Page 83 of Match Penalty

"You need to call her back," Angelica says. "Explain—"

"Explain what?" I cut her off. "That the woman she thinks I left her for in San Diego is the same woman currently in my apartment tonight, after I ended things with the woman I'm in love with for the second time? Yeah, that'll go over well."

"Better than letting her think history is repeating itself." Angelica's voice is sharp.

The memory of that night still haunts me. Cammy's hair spread across the sheets, smiling over at me before she fell asleep, and then that late night phone call, the wreck, the ambulance lights, the mug shot.

"To do that, I have to tell her the truth. Something that puts too much in danger. And what does it matter anymore anyway? Being with me means I'll keep letting her down."

Angelica's expression changes. His eyebrow lifts as if she figured it out. "So that's really what this is about isn't it? Falling short. You're scared that you're going to fall short in Cammy's eyes, like you think you did in your father’s, and in Seven's, and in the Blue Devils who dropped you. But she's the one you're the most scared to let down, so you're ending it before it breaks your heart."

"I don't need you to psychoanalyze me, Ang. You're a lawyer not a shrink."

"You know I'm right," she says but I turn to walk down the hall. "Come on JP, tell me, what part did I get wrong?" She challenges me.

I know she's bating me. No matter how I answer she's got me, so I'll give her the truth. "I'm not ending it before it breaks my heart. You can't break something that's already broken," I admit. Her eyes soften toward me but I'm done with conversations tonight. "I'm going to bed." I head toward my room down the hall, then pause. "Thanks for coming, Ang. Even if your timing is terrible."

"Someone has to save you from yourself." She calls after me. "Might as well be me."

"Yeah… we'll see."

Chapter Twenty-Four

Cammy

The arena feels emptier at night without a home game going on, like all the energy and life have been sucked out, leaving nothing but echoes and shadows. I sit at my desk, staring at the dark ice below, remembering how just six days ago, JP was down there celebrating his win, looking at me like I was his entire world.

What a difference a few days can make.

My phone sits face-down beside my laptop, silent but somehow still screaming at me to pick it up and make another call to the man, who I know, won't answer. I've been trying to focus on auction details all evening, but my mind keeps drifting to JP, to our confrontation in the hallway two days ago, to the way he's been avoiding me at practice.

A knock on my door startles me from my thoughts.

"You're still here?" Brynn asks, leaning against the doorframe. She's got Milo on her hip, his little head resting against her shoulder. "Seven sent me to grab his playbook before Milo and I head home from mommy and me class. He forgot it after practice, and then I saw the lights on up here."

"Yeah, just..." I gesture vaguely at my laptop. "Work."

She studies me for a moment, then sets Milo down. He immediately toddles over to my desk, reaching for the stress ball I keep there. I grab it and hand it to him. He squeals with delight and tosses it across the room and then chases after it.

"Have you heard from him?" she asks softly.

I shake my head. "Radio silence since our confrontation. I thought maybe..." I trail off, not wanting to admit how many times I've checked my phone.

"Maybe it's time to try again," she suggests. "One last time, and then..."

"And then what?" I laugh, but there's no humor in it. "Accept that I fell for Jon Paul Dumont's charm a second time, and as soon as he got what he wanted, he bailed? Same player—same playbook."

Milo runs to me and throws the stress ball, and it bounces off my computer screen. The gentle thud feels like punctuation to my words. I grab the ball as it settles into place and hand it back to him, and then off he goes again.

"And then closure," Brynn says, her arms cradling my dad's binder between her arms. "Dumont is a good player, but your father is better and he only has to make one goal. The odds aren't in JP's favor. You know that right?"

I think about the auction, about the bet, about everything hanging in the balance, including my job when Everett and Coach Haynes realize that my dad sent away the only healthy goalie that the Hawkeyes have. "Yeah, I do."

"If there's anything left that you need to air out with JP before he inevitably leaves, you should do it. And you should do it now."

I think about it for a moment and then I realize that there is a question I want to know. "I just want to know what I ever did to him to deserve this."

"Then ask him Cammy. Because by next week, who knows where he'll land? You may never see him again."

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