Chapter Nineteen

THE JACKSONVILLE Sea Storm defeated the Athens Ice Dogs in five games, sending them to the finals. They won the game in Athens, but there were so many Storm fans in attendance—and so few Ice Dog fans—that it almost seemed like they were playing in front of their home crowd.

They had a few days rest before the finals started, and Ethan took the opportunity to chill out and play some video games—and sneak a cigarette or two when Riley was at goalie practice. Not that it ever fooled him. Quitting smoking sucked, but Ethan knew it was bad for him, especially with the finals coming up.

It made Ethan think about next season, as he had no idea if he’d still be with the Storm. He’d been playing pretty good hockey, and the conditioning was paying off, but Ethan knew himself. If he went home for the summer, he’d end up doing the same thing as last year and show up for camp out of shape and smoking again. And he wanted to stay with Riley. He’d miss his family, but he knew there was no way he’d leave Riley in Florida.

Luckily Riley’s Christmas gift meant his family was on their way to visit. They were staying at the Ponte Vedre Inn and Club, the nicest hotel in the area, and would be able to travel to see the Storm play whoever it was they would face in the finals. The Western Conference championships were between the Tulsa Phoenixes and the Vegas Blackjacks. But the series hadn’t started because all the previous rounds in the Western Conference had gone to seven games. That meant they had a bit of a break, but Ethan and the rest of the team were keyed up and ready to play. It wasn’t good to have too much time off. It meant Ethan spent too much time thinking—and also smoking.

Ethan was playing Grand Theft Auto when there was a knock at the door. Riley sometimes forgot to lock their door because he grew up in Wyoming with a security system. But Ethan grew up in New York City, so the first thing he always did was lock the door when he came home. So he couldn’t just call out, “Come in,” and go back to driving a tank over an airport. A shame.

He found a girl standing in front of their apartment, and Ethan knew without a doubt that she had to be related to Riley. She looked just like him—same dark hair and dark eyes. She wasn’t quite as tall, but she was nicely curvaceous in a way he definitely appreciated. He finally knew how Riley felt. You shouldn’t find your boyfriend’s sister hot.

Or maybe you should. He was bisexual, so he still liked girls. Definitely still liked them. But not this one because she was Riley’s sister. Right.

“Umm,” the girl said, “is Riley here?”

Ethan realized he was staring like an idiot. He smiled quickly, shook his head, and stepped back. “He’s at goalie practice, but he should be home soon.” She had a suitcase, and Ethan was a gentleman, so he reached out to take it from her.

Of course she had no idea who he was and stepped quickly in front of it, arms crossed over her chest. “Who are you?”

Oh right. Strange guy with tattoos, a freshly shaved head, and sporting a respectable playoff beard. “Ethan,” he answered. “I live here too,” he reassured her. “Come on in.”

“Oh.” She picked up her bag and followed him inside. “I’m Madison Hunter. Riley’s sister.”

Ethan tried to work out how to phrase the next bit politely. “He didn’t mention… I mean, I didn’t know you were coming to town.”

She gave him the same stubborn look Riley did when Ethan tried to score on Riley at practice by doing fancy shoot-out moves that he would never, ever need in real life. “Because he doesn’t know.”

Right. At least they were on the same page. Ethan waved a hand toward the sofa. “Have a seat. You want a beer?” Fuck. Was she even old enough to have one? “You’re twenty-one. Right?”

Madison stared at him without moving. “Are you serious?”

He was sure Riley had mentioned that Madison was his younger sister, but he didn’t know exactly how much younger she was. And he remembered that none of Riley’s family had called him on his birthday. Ethan’s had called, sent a card, and, because his mom was determined to make up for lack of parental attention, shipped some snickerdoodles that Ethan was sure she picked up at a bakery. Suddenly he wasn’t quite so inclined to be nice—or offer beer, even if she was of age.

