Page 99 of Puck Me Secretly

I shook my head. “It’s too awful to talk about.”

“Oh, baby.”

“He was there. I didn’t know who he was, but Max was sittingbeside me.” I glanced at Mom’s concerned expression. “He got me through that.”

She squeezed my hand.

“The plane was shaking and tilting. People around us were screaming and crying. I was so scared, Mom. I was on the verge of losing it and Max, who was a complete stranger sitting next to me, he calmed me down. He talked and held my hand. And at the end, I was so terrified, I fainted. He carried me out of the plane and took care of me. He got me to the hotel and checked up on me.”

Mom’s concerned eyes studied my face as I talked.

“We became friends. No one understood what I went through. But he did. And everyone thinks he’s such a bad guy, but before I knew about his past and his reputation, he acted like a pretty great guy.”

“Oh, Rory.” Mom’s empathetic tone soothed me. “I didn’t know.”

“Don’t tell Dad about tonight, please?”

“You know you can’t get involved with that man. This doesn’t have a happy ending no matter how you feel about him.”

I bowed my head. “I know.”

“I won’t tell Dad, but please promise me you’ll end whatever is going on between the two of you.”

I didn’t want to promisethat. It hurt my heart to even think about that.

“Rory,” her concerned look almost blew my heart to smithereens. “If your dad ever got wind of this, you and your dad’s relationship would survive but how do you think Max’s career would fare?”

My heart felt heavy as the truth rushed over my skin. “Dad would cut him.”

She gave me a sad smile. “Max seems to have a lot on the line. Is your relationship strong enough to survive that?”

That question made my blood go cold. Max loved hockey more than life itself. Perhaps a year ago, it wouldn’t have mattered. Back then he had been one of the league’s hottest commodities, but after his incident with Joseph, he’d been lucky to even get a contract.Would another NHL team give him a home if he got cut from the Wolves? Maybe they would in a year after he had a chance to shine on our team without incident, but right now he was too vulnerable. That fight with Joseph had blacklisted him. If he got cut from Vancouver, his career would be over. This wasn’t news. I had known that from the moment I saw him on the ice. And he knew it too.

As much as it destroyed me to say it, we needed to end this. The kissing. The flirting. All of it.

It had to stop.

“I’m going to end it,” I promised Mom. “I couldn’t bear to watch Max lose hockey.”

She paused. “Whatever you do, don’t tell him the reason.”

I pulled my hand from hers. “Why?”

“Don’t make him resent hockey or this team. You want him to turn to hockey, not against it.”

She made sense. But the whole thing made me feel sick. I needed to crawl into bed and not come out until this year was over. “I’m going to bed.”

She leaned forward and kissed my forehead. “It will be okay.”

CHAPTER 36

The players meeting droned on.I sat at the back and stifled a yawn. The team had been on the road for 3 games and we only had tomorrow night’s game before we headed into a five-day break for Christmas.

I felt someone staring at me. I lifted my head from my page and my gaze clashed with Max’s intense blue stare. I ducked my head over my book, feeling heat wash over my face.

Mom had lied. Nothing was okay.

After my talk with Mom, I had spent a fitful night debating how to handle this situation with Max. Mom was right. If Max got cut from our team, the odds of him being picked up from another team would be slim. He needed a full year, proving himself on and off the ice, to ensure the longevity of his career. And if Dad got a hint of anything between us, he would get rid of Max. Max was a rebel at heart, and being told that he couldn’t be with me, might make him want to be with me just to thumb his nose at authority.

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