Page 52 of No Pucks

Evander: Grandfather won’t make me leave if I’m sick.

Stereotypes about babies of the family are so right, and every single one of us contributed to that by babying the shit out of him.

Evander: don’t distract me!

Evander: Answer the question.

Logan: you show up because you don’t trust our phones and give me this burner to text on? I thought we weren’t trusting technology?

Maybe that will get him off my back until I’m ready to talk.

A harsh knock rattles my entire apartment, jarring me awake. I’ve only been asleep fifteen minutes when my eyes burst open, blurry vision finding my phone. The banging echoes through the place again, and I shove myself out of bed. I rub one eye with my palm as I pull open the door.

“What the fuck?” I say, finding Evander standing in front of me. “Did you run here?” I try to do the math in my head, because even running seven minute miles wouldn’t have gotten him here that fast from Grandfather’s building.

“No. I took a car so I’m not detected.” He shoves past me, ignoring that I’m blocking the doorway with my body, and drops into a seat in my living room like he owns the place.

I remind myself that he’s going through a rough time, and I did tell him he could come here whenever he needed. “Did you get new information?”

“No, but if you forgot, you told me you’d talk to me after your team thing.” He crosses his arms.

“I didn’t forget about you. I was busy.” Our definitions of busy are quite different, but I leave it at that as I shuffle to my espresso maker, turning it on to buy myself sometime to get my brain working before he forces me to admit to anything.

“This is important!”

“I understand our family falling apart is important, but I’m over dealing with it at the moment.” I shoot him a glance over my shoulder to gauge his reaction.

“Mom deserves to know. If this comes out in the press before she finds out and can leave him, she’s going to be so embarrassed. I just don’t want her to have to go through that again.”

The first time she found out, it was from pictures posted to a gossip website, and it nearly broke her. She wouldn’t get out of bed for weeks and then wouldn’t leave the house for months because she felt like everyone was talking about her. I can’t blame her. With as publicly love-dovey as they’ve been recently, it may very well ruin her. Evander was so little at the time, it affected him a lot more than it did me. Or maybe he’s just more sensitive.

“I know.” I don’t know what to do. I hate being the harbinger of my mother’s demise.

“So who from the team?” Evander is like a dog with a damn bone.

“Please. You know they’re far too young.”

He screws up his brows like he can figure this out. “Then who? And why won’t you tell me? You always tell me.”

“I promised him I wouldn’t say.”

His brows lift, and with them comes obvious curiosity. “That doesn’t sound good…”

“It’s not like that. He’s not married.” I glare at him. “You should think better of me.”

“If he’s not married, why would he care if anyone knows? He’s not like someone’s old, gross father.” He makes a face.

“I don’t chase gross. I’ve slept with him before, and it would over-complicate things. Are you done being nosy?”

“Which guy?”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “The guy from the gala.”

“How did he even find you again?”

“I forgot to mention he’s my new coach,” I admit begrudgingly.

“The guy from the gala is your new coach?!”

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