Best Of Both Worlds (Colorado Black Diamonds #4)

Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

NOAH

“Even with the loss of the Black Diamonds’ star player last season, Noah Fields, the team is looking better than ever. Paddack has stepped in and filled his skates with a fervor any team could hope for.”

“I wasn’t sure what Bexley Hart was thinking when she traded for him, but she saw something the rest of us didn’t. Of course you never like to see a player of Fields’s caliber go down, but Paddack will be a fine young player for Colorado for years to come.”

O f course. The analysts calling tonight’s game don’t know the knife they’re digging into my chest. I can see with my own eyes what a strong player Paddack has become since joining the Black Diamonds. With Hollins and Williams as captain and alternate captain, they’re about the best damn players he could learn from.

Not that I hadn’t been contributing in Nashville. The team has been playing with a renewed intensity. So much so, that we might even have a shot at making the playoffs.

It seems no team needs me.

I’m wallowing. I know it. But I’ve been cooped up at my parents’ house for two weeks, and it’s about a week too long.

Even though I’ve been cleared to not be under concussion watch twenty-four seven, I don’t have anywhere else to go considering I sold my house before I moved to Nashville.

Except I’m still being hovered over all the time.

“Do you need anything, sweetheart?” Mom asks, coming into the living room and smoothing my hair back from my forehead.

If not her, it’s my dad.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you?” She comes around the couch and has her arms crossed in front of her. “You’ve been moping on the couch since you got home.”

“I have not.”

“Then why am I here?” comes my sister’s voice from behind me.

Turning toward her, I see Piper dropping her purse and coat on the kitchen table before coming into the living room and standing next to my mom.

“I don’t know. Why are you here and not at the game?”

The TV has been on with the low drone of the Black Diamonds game playing in the background. Even though I no longer play for them, I still watch them. I have too many friends there not to. Family, really.

“Because Mom didn’t want you by yourself tonight,” Piper tells me.

“Where are you going?” I ask our mom. With the two of them standing together like this, they look eerily similar. Piper has always been the spitting image of her, but with the way her arms are crossed, it’s like I’m looking at two of my mother. “Also, this is freaky. The two of you like this.”

Neither of them say anything, but they both quirk a brow at me like I’m the problem.

“Call me if you need me, dear.” Mom drops a kiss on Piper’s cheek. She points a stern finger at me. “Don’t watch too much TV.”

“Yes, Mother.” I roll my eyes at her—like the moody teenager I feel like I am right now—as she kisses the top of my head and heads out, ignoring my question as to where she’s going.

“Seriously. Why are you moping?” Piper smacks my leg as she takes a spot directly next to me on the oversized couch. I can feel her eyes on me.

“Shouldn’t you be at the game?” I point to the TV.

“I’m good.”

Piper’s engagement ring glints in the low light of the room. Even though it’s been a few weeks, harsh lighting can still give me a headache. The TV? I’m listening to it more than watching. Of course Colorado is dominating.

Nothing new. I turn my attention away from my sister and look up at the ceiling, closing my eyes.

I hate how everyone is constantly worried about me. The hovering. The asking how I’m feeling. I know they’re doing it out of love, but I hate it.

Because I can’t really tell them how I’m feeling. Even though they’re sensing that it’s more than the injury and being benched.

How can I tell them I’m in love with someone who isn’t out? That I broke my own rule and started something with Graham when I knew better?

Maybe I should talk to Piper about it. I mean, it’s not like I have to tell her who it is.

“Can I ask you something?” I turn my head to face her, and it’s hard to ignore the gleeful look on her face. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve asked her for advice. With her being younger than me by a few years, I never really went to her.

“Sure.”

“What do you do when you’re in love with someone you can’t have?”

“You’re in love?” Now she looks shocked.

“I think so?”

Piper pins me with a look so like our mother, it pulls a smile out of me. One of the only ones that I’ve given out lately.

“How do you think so?”

I scrub a hand over my forehead. “I’ve never been in love before, Piper. It’s a new thing for me. I was just fine with the guys on the side during the season, but when I found someone, I started something knowing it wouldn’t last.”

“Why can’t it last?” Piper asks.

“He’s not out.” I blow out a breath. “I’d never force him to come out, but we’re in different places in our life. He’s still figuring out who he is. Why would he want to be tied down to me?”

