“You’re not. I am.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, doing her best to ignore that twinge in her gut warning she was making a mistake. The decision was made. She just had to stick to it. “I’m going to New Orleans tomorrow. The Cajun Rage offered me a deal I’d be a fool to walk away from, but the catch is that I have to start right away.”
“Is this because of that hockey player?”
“No.” She fiddled with her six-year coin in her jacket pocket. “Why would you think that?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Because I know you.”
And that was the thing about a good sponsor—and a good friend—they always did. She’d have better luck lying to herself than to Roger. “I love him.”
“You’d think that would be a reason to stay.”
She blinked back the tears that pricked her eyes. “He doesn’t love me, and even if he did, he’s not at the right place in his life for that. He’s got some stuff he needs to work out. The fresh start will do me good.”
They hugged, putting six years’ worth of ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies into one huge squeeze.
“You’ll always be my favorite Mustang.”
She swallowed over the lump of emotion clogging her throat. “Love you right back, Roger.”
Another quick hug and she hustled out of the gallery before she started crying. She’d never imagined leaving Harbor City. It was her place. However, she couldn’t turn around without seeing something Ice Knights related and she just couldn’t deal with that. Maybe in a few years she’d come back, but she couldn’t deal with it now.
A text buzzed on her phone confirming her Uber to the airport tomorrow. That was a good thing, right? She was moving on to bigger and better things. She could learn to love a new city and a new team. As for learning to love another man, she hoped she never did that ever again.
…
The sun was barely up when someone started pounding on the cabin door. If Ian had been asleep—or had fallen asleep at all—he would have been pissed. As it was, he was half in the bag and staring blankly at the now-roaring fire when the knocking started. He ignored it, but it didn’t stop. There was only one person he knew who was that obnoxious and he wasn’t going to stop until Ian answered.
The room didn’t spin when he stood up, which meant he needed more scotch. Still, he took his time getting to the door. It was the least he could do to be equally annoying.
His brother didn’t wait to be asked in; he just pushed his way past Ian and into the living room.
“Why is is hotter than hell in here?” Alex asked, pulling at the collar of his shirt.
“I started a fire.” Something that was totally obvious to him and he’d been drinking.
Alex looked from the fire to Ian. “Why?”
“Because there needed to be one.” And because it reminded him of Shelby, just like absolutely everything including breathing. “What are you doing here?”
“Coming to get you before you throw a complete and total pity party.” He looked around. “You haven’t started single Adele yet, have you?”
“She’s amazing.” He flipped off his brother and then flopped back down on the couch. “How did you find me?”
“Dad called.”
Of course. He grabbed his glass of scotch, the same one he’d been nursing for the entire night. “Did you tell him to fuck off?”
“What do you think?” Translation: Abso-fucking-lutely. Alex swiped his glass and carried it over to the kitchen sink, where he dumped it. “Let’s go, I’m taking you to the airport.”
The fuck? They didn’t have a game for two more days thanks to the length of that epic road trip. He was going to spend at least the next twenty-four hours sitting here in this hell-hot room and finishing the bottle of scotch. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Alex walked back to the living room, where he started to put out the fire. “She’s leaving.”
He didn’t have to ask who. There was only one “she” in his life.
“She’s going to New Orleans,” Alex continued. “Lucy said she’s going to start up a media content center for the Rage.”
If he had anything other than alcohol in his stomach at that moment, he would have thrown it up. Instead, he set his jaw and reached for the bottle of scotch on the coffee table. He’d just have to drink until he could puke and maybe that would numb the pain shooting through him.
He took a swig straight from the bottle, relishing the burn all the way down to his gut. “Good for her.”
“Are you fucking kidding?” Alex glared at him. “That’s your reaction?”
“Why, because she’s going to support our biggest rival?” He took another drink, wondering how long it would take before he forgot what Alex had just said.
“No, you idiot.” Alex stormed over and grabbed the scotch from Ian’s grasp. “Because you love her.”
“I don’t love her.” And if he said it enough, he’d start to believe himself. Shit. What had he done? “I fucked it all up.”
“You have the drive back to Harbor City to figure out how to fix it.” Alex yanked Ian up off the couch and shoved him toward the door. “Come on. You don’t have time to waste. You’re paying the speeding tickets, though.”
Ian tried to process that. “You drove all the way out here just to drive me back?”
“Yeah.” Alex looked at him as if he was the dumbest person in the world. “It’s what brothers do.”
There wasn’t anything he could say to that. The beauty of it was, though, he didn’t need to. Instead, he nodded at Alex and his brother rolled his eyes at him in return. No translation needed.
If only figuring out what he was going to say to Shelby would be as easy.
Chapter Nineteen
The car was barely at a stop near the airport curb before Ian had the door open.
