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SIX

AIDEN

Since the Bolts are in the offseason and the Revs aren’t playing today, the bar is closed. As luck would have it, I have a key, so Daniel and I step into the dark space and flip on the lights. The brick walls are covered in sports memorabilia, and the space is filled with dark pub-style tables, along with ping-pong and pool tables. A large bar spans the back wall.

I suck in a breath as I pass last year’s Stanley Cup championship photo. I proposed that week, and in that photo, I’m wearing the biggest fucking smile as I hold up the cup with my guys surrounding me.

Even then, I searched the crowd for Lennox. Though I didn’t find her, I knew she was therewith both my brothers’ fiancées, Sara and Millie.

“Want a beer?” Daniel asks as he rounds the bar, ready to play bartender.

I shake my head, not interested in numbing this empty feeling. I need to feel it. Need to let it bleed out. I’ve been faking happiness for so long. Today, I’d rather sit with my real emotions, even if it’s uncomfortable. “Just club soda.”

With a nod, Daniel gets to work. I settle at the bar and am taking my first sip when my favorite seven-year-old appears in the doorway.

“Bossman,” he hollers over his shoulder. “Why have we never come here before? This place is awesome.”

“Huck, don’t run so fast,” my brother yells from the tunnel.

Finn, who Beckett lovingly nicknamed Huckleberry Finn when he met the kid three years ago, is technically his stepson. My brother married Finn’s mother Liv, and in addition to Finn and his two sisters, they have twin baby girls.

Finn ignores Beckett and barrels into the bar, a big smile on his face. “Uncle Aiden!” he cheers. Halfway to me, he stutters to a stop and eyes the pool table. “This place is so cool. Wanna play with me?”

It’s impossible not to smile when this kid is around, regardless of how bad my day has been. I hop down from my barstool and am holding a fist out to Finn for a bump as my brother enters, a car seat in each hand.

With a nod to me, he sets his daughters down on either side of him. “Huck, sit over here. You can play a game on my phone while I talk to Uncle Aiden.”

Finn sticks his bottom lip out and looks from Beckett to me and back again, like he’s formulating an objection.

“What did I tell you about that face?” Beckett says, as if he’s talking to a forty-year-old rather than a seven-year-old.

With a stomp of his foot, Finn huffs. “That big boys don’t pout.”

“And what are you?” Beckett asks, brows lifted expectantly.

Finn rolls his eyes. “A big boy.”

Laughing, I clap Finn on the shoulder. “I’ll play with ya after I talk to the guys, okay?”

A small smile lifts his lips as he looks around. “What guys?”

Daniel leans over the bar. “Me for one, big man. How ya doing?”

War appears then, with my brother Gavin behind him. Gavin took over as coach for our team this past year, and in that time, his role as fun older brother has shifted into something more. He’s always been a friend—I’m friends with all my brothers—but I’ve come to respect him more than I thought possible over the last several months. He navigated a difficult situation with an impressive amount of grace when he replaced our head coach. But I’m most proud of how he stepped up when a little girl was left at his doorstep. He became her father, knowing full well that she wasn’t his biological child.

“No Vivi?” I ask, peering around War for Gavin’s little girl.

He shakes his head. “She’s with Millie and the girls for their weekly brunch date.”

I nod. Lennox is probably with them. That would explain why Brooks knew I had seen her for the wedding planning appointment.

As if my thoughts conjured him, Brooks saunters in, his face buried in his phone.

“Let me guess,” War says, reaching for Brooks’s phone. “Texting Sara about how much you miss her face?”

Brooks’s goalie reflexes kick in, and he pulls the phone to his chest before War can snatch it from him. “At least I have someone to miss,” he chirps.

War rolls his eyes, but as he takes a seat at the bar and turns to me, his expression is sincere. Daniel is already in full-on bartender mode, taking orders and pouring drinks.

I sigh, doing my best to ease the tightness in my chest. Any minute, the guys will settle, and I’ll have to speak.

Gavin drops down and fist bumps Finn, who’s now focused on a game on Beckett’s phone. “You brought the kids?” he says to Beckett as he straightens.

Beckett shrugs. “I thought this was a team meeting.”

Smirking, Gavin shoves his hands into the pockets of his dress pants. “Oh, team meeting, eh?”

Brooks rubs his hands together, his green eyes lighting up. “I love team meetings. Especially when they aren’t about me.”

