Page 2 of Rebel Secrets (Devils Hockey #3)

And there was the brat I knew and loved.

“I think I can manage to be civil for an hour.” At least as long as Erin didn’t open her mouth much.

“I’m gonna hold you to that.”

I knew she would. I also knew five minutes into any conversation and Erin’s gratingly cheerful presence would make me grit my teeth so hard, I’d get a headache. But I loved my sister.

“Hey, Reb. Rain told you I can’t make it Saturday, right? Maddy’s chorus concert is that night.”

The man who stopped next to Rain and put his arm around her shoulders still occasionally looked at me like I might bite his hand off at any second.

Brian Fiskers used to be one of my best friends.

We’d fucked that up royally years ago, but his relationship with my sister had forced us to repair at least some of the damage. Not all.

“Yeah, no problem.” I shrugged. “There’ll be another game. Heard you had a few good games.”

Brian looked at me as if he was trying to see the meaning behind my words, looking for the dig or the sarcasm. Honestly, I could say there was nothing there. Brian must have realize that because he said, “I think I’m finally getting back into my stride.”

“The Devils are lucky to have you.” I meant every word.

“And we miss you.”

Yeah, I still felt guilty about leaving in the middle of the season. Like I was abandoning the team I’d played with since I left college. My family’s team. The team I’d always thought I’d live and breathe.

“The new guy’s fitting in pretty well, so far.” Rain was quick to fill the silence. “He’s really young, though. And he’s…a little rough.”

When I’d left, the Devils had had to sign a new defenseman. Pop had found an eighteen-year-old kid from Michigan who’d been playing in the OHL. But he’d had some issues. Pop had a soft spot for troublemakers. Rowdy and I had given him lots of practice.

“I’m sure Rowdy’ll get him in line.”

Over Rain’s shoulder, I saw a flash of rose-gold hair and dark green silk.

For a second, my gaze caught Erin’s. Her eyes widened before she made a made a sharp turn and headed in the opposite direction.

Mentally, I rolled my eyes and sent up a little prayer for dodging a bullet.

If I had to listen to her drone on about scones or cookies or?—

“Reb? You still here?”

I shook my head, trying to throw off the bad mood Erin always put me in. Which wasn’t completely fair. Most of the problem was mine, though I think she did go out of her way to be extra sunny and annoying around me since she knew I couldn’t stand it.

“Yeah, sorry, just…”

Got distracted by my dislike of your best friend. Get your head out of your ass and pay attention.

“I don’t think I’ve met the new kid yet. Is he here?”

Though I no longer played for my family’s team, I still liked to know who everyone was.

Our dad had made the announcement that he was retiring at the end of the season, and that Rowdy and Rain were going to be taking over operations.

I still hadn’t truly wrapped my head around those facts yet, and those subjects consumed a lot of my therapy time.

Rain’s head turned, looking for the new kid, I assumed.

“Yeah, somewhere. Just…there he is. Oh. Maybe I should just…”

And then she walked away like someone had lit her ass on fire.

I looked at Brian with a WTF expression, and he glanced after Rain. He grinned a second later.

“I’m not sure which one she’s going to save, but it looks like Erin and Dante are, uh, talking? Yeah, that’s not gonna go well. She and the kid didn’t hit it off exactly.”

Well, then I really needed to meet this kid. He and I already had something in common. I turned to search for Rain, but of course, it was Erin’s bright hair that caught my eye first. But she wasn’t smiling now.

She had a look on her face I could only recall ever seeing when she talked to me. Her lips smashed together in a straight line, arms crossed over her chest and her body one long rigid line.

Jesus, what the hell had the kid said to put her in that state?

Usually, I was the only one who could do that.

I couldn’t decide if I was impressed or jealous.

As I watched, Erin’s lips parted, but just before she could say anything, Rain put one hand on Erin’s arm and one on the guy’s shoulder, who was standing maybe just a little too close to Erin.

Not that I cared how close anyone stood to her. But if the guy was frightening her, that was something else entirely.

I switched my attention to the new guy. Tall, but not a lot of muscle.

Like a St. Bernard puppy that was huge but didn’t quite know how to control everything all at once.

A head full of dark curls cut short and a face full of freckles.

His light brown skin couldn’t hide the flush on his cheeks.

Whether from anger or embarrassment, I couldn’t tell.

Been there, done that, kid.

With her back to me, I couldn’t tell what Rain was saying, but her head swiveled side to side, addressing Erin and…

“What’s the kid’s name again?” I asked Brian. My memory was shit for names.

“Dante Cantagno.”

“Where’s he from?”

“Detroit originally. His parents moved a lot, so he played for a mess of leagues before he got drafted into the OHL for Erie. Good forward, got some real skill with the stick, but he’s an ankle burner.

Coach’s been working with him, and he’s made a lot of progress in a short period of time.

He’s hard on himself. Kinda reminds me of someone I know. ”

I gave Brian the finger but kept my attention on the situation on the other side of the room.

I don’t know if my sister recognized what was happening with Dante, but I certainly did.

He wasn’t angry. He’d just gotten himself into a situation he didn’t know how to get out of.

A situation he probably thought he’d created and didn’t know how to fix.

Brian was right. That kid had a lot of me in him.

