by Rebel Hart
“So you’re going to a club where a bunch of guys are going to try to grind up against you? That’s how you’re going to try to escape the testosterone?”
Kim paused at the bottom of the stairs and looked back over her shoulder. She flashed Keith a white, daring smile. “Yep. I’m gonna let them grind all up over this. The lucky bastards won’t know what hit them.”
“Gross,” Keith said.
She started up the stairs. I watched her go and noticed how she was leaning more heavily into her right side. Frowning, I turned back to Keith, who was watching me suspiciously. “What?” I asked.
“You checking out my sister’s ass?”
“What? No.”
“It sure looked like you were from where I’m sitting.”
“You’re sitting behind me. How could you possibly see what I was looking at?”
“Brothers have a sixth sense about dudes peeping their sisters.”
“I wasn’t peeping.”
Keith laughed. “I’m just giving you a hard time, man. You make it so easy sometimes. For a guy who spends so much time in locker rooms you’d think you’d have gotten better at this kind of thing.”
“Not my strong suit.”
“Apparently. Hang tight. I’m gonna grab another beer.”
Keith left me alone in the living room for a brief moment to grab himself another beer. While he was gone I scanned the photos on the fireplace mantle. One was of Kim. She was wearing her hockey colors back when she was fourteen or fifteen; yellow and black. She had a big grin on her face, braces, and more freckles than I noticed her having now. She was holding up a first place medal in her right hand.
I heard the shower turn on upstairs as Keith came back into the living room. He reclaimed his seat and kicked his heels up onto the coffee table.
“So why does your sister hate my guts so much?” I asked.
“What? She doesn’t hate you.”
“No need to spare my feelings. It’s obvious. She wishes I wasn’t here.”
Keith sighed and chewed the inside of his cheek. Then he washed his thoughts down with three greedy gulps from his beer bottle. When he set the bottle down, he rested it on his thigh, where it left a wet circular imprint on his jeans. “Kim is… she’s going through some stuff right now is all. It’s not personal.”
“Some stuff?”
Keith nodded. “Yeah. You remember the surgery she got when she was sixteen?”
I nodded. Keith and I had been in our senior year. It was a hell of a year for me. I’d been out of it most of the time. If I wasn’t playing hockey my thoughts were on myself and how much my life had changed in the short amount of time of losing my dad and being taken in by the Renwicks.
“Well,” Keith started, running a hand over his short black hair, “it didn’t take the way the surgeons hoped it would. She healed poorly. Just bad luck, really.” Keith’s face contorted with an emotion I couldn’t quite read. Pain? Regret? “She can’t play hockey anymore, man. It was a hard pill for her to swallow. Truth be told she’s still not over it, and it’s been almost eight years.”
“Shit,” I breathed.
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. That’s why she’s back here living with my folks. She had her fourth follow-up surgery six months ago. It went really well. Took some metal out of her knee. But it’s still not a hundred percent and probably never will be. She needed around the clock care because she couldn’t walk and couldn’t work, so she moved out of the place she had with her roommates and back here. Mom and Dad were happy to step in and help, of course. But it’s been a real burden on her freedom. She’s grateful. Don’t get me wrong. And she loves Mom and Dad. But she’s… I don’t know, man.”
She’s lost, I thought to myself. “I’m sorry to hear all this. Kim lives for hockey.”
“Lived,” Keith corrected me. “She lived for hockey. She’s still trying to figure out what her ‘thing’ is now without the stick and the puck and the skates. Her purpose, so to speak. But it hasn’t been easy on her. Right now she’s coaching the girls’ teams at the Long Grove rink. It used to fulfill her. Now I think it just reminds her what she’s lost and she needs to get away from it; she just doesn’t know what way to go.”
I rubbed absently at my chest. I was one of the lucky few who’d known my path from a young age. Perhaps that was because I hadn’t chosen it, but still, there was comfort in knowing where you were headed. My father had been the operation behind my hockey career. Even if he was a drunken ass seventy-five percent of the time, he was an excellent hockey father.
Keith sighed and stared at his beer. “Keep this between us, okay, man? She wouldn’t like me airing her business like this.”
“It’s just me,” I said.
“Yeah. But this is Kim we’re talking about. She’s a sealed vault when it comes to anything bordering on personal.”
I nodded. “Right. I hear you. My lips are sealed.”
“Thanks, man.”
Keith changed the subject after that. He asked me all about the new team and what the players were like. I didn’t have much information to supply. I’d only just been drafted a week and a half ago and everything was still pretty fresh. I’d yet to make it to my first practice yet, let alone have time to individually meet all the players and shake their hands and ask them the sort of questions that would provide the kinds of answers Keith was hungry for.
When he saw I couldn’t talk much about the team, he switched gears again and told me all about how he’d been doing the last few years.
The last time I’d come, which was three years ago in the dead of summer, he’d been hired at a new accounting firm and was making friends fast. Now it turned out he’d climbed the ladder and earned himself some pretty big clients. He’d purchased a house which he talked about filling with a wife and children.
“Children?” I asked, cocking my head to the side. “I’ve never heard you mention kids before. Or wanting to get married.”
