Page 24 of Save Your Breath

“Calm down,” I said on a laugh. “He was right to do it. First of all, I was hammered. Secondly, it would have messed everything up — our friendship, our family. He’s pretty much like a son to my parents.”

“Okay, that’s kindaew, considering we’re now about to convince the world you’re engaged.”

“Mom and Dad know it’s fake,” I assured her. “Because trust me, otherwise? Dad would have a lot to say about it.”

“He doesn’t like Aleks?”

“He loves Aleks,” I refuted. “But… he’s also very protective of me.”

“Ah, and he doesn’t think Mr. Bad Boy is the right choice, huh?”

I fell quiet instead of answering because truthfully… I didn’t know. All Ididknow was that there was some sort of silent understanding between my father and Aleks, something they shared that only the two of them knew about when it came to me.

“I still don’t really understand how he came to live with you,” Isabella remarked.

“We were his billet family.”

“Which means…”

“It’s pretty common in hockey. Basically, when a teenager exhibits major talent, they might get the opportunity to play in a major junior league like the USHL or OHL. But there are only a select number of teams in the junior leagues, and they’re in certain cities. Aleks was in Switzerland, and he definitely could have stayed there and gone on to be very successful. But… I think he wanted out. I think hisfoster momwanted him out. They both knew he needed a fresh start, and besides — Aleks didn’t want to just play hockey professionally. He wanted the NHL. And his best shot at that was in the States or Canada.”

Isabella nodded, following along. “So, how did he end up with you?”

I shrugged. “My father loves hockey, always has. And since he never went past playing in college, he wanted to find a way to be involved. After years of being a sponsor for our local USHL team, the coach asked him if he’d be interested in billeting. Coach said he had his eyes on this kid overseas whom he just knew would be a monster scorer for the team.”

“Aleks.”

“Aleks.”

“So he just lived with you for two years?”

I nodded. “Yep. From the time we were sixteen until we graduated.”

“I mean, it would make sense that your father put some boundaries in place. It had to be a hard decision as a father to have a teenage boy living under the same roof as his daughter.”

“Aleks never crossed any lines,” I said, almost smiling at the memory of that boy he used to be. “He was too focused on hockey.”

“But you tried to kiss him.”

I cringed, picking at my nails before Isabella swatted my hand for me to stop. “I tried to kiss him,” I confirmed. “He was right to stop it. Like I said — I was not in the right mind to consent to anything. And we weren’t right for each other. He was going into the league as a top draft pick, I was focused on my music…” I shrugged. “I was just a silly drunk girl with a crush on a hot boy who happened to live with me. I mean, come on — it would happen to anyone. Seeing Aleks Suter walk around in nothing but basketball shorts after a shower? That’s like every teenage girl’s wet dream.”

Isabella smirked, but let out a long, heavy sigh. “If I’d have known all this, I wouldn’t have proposed—”

“It’sfine,” I promised again. “There’s no one I’d trust to do this with other than him.”

“But?”

“No buts.”

She flattened her lips again.

“I’m just a little nervous about the whole pretending thing, okay?” I said on what I hoped was a light laugh, tossing my hood back and taking a calmer sip of the water that had been refilled by our flight attendant. “I’m not immune to getting butterflies from him. That’s all it is. It’ll be fine. It’ll befun. And knowing him, he’ll make some smart-ass remark to make me growl at him and remember why I’m glad nothing ever happened between us. He’s infuriating,” I reminded her. “And I’m sure he’ll take any chance he can to annoy me. It’s his specialty.”

Isabella didn’t look convinced as she sat back in her seat. “Okay,” she said on another sigh. “But… if at any point this gets to be too much…”

“It won’t.”

“But if it does…”