“Now scream,” I ordered.

  He didn’t hesitate and let out a low baritone scream. I patted my chest with my glove and let out a guttural roar. The room vibrated with the sound and when we were done, both of us were panting. “Ready to play?” I asked.

  Tanner stood taller, looked stronger, and his eyes were full of fire. Some guys swear that they need anger to play well. Based on what I’ve seen with my players, this is true for some of them, but especially Tanner. As Captain, it’s my job to get the guys riled up.

  Other guys need to Zen out. Gunnar Lockwood was the king of visualization, meditated before every game.

  Me, I can play whenever, wherever no matter what I’m feeling. This is what I’m trying to teach these guys, as their captain. If they just fought with their girlfriend? I told them to use it. To bring it onto the ice and do something with it. If they were sad? Use it.

  Some of my best games were in the days after my parents died. Back then the only way I could express myself was with my stick in my hand and my skates on the ice.

  I kept an eye on Tanner throughout practice. My chest swelled like a big brother as he killed every drill in the practice. It felt good to be back on the ice. The rink was like a second home to me. The players, my family. The second I stepped through the door I was treated with respect.

  I hadn’t been able to relax since my run-in with Bronwyn. I tried not to feel used, but it was hard not to. The last time we saw each other had been hot, and she told me she couldn’t wait to see me again. And then it was crickets. I just wished that she could’ve seen me in my Otters jersey instead of my dirty mechanic’s shirt.

  After a grueling round of suicide drills, Leo skidded to a stop next to me. “What did you do to the kid?”

  I laughed. “I took him up to the stars and then brought him back down again.”

  Leo gave me a side glance and then smiled. “It worked.”

  “Thanks.” I felt a sense of brotherly pride as we watched Tanner drill slapshot after slapshot into the net.

  “What about you?” Leo rested his chin in the end of his stick.

  I looked at him with my brow furrowed. “Me?”

  Leo cleared his throat and then tapped his stick on the ice. “Yeah, you. Something’s up.”

  This was news to me. I’d killed all the plays and put everything I had into the drills. What was Leo seeing that I wasn’t?

  I shrugged. “Maybe I’m dehydrated.” As if to solidify my point, I took a bottle and squirted some electrolyte water into my mouth.

  “Maybe.” Leo nodded, but his eyes told me he didn’t buy it. “Drink some more and get back to it.” He skated away.

  He was right. My body had been at the practice, but my mind hadn’t. I should’ve taken Tanner’s pep talk and used it on myself. There had to be some way I could get the image of that red dress whipping in the wind to stop replaying over and over in my mind.

  When I got home, a big black Mercedes SUV, one of the really expensive boxy ones, was parked in the driveway. The last time I had seen Bronwyn, she was driving a white Range Rover, but the Yates had a fleet of cars at every one of their places.

  Was driving away an option? I checked my watch. I needed to get inside and get ready for work. I approached the SUV like I was approaching a car wreck, grimacing as I neared, waiting to see a flash of blond hair in the driver’s seat. But as I reached the car, there wasn’t even a shadow of a human being behind the tinted windows. I looked to the front door, which I left unlocked. A fact that she knew and had teased me about. Would she have the audacity to let herself into my house? And why was she there?

  My hockey bag felt heavy on my shoulder. I tossed it onto the porch swing and stepped inside the house. I didn’t announce my presence. It was my damn house after all. I heard the sound of pans crashing in the kitchen and then the whirr of the coffee grinder.

  “What the hell?” It was too much. I kicked off my flip flops and stormed into the kitchen, ready to put that crazy woman in her place. Breaking and entering and making coffee?

  I stopped in my tracks at the entryway to the kitchen and if I could’ve slapped myself in the face, I would have. It wasn’t a crazy supermodel in my kitchen, it was my younger sister Jessie and her fiancé, one of my former teammates, Kane Fitzgerald.

  “Dylan.” Jessie smiled and paused the grinding of the coffee to give me a quick hug and then was back to the grinder. Caffeine was Jessie’s drug of choice.

  “Fitzy.” I opened my arms and got a better hug from my former teammate.