“This domestic career changed me, man. I want what my colleagues have. After a stressful day you want someone to come home to. Someone who eases all the aches and pains of tough clients and tax season, you know? I guess in your place it would be real aches and pains, not figurative ones.”
I shrugged. A wife sounded appealing. But my lifestyle was a bit too unreliable for such things. I travelled too much. Just because I was on the Blackhawks team now didn’t mean I would be indefinitely. If things didn’t pan out this year and I didn’t perform, there was a very high chance I’d be traded again. “Yeah. I guess. I haven’t really thought too much about it, I guess.”
“Too busy getting laid by pretty strangers?” My friend winked.
I laughed but didn’t deny it. Being a hockey player in the NHL certainly had its perks with the ladies.
Keith shook his head knowingly. “You sly dog.”
“Like you’d be any different in my shoes.”
“Never claimed I would be.”
Footsteps on the stairs drew my attention up. Kim was descending with a hand on the railing. She was wearing a form-fitting black skirt that came up to just below her navel, which wasn’t pierced like it used to be when we were teenagers. Her shirt was black as well and skin tight. It had long sleeves and was cut high at the neck. The skin peeking out between her shirt and skirt was pulled tight over a muscular stomach. I remembered the six-pack she used to have when she was at the top of her hockey game.
Her legs were the star of the show in her ensemble. Strong and defined and long in her black high heels, she looked like she was ready to take on the town.
She stopped behind the sofa and planted a hand on her hip. “You two still shooting the shit?”
“Yep,” Keith said.
My tongue was glued to the roof of my mouth.
When had little Kimwick gotten so drop dead gorgeous? Her lips were painted red and there was shimmer dusted on her cheeks, but her makeup wasn’t overdone. She wasn’t wearing eye shadow or liner, just some mascara, and h
er freckles were still visible.
Her green eyes flicked to me. “Do I have something in my teeth?”
“What? No,” I said hurriedly.
“You’re staring,” she said.
I felt heat rise in my cheeks. Shit. “Yeah. Sorry. I just… I’ve never seen you dressed up like this before. You look good, Kim.”
She leaned forward as she adjusted the strap of her heels. I caught a whiff of her floral perfume. “I know,” she said.
I chuckled as headlights lit up the living room.
Her attention was drawn to them. “That’s got to be my Uber. I’m out of here.” She flipped her brother the middle finger after wrenching open the front door. I laughed. They used to do that all the time as kids. “Have a good night, dick wads.”
And just like that, she was out the door, which closed behind her.
I almost exhaled with a ‘wow’ as I turned back to her brother, but I remembered whose company I was in.
Keith was glaring at me anyway.
“What?”
“Put your eyes back in your skull. That’s my baby sister you’re drooling over.”
Kim wasn’t his baby sister at all anymore. Not even close.
She was a woman. And a powerhouse of one at that. And I was intrigued.
“Chill out,” I said. “The overprotective older brother doesn’t suit you. And I’m pretty sure she can take care of herself, wouldn't you say?”
Keith laughed. “Who says it’s her I’m protecting?”
5
Kimberly
I checked my lipstick in my compact mirror as the Uber pulled up in front of the old apartment complex I used to live in with my two best friends. They were coming out the front door when I glanced up. Jade had her arm draped over Eugene’s shoulders as he nudged the door closed with his hip, and then the two of them came down the path lined with solar lights speared into the grass. They had an obvious drunken swagger to their steps and I envied them for the round of pre-drinking they must have had prior to my arrival.
I slid across the seat to the opposite side so they could get in off the curb. Jade slid in first. She flashed me a great big grin, showing off her perfectly straight white teeth. Her dark complexion made them stand out, and her shimmery purple lip gloss only added to the contrast.
“You look hot,” I told her as I swept my gaze up and down her outfit.
Jade tugged at the hem of her short purple body con dress. “You think? I think it’s a little short. But Eugene insisted I show off some leg for once.”
Eugene slid inside behind her and pulled the door closed. As soon as he had his seatbelt on, the Uber lurched forward and we were on the move again. He raked his fingers through his icy blond hair and gave Jade an appraising look. “Listen, honey. You have legs made for showing off, okay?”
Jade rolled her eyes. “This is Long Grove, not Chicago. I think this whole ensemble is a little much for a night out at Dickie’s.”
Eugene scoffed. “There is no such thing as ‘a little much’ for a night out, babe.”
He was one to talk. Eugene was a man who did not know how to hold back when it came to his wardrobe—or personality, for that matter. He was out of the closet and proud of it. He’d been his true self since he was eight years old and obsessed with Barbies and his mother’s lipstick collection. Tonight he was wearing a tight white shirt that showed off his lean figure skater physique, tight black jeans, and black booties with a bit of a heel and a silver-tipped toe. He looked dashing, as always. And he knew it.
Jade sighed and leaned into my shoulder. “He’s impossible. I wanted to wear jeans and a band tee. God forbid I get to be comfortable.” She lifted her right leg to show off the pair of heels she was wearing. They were four inches and there was less shoe than foot. “How am I supposed to have a night of dancing in shoes like this?”
