Page 179 of Game Misconduct

Darla looked at him suspiciously and didn’t say anything.

“You know who I am, right?”

“Yeah. Tanner Clayton.” Her gaze flicked across him again.

“Cool. It’s nice to officially meet you. You’re a hockey fan?” He forced himself to lower his shoulders and smile at her, like this was a totally normal conversation.

“Yeah. I have been my whole life.” She lifted her shoulder a little to wipe at her eyes, although the knife still hovered near her wrist.

“It’s the best, huh?” Tanner grinned, relieved because Catherine and his mom and the kids were getting closer to the door now. “The minute I got on skates, I knew I was in love. Bet it was like that for you too.”

“I—I never played.”

“Sure,” Tanner said. “Butwatchingit, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Was it like that when you met Tom and Krista too?” He held his breath because he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea if he brought them up or not. But it seemed like she just wanted someone to hear her, you know? To get what she was going through.

She studied his face for a minute before she slowly nodded. “Yeah. I could tell right away.”

“What could you tell?”

“That they—that they were it for me.”

“It must have really hurt when they weren’t ready to introduce you to their family.”

Her expression crumpled. “I loved them. I didn’t want them to hide me.”

“Do you think that maybe it’s because they—they didn’t want fans to be mean to you?”

“What?” She blinked wetly but she didn’t start crying again.

“Well, fans can sometimes be pretty nasty, right?” he said. He didn’t really know where he was going with this, but she wasn’t trying to kill herself or anyone else at the moment, so he’d keeprolling with it. “Sometimes fans say terrible things, yeah? Blame players’ families for them having a bad game or whatever?”

“Sure,” she said slowly. “That happens.”

“Well, I don’t know Tom and Krista as well as you do,” he said. “But I think maybe they were looking out for you. Trying to keep you safe from the fans. If everyone found out about you and Tom had a bad game, they might blame you. Say you were distracting him. They might even say even more terrible things because he—well, he and Krista are Black. They do that sometimes, right?”

“Yeah,” Darla said. She frowned. “It pisses me off when they do that.”

“I bet,” Tanner said. “So maybe Tom and Krista were protecting all three of you from the awful fans. Because they cared about you.”

“We were,” Krista whispered. “But you got soupset. You wouldn’t listen.”

“But you don’t love me anymore,” Darla said, her lip quivering.

“I—I still care about you,” Krista said softly. “I really do. But you—you were scaring us. It scares me when you dothis. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

Darla broke down crying again. “I just wanted to be with you and you weren’tlistening. I had to do something to make you listen.”

“I’m sorry,” Tanner said softly. “That hurts, huh? Feeling like no one is listening to you?”

She looked over at him again, nodding.

“Well, I hear you, okay? I hear how sad you are.”

The knife wavered a little, but she nodded again.