“I’m twenty-three,” she informed him. Ethan nodded and went to the kitchen. His loyalty to Riley and his ingrained be-nice-to-women manners battled head-on. He wasn’t sure who was winning, so he gave up and brought two bottles into the living room.

Madison looked like he’d just handed her a snake. “A bottle?”

“What? You only like beer in a can?” he joked. “Even I’m classier than that.”

“People usually drink out of glasses.” She sniffed and arranged herself with perfect posture on the sofa.

“Maybe where you’re from,” he said. “So what brings you to Jacksonville?”

“It’s family business,” she said stiffly, holding her beer bottle in a death grip. All of a sudden, Ethan realized she was nervous and uncertain of the welcome she was going to get when her brother got home. That immediately made him feel bad for her.

“Riley’s practice ended about ten minutes ago, so he should be home soon. He usually brings pizza,” he offered as an enticement.

“I’m limiting my carb intake and I don’t eat dairy,” she said, taking a minuscule sip of her beer.

“Want me to text him and tell him to bring you some chicken wings?” Ethan asked, wondering what it must be like to be rich enough to exclude carbs and dairy from your diet. Ethan and his sisters would have starved to death if it weren’t for pasta, bread, and cheese.

“Do I look like a chicken-wings kind of girl?” Madison asked with a slight hint of self-deprecating humor.

“Maybe you haven’t had really good ones,” Ethan said.

That seemed to cheer Madison up, and she gave him the smallest of smiles. “Maybe I haven’t. Thanks for the beer, Ethan. I’m sorry I’m being awful. I’m just nervous.”

Ethan waved a hand. “Don’t worry. It’s cool. You want me to text Riley and tell him you’re here?”

Madison shook her head. Repeatedly. “No. It’s fine. I can stay at a hotel. If he doesn’t want me to stay here, I mean.”

“Oh, he won’t mind,” Ethan said, though maybe he shouldn’t be so quick to say that. Ethan would never be anything but thrilled if his sisters showed up unexpectedly, but Riley’s family didn’t even call each other on holidays. “You ever been to Jacksonville before?”

“No,” Madison said. She looked around and said, “We always go to the Gulf. The water’s better.”

“Like, the tap water?” Ethan cocked his head. Did that really matter to people? Huh.

She gave him that look again, the one that was maybe a Hunter family trait. “The ocean water.”

“Oh. Better, how?” Rich people were weird. Who actually went somewhere based on that?

“Snorkeling. It’s prettier too. Calmer.”

“So you like your ocean to be boring, is what you’re saying,” Ethan said, and she smiled a little, even though he wasn’t joking. “You want a snack? Apples and peanut butter?” Fuck. He was turning into his mother.

“Do you play on Riley’s team?”

That made Ethan want to giggle, but he nodded. “Yeah.”

“Why aren’t you at the same practice he is?”

“I’m a defenseman. And honestly? I get in a lot of fights. I’m the team enforcer. So it’s not really the kind of thing you can practice. You know.”

Madison looked down at her lap again. “Not really. I don’t know anything about hockey.”

She apparently didn’t know anything about Riley either. The door opened and Ethan was spared having to come up with something to say. Riley had his gear bag slung over his shoulder and was holding a pizza box in one hand and a box of coconut water in the other. No booze during the playoffs for Riley. And after that night he got drunk on vodka, Riley had sworn off drinking for a little while, anyway.

“Hey, boyfriend, come here and take this pizza box before it burns my hand off,” Riley called. Ethan winced because Madison didn’t know he and Riley were dating. That was for sure.

“Uh. Yeah,” Ethan called and walked over to take the box. “So your sister’s here.”

Once Ethan took the pizza box, Riley could obviously see his sister in their living room. His eyes went wide. “Madison?”

“Hi, Riley.”

The box really was hot, so Ethan took it into the kitchen, opened it, and looked around for some paper plates while he gave brother and sister a few moments to say hello.

He grabbed Riley a beer. Fuck the coconut water, man. This called for some low-level alcohol content.

