Like the woman who now gaped after Miller, T.J. was frozenin place. Then a smile tugged the corners of his mouth, and he barked out alaugh; he couldn’t help himself. Miller had just restored his faith in mankind.Wouldn’t believeit if I hadn’t just seen it. The woman turned her gaze on T.J.,confusion and anger colliding on her pretty face.
He raised his hand. “Hey. I don’t have long hair, but Idon’t have a wife either.”
“Because you’re an asshole,” one of the players said.
Down went his beer and Jameson. He was spoiling for a fight.Just then his phone vibrated. His new phone. Thecaller had to be one of four people.
He signaled the slinky cocktail waitress for the check,found a discreet corner, and picked up the call. “Hey, Julia.”
“Hi, babe. I’m back in town early and wondered if I couldsee you tonight. I miss you.”
Alarm bells clanged in his head. She missed him?This was a new development. While he couldn’t remember every detailof their unspoken agreement, he didn’t recall missing each other being one ofthem.
He sifted through a handful of plausible excuses to stayaway tonight. Didn’t need to go rushing right over there and fuel her hope thathe was warming to the idea of long-term.
“Uh, well, I’m hanging out with some buddies I haven’t seenin a while. How about I call you in the morning?” He winced at his owndeception.
She gave a long-suffering sigh. “All right. I’ll talk to youthen.”
On the way home, he picked up a few bottles of Jameson. Justa couple of drinks to chill out.
A couple of drinks turned into many.
Jameson after Jameson, T.J. wrestled with Miller’s words,the sportscasters’ accusations, the crappy way his teammates and coaches weretreating him—hell, the way otherhockey players treated him. He wasn’t that guy, goddamn it! Shit, that wouldmake him as bad as his dad. It would mean he’d broken his vow to be nothinglike the vicious son of a bitch.
The liquor didn’t drown T.J.’s tormented thoughts, but itdid cancel some noise and serve up the raw truth with crystal clarity. And hedidn’t like it. Hated it. But he couldn’t hide from it.
A guy who had been playing thegame, doing hisjob, was lying in a hospital bed because T.J. had put him there. WasT.J. any different from the brute he’d worked his whole life not to be? He wasa swatch cut from the same length of cloth. What if Kevin May was the tip ofhis demon-riddled iceberg? What if could no longer contain his father’smonsters living within him? The realization he might be exactly likehis father leveled him, and no amount of Jameson would ever change the truth ofit.
CHAPTER 4
Change is Good,Says the Person Whose Life is Static
After ten days, Kevin was finallytransported to Denver. It felt like ten years. Here Natalie was, walkingthrough Craig Hospital’s doors, anxious about seeing him for the first timesince the devastating hit. Her mind whirred as she looked around the largeentry decorated in a subdued palette. The neutral colors were doubtless meantto soothe the frayed nerves of those who entered. No one came here for a goodtime.
The reception area was huge, and her eyes latched on to themain desk. She pointed herself toward it, stopping behind a young womanbalancing a toddler on her hip. Natalie tried in vain to ease the coil ofknotted rope in her stomach as she awaited her turn.
She found herself in no-woman’s-land. Her relationship withKevin, if you could even call it that, had just barely crossed the threshold ofthe early stage. Yet she’d been summoned by his brotherbecause “Kevin needs all his loved ones around him.”
Except she wasn’t a loved one.A liked onewas more fitting, or a recentlyintimate one, if such a term existed. And becoming intimate had beena deliberate decision on her part. Reluctant to go out with him at first, she’dbeen charmed by his persistence—his attention had propped up her flaggingego—and she’d grown to really like him.
A relationship hadn’t been high on her priority list, butwhen she met Kevin jogging by Ferril Lake, she wasready for a fun fling. Nothing serious. Just a way to easeback into the dating thing without relying on an app. And what betterway to ease back in than with a good-looking, athletic guy who, though resolutein his advances, acted every bit the gentleman? A big plus: he only lived inDenver part-time, mostly during the off-season, which gave her ample breathingspace while they got to know each other at her pace. Though he’d made itcrystal-clear he’d wanted to move that process along more quickly, he hadn’tbeen creepy or pushy about it. No, he’d given her plenty of room to decide whenthe time was right—for her. And she appreciated that about him.
But just where did that leave her now?
“Next,” called a man seated behind the reception desk, andNatalie positioned herself with an awkward tread and an even more awkwardmindset as she asked for Kevin’s room. Thank God the receptionist didn’t askher relationship to the patient. I’mhis latest conquest.
The knots in Natalie’s stomach tightened a little more whenshe stepped aboard the elevator. Fisting the hem of her cobalt Columbia parka,she steeled herself for whatever loomed, ready to be front and center, to bestrong for him. She’d had little practice at this sort of thing. When Dad died,it happened suddenly, which had been both eviscerating and fortuitous. Thoughshe hadn’t gotten in a proper good-bye—and really, was there such a thing whenyou lost someone you adored?—there’d been nolingering, no drawn-out suffering. He’d just woken up one morning and by lunchwas dead from massive heart failure. Years later, and the stab in her heartstill throbbed.
She paused outside the door, her hand hovering. Filling herlungs with
