Puck & Make Up (A Rush Hockey #7)

Chapter 2

Two

Dessie

“ W hat the fuck?” I ask, digging into my pocket and pulling out my phone. “What the actual fuck?”

I jab at the screen and hit my best friend in the world, Rosie’s, number.

It starts ringing.

And, thankfully, since she pretty much always picks up my calls, this time is no different, though she is out of breath when she answers, “Des?”

“I need you and Joel to get your asses out to Reacher’s clearing.” A beat. “Like five minutes ago.”

There’s a brief pause. Then, “Got it.”

The call disconnects and I’m staring at the woman who almost fucked over my friend’s life—Annie Donovan is no peach, even though she spent a lot of her life trapped in a toxic relationship with Rosie’s dad (who’s now in prison for trying to frame Rosie to take the fall for his crimes). She’s a victim, but also complicit in hurting my friend.

And…Fox is here saying?—

I clamp my teeth together.

I shake my head.

That can’t be right.

It doesn’t make sense.

I shove that aside. I’ll deal with him in a minute.

“I thought you skipped town?” I ask Annie after we’ve all stood around, staring at each other for far too long.

“I-I came back,” Rosie’s mom says.

“Why?” Joel asks. “Why now?”

And why do I feel like that’s a question loaded with so many undertones I can’t even begin to tease them apart?

I lift my chin, glare at him.

He’s a liar. That’s the only thing that matters.

“I needed you,” Annie says, her voice about as strong as a dried blade of glass. “But I—” She slides a step back, as though she’s going to disappear into the trees.

I open my mouth, reach out a hand?—

Fox snags her shoulder instead. “No,” he mutters. “You are so not running from this again.”

“Y-you’re my son. You have to help me.”

My heart squeezes hard enough that I actually feel lightheaded, and I must make a sound because Fox whips his head in my direction. “I’ve only known for a few days,” he says. “I—” He closes his eyes for a moment. “I always knew I was adopted. I just…didn’t know my birth mother was… her .”

I inhale, but I don’t get the chance to reply because there’s a noise from behind me.

We all turn and see Rosie standing at the edge of the clearing, Joel at her side. Their hair is disheveled, and I think that she’s wearing shoes that don’t match, but they’re here…

And in less than ten minutes.

They made good time.

My friend opens her mouth, closes it, at a loss for words for once.

Joel isn’t, though, and he tucks Rosie behind him before growling, “What the fuck, Fox?”

Annie’s shoulders hunch at the tone, already retreating into herself.

But Fox just turns to face us. “I’ll explain. I just…needed to see for myself.”

“See what?” Joel growls. He looks ready to kill, and I don’t blame him.

Except, I can’t deny that my heart squeezes at the look on Fox’s face.

“We shouldn’t do this here,” Fox says quietly.

“I think—” Rosie closes her eyes. “That here is as good as anywhere.”

I move to her, take her hand, feel that she’s trembling.

“Rosie,” Joel begins.

She leans against me, opens her eyes then turns to Fox. “Please…just tell me?”

The expression on Annie Donovan’s face says she’s going to be stubborn—that breakable reed turning to steel.

It doesn’t ever last long.

But, of course, she summons it for this moment.

Thankfully, though, Fox isn’t holding back.

“You know I’m adopted,” he says.

Joel nods tersely but Rosie’s eyes widen slightly in surprise—the same reaction I’d had to him talking about his birth mother. All I’ve known about Fox’s family is that he has a good relationship with his parents. I just…didn’t realize they weren’t his bio ones.

“My parents did one of those tests, the DNA ones. They were curious, and I have to admit I was too. So I bought one and sent it in.” He exhales. “And when the results came in, it turned out my biological mother is…” He flicks his gaze down to the woman he’s practically holding up now.

Annie jerks.

“What the fuck?” Joel whispers.

Exactly.

“I only just found out, and I know that I needed to tell you guys,” he says, “but there’s been a lot going on and with the contracts and?—”

It’s dark, but there’s enough moonlight that I swear his cheeks have gone pink.

“—well, I also didn’t know how to tell you that—” He lifts one big, broad shoulder, drops it.

Rosie exhales. “So…you’re my brother?”

“Half.”

We all still, glance over at Annie.

That slender thread of steel makes an appearance.

“Half,” she repeats. “Your father…” Her eyes drift to Rosie’s and the steel immediately begins to melt, the wilting violet that I’ve associated with Annie Donovan coming back full force. Tears sink heavily into her words, making her voice falter and turn whiny. “I wanted to keep you, but after he died, my parents made me choose. Give you up or they’d disown me.”

“After who died, Mom?” Rosie presses when Annie doesn’t go on.

“Nathan,” she says quietly. “I was…we were supposed to get married. Then he was in a car accident, and I was—” She shakes her head. “I had to make a choice.”

There’s a long pause, and I don’t miss the sliver of pain that slices across Fox’s face.

Clearly, she’d chosen to give him up.

Chosen her future over her son’s.

Hurt more people she’s supposed to love.

I want to throttle her.

“But,” Fox says quietly into that taut silence, “I’ve met you once before.”

Her eyes close and she’s silent for a long, long moment before she says, “John gave me that gift.” Her throat works. “He knew your family was camping in the area and…engineered a meeting.”

Joel curses quietly.

But I’m watching Fox, watching his eyes close again.

Fuck, he really hadn’t known any of this before, had he?

“I remembered,” he whispers. “When I first saw you in town, when Rosie introduced us, I had this flash of a memory, of familiarity. I just…it didn’t make sense until the test results came in.”

My insides twist.

“Exactly how long have you known Fox was your son, Mom?” Rosie asks quietly.

Joel stills. Fox jerks. I have to bite back a gasp.

But Annie…well, I practically see the fog she uses as a defense mechanism sweep up around her. She uses it to hide, to avoid…

Situations exactly like this.

“Mom,” Rosie snaps, clearly noticing the same thing. “Keep it together for-fucking-once and just answer the question.”

Annie shakes her head.

“ Mom.”

Annie jumps, but then the words rush out of her. “Your father arranged the trade in exchange for the contract to the rink.”

Fox jerks again.

“I love watching you play,” she whispers. “You’re big and strong. So much like Billie”—her deceased son, a loss we’d always thought was responsible for her mental breakdown in the first place—“would have been.” That fog creeps in further, the grief that had broken her so much clearer now.

She’d lost not just one son.

But two .

And because of that…

She lost a daughter.

Rosie’s shaking and I wrap my arm around her waist.

But she’s tough. She keeps it together.

“Secrets,” she whispers. “It’s always fucking secrets with you. Why couldn’t you ever just have a conversation with me? With us?” she adds, glancing at Fox.

And my insides twist again.

Because that’s our Rosie—generous and sweet with a huge heart. Fox has already been part of her family, but this…

Well, the news may have thrown her, but she won’t hold it against him.

I know that with complete certainty.

And even though Fox pushes every button of mine—for reasons —I know I can’t hold this against him either.

Not with the pain in his eyes and the worry etched into his face.

“We don’t talk about it,” Annie whispers. “N-not ever. We move f-forward a-and—” Her voice breaks. “We don’t look back.”

“Except, the past has a funny way of showing back up,” Joel mutters.

But Annie’s expression has smoothed out, and I know she doesn’t process the jab at all, same as she barely processes Fox saying, “That’s all of it—at least from me.”

Rosie exhales shakily.

“And it’s late, we should finish this conversation somewhere else.”

“Right,” Joel says. “You take that one. I’ll get these two.”