Page 2

Chapter 1

Rina

“ W here is he?”

I push past the sea of black and orange jerseys now blocking my way.

A big one stands guard in front of the entrance to the showers, arms crossed over his broad chest and looking every bit like the team bouncer.

“Get out of my way, Ryker!” I say through gritted teeth.

“Now, Ri," he says calmly. "Maybe you should take a minute to breathe,” he suggests. What is he a monk? A bouncer monk? That’s what the team goalie reminds me of in this moment.

“Move!” I order with the stomp of my stiletto. I don't have the kind of patience he's suggesting.

Ryker shakes his head but reluctantly steps aside. He knows better than anyone that you don’t get in my way when I’m on one. And right now—thanks to the Heatwave team captain—I am on one.

The steam from the shower coils at the entrance, and I can feel the eyes of the entire team boring into the back of my head, just waiting for what’s about to go down.

“Landry!” I call out.

The shower faucet squeaks as it shuts off, and a few seconds later, a naked, toned, and adrenaline-filled Keelan Landry presents himself before me.

I pretend to be unaffected by the fact that he’s completely nude. Though, I have to push down a gulp before I speak.

“What the hell did you do?”

Ryker tosses a towel that goes over my head, and Keelan catches it with ease. There’s still blood pouring down from the cut on his cheek.

The only hit my now soon-to-be ex-husband was able to land on Keelan.

He ties the towel around his waist, and I watch as the droplets of blood travel down his chest and abs and onto the floor. He pauses to give me a knowing look before he brushes past me and into the locker room of gawking teammates.

The second he enters, they all resume taking off their gear. Every one of them pretending like I didn’t just storm into their locker room to confront their team captain. Everyone except Ryker, who is still watching Keelan and me closely like he’ll need to step in and pull us apart at any moment.

Keelan reaches for a second towel in his stall and uses it to dry his dark brown hair. I’m still waiting for him to acknowledge me as he sets it down and reaches for the one around his waist. He finally turns to me.

“Are you here for a show, Rina? Or do you mind giving me some space?” he says, all too cooly.

I point a finger at him. “My office. Ten minutes. Don’t talk to anyone.”

He looks around at the faces of his teammates. "Little late for that, don't you think?"

"Anyone," I repeat.

He gives me a two-finger salute and drops his towel, and I turn away before I see anything else.

I'm now face to face with Ryker, and he huffs out a laugh at the sight of us. "This isn’t funny, Balinger. And if I find out you egged him on in any way–”

He puts his hands up, “Oh, no. That was all Keelan.”

“Ten minutes,” I growl out to Landry over my shoulder as my heels clack all the way to the exit.

The coaching staff is waiting just outside the Heatwave locker room for my instructions.

“Nobody talks to the press until I say so,” I inform them.

They nod their agreement and enter the locker room as I approach my office. My assistant Toby rushes over to me the second I open the door.

“So don’t be mad,” he says to me.

I shoot him a glare. “What now?”

“Some of the fans watching the practice caught it on video.”

“Toby…” I know it's not his fault. Toby just happens to be tasked and paid to be the bearer of bad news. He's my second pair of eyes and ears around here and online regarding anything to do with the team.

“I think you need to watch it,” he insists. His baby blues plead with me.

I sigh. How in the world could things get any more complicated than they already are?

“Fine,” I say, opening my palm. He slips his phone into it and takes a step back in anticipation of my reaction.

There it is. My hot-headed Australian ex and the typically chill team captain of the Hockey team who I manage PR for–throwing fists on the ice.

It's not the fact that there was a fight that took place that has me on edge. It's the fact that it had nothing to do with hockey and everything to do with me.

“Six hundred thousand views?! Good Lord, this just happened," I say, scrolling down repost after repost.

“And that’s just on that platform. Some of the others have twice that.”

I lower the phone and look up at the ceiling, attempting to take a deep breath.

I hear Toby open his mouth like he’s about to say something and then shut it.

“What, Toby?”

“It’s just… well… there’s a viral remix.”

“Viral remix?!” I repeat, looking at him in disbelief.

“News gets around fast.” He shrugs."And unfortunately, it's kind of catchy."

