Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“Fuck you,” I muttered.
“This is going to be a super pleasant trip for all of us, isn’t it?” Nash said. “Like being on the road with a grizzly bear who just had his honey stash stolen.”
“What am I supposed to do?” I asked Nash.
“You mean to get her back?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, considering violence. “Yes. Enough with your bear bullshit. You said I need to try harder, so what do I do?”
Wes laughed and turned around from the seat in front of us. “Step one—don’t take advice on women from Nash. He once broke up with a woman over some Nutty Bars.”
“No, she broke up with me over it,” Nash argued.
“How does that even happen?” Beau asked as we started filing off the bus.
“I left a box of Nutty Bars in the back seat of her new car. Complete accident. They melted all over everything. I offered to have the car professionally cleaned, but she said I was too much of a child and she dumped me.”
“That is not the whole story,” I reminded him.
Nash rolled his eyes. “It’s most of it.”
“Bullshit.” Wes scoffed. “She asked you if you took the Nutty Bars out of her car before they melted all over the place, and you said you did.”
“I planned to,” Nash said, shrugging.
“But you were playing a video game,” I reminded him. “And you didn’t want to stop playing.”
“That may be true,” Nash said, shrugging again.
Wes stopped walking and looked down at his phone screen. “Oh, shit.”
“What?” Beau asked.
Wes looked over at me, and then back down at his phone screen.
“What?” I asked, stopping and walking over to him.
“A video Sheridan is in has gone viral. Hadley texted me to give me a heads-up.”
“A video?” I scrunched up my forehead in confusion. “She is a model. She is in many videos.”
“Yeah, this is…different.”
“Shit,” Nash muttered.
“It’s a sex video, Lars,” Wes said. “Apparently, it was taken when she was a lot younger, and her douchebag husband is in it, too. It’s been viewed more than a million times already.”
I closed my eyes for a couple seconds, exhaling hard. What in the actual fuck? That had to be what was wrong with Sheridan when I’d seen her yesterday. And of course Hugh, who was out to ruin her in every way possible, had orchestrated it all.
A sex video, though? That was completely out of line. I was going to get him for this, one way or another. Sheridan didn’t want me to have her back anymore, but that didn’t matter.
I did have her back. And I always would, whether she ever spoke to me again or not.
As soon as we hit the ice, it was obvious Keegan was up to the same old shit, just in a new uniform. His sneer made my blood boil before the puck had even dropped. I was planning to wait for my moment and throttle the fuck out of him. He moved up my time line, though.
“Hey Lars, never knew you were a chubby chaser,” he said as he skated past me during our first shift on the ice together.
My head snapped in his direction and he didn’t make it much farther. I dropped my gloves and knocked him to the ice, punching him as hard and fast as my hands would allow.
I was done. Done with all the hurt and anger Keegan and Hugh put into the world on a daily basis. They were both jealous assholes that couldn’t stand seeing other people happy.
I felt myself being pulled backward, and I turned to see Nash, Sawyer, and Wes all working to pull me off of Keegan.
“You’re gonna get yourself benched,” Nash growled under his breath.
“He’s not worth it,” Sawyer added.
I didn’t care if he was worth it. I glared at Keegan from the penalty box as he wiped the blood dripping from his lip. He could make fun of me for having autism and being weird, but I wouldn’t stand for him insulting Sheridan.
As soon as the next period started, I waited for another shot at him. I wasn’t thinking straight and I knew it. But some things were more important than hockey. And Sheridan was a hell of a lot more important than hockey right now.
Nashville’s coach seemed intent on keeping us apart, making sure Keegan and I weren’t on the ice at the same time. It couldn’t last forever, though, and in the middle of the second period, I finally had my chance. We hadn’t been out there ten seconds before Nashville got control of the puck and brought it into our end. Keegan was set up in front of Drew, trying to limit his view of the action. Drew gave him enough of a nudge to get a little separation as Wes dove to block a shot. The puck bounced to Nash, who took it back up the ice, but before Keegan followed the play, he swept Drew’s legs out from under him, sending him sprawling.