  I realized that my heart had been pounding, my body had chosen fight over flight, and now that the tension had released from my body, I slumped onto one of the wooden kitchen chairs. “What are you guys doing here?”

  Jessie dumped the grounds into the coffee maker, sat down across from me and slid her hand into Kane’s. Her diamond ring was one of the biggest I had ever seen, and I was happy for her. I could never give a woman a ring like that, but at least one of the Moss kids had made something of themselves.

  “We both have a break from training, so we’re staying at the cottage for a while,” Kane explained. Like Bronwyn, Kane Fitzgerald had a family estate on Lake Casper, although Pine Hill, Fitzy’s cottage, a gorgeous classic Laketown cottage looked like a shack compared to the Yates Estate.

  I smiled. “Must be nice.”

  Jessie shot me a glare. “We’re also meeting with the wedding planner and tasting cake at the Lake Casper Club.”

  “Right. Your wedding.” I rolled my eyes and pretended as though I’d forgotten about it. It’s all that she’d been able to talk about for the last six months. Jessie and Kane lived in the city, Kane played Center for the New York Thunder and Jessie was on the national figure skating team and was training for the Olympics.

  Jessie smacked me on the arm. “Don’t be a jerk. Have you bought your suit yet?”

  The money had been in my account for a month since Jessie sent it to me. I just hadn’t gotten around to getting fitted for a suit that cost more than the beat-up dirt bike I rode to work. I wasn’t in the wedding party, which was fine with me. Kane’s National League buddies were all standing up for him. My job was more important anyway, I was walking my sister down the aisle. Something our dad would’ve done if he were still alive.

  “I can just rent one, can’t I?”

  Kane laughed. “Dude, rental suits don’t fit hockey players.”

  “Yeah, remember when you went to prom?” Jessie giggled. “Those socks…”

  At 6’4, my suit had been at least four inches too short. I had improvised by finding the brightest, most obnoxious socks, they were yellow with angry-looking ninja cats. “I think I still have those socks.” I pumped my eyebrows at her.

  “Don’t you dare with those ninja kitties,” she laughed.

  I leaned back in the chair as the smell of coffee filled the small kitchen. “What are you two doing here? Don’t they stock coffee at Chez Fitzy?”

  The glance between them was obvious and I sat a little straighter in the chair.

  Jessie played with her cuticles, a sign that she was nervous. “We wanted to talk to you about Sidney.”

  “Sidney?”

  “Oh, my God, Dylan.” Jessie groaned. “I knew it.” She rolled her eyes and looked at Kane.

  “What?” I was thoroughly confused.

  Jessie slipped her hand back into Kane’s. “Sidney, the figure skater that you agreed to bring to the wedding as your date when we were at the pub by our condo.”

  “What?” This was news to me.

  The memory was hazy at best. The last time I had been in the city to visit Jessie we had gone to a dive bar with her figure skater friends. All of them were getting hit on, except one girl. She wasn’t ugly, but she wasn’t pretty either – and if I recall, didn’t really have anything to talk about except edge control and nut butters she was allergic to. Getting wasted and going home with strange women had been my thing for a few years, but since I’d met Bronwyn, there hadn’t been a woman who had caught my eye, no matter how many empty beer steins ended up in front of me.

  “I was just being nice to her.” I groaned. “There was no talk of a wedding. If there was, I clearly forgot about it.”

  The coffee machine sputtered as it finished. Jessie got up and took three mugs out of the cupboard. “Well, she didn’t.”

  “Jess,” I sighed. “That was months ago.”

  Jessie added cream to my coffee and sugar to Kane’s and stirred as she spoke, the spoon clanking against the ceramic mugs. “Dylan.” My younger sister had perfected her disappointed in me look years earlier and it was clear she hadn’t forgotten it. “You sat with her all night.”

  “Jess. It’s coming back to me now, but I don’t ever recall asking her to go to your wedding as my date. I don’t get that drunk anymore.”

  She raised her eyebrows as if she didn’t believe me. “Well, you didn’t ask her. She asked you.”

