Page 164 of Securing the Pucking Rebound

Progress might be slower than I’d like, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that I’m making some. Movement is getting easier, and I’m able to put more weight on my leg now. I’m a way off from going full speed on a bike, or pulling my skates on, but every day, it’s getting closer.

I grunt at him as my arms tremble above my head.

“We should probably take a break,” he says, taking the weight and racking it.

“I’m fine,” I argue.

“Killer, you are not fine,” he says as I force myself to sit up.

After throwing me a bottle of water, he lowers his ass to the bench beside mine, leveling me with a look I know I’m not going to be able to get away from.

“What’s going on with you today?”

I drain the bottle, just so I don’t have to speak, but eventually, there’s nothing left and I drop it on the floor, letting my hands hang between my knees as my elbows rest on my thighs.

“It’s…”

“Sienna?” Darcy asks. “What have you done?”

A laugh spills out of me.

Of course he suspects I’ve done something wrong. I mean, I have. But it annoys me that he assumes I’m the one to fuck up.

“Yeah,” I confess, my eyes locked on the shiny tiled floor beneath my feet. “I-I’ve…” I let my words trail off. They’re desperate to spill free; I need to confess what I’ve done. But is Darcy the one I should be confessing to? No one else is here. The guys are all halfway across the country, getting ready for tomorrow night’s game. A game I want to watch while hanging out with Sienna. A game I may be forced to watch alone.

Pain slices through me. If that’s how it goes, I’ll only have myself to blame.

“I’ve…I’ve not been entirely honest with her.”

Fuck. The words taste like acid on my tongue.

“Are we talking you’re secretly married and forgot to tell her, or you stole her panties and didn’t tell her?”

“Neither,” I mutter, although I really fucking wish I’d had the opportunity to do the latter. That sounds hot as hell.

“Okay, so…”

“It’s…” Darcy’s eyes bore into mine as he patiently waits for me to summon some courage.

If I can’t tell him, how am I going to cope tonight when it comes to confessing to Sienna?

“This isn’t the first time we’ve met. When we were kids, we…we had a bit of a summer thing. I recognized her the moment I saw her. But she⁠—”

“She has no idea, and you conveniently forgot to tell her?” Darcy finishes for me.

“That pretty much sums it up, yeah.”

“Okay, I’m going to need more details. But before that happens, I think we need coffee.”

“Or vodka?”

He laughs as if I’m joking.

I’m not.

In an almost deserted restaurant, I tell him everything.

He listens as I talk about that summer, about finding her again despite all the odds, and my reasons for not saying anything that first night.