funeral, you said you were going to the bathroom, and you never came back. Obviously, you’re pissed. You can’t stand the sight of me. And I don’t blame you. I stole your hockey career from you, and there’s nothing I can do to fix it. I can’t change a damn thing, but I need you to know how sorry I am.”

“Apology accepted.” He gave them a look that said,Conversation over.

“If you’re so cool about everything, why won’t you look me in the eyes?” Jaime asked. “Why won’t you talk to me? To any of us?”

He thought of the festival, the guys and their wives at the table, kids on their laps.It fucking hurts, okay?But he’d never say it. “We’ve all moved on. We’re busy with our own lives.”

“You forget that we know you,” Declan said quietly. “We grew up together.”

“Okay?”What’s your point?

“You’ve changed,” Declan said. “At least around us.”

“And we want you back.” Jaime was losing his shit now.

“Oh, now you want me back? What can I do for you, Jaime? You need me to be your agent? What about you, Dec? Is there a player you want? You heard about the Canadian kid, right? And you want me to bring him out for a skate?”What utter bullshit.

“I don’t want anything from you,” Jaime said. “Other than your forgiveness.”

“And friendship,” Declan said. “We miss you. It’s not the same without you.”

Fuckin’ Declan. The quiet one. The real one. He always laid it out there.

Booker didn’t know how badly he’d wanted to hear those words, but the fact that they were pure horseshit turned them into gasoline for the fire raging inside him.

“We lost a lot of friends along the way,” Declan began.

He knew they were all thinking about Griffin, who’d quit hockey early on to get a job so he could spend time with his now-wife Stella.

“But they didn’t leave a hole,” Declan said. “It’s always just been the four of us.” He smiled. “You’re the smart one. You were the one who kept us from killing ourselves.”

Jaime nodded. “So true. I’ve never met anyone who could size up a situation that fast. I don’t know how you did it, but you could take in the scale and size and magnitude, figure out weight and velocity, the impact of gravity...” He tapped his head. “Brain trust.” But the smile faded, and he watched Booker for a moment. “What did you mean by ‘interesting take’? We’ve all tried to reach out to you over the years, and you’ve ignored us. What else could we assume but you wanted nothing to do with us?”

And that was the flame that ignited him. “When did you try to reach out to me? When I signed with Elite and Cole needed an agent? Or was that right before you signed with the Renegades and needed me to look at the contract? Or did I get it wrong? You wanted endorsements, right?”

Declan straightened. “Cole’s had an agent since high school. He didn’t need you for that.”

“You think I showed up at your apartment after ten years of no contact because I needed you to look at a contract?” Jaime asked, wild-eyed. “I fuckingownedthe team. I had my pick of agents and a staff of attorneys. Jesus, man. I came to apologize. You never fucking let me apologize.” Shouting, he ran his hands through his hair.

“How about when I was laid up in a hospital bed?” Booker was done playing this game. “Would that have been a good time? Or what about the year of physical therapy when I was in a strange city and didn’t know a goddamn soul? How about then? Think that might’ve been a good time to talk to me?”

It had never occurred to him they’d have a different perspective on what happened. That they’d be angry athim.That’s wild. “I never heard from you guys again. You didn’t visit me in the hospital, and you didn’t check up on me. The first person I heard from was Cole, and I didn’t care enough at that point to talk to him.” He moved to go around them, but they shifted, blocking his way.

“The hell we didn’t try to visit you,” Jaime said, always the emotional one.

“They wouldn’t let us see you,” Declan said. “Hospital security blocked us.”

Booker’s heart thundered. Was that true? “Bullshit.” He needed to get out of there.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Jaime’s hands hit Booker’s chest. “We saw you land. All of us stood there and watched it happen. Do you know what that did to us? Cole drove the truck, but I was in the back with you. You were in so much pain you blacked out.” Crimson red stained his cheeks. “You were my best friend, and you think for one second that I didn’t try to see you in the hospital? Do you know me at all?”

The truth glimmered like sunlight on a lake. He couldn’t deny it.

This rings true.

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