“What are you doing here?” Riley asked his sister. Ethan gave him the beer and noted that they hadn’t hugged or anything. Madison was standing, but she hadn’t moved, and Riley was still at the door.

The door that happened to be wide open. God. Was Ethan the only person who cared about safety? He closed the door and locked it out of habit.

“I heard you had some kind of important hockey thing coming up,” Madison said. “I thought I’d come see. Is that okay?”

“Yeah. Sure,” Riley said, but he didn’t sound like he meant it. “You’ve never been to a game before, though. What’s the matter?”

Ethan had rarely heard Riley talk like that to someone he liked. It was the same voice he was using when Ethan found him sitting in a booth with Bennett Halley.

Madison fidgeted with her beer bottle. “What do you mean, what’s the matter? Why does something have to be the matter? Can’t I come visit my own brother?”

Riley reached into his pocket for his cell phone and scrolled through it one-handed. “I have three voice mails from Mom.”

Madison worried at her bottom lip. “Maybe she wants to wish you good luck.”

Riley stared at his sister. “She didn’t call me on my birthday, Mads.”

Something about the nickname made Madison’s posture ease. “Lucky you,” she muttered as Riley waved the phone at her and threatened to call their mother back. “Okay. Fine. Fine. I’m maybe supposed to go to this stupid engagement party this weekend.”

Riley slipped the phone back in his pocket and took a drink of his beer. “Whose?”

“Umm.” Madison wouldn’t look at him. “Mine?”

“You’re getting married?” And then, in a brotherly, protective tone that Ethan found disturbingly hot, considering Riley was using it with his also hot sister, Riley said, “You’re too young to get married.”

“I’m twenty-three,” Madison said. “That’s old enough.”

“Then why aren’t you at your party?”

Madison tightened her mouth, and she looked unhappy. “Can we not talk about it?”

“Who wants pizza?” Ethan interrupted as Riley glowered at his sister and she intently studied the label on her bottle. No way was Bud Light that interesting. “Except I forgot your sister can’t eat carbs or dairy.”

“I can eat them. I just don’t. Mom thinks I need to slim down through the middle,” Madison said. Her face went all Hunter-stubborn. “Fuck it. On second thought, I’d love some pizza.”

They ate their pizza in the living room—on plates on their laps, because that’s how Ethan and Riley ate every meal. Ethan had switched off the video game, but the silence made him wish he left it on. He kept looking at Riley, who resolutely and grimly ate his pizza without a shred of enjoyment. And he only let himself have it one day a week because of the finals. What a waste.

Madison’s cell phone rang, but she ignored it. A few seconds later, Riley’s rang too.

“Mom,” Riley said, glancing at it. If Ethan tried to ignore his mother’s call, he’d be in so much trouble.

“Maybe you should tell her where you are,” Ethan said, thinking of a hundred Crime & Investigation network scenarios. “She’s probably really worried.”

“She’s worried because she planned a party for one hundred and fifty guests to announce an engagement that isn’t even official yet,” Madison groused, and took a vicious bite of her second slice of pizza.

“Was it going to be? Before the party?” Riley asked. He sounded concerned, but that brief flash of brotherly protectiveness was missing. Still, it was a good sign that it had been there at all. At least Ethan thought it was a good sign.

“I guess. He gave me a ring, but I hadn’t—I wasn’t ready to announce it.” Madison looked down at her pizza and then back at Riley. “I can stay in a hotel, you know. If you and your boyfriend want your space.”

Riley almost choked on his beer. “Wait. What?”

“You called him your boyfriend when you came in,” Madison said. Riley blushed. Clearly he thought she’d forgotten that or that she hadn’t noticed. “But he said he was your teammate. Which is it?”

“Both,” Riley said before Ethan could say anything. “He’s my teammate and he’s my boyfriend.”

Madison just nodded. “Convenient.”

“You don’t seem surprised.” Riley peered at her. “Shouldn’t you be?”

