Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 52183 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52183 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
“I think I needed the push. I’ve been thinking about it from the wrong perspective all these years, feeling ashamed and hoping no one ever found out.” He sighs softly. “I get it now, though. My mom is the one who should be ashamed.”
“She never did anything?” I ask, incredulous.
“She asked her best friend to take me and Sara after school instead of us going to the store, so Jim never touched me again. Her best friend’s husband was a youth hockey coach and he put me on his team and took me to practices. I think that’s part of why hockey means so much to me. It helped me when I needed it most, if that makes sense.”
“It does. But no one ever went to the police about what Jim did?”
Kit shakes his head, frowning. “My mom never told my dad or anyone else that I know of. We never talked about it again after that day in the car.”
“And he stayed your dad’s business partner?”
“Yeah, until he died. That happened when I was a senior in high school, and I was probably the only guy at the funeral who was fucking overjoyed. Sick bastard.”
We start walking again, and Kit points to a little coffee shop on the next block.
“Want to go in and warm up?” he asks.
“Sure.”
We’re sitting across from each other in the coffee shop a few minutes later, my hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate and his around a mug of decaf coffee, when Kit takes another deep inhale and slowly lets it out.
“So…we’re back together?” he asks.
“Yes.”
He smiles, but it fades away quickly.
“I’m going to visit my parents the next time I have a break for a couple days. I need to tell my dad what happened and confront my mom about it.”
“Will you tell your dad that your mom knew and did nothing?”
He nods, looking somber. “I’m telling him everything. It’ll break his heart, but it’s the truth. And I want to look my mom in the eyes and tell her…” He clears his throat, tears shining in his eyes. “How badly she let me down. She was supposed to protect me. What Jim did was fucking terrible, but my mom telling me to just let it go…I’m just now realizing that’s what hurt the worst.”
I reach across the table and take his hand. “I’m proud of you. You should be proud of yourself, too.”
He gives me a small smile and says, “Thanks. I’ve still got a lot of work to do on myself, but I feel ready to start. I think maybe there are a lot of good things in store for me, for us.”
I can’t keep the goofy grin from my face as I say, “I think so, too.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kit
Two weeks later
“Durand is more famous than our whole team put together,” Jonah says with a laugh as we leave our Saturday afternoon team meeting.
“Did I tell you about Thursday?” I ask.
“No.”
Just thinking about it makes me bust out laughing. Olivier Durand had no idea what he was in store for when he saved that woman from her burning car. Local and national media have become obsessed with the two of them, because they’re both single and social media users have collectively decided they need to get married and have babies. Every photographer in town is trying to get a photo of them together, or of Durand buying something that could be for her, or of Durand just getting into a car, because he could be going to see her.
“The photographers are hounding him, you know that already,” I say. “I was getting dressed after practice Thursday and when I came out into the hallway, Durand was standing there. He asked if I’d loan him a hat and sweater of mine and come pick him up at the delivery entrance so he could shake his following.”
“No fucking way,” Jonah says.
“Yeah.”
“So you did it?”
“Yeah, I didn’t have anything but my game sweater in my locker, so I gave him the hoodie and the scarf I had, and he sent someone to snag him a hat from the gift shop. I drove to the delivery entrance and he comes walking out carrying a huge box that he could hide his face behind. He asked me to drive him to a hotel because the gossip rag photogs are stalking him at home, too. I took him to my place, though.”
“Ass kisser.” Jonah grins.
“I feel bad for the guy. He can’t even take a shit without a photographer waiting outside the bathroom for him.”
Looking at his phone, Jonah says, “Dude needs to head overseas to one of his palaces for a couple months ‘til things die down.”
“He’s probably got work to do.”
“He’s a billionaire. He can hire people to do anything he wants.” Jonah looks up from his screen. “Rey says they got us a table at the Italian place by Lucky’s.”