Page 65 of Hot Shot
“No. Maybe not. But you know Landon, you were there when he was seeing Celeste, which I was clueless about, by the way. How the hell were they together and I not know?”
Corbin shrugs. “I didn’t know he’d been seeing her until he was three months in. I told you, she tried to drive a wedge between us, most of that was done by her insisting they keep their relationship a secret.”
“I don’t understand this woman at all,” Mom mumbles.
“I was married to her, lived in the same house as her, for months, andIdon’t understand her.” Bran rubs a hand over his chin. “I’m beginning to think I’ll never understand.”
“That might be, but do you need to now? She’s no longer in your life, and you’re doing your best to move past what happened, to reclaim the man you used to be?—”
“I’ll never reclaim him.” Bran cuts me off. “He no longer exists. She made sure of that because I’ll never have the ability to trust anyone at their word again. She stripped that away. That naive belief in people being honest.”
“But she hasn’t done that. All she’s done is make you more cautious. You still trust people, Bran. You trustme.”
“I have always, will always, trust you. You’ve never once lied to me. Never once done anything to hurt me or manipulate me. If anything, you’ve always let me control our relationship and I’m sorry I put you through that. I will never do that again.”
“Bran.”
“No. I know you could have fought against me, you should have, but you didn’t. And after this is over, after I set things straight with Landon, I’m going to show you my appreciation of that. Of you. Every day for the rest of my life. If you’ll let me.”
I have no words. We’ve talked about how we feel, what we want, but he’s basically just declared his intentions in front of my parents, my brother.
It doesn’t matter how things turn out with Landon, I will do everything—anything—to make sure we get the chance we should have had, the chance Celeste derailed when she set out to hurt two of the most important men my life.
The chance Bran—I—deserve.
Branton
It doesn’t take me long to find Landon.
He’s in the basement smacking the shit out of puck after puck in the small rink Andrew built for us all to practice our shooting.
I let him finish the bucket of pucks before I interrupt. His form is good. If anything, it’s a little sharper than it was a couple of years ago. The last time we played together.
“You want to get in goal and let me fire some of these at you?”
Landon’s words bring a small smile to my mouth. “No. I suck at goaltending. You know that.”
The grunt he gives is neither agreement or argument and he continues to fire the pucks into the net.
When the final slap is complete, the puck buried in the back of the net, Landon lowers his head and doesn’t move.
I don’t know if I should get closer, say something, or let him work it out. He’s always been the one to initiate. His hot-headedness, his lack of filter, always meant he was the first to speak, the first to react to any situation.
The fact he seems to be struggling to do anything right now worries me more than any of the arguments we had when I married Celeste. “Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing her?”
With a deep sigh, he reaches for the bucket and lifts it. Glancing over his shoulder, I see the ravaged expression on his face and for the first time in a long time I wish I could reach out and draw him into a hug.
We used to be close, the three of us; from the age of six up, we were inseparable. That changed during college, but when we all ended up contracted to the Knights, we rebuilt our friendship back to what it had always been.
Until Celeste turned up on my doorstep.
Then again, maybe the change had come when she’d gotten her claws into Landon.
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
His words have my gaze snapping up to his face. I’d been watching him scoop the pucks together ready to put them back in the bucket and hadn’t noticed he’d turned to look at me. “Not even Corbin? Why?”
“She didn’t want anyone to know. Said it would make it harder for us to be together because the media would be all over it. Because of her history.”