"Do I want to know?"

"You'll hear it even if you don't want to," he admits.

I walk up to my desk, planting both hands on it to stabilize myself before I actually lose it. Managing these situations is much easier when I’m not smack dab in the middle of it all.

Exactly thirty days ago, my husband of only two months told me he had filed for divorce. He dropped that bomb on me just as the season was getting started, and I was at my busiest.

Did I see it coming? No.

Did I think it would be a possibility in our future? Maybe.

We worked in two different cities and in two different sports. I manage PR for the Houston Heatwave NHL team. He’s the star forward for Austin’s Pro Soccer team.

We married within a few months of dating because something just clicked. Redmond was easy. He got my lifestyle, and I understood his. We figured, why not? We weren’t getting any younger. And if another one of my friends announced that they were pregnant or getting engaged–I might literally lose it.

Maybe I did lose it? And that’s why when Redmond Bonner proposed to me in the middle of a Taco Shack over the summer in the least romantic way possible, I said yes.

He seemed to have it all together. He seemed to be the kind of man I needed: grounded, secure, and, most of all, wanting to start a family.

But a week before we decided to elope, he confessed that he slept with someone. He was heartbroken and remorseful. I knew in my heart that he regretted it. And though I appreciated hearing it directly from him, it sent me for a tailspin and right into the bed of…

There’s a knock on the door, and I feel every cell in my body stand up at attention.

“Come in,” I manage to get out as I walk around my desk and sink into the cushy office chair.

Keelan opens the door and steps in. He waves his fingers in Toby’s direction. And Toby looks at me, unsure of what to do.

“Sit down, Landry.”

He leans his back on the wall at the entrance of my office and shoves his hands into his pockets. The cut on his cheek is now covered by a band-aid.

“I think I’m good here,” he says, a sly grin playing at the corner of his lips where his signature red lollipop hangs like a cigarette.

I roll my eyes and push into my desk. Opening my laptop, I pull up a document and begin typing.

“We’ll need to make an immediate public statement in response to the now viral videos,” I inform him with a brow quirked up, wondering if he understands the gravity of the situation.

“Mmhmm,” he hums.

“I’m typing up a statement as we speak,” I add, my fingers flying as I finish the statement and email it to Toby.

“Sure,” Keelan says with no argument.

“And you’ll need to issue a formal apology to–”

“No,” he cuts me off with a slice of his hand through the air. “I’m not apologizing.”

I close my eyes and attempt another deep breath, slowly shutting the laptop and glaring at him.

“No,” he repeats.

“Keelan.”

“Rina,” he says, voice low and gravelly.

My stomach sinks. I know that tone. He doesn’t use it often. But there’s no changing his mind when he’s in that headspace.

Toby clears his throat, clearly uncomfortable being here. “I’m just gonna… go grab some coffee.” He gets up and moves toward the door.

“Go ahead and print out the statement while you’re at it,” I tell him.

Toby’s eyes go to Keelan, who slowly tilts his head in his direction, daring him to do it.

“Uh,” Toby hesitates.

“Now, please,” I say with as much manners as I can muster.

“You got it, boss.” He grabs his laptop off his desk and approaches Keelan, who is still looking down at my young assistant with eyes that pack as much punch as the hits he threw that landed him here in the first place.

“Excuse… me.” Toby squeezes past him and disappears down the hall.

"You plan to punch my assistant, too?” I ask him once Toby is gone.

He ignores my dig and crosses the office in a few quick strides, planting his hands on my desk. “If you think I’m going to apologize for giving your piece-of-shit ex exactly what he deserves, Rina. Then you’re out of your mind.”

He studies me. His dark brown eyes search for a crack in my facade.

This is Keelan Landry. The man who somehow has always managed to be there when I needed him the most, even if I didn’t want him to be. My now best friend’s brother. Houston’s golden boy. And in this very moment, the bane of my actual existence.

"He's not my ex yet. And you have no idea what you just did," I grit out.

His face doesn't falter. Not even for a split second. He really thinks he did the right thing. And that's what upsets me the most.

There’s a soft knock on the door, and it briefly breaks our battle of the wills.

