Page 10 of Defend Her Heart

I glare at him. Damn this man and his ability to read people like a book. He’s the best captain I’ve ever had, but he can be pretty annoying when he Jedi mind tricks me and basically reads my thoughts.

“There’s no story. We went to prep school together. That’s it.”

Niko crosses his arms over his chest and gives me his best dad look that never fails to get Sophia to confess to stealing an extra cookie before dinner.

I throw my hands up in defeat. “Fine! We dated, okay? Mystery solved.”

Far more agitated now than I was when I got here, I grab the weights and start another set of bench presses. Hoping that will signal the end of this conversation, I channel all of my frustration into my workout.

Niko’s body appears above me once again. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

I continue my set, finding peace in the repetition of presses.

“It’s none of your business,” I grunt out between reps.

When I struggle to get through my last rep, Niko pushes up under my triceps, and I’m able to complete it. I lower myarms and drop the dumbbells to the ground, a loud thud echoing off the walls of the near-empty weight room.

Niko places a hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze.

“You don’t have to tell me the story, but you do need to figure out how to get your head on straight. Avery is part of the Bobcats now. She and Sadie are becoming close…you’re bound to see each other from time to time. And the last thing she needs is a grumpy ex-boyfriend hanging around with everything else going on.”

My head whips toward him.

“What other stuff does she have going on?”

Niko smirks and it takes everything in me not to punch him in the face. “It’s none of your business,” he echoes my earlier words.

“Fuck if it isn’t.”

He quirks an eyebrow at me and I run a hand through my hair.

“Something’s off with her, Cap. She nearly fainted at that barbecue and then disappeared with Sadie. I never saw her after that. I barely see her now. You know something.”

Niko turns and heads toward the speaker system. He powers it on but before turning on the music, he turns back to me.

“I don’t. You know Sadie and their girl group. Circle of trust and all that, just like the locker room. All she said was that we had to make Avery feel at home here and she’s worried you’re going to scare her off with all of…that.” He moves his hand up and down at me.

I don’t need to ask him what he means.

I’m an asshole. At least on the ice. I’m what the media and fans like to call an “enforcer.” As a defenseman, it’s my job to protect the net, especially my goalie. I also took it upon myself to protect all of my teammates. At a young age, I learned how to channel all of my anger and frustration into my game and it’s shaped me into the player I am today. Don’tfuck with my teammates, and I won’t fuck with you. It’s pretty simple.

But sometimes, I tend to take my on-ice attitude off the ice with me. I closed myself off to people a long time ago, and sometimes when I think I’m just protecting my peace, I can come off as a total grump. The only person I care to soften up to is Niko’s daughter, Sophia. She’s a ray of sunshine and my favorite person on the planet. She’s the only girl I need.

“Trust me. I won’t scare her off. That’s the last thing I want to do.”

Niko eyes me skeptically, but doesn’t call bullshit this time. He nods and pushes play, the sounds of Waka Flocka Flame and Roscoe Dash filling the room.

We workout together but separately for the next forty-five minutes and don’t say another word to each other. I see him observing me in the mirror throughout our workouts, but he keeps his thoughts to himself.

Me, on the other hand…my thoughts are a tangled mess.

Why would Sadie be afraid that I’d scare Avery off? Did Avery tell her about us? But why would she? She moved on and married someone else. I’m just a blip of her past and she’s just a blip of mine.

Except, I’m a fucking liar.

Avery is my past, but for so long I thought she was going to be my future. I may have fooled myself and everyone around me by acting unaffected when I saw her throughout the years, but like a scar that never quite faded, she never went away.

AGE FIFTEEN