“Be back in a few,” I said to Brian, then headed across the floor.

By the time I got there, Rain looked relieved, Erin’s sunny smile was back, and she was talking a mile a minute, and the kid looked miserable. Which Erin, unsurprisingly, completely ignored.

I stopped between Rain and the new kid, who looked up at me like I was his savior. I stuck out my hand, which he took with a hard grip.

“Hey. I’m Rebel.”

“I know. Good to meet you, sir.”

Ouch. I wasn’t that damn old. But I wasn’t going to embarrass the kid more than he already seemed to be.

“Rain, Dante and I are gonna get something to drink.”

I had ignored Erin until now. I didn’t want Rain to complain later that I was mean to her friend. I wasn’t being mean. I just didn’t like her, so I kept my distance.

“Sure.” Rain nodded, smiled, looking just slightly relieved. “Come on, Erin.” Rain slipped her arm through her friend’s, “let’s get some of that yummy cake you made before the guys devour it all.”

For a split second, my gaze caught Erin’s again and, for another split second, I could appreciate the beauty of her green eyes and rounded curves of her face.

And then she opened her mouth as if to speak, and I knew we needed to get out of there before she said anything and disturbed the calm I was trying to hold onto.

But Rain was already walking away, pulling Erin with her, and I heard the kid release a huge sigh as soon as they were out of hearing.

“Come on, let’s get,” I caught myself before I said beer, because he wasn’t old enough to have one, “something to drink and find a quiet place for a few.”

Again, I saw relief in his quiet exhale and the way his eyes closed for a second.

“Thanks. I… don’t… um, crowds of people I don’t know… Uh, yeah.”

I smiled. “Yeah, me, too. Let’s disappear.”

“Five teams in three years. Damn, that’s tough. A lot of guys would’ve quit.”

Dante’s left shoulder rose and fell, his gaze on the ground as we sat in the relative dark of a private sitting room in my parents’ home.

It’d been built as an inn in the 1800s, so this room was connected to a guest room no one was using right now.

We could barely hear the party on the other side of the house.

“Didn’t know any better. My dad sold medical equipment, but the company he worked for sent him all over the place.

He traveled a lot, and he could work anywhere.

He wasn’t tied to an office anywhere particular.

My mom liked to move. A lot. My sister and I…

Well, we didn’t get a vote so… Yeah, five teams in three years. ”

“How old were you?”

The kid and I had been talking for the past ten minutes or so. More like, we’d been exchanging facts in between long stretches of silence.

“Six, but my mom had me on skates before then. She signed me up for lessons. Wanted me to be a figure skater. But the hockey team had practice before the figure skaters, and I wanted to be one of them. I had a lot of, um, energy as a kid. Took my dad a little time to talk my mom into letting me play. He wanted me to play soccer.” Another shrug. “I liked hockey.”

I knew what he meant and what he wasn’t saying. The skill. The speed. The physicality. Especially the physicality.

“Me, too.”

Another silence.

“You like playing for the AHL?” he finally asked. “Is it…I mean, is it a lot different?”

I took a second to answer. I really had to think about it in a way that made sense. And was still honest.

“In some ways, yeah. There’s more pressure to perform.

To bring your A-game every night. I mean, it’s not like you can’t have an off night, but a three-game slump’ll get you benched.

You really gotta thrive on the pressure or you gotta be really good.

Some guys are both. Those that aren’t… they have to work harder. ”

When he didn’t say anything, I asked, “Is that what you want? To play up?”

“That’s the goal, yeah. I mean, I don’t wanna play here all my life.”

And then, like he realized he’d just insulted my family’s honor, the kid looked horrified.

“I mean, I wanna play here. I like it here. The Devils are great and I’m so happy to have a spot and get to play and?—”

I laughed, cutting him off. “Dante, seriously, it’s okay. The Devils aren’t like other teams. Our league’s not like anything else. And that works for a lot of players. We’re not a beer league, but we’re not feeding the NHL on a regular basis.”

“But you got picked up by the AHL.”

Yeah, I had. And I’d never told anyone who fucking hard it had been to leave behind everything and everyone I knew to play for another team. How fucking amazing to get the call to play for the Redtails and how fucking terrifying. At least, for me.

“I got lucky. A whole hell of a lot of factors came together for that to happen. A few of them were out of my control. The only thing you can depend on is your game. Just keep working on yourself. And remember that you’re actually being paid to play.

Someone thinks you’re good enough to give you money to play.

My dad doesn’t give out contracts to guys who can’t.

He’s not in the business of charity. If he signed you, he knows you can do the job. ”

I didn’t add that he also had a soft spot for hard cases. Like Dante. The kid was exactly the kind of player my dad signed for the Devils. He had issues. But he probably had massive talent, too. Sometimes, my dad was the only one who saw it.

“Sometimes it feels like it’s too much.”

Dante’s voice had lowered so I could barely hear him. Maybe he hadn’t wanted me to.

“Been there. Done that.”

Dante shook his head but didn’t say anything else. I understood that he didn’t want to talk about his issues. Probably didn’t realize I knew he had them. And that his issues were an awful lot like mine.

So we just sat there and drank our sodas.

And I waited for him to tell me he was ready to go back to the party.