Page 69 of For the Boys
“Berk’s gonna be upset she missed it,” he told them.
“She’s gonna be upset, all right,” Amelia said. “But you should be glad she’s not here. She’s incredibly worried about you, and she doesn’t do well with injuries.” She turned to Lexie. “Remember when Logan broke his hand playing slow-pitch softball a couple summers ago? She was a nightmare, and that wasn’t nearly as serious as this.”
Brent’s mind skipped right past the part where Berkley was worried about him and latched onto the name Logan. “Who the fuck is Logan?” he asked through gritted teeth.
Lexie laughed, laying a hand on his shoulder. “Easy, killer. Logan is her brother.”
Brent’s face scrunched in confusion, and he winced at the pain. “Berkley has a brother?” he asked, rubbing his hand across his forehead.
“And a sister,” Amelia said, looking down at him skeptically. “Seems like something you should know about a girl.”
“Well it’s not like she knows I have siblings,” Brent said. “A brother and a sister as well, actually.”
“Actually, she probably does,” Lexie said, snorting. “The girl’s been kind of obsessed with you for a while.”
Brent raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “How long is a while?”
“Oh God, definitely since college. You were the older hot guy she always fantasized about but knew she could never have.”
Brent thought back to the kind of man he’d been in college. More of a boy, really. Starting college as an athlete wasn’t like starting college as a normal freshman. After he’d graduated high school, he’d played two years of juniors before matriculating at Michigan State.
Those extra two years had matured him as a hockey player but not much as a human.
He’d turned twenty the summer before starting college, so while he hadn’t legally been old enough to drink, in a college town as big and notorious as East Lansing, most athletes got a free pass.
Those early days of being on campus, getting to know his teammates, and learning the lay of the land as a college student were a blur. On top of regular practices and classes, he and his teammates had spent a ridiculous amount of time at the local dive bar.
That’s where the girls came in. In those days, he hadn’t been picky. Although he was over eighteen and out of his parents’ house while he’d been in juniors, he’d still had rules to follow. Someone else’s parents had looked out for him, watching his every move. His billet family had been kind enough to take him in, and feed and clothe him for the two years he was with them, so it didn’t feel right to take advantage of that and smack them in the face by acting out.
And so the wheels had come off when he started college, and his body count had gone from one—his high school girlfriend—to double digits in a matter of weeks.
That trend had continued well into his sophomore year, and then he’d met Ashley.
Ashley was the kind of girl who seemed perfect at first glance. When Brent met her, at the bar of course, her black hair was cut just below her chin, and she had a stud in her nose and several more to match in her ears. She’d been wearing the shortest dress Brent had ever seen. He’d taken her back to his dorm that night, and she had basically never left.
By the time Brent was in his senior year, Ashley her junior, she had grown her hair out so it fell well past her shoulders, had removed all but the studs in her lobes, and had taken to dressing in skinny jeans, sweaters, and stilettos.
The change was so subtle, Brent hadn’t noticed until it was too late. She’d literally been grooming herself to become the Instagram influencer trophy wife of a professional athlete in front of his very eyes, and he had been so focused on hockey and making her happy that he’d completely missed it.
When his final college season ended and he got the call to leave school early to play for the Warriors during their playoff run that year, he’d started packing his things for the short drive to Detroit without hesitation. The second Ashley heard, she’d shown up and demanded a ring.
Brent had told her he didn’t have one, and never would, knowing full well marriage was never in the cards for them.
She’d thrown a book at his head and stormed out of his apartment.
He’d finished packing, left for Detroit, and never looked back.
It was strange, in a good way, being with Berkley. Everything was so new and exciting, yet he knew it was going to last forever. Call him crazy for thinking so, but he deeply felt he was right.
“Dude, where did you just go?” Lexie asked.
Brent blinked. “Thinking about college. I was not a good guy back in those days, although I suppose it’s a blessing that Berkley missed out on freshman and sophomore Brent. That guy would’ve probably used her and dumped her on her ass.”
“Yeah, well new-to-the-pros Brent wasn’t much better,” Lexie said. “Shit, even Brent from a few months ago could’ve used some work.”
“Lexie!” Amelia said, smacking her friend on the arm.
Lexie shrugged. “It’s true, and he knows it.”
