“Hi,” I say to Frankie and sit down next to her with my Diet Coke and popcorn.
“This is so exciting,” she says.
The guys are all on the ice, warming up. I purposely delayed my arrival because Aiden normally doesn’t have his helmet on during warmups and it gets me way more turned on than it should.
Jolie and Jax are at the glass and Aiden winks at them every time he skates by. Even Maksim and Ford tap the ends of their sticks to the glass as they pass by.
“Do you know Maksim and Ford?” I ask Frankie.
“Yeah, the three of them came out when Jax and I were doing a tattoo pop-up in Vegas. Funny guys.”
“That’s for sure.”
I knew Jax and Frankie are both tattoo artists, but I forgot that Jax is well known in the circuit, according to Aiden. I guess Frankie has been gaining more traction since they’ve been together too.
I concentrate on eating my popcorn, trying not to pay attention to Aiden, but it’s like having a vulture circling and not double-checking where it is at all times.
“Aiden said you’re handling his social media now,” Frankie says.
I know she’s trying to be polite and make conversation. Any other day, I’d be up for it. But the way things were left with Aiden today, I can’t seem to pick myself up. I hate this distance between us.
“I do. I throw a drink in his face and he allows me to use him as an endorsement for my company. Works for us,” I say.
“That says a lot about you… that he’d trust you with that. After everything.”
I tilt my head, and when I say nothing else, she glances over, stopping and holding my gaze with wide eyes.
“You don’t know.” She blows out a breath. “Shit. Forget I said anything.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Frankie…”
She’s got to be kidding me. Aiden is so closed off. I tried to find out why he cut himself off of social media, but I found nothing.
She shakes her head. “It’s not anything I’m at liberty to talk about. I’m sorry.”
I sit up straighter as the warmups end. Aiden says goodbye to Jolie with a wave of his glove, his gaze lingering on me briefly. He skids to a stop, staring at Frankie and me. The smile that glowed on his face a second ago fades.
I wave to him and give him a thumbs-up for luck. Eventually Ford slaps him on the back, and Aiden moves along.
“Please,” I beg her.
Frankie looks at her cousin, who’s with his teammates. “You didn’t hear it from me.”
“Okay.”
“Aiden has an older sister, Kendra, and she has a daughter, Emma. She’s always been Aiden’s biggest fan. Aiden’s sister is ten years older than him, so she had Emma when he was only fifteen. When Aiden got drafted to the national league, Emma bragged about him to anyone who wanted to hear. Her parents let her get on social media to keep track of him and, let’s face it, to make Emma happy.”
I have no idea what this has to do with him going off social media, but I listen on.
“Emma joined some fan groups and let it out that she was Aiden’s niece. It took Aiden a while to find his footing and people told Emma what they thought about her uncle. None of it was good. Emma got defensive, but she was a twelve-year-old playing with grown adults and teens. They were so mean the way they bullied and belittled her… some of the things they would say.” Frankie shakes her head and looks at me, sadness coating her features. “You know how it is when the mob on social media attacks… in the end, she tried to take her life.”
My hand flies to my mouth with a gasp and my heart sinks to my stomach. I search out Aiden on the ice. He’s skating to the face-off.
“Is she okay?”
Frankie nods. “Yeah, but Aiden took himself off social media. The entire family went off. You can imagine how traumatic it was for them.”
I sink back into my seat. The fact that he allowed me to get him back on social media, to have him as my primary spokesperson with his name and image, after all his family went through… why would he agree to that?
She squeezes my knee. “That’s why I was saying he must really trust you, which I think is great.”
“Okay, you two, stop the talking. Aiden’s about to win this face-off,” Jax says, leaning over us.
Sure enough, Aiden wins and passes it to Ford. The two skate down the ice, and one of the players checks Aiden into the boards. Tweetie checks that guy and ties him up on the boards, so Aiden skates away. Ford passes Aiden the puck and he rushes toward the goal.
“Go, Aiden!” Jolie screams at the glass.
He does some fancy stick move and shoots it into the top corner of the net. All his teammates rush over and congratulate him. Aiden gets the puck, bouncing it on his stick, and tosses it over the partition to Jolie. Jax is able to grab it before the guy behind him gets his paws on it.
“Asshole,” Frankie murmurs.
I shake my head at the guy behind us who tried to take the puck from a little girl. Jolie hugs the puck as if it’s a stuffed animal. She really is the cutest girl I’ve ever seen.
Aiden’s on fire the rest of the game. When he’s on the ice, he’s never far away from the puck. I try to spend some time on my phone so I don’t seem too interested in the game. I’m sure Frankie senses something, and she would be bold enough to ask me what’s going on between Aiden and myself. The last person I need to divulge all my complicated feelings regarding Aiden to is his cousin. Hello, I’m Saige and I’m scared to date your cousin because I had this boyfriend in high school who fucked me up in the head and I can’t seem to get out of the wicked tornado of unpleasant thoughts he put me in.
The game ends with Aiden scoring the game-winning goal.
“I forgot what a great skater he is,” Frankie says to me.
“I heard he’s really good,” I lie because I know how great of a skater he is.
“You don’t watch all his games?” Frankie asks.
“I don’t usually go to the games. But since he paid for my plane ticket and got me here, well, here I am.” Again, I find myself lying just so she doesn’t ask any more questions. I’ve been to every single game since I met Aiden.
Jax and Jolie scream and stand.
“He scored. We won!” Jax yells and they bang on the glass again.
Aiden winks, skating toward them. The crowd aws when he presses his hand to Jolie’s through the glass.
“You two aren’t together?” Frankie asks out of the blue.
See? This is why I was vague, but she’s got those damn mom instincts.
I shake my head. “Nope. I’m just the girl who throws a drink in his face before a game.”
I glance at the ice as his teammates all congratulate him. Our eyes lock briefly before I divert mine back to my phone.
Jolie’s exhausted after the game, so Frankie and Jax say good night after Aiden comes out of the locker room.
When Aiden and I get into our taxi to head back to the hotel, I say, “They’re great people.”
“Yeah, I’m super happy for her.” His knee bounces beside me. Maybe he’s still in a mood from before, though he had an amazing game, so I’m not sure why.
“You had a great game,” I say to break the silence.