Page 54 of Dirty Puck

“Because it’s shitty insinuations from strangers who don’t know a damn thing about you. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. Will you get in trouble for making the news?”

“Nah—the owner loves this kind of shit. I just wanted to give you a heads-up.” And because I’m a coward, I left out the part about parading her around like my circus monkey. We could talk about that later, maybe after a couple of amazing orgasms.

But now I had to push that out of my mind, signing off with Bree. I changed into my jersey, grabbed up my pads, and headed out to the ice. The photog had Bishop on the ice skating down a puck. He was the only one out there. It took a while to get to me because she needed to get shots of all the starters. Headshots and action shots.

After a million fucking years, she called me over to snap off a couple of headshots and then I padded up. Bonner slapped pucks at me. She told me to be natural, so I did what I got paid for and stopped them.

Once she had what she needed, she called out, “That’s a wrap. Thanks, Reece.”

I waved, but as we still had practice, I stayed in my spot.We practiced hard. By the time I skated off the ice, sweat dripped from my hair.

Bree had her cart over by the lockers, and she was wiping them down when I entered. She turned to look at the door, and damn, she looked so vulnerable. I hated seeing such a strong woman look like that and the thought hit me that I needed to kiss her. Needed it more than breath in my lungs. I charged her, pressing her against Antonov’s locker. She had just enough time to suck in a breath before I took what came there for.

“Not fair,” Bonner called, and that ended the kiss.

“Since you’re blocking my locker, do I get some of that too, beautiful Bree?”

“Where you from again?” I asked him.

He eyed me curiously. “Berezhany. Why?”

“Because I need to know where to ship your body if I hear you say that shit again.”

“I’m sure he was kidding,” Bree whispered.

“I’m sure I don’t give a fuck.”

“Go—shower,” she said next, pushing me in the direction of the showers. “I’ll take my leave now,” she announced to the room, pushing her cart toward the door as I opened my locker to grab my clothes.

There were probably twenty missed notifications on my phone from my mom’s nurse. I called her back right away. “Hey, everything okay?” I asked when she answered.

“No. Your mother is in the hospital. She had an episode this morning.”

“An episode?”

“Since the tumors have spread?—”

“Spread? She said the one she had wasn’t getting smaller.”

“I’m sorry. They’ve spread to her lungs and kidneys.”

“Anyone call her work? I’ll have to get a hold of them.”

“Her work? She hasn’t worked in several months.”

The fuck?“No. She told me she wanted to stay in Virginia for her students.”

“Baker?” Bree asked and I felt her heat hit me.

I looked at her, shaking my head. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Then I hung up.

“What?” Bree asked.

“Ma’s in the hospital. It’s spread. She never said a damn word to me about it. She hasn’t been working for months.” The choking sensation made me panic because it felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. Bree rubbed my back.

“What can I do?”

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