Page 73 of Cheap Shot

Unless.

Could he have a secret girlfriend?

No, that didn’t make sense. He hadn’t dated anyone in years. Not seriously enough to practically move in. There was no way he could keep something that big from all of us. At the very least, Benjamin would know. Or Matt. He was the nosy one that got into everyone’s business.

If his exile wasn’t self-imposed, I would worry. He was dodging me because he didn’t want to face me, and that was his own mistake. I wasn’t going to hunt him down or search the campus to force him to talk, but I was willing to let him come to me.

I got to the locker room an hour earlier than necessary to wait for him. This was the one place he had nowhere to run, and he couldn’t skip the game, so I changed into my base layers then sat and waited.

It took twenty minutes for the next person to show up. Hunter walked in, noticed me, and shook his head.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He dropped his bag to the ground and turned to face me. “Look, I’m not going to ask you if Haley is worth losing your best friend. Obviously, you already decided that she is. You can date whoever you want, that’s none of my business, but I’m sick of the tension between you two finding its way on the ice. You’re unstoppable together, but lately, you both suck. You’re playing horribly, and if no one else is ballsy enough to say that to your face, I will.”

His assessment stung. I wasn’t entirely shocked to hear it, although it was surprising that he’d shared his opinion so openly. He was usually a man of few words, preferring to slam guys into the boards or pull their feet out from under them to show his frustration.

I knew Ethan and I were off. That was why I was here.

“I’ve been trying to talk to him, but he won’t respond to my texts or calls and he hasn't come back to the room. That’s why I’m here. I want to clear things up before the game.”

Hunter grunted. “Good.”

Ah. There he was.

He got ready in silence, and soon, more of the guys began filtering in. My master plan was crumbling as I waited for Ethan to appear. I was hoping to have a chance to talk privately, but that possibility was slipping with each minute he didn’t show up. Was he going to walk in just in time to change and head out for the pregame warm-up?

I hadn’t even considered that possibility, but now it seemed like the most obvious choice. Of course, that was what he was going to do. It was what I would do. Actually, I’d already done it a few times this year to avoid confrontations.

Frustration washed over me as I stood and finished putting on my gear. My teammates began leaving to warm up, but I waited. Hunter was right. We weren’t playing the way we could because of the tension between us. It wasn’t fair for the rest of the guys to suffer due to our drama.

It was too late. If I waited any longer, Coach would chew me out, so I grabbed my helmet and stomped down the tunnel to the ice. I merged into the line closest to the bench and went through the shooting drills. On my second rotation, a voice caught my attention, and I looked to the corner where Benjamin and Ethan were talking.

How in the world did he get here without me seeing? There was no way he changed in the locker room. That coward must have used one of the training rooms and snuck by.

“Focus!” Matt shouted behind me, and I pushed forward to take my shot.

I passed the goal and stopped next to them. “Where have you been?”

Ethan glared at me. “Don’t worry about it.”

Benjamin looked between us then shook his head. “You guys have three minutes to figure this out, then you’re done.”

He joined the others while we studied each other. Ethan made no move to speak, so I started. “You’ve been missing for days. No one knows where you’ve been sleeping. You haven’t answered your phone. We were worried.”

“I’m here now.” Ethan blew off my concern. I barely recognized the man in front of me. Where was the guy that I knew almost as well as I knew myself? My best friend that I depended on because he never let me down?

“We need to talk, man. This is affecting the team.”

“Whose fault is that? I told you to stay away! Everything was fine. She was fine. Then you just had to get involved.” He practically growled the words.

“Yeah, I did. Because you weren’t there. She needed someone to listen to her, someone to watch out for her. I did that for you.” I sighed. “Then things changed.”

“I don’t care what you think you feel for her. Stay away.” He tried to move past me, but I grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back to face me.

“Look, I know what happened to Haley. She told me everything. I get why you’re protecting her, but I’m not going to hurt her. I care about her. A lot.”