“Hey!” Piper looks like she’s going to punch me in the arm, but thinks better of it. Good thing I’m still in this sling, because she packs a fierce punch. “Any guy would be lucky to have you. And maybe you’re going about this all wrong. Maybe he just needs time to figure out who he is.”

“I don’t want to push him into anything he doesn’t want. So until then?—”

“You’re moping on the couch. Been there.”

Piper and Cash went through a rough patch thanks to Piper’s ex and his girlfriend at the time. Thankfully they were able to move past it, because as different as the two of them are, they are perfect together.

“It really fucking sucks,” I confirm.

“Can you tell me who it is?” Piper asks.

“I want to, but I can’t.”

I wish I could, because maybe she could say something that would make it better. But I wouldn’t do that to Graham. It’s not my thing to tell. To out him.

All I’ve done is think about this man for the last two weeks. The quiet moments together in hotel rooms across the country. The night at the bar. Hell, even the pain in his eyes when I left.

That one hurts the most to think about.

I don’t know when I gave my heart to Graham, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get it back. He knows what this life is like. Maybe that’s why I fell for him. I was just fine these last few years being on my own. I didn’t feel like my life was missing anything.

Watching the guys around me fall in love didn’t affect me.

Not until Graham.

I guess all it takes is finding the right person. Who knew the right person for me would be the guy that injured me and got me traded to Nashville?

“I’m sorry, Noah. There’s nothing worse than a broken heart.”

“It fucking sucks.”

The two of us sit together, watching the game. Piper keeps her cheers to a reasonable volume as Cash scores a goal. Watching the game like this, he makes it look easy.

“If it isn’t my two favorite kids,” Dad’s voice rings out in the living room.

“Why aren’t you out with Mom?” Piper asks.

“She’s out with Peyton and Frankie tonight.” Dad takes the seat opposite us, kicking his feet up on the ottoman. “How you feeling?”

Don’t roll your eyes, Noah. Don’t roll your eyes.

“He’s fine, Dad. I’m taking care of him,” Piper answers for me.

“What she said.”

“Just leave him be, Dad. Noah is getting tired of everyone hovering.”

“Oh he is?” Dad asks Piper, quirking a brow in her direction.

“Yes.” Piper nods at him.

“And are you answering for him?” Dad shifts his focus to me.

“She is.” I laugh.

Dad rolls his eyes at us and turns to watch the game. “I can’t remember the last time you two ganged up on me, and I don’t like how long it’s been.”

“Blame Noah for moving away.”

“Hey, it’s not like I asked to be traded.” I shift away from Piper and glare at both of them.

“You still don’t come home enough. Your mom misses you,” Dad tells me.

“Just Mom?” I raise a brow at him. “Or you too?”

“We both miss you. You could at least call more often.” He pins me with the same look. “Shouldn’t take a concussion to get you to come home.”

“Okay, you got me there. But you know my schedule during the season.”

Dad stands. “I know. You guys want anything to drink?”

“Old-fashioned, please,” Piper says.

“Just water.”

Piper watches as Dad heads into the kitchen. “You know, you could come stay with me and Cash. At least until you go back to Nashville.”

“Think you could take a few days off and help me find a place to live?”

“I thought you were staying with Graham?” Piper looks confused.

“It was only temporary. I’ll need my own place once I get back.”

“Wait…” Piper has the look of someone trying to piece something together.

Shit. Did I give too much away? There’s no way. I haven’t even come close to hinting at who the guy is.

Except I must have given my sister just enough because her face lights up.

“Oh my God! It’s him!”

“Shh!” I hush her as Dad comes into the living room and hands us each our drink.

“What are you two whispering about?” he asks.

“Dad, could you maybe grab us some pretzels?”

“Okay?” he asks, confused more than anything.

“Thank you.” She watches as he leaves before turning her attention back to me. “It’s Graham, right?”

“Piper, seriously! Stop talking!”

“That means I’m right.” The look of gloating on Piper’s face is too much for me.

“Okay, I’m going to watch the game in the silence of my room.”

“Hey.” She grabs my arm and tugs me back down onto the couch. “Look, I won’t say anything. Trust me, but it makes sense.”

“It does?” Am I really that transparent?

“Yes. The way you’ve always grumbled about him and what he did to you. You hated him. Only makes sense you fell in love.”

“Have you always been this smart?” I ask, tongue-in-cheek.

“Yes. You just ignored your little sister,” Piper says with a cocky smile. “I only call it like I see it.”

“Like I said, it fucking sucks.”