Eugene leaned forward. His seatbelt locked, forcing him to lean back. He gave it a sharp couple tugs, unlocked it, and leaned forward again and scowled at the pair of us. “If I hear you complaining about how hard done by you are for being so sexy I’m going to scream bloody murder.”
The Uber driver glanced at us in his rear view mirror.
I laughed nervously and made eye contact with him. “He’s joking.”
“I’m not,” Eugene insisted.
“Shut up, Eugene,” I said.
“Someone’s pissy.” Eugene slumped back in his seat and folded his arms across his chest. There was a time where I struggled with the knowledge that he was gay. He was handsome. Very handsome. He had a chiseled jaw and hollow cheeks and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen on a man. He was fit and athletic, passionate, and driven. He knew who he was and he didn’t give a damn what anyone thought about him. Eugene had a hard time growing up in a small town like Long Grove, but the approval or lack there of from others had never slowed him on his path to queer greatness.
Still. He would have made an amazing boyfriend. He and I used to joke about it all the time when we lived together. We’d even shared a drunken kiss or two after a night out. But it never amounted to anything and for that we were both glad. It would have been a disservice to the pair of us to try to make something out of our friendship that simply wasn’t there.
Still. It was a nice thought sometimes. A safe thought. I trusted Eugene with my soul and I knew that was a two-way street. And that’s all a girl could ever really ask for. A man who would hold her heart carefully in his hands and protect it with all he was worth. Eugene checked those boxes for me.
“How was practice tonight?” Eugene asked as the Uber driver took a turn out of the residential part of town and headed for the downtown core.
My knee twinged as if to remind me practice hadn’t been good because I’d been an idiot and pushed myself too hard. Now I was being even more reckless going out dancing. But I didn’t want to be at home. Not right now. “Good. Aside from Doyle insisting on walking me to my car and being a total creep about it.”
“You should talk to management about scheduling. Maybe they can switch some things around so someone else can close down on nights you’re coaching.”
“Maybe,” I said.
“What else is new?” Jade chimed in. She plucked my pocket mirror out of my hand and proceeded to check her lip gloss and mascara. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”
“We had brunch five days ago.”
Jade clapped the mirror closed and tossed it into my lap. “Yeah. I know. Ages.”
Going from living with each other to only seeing each other a couple times a week had been a shift for all of us. I missed waking up to them in the morning. I missed our coffee chats before we all started our days. I missed soaking in the sun on our east facing balcony. I missed late night wine nights while we binge watched trash TV shows we only half paid attention to.
“Not much is new I guess,” I said. “Although I came home to a surprise guest tonight.”
“Oh?” Eugene arched an eyebrow and peered across Jade. “And who might that be?”
I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corners of my mouth or the way my cheeks started to burn. “William.”
“William?” Eugene asked.
Jade put a hand on her chest. Her nails were painted an almost identical shade of purple to her lips. The pair had obviously been getting ready for this night out since roughly four in the afternoon. “William?” she asked sharply. “As in the William? Like, William from high school?”
“You know it.” I licked my lips and let my head fall back against the head rest. “William Hughes is going be sleeping in the bedroom next to mine for the next who knows how long.”
That caught the Uber driver’s attention. He locked eyes with me in the mirror once more. “Did you say William Hughes? As in the hockey player?”
“That’s the one,” I said.
“So sexy,” Eugene gushed.
“So rugged,” Jade added.
“So dreamy,” Eugene continued.
“Did
you see that photo shoot he did for Men’s Magazine?” Jade asked, making wide eyes at me. She smoothed her short, tight curls trimmed close to her scalp. “I mean. Girl. Those abs. Those shoulders. Those-”
“That bulge.” Eugene winked.
“Guys. Gross. He’s like a brother to me,” I said.
“Bullshit. Nobody could ever think of a god like that as their brother,” Eugene said.
Jade pinched her bottom lip between her teeth and shared a look with Eugene before turning back to me. “What’s our friendship rule about fucking each other’s siblings again?”
I glared at her. “You don’t have any siblings.”
She laughed nervously. “Okay. So. What’s the rule about me fucking someone who feels like a brother to you but isn’t really?”
My lips pursed in a fine line.
Eugene snickered and nudged Jade in the ribs with his elbow. “I think that’s a no, babe.”
“But he’s so hot,” Jade insisted.
“Yeah. And a womanizer.” I folded my arms under my breasts and glared out the passenger window. “Ideally he won’t be staying with us for very long. He’s going to buy a place in the city so he’s closer to the team for practices and at home games when the season starts.”
Jade clasped her hands together and sighed dreamily at the Uber roof. “I’m so jealous. You’re going to shower in the same shower as William fucking Hughes.”
I rolled my eyes.
The Uber driver cleared his throat. “You know, if you need a ride home tonight I can give you my cell number. I won’t charge you. If you introduced me to Hughes—”
“No,” I said sharply.
“But—”
“I said no. That’s weird. And it would be like, three in the morning.”
The driver slumped a little in his seat and pouted as we turned onto the street the club was on. He pulled in tight to the curb as Dickie’s flashing orange sign came into view and came to a slow stop. I fished some bills out of my purse and slapped them into his hand.
