Page 44 of Tempting the Goalie (Riverside U #5)

T he short drive from Montreal back to Val-Du-Lys felt longer than it should have, my little Kia packed to the seams with whatever I could grab in a hurry.

Clothes stuffed into suitcases, Braden’s playpen wedged against the window, his bouncy chair crammed beside me.

No room for his crib. No room for much of anything, really, except the heaviness in my chest and the cries of my baby boy from the backseat.

This wasn’t how life was supposed to go.

Riley was supposed to step up, to finally be the partner and father he swore he’d become.

Instead, he buried himself in poker tables and bad debts until men I never wanted to know had my name on their lips.

When he told me I had to get out of Montreal, that they knew about Braden he left me no choice.

The truth is, we hadn’t been a couple in a long time.

Things crumbled while I was pregnant, and I should’ve shut the door for good.

But I was lonely, scared, and far too willing to cling to the promises he made.

Vulnerability has a way of making lies sound like lifelines.

Somehow, through it all, I ended up a single mom with barely enough savings, a car that rattles with every bump, and a baby who deserves more than I can give him.

Braden is my reason now. My anchor. The only thing that keeps me moving forward.

And yet, I’m heading back to the very house I once ran from.

Back to my father, who still hasn’t tamed his demons.

Back to a town where every corner holds a memory I’ve tried to forget.

I never wanted this. I never wanted to return. But sometimes life doesn’t ask what you want it simply pushes you where you need to go.

And right now, that place is home.

I finally pull up to my old house. This place stopped being a home the day mom was killed.

Everything warm and beautiful about it died that day.

Her flower garden began to shrivel, the grass grew weeds, the house which was never in the greatest condition just deteriorated more.

Papa was a functioning alcoholic or at least that’s what we liked to call him.

Truth was he was a good for nothing bitter man but he kept to himself so I couldn’t complain much I could just never rely on him for anything.

At seventeen when mom died I started to work at our local grocer.

I also got discounts on food which was a bonus because I was responsible for feeding my kid brother and boys eat a lot.

At ten years old I feared Luc would fall into the system.

Papa wasn’t a fit parent, and I was a stupid kid.

I worked and made money but I also screwed around and began running with the wrong crowds.

I didn’t remember the girl I had been. I still don’t even though I know she’s inside me somewhere.

I haven’t partied or touched an ounce of alcohol since Braden was born.

Mom had been the best mom and I was determined to be the same.

That meant tucking my metaphorical tail between my legs and asking Phoenix Thorne for a job.

The Thorne’s owned the property next to ours but it was much larger and well maintained.

I’d heard that the Thorne brothers had turned the property into a lucrative business called Maple Valley.

The oldest brother Phoenix ran a microbrewery/restaurant and the second oldest brother had expanded the orchards and opened a bakery on the property.

The Thorne brothers were driven, responsible and gorgeous as hell.

Well, the youngest brother wasn’t responsible at all.

Asher was a mess on a good day but Phoenix Thorne always exuded confidence.

It was obvious he was going to succeed. In high school he was on the varsity basketball team, he was the head of the DECA team which was case competitions in marketing, finance, entrepreneurship, hospitality.

Our school team won the competitions two years in a row thanks to Phoenix.

They were also the number one basketball team in our province.

Again, thanks to Phoenix. Our mothers had been best friends.

Really, they were more like sisters. When mom died Helen took off.

We all thought she’d come back. Her kids needed her and Luc, and I needed her too.

She was our godmother, but she took off on her own kids and husband.

She left Pierre Thorne with five kids to raise.

Phoenix and I had been the same age. You’d think we would have been close like our younger siblings.

Phoenix’s baby sister was the same age as my brother, and they had been best friends from birth.

Too bad Phoenix and I never got along. Our personalities were just so different.

I was a peppy extrovert, and he was a grumpy introvert.

Even though we grew up attending family dinners together and summer BBQ’s we always kept a distance from each other.

It seemed that just the sight of me was a turn off to him and because he scrunched his nose at me it would piss me off and because I was the kind of teenager that craved attention even though I was popular I still liked to piss Phoenix off.

As I pull into Val-Du-Lys, I remember a time when we were juniors.

I should’ve kept my mouth shut. That’s the truth of it.

The whole situation started as a joke. Another moment of me being the drama queen I loved to be at lunch like always, trying to keep my friends entertained.

Jean wouldn’t stop pestering me about who I liked, and I wanted him off my back.

So I rolled my eyes and said, “Fine. I like someone… mysterious.” It was a stupid thoughtless comment but the words had barely left my mouth and my friends were intrigued.

“Oh, mysterious?” Jean grinned. “We all know who that is.”

And then, like vultures, the whole table twisted to look at Phoenix.

With his stupid stormy eyes and that permanent scowl, sitting across the cafeteria with his teammates.

I laughed, but it was too late. They already decided my joke was about him.

And then because fate has the worst sense of humor he looked up at that exact second.