“What? That you’re dating a teammate? Or that you’ve got a boyfriend?” She snorted. “Riley, you had pictures of guys on your wall at home when we were kids.”

“They were hockey players.”

Madison waved a hand toward Ethan. “And?”

“Oh.” Riley looked at his plate and then gave his sister the first real smile since he came home and found her in the living room. “Right. I guess that’s true.”

After dinner Riley made Ethan wash his sheets and clean up his room so Madison had a place to stay. Then he made her call their mom, so she at least knew where Madison was. Ethan wanted to answer the phone himself so he could tell Riley’s mom that Madison was fine and then yell at her for not calling her son more often—or at all, unless she was worried about her daughter. That had to feel awful. Ethan sat by Riley and idly rubbed a hand over his back. He didn’t give a fuck if Madison Hunter had a problem with it.

“She’ll tell me to come home,” Madison sighed. Her gaze lingered for a moment on Ethan stroking Riley’s back, but she didn’t look disgusted. Maybe just a little wistful. Ethan went back to feeling sorry for her too. Now he really wanted to yell at their mom.

Riley shrugged and leaned against Ethan’s hand. “You’re an adult, Mads. If you don’t want to go home, don’t.”

“What if she shows up here?”

For the first time, some of Riley’s calm composure begin to crack around the edges. They were playing in the finals, and Ethan knew Riley definitely didn’t want to worry about his ultrarich family showing up and bickering while he was trying to win a championship.

“Then me and Riley will go to a hotel, and you and your Ma can duke it out in the living room,” Ethan offered quickly, and squeezed Riley’s shoulder. “’Cause we gotta play some hockey.”

Madison stood up with her plate. “I’ll tell her I’m visiting friends in Palm Springs. She just needs to cancel the party because I’m not coming home, I’m not getting married, and I’m not going to do either of those things just to make her happy.”

Ethan was proud of her for that. He was lucky to grow up in the family he did, despite not having a fraction of the money and material comforts the Hunters had.

Ethan cleaned his bathroom, grabbed some pajamas, his shoes, his cell phone charger, and his toothbrush, and took it all into Riley’s room. He found Riley standing on the balcony, staring at the ocean. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Riley didn’t look at him.

“I like your sister.” Ethan couldn’t help the slight grin. “She’s hot.”

Riley glared over his shoulder, but it lacked any real heat. “Shhh. Stop.” His expression eased into the slightest of smiles. “Yours is hotter.”

“Dude,” Ethan said, laughing a little. “Not cool. Are you okay, though?”

Riley nodded. “Yeah.”

“It’s not gonna—” Ethan worried if Madison’s visit would fuck up Riley’s pregame ritual, and he worried that asking about it would do the same thing. He was learning how to live with a superstitious goalie.

“No. It’s fine,” Riley said, as if he could read Ethan’s mind. “It’s weird that she’s here. Not bad. Just weird.”

Privately Ethan thought it was good for them. He just hoped the timing wouldn’t create a distraction. Winning the series was important to Riley, and while family was important to Ethan, Riley’s family didn’t deserve priority in Riley’s life. Ethan understood that, even if it made him sad. He took a step closer and bumped Riley’s shoulder with his own. “Hey. You didn’t have to say that. Y’know. About me. About us.”

“I know.” Riley turned toward Ethan, his eyes warming. “I wanted to. It’s funny she said that, though. About the pictures on my wall. That’s really not why I had them there.”

“Yeah, yeah. Martin Brodeur fanboy,” Ethan teased. He laughed. “I’m still not forgiving you for telling Jared Shore I wanted him to blow me.”

“You do, though.”

“Nope,” Ethan said, and tugged him in to kiss him. “I’m a one-man kind of guy, Riley. Sorry if you had ideas about threesomes.” He paused. “Except that one with Jennifer Lawrence. We’re still good to go on that one.”

“That’s a relief,” Riley said, and then the two of them watched the waves washing up on the shore, higher and higher as the tide moved in.