Page 116 of Daring the Hockey Player
I grimace. "You heard that?"
"Like he said, the apartments around you all heard him. He's loud, and if he's anything like Kyler, he's not going to let this feud between him and his brother go. Do what you need to, but don't fuck this up."
I huff under my breath. "This isn't my fault."
"They're fighting about you. Jasper wasn't playing his best game on the ice tonight, and according to Kyler, he's been distracted at several games you attended recently."
I climb off the mattress and stalk across the floor, yanking open one of Jasper's dresser drawers. I pull a T-shirt out and slip into it while Emerson is venting at me like this is my fault. Which it isn't.
"Am I not supposed to go to his games?"
The bathroom door swings open, and Jasper is wearing a frown. "Give me the phone." He holds out his hand, waiting for me to deposit it in his palm.
"How much of that did you hear?" I ask, staring at him. He's unwavering, and he steps closer.
I relinquish the phone—after all, it's his—and take a step back. The heat that Jasper is radiating is overwhelming.
"Why are you telling my girlfriend that she can't attend my games?" One hand is curled into a fist, but his tone remains more civilized than I might expect. He's trying to keep his composure. Maybe he doesn't think that he should yell at a lady. Well, my sister deserves a tongue-lashing if she thinks she has any say over my relationship with Jasper.
TWENTY-EIGHT
JASPER
I haveno intention of eavesdropping when Amber sends me into the bathroom to get ready for bed. It's clear she wants a word with her sister alone, and I can give her that space. I trust her, and besides, it's her sister she's talking with, not Atlas Storm.
But when I hear her sounding defeated and the words, "Am I not supposed to go to his games?" My insides boil.
I brushed my teeth. I stared at my reflection in the mirror for far too long. I was trying to mind my own business, I really was, but I don't like how Amber's sister is treating her.
"Give me the phone," I command, and if she doesn't hand it over to me any second, I will grab it from her. I'm trying to remain calm and patient, but I don't like the thought of Emerson butting her head into our relationship, where it doesn't belong.
I never judged her and Kyler with their weird relationship antics. Who the hell pretends to be dating and lies to their kid about their relationship? I kept my thoughts to myself on that matter, which is right where Emerson needs to keep her opinions—out of our lives.
"How much of that did you hear?" Amber is doing that nervous tic where she's chewing on her bottom lip. I invade her personal space, prepared to take the phone when she places it into my palm.
"Why are you telling my girlfriend that she can't attend my games?" I'm stewing. The fact that Emerson thinks she can boss Amber around is crazy.
"She's a distraction. Kyler has been telling me how you're fighting with the opponents more, getting kicked out of games, not just thrown in the penalty box."
I scoff at her words. "It's hockey. Fights break out all the time," I say dismissively. She doesn't know what she's talking about. Amber hadn't even been at the last several games because they were out of state. I played like shit in North Carolina too.
"That's an excuse, and you damn well know it," she says.
Amber's chewing her bottom lip raw, and I reach out, running my thumb over her lip as she untangles it from between her teeth. "You and your fiancé will not dictate my life or Amber’s."
"I'm doing this for you," Emerson says. "Can you honestly tell me that your head has been in the game lately?"
She doesn't know what she's talking about, and neither does Kyler, who has probably filled her head with nonsense.
"My head is right where it belongs, and so is my heart, in case you or my brother give a crap about that."
"I'm not trying to fight with you," Emerson says.
"Well, you could have fooled me." I bite down on my tongue. It's like walking on thin ice, and I can feel the ground at my feet crack and shift right before I plunge into the icy water below.
"I'm trying to look out for both of you. She's never had a boyfriend. How do you think she's going to handle the media when they come tearing apart your lives, wanting to know every juicy detail?"
Unlike Kyler, who has always vied for media attention, I prefer not to be front-page news in the sports section.
