Page 40 of Cross Check Daddies
“Exactly—she is your ex, Cam. Whatever happened with you was in the past. This is now.”
I cock my head to the side. "I didn't lie, Tanner."
He flinches. “When?”
"When we first ran into each other a few weeks ago. But… If she didn’t tell you, then it clearly didn’t mean anything.”
“Did it mean something to you?”
I don’t answer. Because Idon’t knowthe answer. Because maybe it did. Maybe it didn’t. Maybe it only meant something to me.
“Right,” he mutters. “You don’t even care that she is moving on. You just don’t like that it’s me.”
“You were supposed to be mybrother,” I spit. “The one person who’d never go behind my back. But you’ve been sneaking around like a goddamn coward.”
“I wasn’t sneaking around,” he snaps. “I was trying to figure out if it wasrealbefore blowing up the team, the season,this. But maybe you would’ve preferred I just rubbed it in your face from day one.”
“Youwererubbing it in my face,” I shout. “Showing up late. Ducking questions. Talking about some mystery woman like it wasn’ther.”
Tanner shakes his head, disbelief etched across his face. “You really think I planned this? You think I wanted to fall for the one woman you’d make into a ghost story?”
“Don’t youdare,” I say, stepping forward, chest brushing his. “Don’t act like I made her up.”
“Youdid,” he hisses. “You turned her into this symbol of everything you lost instead of just owning that you let her go.”
The hit lands. Not physically. Not yet. But the way it punches straight through my chest, I wish it had.
“I gave up everything for this game,” I growl. “And she couldn’t handle that.”
“No,” he says, stepping into my space now. “Youpushedher away. You iced her out, stopped showing up for her, and when she finally left, you didn’t chase her.”
“You don’t know shit about what happened between us.”
“I know enough,” he says, voice lowering to a scalding edge. “I know she deserves someone who doesn’t make her feel likesecond best. And I’m not gonna apologize for wanting to be that guy.”
“You alreadyaresecond best,” I snap. “You always have been.”
The words hang there.
And for a second, we both justbreathein the poison I let out.
Then his fist slams into my jaw.
My head snaps sideways. The world tilts. Blood floods my mouth. The sting is immediate and hot. I laugh. Actually laugh.
“Feel better?” I say, spitting crimson to the pavement.
“No,” Tanner growls. “But I will.”
I swing. My fist connects with his cheekbone, hard enough thathestumbles now. He snarls as he straightens up, and then he’s charging me. We crash into each other like we’re back on the ice, two bulls locking horns with nothing but bruises between us.
I shove him. He shoves me harder. Fists fly again. I clip his ribs; he lands another hit to my face. Grunts. Impact. The dull slap of bone on bone. This isn’t sparring. This isyearsof shit spilling out in one goddamn parking lot.
And somewhere in the middle of it, I hear Ace’s voice.
“Hey—HEY!”
I barely register the heavy steps pounding down the sidewalk before I’m yanked back by a pair of strong arms.