  “What?” I couldn’t screw my forehead up any tighter. “I remember talking about almond butter, cashew butter, oh and heaven forbid – peanut butter, and then some of the different rinks we’ve skated in, but seriously, Jessie. I’m sorry. I don’t remember agreeing to take your friend who I have zero chemistry with to your wedding. I didn’t think that I even needed a date.”

  I took a sip of my coffee hoping that the caffeine would jolt a memory into my brain. “You came to the table when we were talking about the new barn that had just opened in Carstead.”

  “You were talking about a barn. Like a skating rink.” Jessie trained her eyes on mine.

  I forgot that figure skaters didn’t use our slang. “Yeah, a barn. Like an arena, you know, with ice.”

  Jessie squeezed her eyes shut and her nostrils flared. “You do realize that Kane and I are getting married in a barn. An actual barn, with no ice.”

  “Ohhhhh.” It was starting to make sense. “So when she asked if I wanted to go to the barn with her, she wasn’t asking me to test drive the new ice.”

  Jessie crossed her arms. “Nope.”

  “Shit,” I muttered.

  “Shit is right. Can you just suck it up and go with her?”

  “What?” I set my mug on the table harder than I expected and coffee sloshed on my thumb. I wiped it off on the leg of my jeans. “No.”

  “Kane? Can you help me out with this?” Jessie said.

  Kane, who I’d forgotten was in the room watching our brother and sister scrap was leaning back in the kitchen chair with an amused look on his face. He held up his hands, “You’re on your own with this one. But…” he sighed and leaned his elbows on the table. “She’s going to be at the wedding anyway, so you’re going to need a good excuse if you’re going to get out of this one, brother.”

  I nodded my head while I ran simultaneous scenarios through my head, one that included attending in disguise.

  “And not going to your sister’s wedding is not an option,” Kane laughed but there was a serious undertone to his voice.

  My brain was going a million miles an hour. I could be nice and take the most boring girl in the world to one of the best parties of the year. She was Jessie’s teammate. I couldn’t just ghost her – especially if she was going to be there anyway. What excuse could get me out of this?

  “What’s her number?” I slid my phone across the table to Jessie. “I’ll take care of it.”

  Jessie put the girl’s number in my phone, Sidney. I had forgotten her name already.

  “So, you’re taking her?”

  “No.” I put the phone in the pocket of my shirt. “I’m going to tell her that there was a misunderstanding about the barn. You know, be honest.”

  “Dyl,” Jessie chided.

  She wasn’t going to let it go. “And that I already have a date for the wedding.”

  Kane and Jessie’s eyebrows rose in unison.

  “That second part is a lie.” Jessie waggled her finger at me.

  “No,” I smiled. “It’s true. I have a date for your wedding.”

  Jessie looked dubious. “Who?”

  “A friend.” Her name came out of my mouth before I formulated how to make it happen. “Bronwyn Yates.”

  Kane choked on his coffee and pounded his chest with his fist. Jessie rubbed his arm and looked at me with her eyes narrowed. “Bronwyn Yates is going to our wedding as your…” She pointed at my coffee-stained jeans, “Dylan Moss’s date.”

  “Yep,” I grinned and finished my coffee.

  My heart started to pound for two reasons. One, the idea of walking into the wedding with Bronwyn on my arm, and two, the way I’d have to get her to do it.

  Seven

  Bronwyn

  A soft knock on the door, followed by the creak of the bedsprings woke me from yet another one of my crazy pregnancy dreams. My hair was stuck to my neck, and I groaned as I rolled and reached for the bottle of artesian spring water I’d almost finished before I fell asleep reading. The Shopoholic, sat open to the same page I’d been reading for the past three nights.

  “Morning, Miss Lisa.” I opened the bedroom door a crack and greeted my housekeeper. I could hear her rustling around in the kitchen and the tick of the gas range as she put the kettle on to boil.

  “Good morning, Miss Bronwyn,” she replied. When Lisa first started working for me, I had been quick to correct her when she called me Miss Yates, but we found a compromise and referred to each of each other as Miss. I liked it and I’m pretty sure that Lisa liked it too. “I picked up some scones from the bakery. Do you want one while they’re still warm?”

