Page 95 of Breakaway Goal

At that, his face finally moves. His lips draw together, his brows pinching sharply and digging furrows into his forehead. “What?”

I take a deep breath. Was he too stunned to hear anything I just said? “Maddie and I are together, Lane. We?—”

He shakes his head. “No. I heard that. I mean …” He shakes his head again, his expression still stricken. “You think I don’t think you’re …good enoughfor her?”

Now it’s my turn to wear a befuddled look. “I mean, I know I’m not the kind of guy you’d want for your sister …”

Lane’s eyebrows leap. Hurt swims in his eyes. “Dude, what are you talking about?”

My tongue just idly darts around inside my mouth as words fail me. I’ve run through a lot of scenarios in my head about how Lane would respond when Maddie and I tell him about us. This wasn’t one of them.

Lane’s shoulders lift, and he huffs out a laugh as he questioningly glances side to side. “What the hell made you think that?”

I look to Maddie. Her brow is high, her blinking slow and heavy, but she seems to be recovering from the shock of the moment. I look back at Lane. “I mean, shit, dude. My family, where I grew up …”

The confusion on Lane’s face only ratchets higher. “Your family? Dude, you know I love your mom!”

“Fuck, you know what I mean. I’m not rich. And if hockey doesn’t pan out, it’s not like I’m going to be able to be a lawyer, or a doctor, or a consultant, or whatever the fuck. Who knows what I’ll be. I just always thought …”

“Let me stop you right there,” Lane says, his voice firming as he takes a step closer to me. “Hockey or not, I know damn well what you’ll always be. My best friend. Not good enough for my sister?” He laughs. “First of all, my sister can make her own decisions. But even if I were worried about her judgment, I couldn’t imagine someone I’d feel better about her being with than you.”

“Really?” I ask.

“Of course! I know you’ll treat her right. That’s the only thing that matters.”

Maddie rushes past me and flings her arms around her brother’s neck, pressing a kiss to his cheek. She steps back, and then Lane walks forward, pulling me into a hug.

“I can’t believe you thought I’d give a shit about any of those things you mentioned,” Lane says, a trace of hurt still in his voice, before he replaces it with a joking tone and asks, “Am I really such an asshole?”

I breathe a relieved laugh. “No, it’s just …” I shake my head at myself. “Shit, I don’t know. Remember that interview you did with the newspaper at the beginning of the year? When they asked if you’d be okay with any of your teammates dating your sister?”

His features pull as a searching look passes over his face. “What, that?” He laughs again. “Dude, it was a stupid answer to a stupid question. I didn’t even think about it for half of a second.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “I guess I’ve just been an idiot this whole time.”

“I’ll fucking say,” Lane jokes, socking me with a playful punch to my shoulder. “But now that that’s taken care of …what?” His eyelids snap back as his gaze slices between me and Maddie. “You two? Together? Since when? I feel like someone needs to pinch me to see if I’m dream—oww!”

He jumps back after Maddie grabs a big chunk of his arm between her index finger and thumb. “It was a figure of speech!” he yelps.

I wrap my arm proudly around Maddie,mygirl, and tug her close as we walk inside, laughing.

50

MADDIE

“Are you sure this isn’t a sex thing?” Rhys asks as I tie the blindfold around his head.

“For the seventh time, yes.”

“Because itfeelslike a sex thing.”

“If you guys are gonna do sex things, don’t do it in the hallway!” Sebastian yells from downstairs.

“It’s not a sex thing!” I yell down the stairway.

We’re at Rhys’s house, standing outside his door in the second-floor hallway. Earlier today, when he was on campus for classes, the guys let me into his room so I could bring over his Christmas present to surprise him. It’s the second to last week of the semester, so it’s going to be an early present, but I really wanted him to see it for the first time hung up in his room.

“Alright, forward,” I say, pushing Rhys towards his door.

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