Page 22 of No Pucks

She might have been called a puck bunny her whole adult life after marrying my father, but she’s far from it. She grew up in hockey and passed the New York bar at twenty-three, years before most people even take it for the first time. She worked her way up in big law and became a partner before her firm took overthe contract of Grandpa’s team. She has never needed or wanted my father’s fame.

She resisted hockey players for years before she met my father. I don’t know how he did what no one else could, but he won my mom over, and she has been smitten ever since.

He slips his hand under Mother’s coat, thumbs brushing her nipples as he cups her rib cage.

I clear my throat, holding up my hand to shield my eyes. “In front of the children?”

“You’re far from a child, Logan.” My father holds out his hand.

I take it, despite him having just felt up my mother, and shake, making a mental note to excuse myself to the bathroom to wash my fucking hands before we eat. “I’m talking about Evander. He’s sixteen.”

“I’m pretending I don’t exist. It’s fine,” Evander mutters under his breath so my parents don’t hear him as he gives me a hug. “I need to wash my hands. We’ll have them show us to the table when we finish.” Evander practically drags me to the bathroom.

I lift my brows when he closes and locks the bathroom door behind us. “You could have called.”

“Not with them up my ass. You’d think with them acting like that, they’d leave me alone for a second, but they haven’t.”

“Why won’t they leave you alone?”

“Because I told them I’d rather live with Grandfather and go to school in the city than go back to boarding school.”

“Why would that make them not leave you alone?” I ask, not following the dots.

“Because they think I’m going to, like, abscond and plead my case to Grandfather.”

“Have you tried?”

He mutters something, which means yes.

“Why are they so insistent on you returning?” Our family politics were odd at best. Dad never insisted I go to that school, even if it was considered the best for hockey, but with Evander, he did. Something about the best hockey training money can buy in Switzerland. Grandfather tried to argue I had a fine education here, but that only made Dad more adamant. “They might not believe you about last year, but surely, their training can’t be so much better. Can’t they see how you look?”

Evander spent a week in the hospital over the holiday break last year. The school claimed dehydration and hypothermia from too much outdoor cross training, but Evander’s story is much darker—not that my parents believed him. He has always been a bit of a hypochondriac and cried wolf one too many times.

But I believe him.

“I think they want me out of the city. Or, at least, Dad does.”

“Why would he care? Is this just to defy Grandfather at this point?” I can’t imagine they want to torture Evander. He’s Dad’s favorite.

He lifts his shoulders. “I don’t know, but he wants me out of the house.”

I can’t help but think it’s to create more time to cheat, but I have no evidence to back that up, so I don’t say it. “What can I do?”

“Be ready to bail me out of jail in another country.”

“Can’t you talk to Grandfather?”I ask.

“They won’t leave me alone with him, and any time I’ve tried to bring it up, they shut it down.”

“Can you email him?”

“No, they put all my devices on lockdown.” He shows me his phone, and it’s like a toddler lock screen. “Mother won’t even let me call you because she ‘doesn’t want me to bother you your first week at school’. So I’ve been isolated.” No wonder he insisted on lunch.

“I’ll call Grandfather. I’m sure he’ll be annoyed Dad is trying to keep you from him.” Since he is literallyeveryone’sfavorite.

“Thank you. I knew you’d think of something.” He hugs me again.

Lunch is insufferable. Dad alternates between criticizing my choice in college, talking up Evander’s school, and practically dry humping our mother all between fans coming up to the table to speak to him.

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