Page 24 of Reputation (Toronto Royals #1)

Eavie couldn’t help but stare at the obvious enjoyment he got from spending this day with kids in need.

“Eavie,” said Cade, drawing her attention.

“Yes, sorry,” she said, looking away from Jax.

“You are on food duty with me today,” he said. “I hope you can cook.”

“I love to, actually,” she answered. She honestly couldn’t think of anything better to spend her day doing than cooking some hearty meals for the kids.

“Awesome. Why don’t you follow me? Jax, I know you know your way around.”

He nodded before glancing at her. “I’ll see you later. Have fun.”

“You too,” she managed, watching him disappear through a door.

Eavie stood at the serving bar, setting out steaming dishes of turkey, ham, roasted vegetables, mashed and roasted potatoes, garden salad, honeyed butternut squash, and warm rolls. The kitchen’s volunteer cooks also prepared massive bowls of leek soup, platters of sandwiches, and many other dishes.

Eavie spent the afternoon working with them, preparing salads, mains, and, most importantly, desserts. It was humbling to work alongside the people who volunteered their time as often as possible.

As she slid a tray of her special fudge brownies onto the end of the counter, Cade appeared beside her, placing a bowl of macaroni salad down.

“You really know your way around a kitchen,” he commented, eyeing the mountains of food she had helped prepare.

“I love to cook,” she admitted. “You really couldn’t have picked a better assignment for me today.”

“Well, we appreciate the extra set of hands.”

She swallowed. An idea that had been forming in her head all afternoon perking up once again. “I was thinking, I would love to volunteer here regularly,” she offered.

Cade smiled at her. “We would love to have you,” he answered. “It would be great to have another regular Royals volunteer.” He turned and headed back toward the swinging doors leading to the kitchen.

“Wait,” she called, confused. “Someone from the Royals volunteers here?”

Cade stopped, turning. “Yeah, Jax,” he answered as if it was obvious.

“What?” she blinked, turning her head to look out across the gym in front of the serving bar, where Jax was engaged in a game of volleyball with a group of teens.

Cade returned to her side, following her gaze. “That surprises you.”

“No, well, yes. I mean…” She shook her head. She didn’t know what she meant.

“What you mean is, you didn’t expect the playboy captain of the Royals to spend his time with a bunch of homeless kids.”

She wanted to deny it, especially after what she’d seen earlier this week, but he was correct. Shamefully, she looked down, aware of how judgmental that sounded. “Yes, that’s what I mean,” she confirmed, embarrassed. She fell silent, feeling the scrutiny of Cade’s gaze.

“You don’t know why this charity is part of the Royals giving back program, do you?” Cade continued at her silence.

Slowly, she shook her head, her eyes fixing on Jax again.

Laughter echoed across the court to her, both the kids and his.

As she watched, Jax set the ball at the net for a spike, then reached down with lightning speed and raised the boy beside him.

He was small for his age and certainly wouldn’t have been able to make that jump, but with Jax’s help, the boy spiked the ball.

His team cheered, and the small boy laughed. Jax put him back on his feet, giving him a fist bump as if he’d done it all on his own. The look on his face, on both their faces, took her breath away. He really, truly enjoyed spending time with them.

“Eavie, this is his charity.”

Her head snapped around so fast she was surprised she didn’t crack her neck. “What?” she stammered, unsure if she had heard him correctly.

Cade leaned his hands against the counter as he looked sideways at her. “When Jax was sixteen, he played for an elite hockey team. It was private, you had to be invited, and it was made up of only the most talented players.”

“Right,” she said, nodding, remembering his career bio. “It was the King City Knights.”

“Yep,” confirmed Cade. “Everyone who played for the team had talent and, as far as most people knew, the money to pay for the membership.” He sighed, his mouth pinching.

“One day, one of the players on the team didn’t show up.

When Jax asked about it, he was told that the kid had quit.

” He paused, looking back at the group in the gym.

“A few days later, Jax learned that he’d quit because his parents had lost their jobs and were evicted from their house. ”

One of Eavie’s hands came to rest on her chest, right above where her heart hurt for that kid, for all the kids who were the victims of such unfortunate circumstances.

Although she didn’t have much money growing up, her parents’ farm did well enough for her brother to play and for them to live comfortably.

“Both had held blue-collar jobs, which barely allowed them to pay for the league, but they wanted their son to have a chance at a better future. When they lost their jobs, they couldn’t afford to pay for him to play anymore, especially at such an elite level.

Those programs are costly. Jax tracked him down to a homeless shelter run by city funding. ”

“Oh, god,” Eavie muttered, having read several articles about the state of city shelters and how there was never enough funding for them.

Cade nodded. “When Jax found him, he refused to accept that someone with such a bright future had it ripped away, and there was nothing he could do about it. It’s a story we see a lot. These kids come from different situations, but they all share that commonality.”

“What happened?” she asked, captivated by the story.

“Well, Jax refused to accept that. He went to his team, organized a fundraiser, and raised enough money to pay for the kid’s remaining three years in that program and all his equipment. He found a family in King City willing to take him in and got him back onto the ice.”

Eavie’s heart beat heavily as she listened, her mind turning with the story.

She pictured a young Jax rallying his team behind a teammate in need.

It was so easy to see why that level of caring and dedication to his team made him the captain he was.

The thought brought tears to her eyes, her throat stinging.

“That kid finished his years on the team and received a scholarship to the university in BC. With that one act, Jax gave that kid his future back.”

She stood, stunned, trying to reconcile the arrogant man she’d come to know, to expect, with the person who had done that.

“Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think,” Cade finished, standing up straight.

Despite everything she was seeing and what Cade told her, she still had trouble accepting it. Eavie turned to look at him. “Is that true?” she asked, cynicism winning over her heart’s turmoil.

Cade chuckled, shaking his head at her. “It is,” he answered.

“How do you know?”

Cade looked down at her, his dark brown eyes holding hers as he said, “Because I was that kid.”

Eavie’s mouth dropped open. She had not been expecting that. Taking a step back, she whispered, “It was you?”

“I was the one Jax helped, and thanks to him, I got to go to university. I got my future back. I probably could have gone pro, but when I graduated, I chose to spend my time trying to give back the same way Jax did for me.”

“You said…you said this charity was his. What did you mean?”

“Field of Dreams is what grew from that first act. He continued to fundraise, even from Chicago, eventually turning it into a full charity. When I returned to Toronto, he called and asked me to run it. We accept donations from various groups, but 90 percent of the funding comes directly from Jax.”

“How?” she asked, her mind trying to calculate what that must cost.

“It all comes from the income he makes from his sponsorship and promotional campaigns. You wouldn’t know it, but when he’s not playing, he’s working to ensure we never run out of funds.”

Eavie’s hand came up to cover her mouth. Her breath stuttered in her chest as understanding sunk in. She glanced around, trying to get her reeling thoughts to shut up for just a second. She needed a chance to process this.

The polished gym floors, new equipment, the food she had spent her afternoon preparing. This was all him.

Was this the real Jax? If it was, why did he act so differently around her?

Her eyes lifted, settling back on his handsome, laughing face as he encouraged the teens watching to take turns rotating into the game.

“I don’t understand. Why doesn’t anyone know?” she breathed, finally managing to speak.

Cade laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You’ll have to ask him that,” he answered before disappearing through the swinging doors.

She was left once again confused and feeling as if her neat, controlled world had just tilted on its axis.