Page 98 of No Rhyme or Roughing
Stas stood then too, rounding the table to wrap her arms around me. I fought her, this sister I barely knew, but she was stronger, wrestling me into her embrace.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
When she finally let me go, I turned to notice my chai had spilled across the table. Tears welled in my eyes. “Now what am I supposed to do?”
Stas was crying too by the time one of the shop workers came over to clean it up.
“Would you like a new one?” he asked.
I cried hard, unable to answer. He looked from me to Stas with wide, panicked eyes.
“Yes,” she said through her tears. “And this time, make it dirty.”
I snorted and a bubble of snot blew from my nose. “Dirty.”
Stas yanked me into another hug as the young man practically ran back behind the counter. He returned moments later to hand me the drink and I may have professed my sobbing, blubbering love to him.
My butt hit a chair hard, and I protected my drink, taking a delicious sip and sighing.
Across from me, my sister wiped her eyes. “So, we’ve both been ruining our own lives, blaming ourselves.”
I finished her thought. “When it wasn’t us who broke our family.”
“You’re not a destroyer of worlds.” She smiled.
“And you aren’t to blame for a grown man’s mistakes.”
Maybe it wasn’t on us at all.
And maybe, because of how it had become such a big part of my life, I’d ruined the first good thing I had.
Ryder.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
RYDER
They expected me to say something. My team, the guys who looked up to me as their captain.
We’d just had our asses handed to us, and our recent home stand felt like a distant memory. The way fans had crowded into our building to watch us play… and dance.
Now, we were across the country, playing in Ohio. And losing in Ohio.
I stood in the center of the visitors’ locker room, still in my pads and sweat-soaked jersey. My team looked exhausted, beat down. I wasn’t doing any better.
“We sucked tonight,” I started.
“Splendid speech, Cap,” Julian muttered, leaning back in his stall.
I stared at him until his mouth snapped shut.
“As I was saying, tonight was bad. We were off our game, but you know what? That happens. Every team has awful games sometimes. And this is going to be a long road trip. I need you all to have short memories.”
Only a few pairs of eyes met mine as I turned in a slow circle. I sighed. There wasn’t much else to say after a night like this, so I dropped my shoulders and nodded to Griff. He stepped forward to join me in the center of the room.
“Jules and Valentine, as our lone goal scorers tonight, I need you available for the media,” Griff said.
“Media,” Jules scoffed. “Lovely”
