Page 54 of Cross Check Daddies
“You were with Brooke.”
He freezes, then turns. His shirt’s half untucked, collar twisted, scratches down his chest and neck like she clung to him hard enough to mark him. He doesn’t deny it. Doesn’t explain. Just runs a hand through his hair, jaw set.
“I’m too tired to do this right now.”
I stand. My voice cuts through the dark like a blade. “Why are you doing this?”
Tanner doesn’t flinch. “Because I like her. Because I want her. And I’m not going to feel guilty for that anymore.”
My fists clench. “You live with me. You knew what she meant to me.”
He sighs, not angry, not defensive. Just done. “I’m moving out. By the end of the month.”
He walks away.
I’m left standing in the silence, bitter as fuck and boiling underneath it. I’m not thinking straight. I throw my cap across the room, then kick the corner of the coffee table hard enough to make it tilt. I grab my keys without even knowing where I’m going until I’m already outside.
Summer rain starts to spit against my windshield, and I drive on autopilot, streetlights blurring. I think about all of it. About the injury that ended my season early, about watching Tanner climb while I limped. I was always okay with being second when it came to the game. He had the edge, the skill, the future. I had other things. I hadher.
Or I thought I did.
Now it feels like he’s not just the star anymore. Now it feels like he’s taking something else. Something thatwasmine.
I don’t knock when I get to her apartment. I just slam my fist against the door until the lights come on. When she opens it, she’s in a robe, confusion flashing before it morphs into something guarded.
“Cam?”
“I need the truth.”
Her mouth opens, but I cut her off, stepping inside.
“When I told you I was in love with you, when I asked you to marry me—you said no.”
“That was years ago, we were kids.”
“We were in love. We had discussed our future…planned it all. That’s not a kid.”
“You were about to be drafted,” she says. “You wanted to marry me before your whole life changed.”
“I was all in,” I snap. “I was ready. But I guess you never were.”
She blinks hard, her throat working. “Don’t do this right now.”
“Why not? I already lost you once, and now I’m watching you run into my brother’s arms like what we had never happened.”
She crosses her arms, shaking slightly. “You’re being unfair.”
“I’m beinghonest. I loved you. Ilovedyou, and you left. No explanation. No looking back.”
Her eyes glisten. “I never stopped thinking about you.”
My chest clenches.
“Istillthink about you,” she says, voice cracking now. “Do you know why I named my son Jackson?”
I stare at her, confused.
“Because you'd told me the only hockey player you ever looked up to more than your dad was Jackson fucking Parr. You used to wear his number on your gym shorts. You’d watch old tapes and mouth along to the plays.”