  At the height of my modeling career, I wouldn’t have even dared to smell carbs, let alone eat baked goods from the iconic Laketown bakeshop, but my stomach growled, and they seemed like one of the few breakfast items that I’d be able to keep down. First pizza, then scones? Who was I?

  “No yoga this morning?” Lisa asked as I slid onto the barstool in my silk robe and slippers.

  “Maybe in a little while.” I stretched my hands above my head, which was the most yoga-like thing I’d done in a week. Sleep just seemed more important than following my grueling early morning workout routine. Lisa set a cup of steaming tea and the scone in front of me, but after one bite the smell of the blueberries made me nauseous. I slid the plate away and took a couple of deep breaths and a sip of tea.

  “Everything alright, Miss Bronwyn?” Lisa looked at me with concern in her eyes.

  “It’s fine, I smiled. “I just need a minute.”

  Lisa nodded. “My friend Morgan had awful morning sickness, but my sister Jennifer couldn’t stop eating. Everyone is different,” she shrugged.

  I knew that she was trying to make me feel better. “Wait, your sister – your younger sister had a baby?” At twenty-three, I felt too young to have a baby. Lisa was still in high school. “

  “Last year.”

  “Wow.” I didn’t mean to say it out loud.

  Lisa looked at me over her glasses. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s kind of normal here.”

  I nodded, embarrassed that Lisa had caught me being judgmental. “You must be one cool aunt.” I sipped my tea, hoping my attempt to lighten the conversation had worked.

  “Totally,” she laughed. “And Miss Bronwyn, my sister is happy with her choice.”

  “Of course.” I looked into my mug. Was I projecting my embarrassment onto Lisa’s sister? “I’m sure I will be happy too.”

  The pity flashed in her eyes quickly. “I know you will be.”

  “Thanks, Lisa.” The nauseous feeling had passed. I finished the scone in three bites and eyed the cardboard box on the counter. “Are there any more in there?”

  “You betcha,” she grinned. “And an éclair, if you’re feeling wild and crazy.”

  “Whoa, Nelly.” I laughed and held my hands up in front of me. But I was already imagining the squish of the cream in my mouth.

  My phone buzzed on the counter, and I glanced at the screen. Lake Casper Marine.

  “Shit,” I muttered through a mouthful of scone. “Hey, Lisa, has my dad gone to the boathouse yet?”

  “I don’t think so.” Lisa started the dishwasher and was gathering up the clothes that I’d strewn across the living room while trying to find an outfit to wear to brunch the day before. “Your parents left in the helicopter this morning before I got here. You didn’t hear it?”

  I shook my head, but that explained the stampede of bison that had been about to trample me in my dream. “Do you know when they’re coming back?” The house manager had a better handle on my parents’ location than I did most of the time, and most of the staff did too.

  “Your mom said something about the Vail house.”

  I smiled and felt a sense of relief wash over me. My parents went to the Vail house whenever my mom was getting plastic surgery done – that meant I had at least a week, but most likely two before they would be back in Laketown. Even though it was totally obvious that my mom got work done, she still liked to hide until the puffiness faded and the stitches were removed. “What about the house manager name. Has she been down to the boathouse?”

  Lisa scrunched up her forehead and I knew that a question was on the tip of her tongue, but I was still her boss, and she knew better than to interrogate me. “No, she’s been preparing the staff for the arrival of your grandmother.”

  Double shit. If my dad found out that I’d taken Calliope out and ruined her, he’d be pissed, but my grandmother – that was worse than the illegitimate baby. If it wasn’t quite disowning territory, it was definitely cold shoulder, slash a few zeroes off the inheritance territory. I rushed into the bedroom and pulled on a pair of black yoga pants and a black T-shirt and I swept my hair up into a loose bun. Together with the gold chain on my Chanel bag, my outfit looked mostly pulled together. I typically wouldn’t go out in public in such a rush, but I had to get to the marina before the house manager found out about the boat. I didn’t know how, but I had to fix this mess. I turned to the side and smoothed my hand over my T-shirt. I could tell that my stomach wasn’t flat and hard, but to an onlooker, it might look like I had just eaten a big breakfast. I hoped.