Page 47 of Enemy Games

The Shaw I grew up with, after he stopped being my friend, wouldn’t have taken me to the hospital. He would have pawned me off as someone else’s problem. He certainly wouldn’t have stayed with me the whole time.

Old Shaw wouldn't have cared in the least about whether or not I was making my injury worse. He would have encouraged me to risk it all in hopes I ended my career as a player.

He wouldn’t have watched and waited for me to finish my punishing workout to offer to walk me home in the middle of the night.

Even I had to admit, despite how badly I wanted to hang on to the pain and trauma he’d caused, he wasn’t that cruel boy anymore. He wasn’t the same serial cheater he’d been in high school.

Shaw wasn’t a bad person.

But maybe I was for holding on to his past.

“I’m not sure I can just move on.” I finally answered her question. “There might be too much history.”

She tilted her head and smiled. “It’s never too late to start over. There’s never too much baggage. Every day is a chance to start fresh. You wouldn’t want someone holding onto a version of you from ten years ago, right?’

I shook my head, knowing where this was going.

“So maybe it’s time to try to see him for who he is now. For who he’s become.”

How could I argue that? I would want someone to give me the chance to change and do better. I wouldn’t want them to only remember the worst version of myself. That wasn’t fair.

The clip of his life that I was a part of wasn’t the whole picture. I needed to allow him the opportunity to be someone different. Someone I didn’t know.

I couldn’t freeze him in time and never accept that he’d changed.

That wasn’t fair.

I wasn’t the same girl as I was back then, so why couldn’t I allow him to grow and move on?

Crap.

This wasn’t even about him. It was about me.

Mom smiled at me when I met her eyes. She saw the pieces come together in my head. She led me to this conclusion but let me figure it out for myself. As she always did.

“You’re right.”

She took a sip of her drink and winked at me over the glass.

Well crap. Now what was I supposed to do? It wasn’t like I could walk up to Shaw the next time I saw him and tell him all was forgiven. Not only would that be strange, but he never really asked for my forgiveness. He never apologized.

But that wasn’t in my control. The only thing I could do was let go of the loathing and judgment I had toward him. I would become neutral. Shaw? Yeah, he’s a great hockey player and was nice enough to take me to the hospital and sit with me. He helped me with the classes I was struggling with. He even watched out for me while I was training at night.

All of that added up to a decent guy.

Ugh.

I had to admit to myself when I thought about how he acted since I moved to West Penn, I’d been wrong.

Hunter Shaw wasn’t my enemy.

Chapter 14

Hunter

What should have been a predictable, routine road trip had turned into one surprise after another.

Sitting in the university arena was always nostalgic. I grew up coming to these games, so playing here was always a surreal experience.