And to make it worse, I smiled. Reflex, nothing more. But I saw the way his expression shifted, like he thought it meant something.

By the next morning, my idiotic rumor had wings.

Elyna likes Phoenix. Everyone knew. Even people outside my friend group.

The whispers followed me down the hall. I figured it would burn out in a day.

But it only pestered. Two days later, I made the mistake that sealed everything.

We were in the cafeteria again, my friends nudging me and chanting his name like twelve-year-olds.

I rolled my eyes and for some idiotic reason I can’t explain I waved him over.

I thought if he just came for a second, we’d laugh it off.

Joke over. Done. But when Phoenix started walking toward us, I realized too late what it must’ve looked like.

I was smiling at him in front of everyone, like I was putting on some performance.

I shouldn’t have been shocked by people’s reaction because remember I was a drama queen and putting on a performance was my jam.

Thinking back to the moment makes me cringe.

Phoenix stopped halfway, his jaw taught.

The whole cafeteria felt like it went silent.

His voice cut through like glass, “I don’t hang out with attention-seekers. ”

The words hit like a slap. My stomach dropped, heat flooded my face.

Everyone at the table was staring, waiting for me to react.

I had never felt so humiliated, so naked.

It was like Phoenix could see beyond my performance to who I really was and it made him sick.

It made me sick but I was hurting, my mother died and left me with my loser father.

My friends were all I had so it was their attention I craved.

I didn’t like that Phoenix saw the real me.

It made me put up a shield and the only way I knew how to do that was to fight back.

“Wow. Someone’s bitter. You’re such a weirdo,” I spluttered.

I was a mean bitch and he had humiliated me in front of my friends.

Laughter erupted around me after I said it.

My insides turned sharp and nervous, but it didn’t matter.

I’d already seen the look on his face the hurt he tried to bury under that hard glare.

And for some reason his hurt stung worse than the insult.

The fallout had been immediate. My friend’s decided Phoenix was an arrogant ass.

He thought he was better than us. His teammates whispered that I was shallow, that I humiliated him on purpose.

Neither was true. But neither of us defended the other.

We just avoided each other like the plague and maybe it was safer that way.

Because every time I caught him glaring at me in the hall, I felt the old humiliation all over again.

And every time I laughed too loudly at lunch, I knew he thought I was proving him right.

The thing was, I didn’t hate Phoenix. Not then.

I hated what happened between us. I hated the rumors.

I hated how I let a stupid joke ruin whatever friendship we might have had.

Phoenix’s dad was kind enough to watch out for my brother and I.

He checked in and even gave me money when I was short.

I remember being invited for BBQ’s and not wanting to go.

Problem was my brother always pushed me to join him since he was always attached at Isabelle Thorne’s hip.

I didn’t like saying no to my brother. He lost mom when he was ten.

He didn’t have a stable father and I wasn’t a prize sister.

I was doing the best I could. I remember those dinners now and what sticks out in my mind was how I hated the way I caught myself looking at Phoenix sometimes, wondering if he was ever going to look back.

I knew I burned that bridge that day in junior year.

Now Luc and Isabelle were all grown up and attending university in the States.

I reached out to Isabelle because getting a hold of my brother was sometimes a hassle.

I told her I was heading home, and she mentioned that Phoenix needed seasonal help at the microbrewery restaurant.

So not only was I forced to live in a house I hated but I also had to face one of the greatest mistakes of my past. Because if there was one thing I learned over the years it was that all the Thorne’s boys had grown into responsible men.

They were kind and determined and like I said hot as hell.

But it was Phoenix who always stirred my blood.

Now I had to ask him for a job. A job I knew I probably got before applying because Isabelle probably spoke to her brother and that’s how the Thorne’s were, good through and through.

I sat in the driver’s seat a moment longer, Braden’s soft breaths filling the silence now that he’d finally fallen asleep.

My hands tightened around the steering wheel until my knuckles ached.

The last thing I wanted was to walk into Maple Valley with my head down, asking for a favor. Especially from him.

Phoenix Thorne.

The boy who once saw straight through me and called me out in front of everyone.

The boy whose words still echoed like a bruise I’d never managed to heal.

The boy who, if I was being honest with myself, was never just a boy at all.

He was the standard I pretended I didn’t care about but secretly measured myself against.

Now he was a man. A successful one. A man I’d have to face with my pride stripped down to nothing.

I told myself it didn’t matter. I needed a paycheck.

Braden needed stability. Phoenix’s opinion of me whatever it was couldn’t matter.

But as I hauled myself out of the car and glanced toward the Thorne property, my stomach twisted.

Because I knew, deep down, this wasn’t just about survival.

This was about walking straight back into the orbit of the one person I’d sworn to avoid forever.

And the worst part? I could already feel the old heat sparking under my skin, the dangerous mix of resentment and something I refused to name.

Enemies, I reminded myself. That’s all we ever were.