Waking the Lion by Lacee Hightower

Author:Lacee Hightower [Hightower, Lacee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Published: 2018-06-10T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

Rhett

I’ve become an expert at hiding the truth behind a smile.

It’s nine PM when I return to my car. Anxious, I reach for my phone to read the texts I’ve ignored while driving Kass home. They’re all from Lake.

I need to talk to you.

Call me, dammit.

What the fuck, Rhett?

****

Next morning, another night of fitful sleep, I wake up groggy as hell after hours of going through Lindy’s belongings and boxing them up for Lake. Unfair doesn’t even begin to define this shit show. With karma having its fucked-up way, some of the worst things simply happen to the best of people.

Today is game day, and I should be resting. Instead, the next thing I know, I’m pounding out a set of weights guaranteed to leave my ass shaky and sore. “Down with the Sickness” by Disturbed is blaring over the speakers as I finish a third set of chin-ups, a combination of dread and adrenaline flying through my blood. Thoughts of Kass and the abrupt ending to our date have me wanting to call and apologize. Hell, she didn’t even question me when I told her I needed to go without a decent explanation.

Once again, I’m feeling the intense need to tell her everything. Be honest and hope she might understand. Kass is a smart woman. Confident she knows about Lindy, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t realize just how hard I’m still struggling to put this behind me and become human again.

There’s no winner in this situation. No matter what I do or say, somebody loses. Ends up alone.

Noon comes around and I’m dressed, headed out to the rink for an afternoon game against the Bruins. My head spins with unsteady, dazed worry and uncertainty.

More hours ahead of lurking with apprehension.

Overflowing trials and tribulations.

Questions I still can’t answer. Faces I still don’t remember.

Unresolved matters that fill every second of every damn day.

Wishing things were different, I have Kass to consider now. Her feelings. Her future. Fuck, I already miss her. I won’t deny it. Dammit, I can’t. After backing into my usual parking spot, I lock the car door and send off a quick text while I head to the dressing room.

Can I see you tonight?

“You look like shit, man.” Tack and I take a seat in the dressing room. Images flash through my mind for a few seconds. “You okay, Gentry?”

Still rubbing the fatigue behind my eyes, I answer with a solemn, clipped, “Rough night.”

Tack knows the look, the tone of my voice. He doesn’t ask for further explanation as we finish dressing and head for the ice to warm up.

After Nielson, who happens to be a defenseman, manages to catch a deflection midair, he drops the puck down, batting at it like a baseball swing from an impossible angle, and manages to tuck a puck in the last thirty seconds of the game. I can’t stand the arrogant prick, but the play was nonetheless a damn good inventive goal. Barely scraping by, we get through the grueling afternoon game with a one-goal win.

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