“Don’t let anybody else in here,” Leo said, irritation leaking into his tone.
“Okay,” the doctor said, looking down at him. “By ‘anybody else’ do you mean Georgia?”
Leo grunted his acknowledgment.
“Fine. But you and I are definitely talking about this later.”
I can’t wait. Leo folded his hands on his chest and willed them to stop shaking.
When the doctor came in a while later, he brought Hugh Major with him. Leo sat up quickly, ready to take his punishment. The room only spun a little bit. So that was progress.
“Brought you this,” the doctor said, setting down a tray with a banana and some kind of protein bar. “If you can eat, you need something with some available sugars.”
“Thanks,” he said, waiting.
The GM was eyeing him with a frown. “O’Doul can play tonight,” Hugh finally said. “No sign of a concussion. It’s just a scrape on his head, and a big bruise on his ass.”
Leo sagged with relief. “That’s good to hear. Will he let me apologize to him?”
The GM cocked his head. “Sure he will. But are you okay to play?”
“Yeah,” Leo said immediately. “Of course I am.”
The doctor rolled his eyes. “We’ve heard that before, son. You eat something and we’ll talk in an hour, okay?”
“Sure.” Leo grabbed the banana and began to peel it. If everyone would just leave him alone for a few minutes, he’d be fine.
They left, but the goddamn door opened up again to admit O’Doul. “Hey,” the captain said.
“Hey.” Christ. “Look, I’m really sorry.” How many times was Leo going to have to give this speech? He’d never fucked up so many times before coming to the Bruisers. Seriously. His life had gone pretty fucking smoothly until now. He hadn’t realized that there would be some serious karmic payback for getting to the NHL.
The captain waved a hand in the air. “I, uh . . . I didn’t know about Georgia before today.”
“What about her?”
O’Doul lifted a hand to the back of his neck. “You know. That when you guys were together in high school, she was raped.”
Leo couldn’t stave off his flinch at the sound of that word. “She probably doesn’t like talking about it.” And he could seriously relate right about now.
“I’m sure.” O’Doul hopped up on the counter top opposite him. “But that’s some pretty awful shit. Kinda explains a lot. About both of you.”
Did it? Leo wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that. He didn’t want to be explained. He wanted to stop freaking out all the fucking time. “I’m still sorry I overreacted. Be kind of nice if that stopped happening.”
O’Doul actually tipped his head back and laughed. “You think?”
“Yeah.” And a ripple of laughter wobbled through him, too. Although it felt a little like hysteria. “So am I getting out of this little jail? Are we going to mow down this team, or what? Where is Coach anyway?”
“With Georgia,” he said. “But, yeah. I’m sure he’ll be barking at all of us within minutes.”
“Good to know.” Leo finally took a bite out of the banana. He didn’t feel like eating, but he’d take one for the team.
“You know Georgia is a black belt at tae kwon do?”
“She didn’t tell me much about it,” Leo had to admit. “She’s good at everything she tries, though. So it’s not a big shock.”
O’Doul grinned. “She is, isn’t she?” He shook his head. “I asked her out a couple of times and got the brush-off. Didn’t know she was waiting for you.” He hopped off the counter. “I’ll see you in the dressing room later?”
“Yeah. And I’m sorry about your . . .”
“Stop, college boy.” The captain laid a hand on Leo’s shoulder on his way out of the room. “Let’s just win tonight, okay?”
“Yeah.” The door shut on O’Doul, and Leo eyed the protein bar with suspicion. He picked it up and sighed.
THIRTY-ONE
Georgia had never cried at work before. Not even when her dad had called to tell her that her grandmother had died. Not even while they were all watching the movie Rudy on the jet to Vancouver, and the team carried Rudy around on the field on their shoulders.
Because you can’t cry at work. That just makes you into the girl, damn it.
So Georgia bit hard enough on her lip to make it bleed as two of Leo’s teammates hooked him under the arms and dragged him away from the scene of the crime. O’Doul stood there feeling the back of his scalp and asking, “What the fuck just happened?” until Hugh Major swept in and hauled him off to have the doctor look at his head.
Other teammates began to circle her, trying to be helpful, asking questions which Georgia did not feel like answering. Somebody called down to maintenance for a mop. And someone else called Coach Worthington.
Georgia just stood against the wall feeling . . . terrified. But of what, she wasn’t sure. She couldn’t stop hearing the awful sound that Leo had made when he tore around the corner. He’d thrown O’Doul down in front of witnesses. And he’d been ready to break the guy in half. She’d never seen anything like it.
It was all her fault, most likely. No—her shrink would reject that idea in a half second flat. But still, she felt guilty. Leo had come unglued before her eyes. Seeing it happen made her heart ache. And it made her realize that he wasn’t unscathed by what had happened to her. It had happened to both of them. She hadn’t really understood that before now.
“Georgia?”
She looked up to see Roger beckoning to her. “Yeah?” It came out as a croak.
“Your father would like a word with you.”
Her heart sank. Wordlessly, she followed him down another of the million hallways this place seemed to have. She was going to have to say something to him now about seeing Leo. If there was any way to shift some of the blame off him, she’d do it in a heartbeat.
And please let O’Doul be okay, she begged inwardly. She’d just begun to like the guy, too.
Georgia ducked into the little office her father and Hugh were sharing. She’d had enough of depressing, underground spaces today. What she needed was to see the sun.
“Close the door, honey,” her father said.
She obeyed, and took a set across from him.
“What the hell just happened?” he asked. “Help me understand. Leo attacked O’Doul? Was anyone else there? I didn’t see it. But . . .” He cleared his throat. “I heard.”