“So,” his sister’s voice says, entering the room without an invitation. “Anybody want to explain what the hell this is all about?”

She holds her phone up and re-plays the viral video of her brother and my ex—the remix that Toby mentioned, loud enough for all of us to hear.

"Sh-sh-she's my wife… my wife… m-m-m-m-m-m-m-my wife!" Autotuned with such a catchy melody that if it wasn't the voice of the man I can't stand followed by the man I can't stand to be around saying, "Not anymo-o-o-ore!" I might actually like it.

Izzy blinks in my direction, still holding up her phone and waiting for an answer.

I didn’t tell Izzy that I was getting divorced. There was just absolutely too much going on at the time. It was the last thing I needed.

The start of the season. Busy training and traveling schedules.

But when Redmond stormed into the practice earlier today announcing that he was going to do whatever it took to win me back in front of the entire team and staff, the plan to keep the divorce on the down low flew out the window.

I should’ve known it wouldn’t be this easy.

I should’ve known trying to keep a secret this big with the likes of a soccer superstar would bite me in the ass.

So here I am, face to face with the consequences of my actions, standing at the entrance of the bridge I once said I’d deal with when it was time to cross it.

Maybe I can just burn the bridge instead of actually having to deal with it.

Izzy walks in like she owns the office, wearing her signature black yoga pants and an orange Heatwave tech shirt. She sets her camera and phone down on my desk and hops onto it, crossing her legs as she looks from her brother to me. “Well?”

Keelan opens his mouth first. “Whatever the consequence,” he begins. “I’ll pay it. I’ll sit out games. I’ll pay the fines. But what I’m not going to do is apologize to him .”

He says it to me, not his sister. And without another word, he pushes off the desk and storms out of my office.

Now I’m left in the presence of the other Landry—my best friend.

“You know,” she says. “I figured something was wrong when you RSVP'd for only one. But I thought to myself, Rina would tell me if something was up. She wouldn’t just keep something big from me. She’d tell me.”

I’m still staring at the now-empty doorway that Keelan just walked out of. “I didn’t want to ruin this time for you,” I admit, finally chancing a look her way.

“So, you think that by telling me that you’re getting a divorce while I’m planning my own wedding, you would somehow… ruin things for me?” Izzy struggles to understand. I can tell by the way she furrows her brows.

I rise from my chair and join her sitting on top of my desk.

“Izzy, you and Ryker are meant for each other. You deserve all the good things and to enjoy every last detail. So yeah, I didn’t want to bring you down with my own… bullshit.”

Izzy shakes her head at me. “That’s not how this works,” she says, motioning between us. “I don’t get to live in pre-wedding bliss while my best friend is going through hell.”

“It wasn’t hell,” I assure her. “We were parting amicably… well. I mean, we were. Until all that.” I wave in the direction of the Heatwave arena.

“Even so.”

“Izzy, look. I love you. And I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine, okay? Right now, I just need to figure out how to minimize the backlash for the team’s sake. And get your brother back in good standing.”

She watches me for a moment—those damn Landry eyes, just like her brother's, made me the center of her attention.

She nods slowly. “So… did he deserve it?”

“Redmond?”

She nods again.

“I mean…” I shrug.

Izzy purses her lips in thought. “I trust Keelan. I don’t always think he makes the best decisions, but he’s a protector. So if he doesn’t want to apologize, Ri. Don’t make him.”

“I think you and I both know I can’t make that brother of yours do anything he doesn’t want to.”

“Facts!” she says, pointing at me. “Well… I hear the press is gathered and waiting.”

“Of course they are.”

"Should be fun." Izzy hops off the desk and grabs her camera. "Oh, and Rina?"

I look over at her. "Yeah?"

"Don't ever keep something like that from me again." The look in her eyes is feral. "You're my daughter's godmother. I trust you more than anyone else with my own feelings. But this friendship is not going to be a one-way street. We don't keep secrets, you got it?"

Oh, Izzy.

If she only knew that keeping secrets is what I do. What I've always done. But I have enough to deal with at the moment, so in true Rina Lopez fashion, I smile and nod.

"Good," she says, making her way to the door.

And as I watch her leave, the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach grows.

No secrets? I wish I had the luxury.