Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“I’m not sure you can help at all,” I said softly. “But I’ll tell you everything anyway.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Cain?” a child’s voice called out.
Sawyer and I turned to see two young boys in Mavericks jerseys standing in the aisle.
“May we have your autograph?” one of them asked Sawyer.
They were so cute, both of them looking hopefully at my brother. He looked slightly taken aback, but I didn’t understand why.
“You guys know I’m not on the team anymore, right?” he said.
“You’ll be back,” the blond boy said.
The other boy turned around and showed Sawyer the back of his jersey, which had Sawyer’s name and number on it.
“You’re my favorite player,” he said. “I don’t let my mom wash this when you guys are on a winning streak. She says it gets smelly, but I don’t care.”
I swallowed hard, forcing myself not to get teary-eyed. This was what Sawyer needed—to know he was still wanted and needed on his team.
“Of course you can get autographs,” he said, taking out his phone. “Let me reach out to someone really quick and see if we can get you some game pucks.”
The boys exchanged an excited glance. Sawyer took pictures with them and signed some merchandise an usher brought down to our seats.
“When are you coming back?” one of the boys asked him. “We need you kicking ass out there.”
“James, language,” his mother scolded from nearby.
Sawyer grinned at her.
“I’m not sure,” he said to the boy. “Soon, I hope.”
I hoped with everything in me that he meant it.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kon
Despite getting a win on the ice tonight, I was in a piss-poor mood when I got home from the arena. It had been twenty-four hours since Lucy had left my apartment and she still hadn’t responded to any of my calls or texts. She’d been at the game tonight—I’d seen her through the glass—but she and Sawyer had left without coming back to the family lounge. So instead of spending my last night before a road trip with the woman I was falling for, I was going to spend it fighting with my ex.
Svetlana had no intention of leaving unless I forcibly removed her, and while I didn’t want things to get ugly, I had no intention of letting her stay here. She’d already put me through enough. Our past was one thing, but my future was another.
I didn’t acknowledge her as I went into my room to change out of my suit. I’d held out hope that she might be gone by the time I got back from the game, but it looked like she was trying to settle in and that wasn’t happening.
When I walked back out to the living room, she was wrapped in a blanket with a bowl of popcorn on her lap. She held it out.
“Want some?” She spoke in Russian, a subtle reminder of one of our only remaining bonds, which irritated me even more.
“No.” I put my hands on my hips and stared down at her. “What are you doing, Svetlana? You know you’re not welcome here.”
She sighed dramatically. “I don’t have anywhere else to go. I can’t go back to Russia, and my visa here in the US has run out. I can’t legally get a job, so what do you expect me to do?”
“You should have thought of that before you cheated on me.”
“We were going through a rough time,” she said quietly, reaching out to grab the remote and lower the volume. “You were so busy trying to prove yourself on the team once we got to St. Louis, you had no time for me. We lost each other for a while, but now that we’ve had time apart—”
“I realize that I never loved you at all,” I said flatly.
Her face crumpled a little, and I felt bad, but she had to take responsibility for her own actions.
“I was never in love with you,” I clarified, since that was the truth and my intention was to be firm, not cruel. “You’ll always be my friend, and I want to help, but you did this to yourself. I gave you everything you asked for. We got out of Russia, you didn’t have to work, I made more money than either of us ever dreamed of, and you had a nice, uncomplicated life. Then—”
“You’re the one who wanted us to fit in!” she snapped, interrupting me. “You’re the one who wanted me to learn English and make friends with your teammates and act like the others.”
“I wanted you to make friends with my teammates’ wives,” I said, clenching my jaw. “Not my teammates.”
“Keegan paid attention to me,” she spat. “He liked me. We had fun together. All you ever wanted to do was stay home, learn English, and watch TV. Keegan liked to go out dancing and to fancy dinners. We went to concerts and parties. I never got to have fun like that in Russia and you wouldn’t do it once we came here. Was it so wrong for me to want to live a little?”