From behind the bar, Daniel surveys the group with a wary frown. “What is happening?”

I snort. “You tell me. You called them.”

He points to Brooks. “No, I called him. He summoned them.”

With a nod, Brooks settles back in a booth, his legs splayed out in front of him.

Hit with a wave of unease, I shift on my stool.

“Figured after that wedding planning appointment, it was time to launch into Operation Dump Jill and Win Over Lennox.” He runs a hand over his face. “And as much as it pains me to say this?—”

“Beckett is the matchmaker,” Gavin finishes for him as he slips onto the stool beside me.

My oldest brother is wearing the cockiest grin as he stands with his arms crossed in the center of the room. “Finally,” he booms, “you’ve all come to your ducking senses. Can I just say that I appreciate the support and acknowledgment? It hasn’t been an easy couple of years?—”

Gavin slaps a hand over his face and sighs. “We didn’t give you a ducking Oscar, Beckett. There’s no need for an acceptance speech.”

In the booth across from Brooks, War chokes on his beer, the bottle he’s holding to his mouth shaking. He sputters for a minute, then drags the back of his hand over his mouth. “Holy shit, I forgot how much fun your brothers?—”

“Duck!” Beckett and Gavin growl in unison.

It’s too late. Finn’s spidey senses are activated, and he’s in our space, having abandoned Beckett’s phone on the table across the room. “Do you prefer Venmo, or do you want me to have my uncle take it out of your salary cap?”

Bottle dangling from his fingers, War blinks at my nephew.

Summer in Boston has proved to be too warm for the denim-on-denim getup Finn has favored for most of the last year. Now he’s sporting a pair of Under Armour shorts and a Boston Revs T-shirt. Naturally, he’s become a fan of Beckett’s team. But he still has a gold chain around his neck and about a dozen friendship bracelets on his wrists.

“What’s he talking about?” War asks, scanning the group.

Shaking his head, Brooks chuckles. “How have you never fallen victim to the swear jar?”

War sets his bottle on the table. Leaning back, he digs his wallet out of his pocket. “Oh yeah. Sorry, little man.”

Finn scowls. “The name’s Huck.” He looks him up and down, his eyes narrowed, unimpressed. “Though only my friends call me that, and I’m not sure you’re my friend.”

Gavin chuckles, and Beckett breaks out in a proud grin.

“You realize you’re turning him into a mini you, right?”

Beckett simply lifts his chin like he couldn’t be prouder of the kid. They may not be blood, but my brother loves Finn just like he is.

“A mini Bossman?” Finn muses, his glare still on War. “Excellent. Now pay up. The fine is a thousand bucks, but I’m willing to offer you a deal since you look like the type who’ll need it.”

Brows jumping into his hairline, War gapes at him, his expression screaming is this kid for real?

I merely nod. Yeah, he is. Kid is awesome, but he’s about to take War for his yearly bonus.

War and Finn negotiate, Finn signaling for my teammate’s phone, probably to get things set up on Venmo.

Thankful for the levity Finn’s antics have brought, I clear my throat. “I appreciate you all showing up.”

Beckett frowns. “You call, we come.”

“Well, he called.” I wave at Daniel, plastering a smirk to my face out of habit. Deflecting with humor is my MO. “But thanks.”

Gavin turns his stool so he’s facing me. “What’s going on?”

Heart in my throat, I spin my glass of club soda on the bar top, unable to look at the guys. “I ended my engagement.”

“Thank fuck,” War shouts, startling me.

With a shake of his head, Finn holds War’s phone out to him.

“Fine. Let’s call it an even five, and you go over there and put on earmuffs, kid.”

Beside me, Gavin drags his hand over his mouth, stifling a laugh.

Beckett has tuned out the chaos. Frowning, he steps closer. “You okay?”

My chest tightens at the edge of concern in his voice. “Yeah, I will be.”

“Is it because of Lennox?” Brooks gets up from the booth and wanders closer, keeping his words soft.

I shrug. “Yes? No? I don’t know. Did I know the moment she stepped into that office that I couldn’t go through with it? Yes. Did I ever really want to marry Jill? No.”

“So why’d you propose?” Daniel asks, elbows on the bar as he studies me.

Shifting on my stool, I lift a shoulder and let it fall. “Thought it was time, I guess. You all were relentless about Lennox, and I wanted to get you off my back.”

I look from one brother to the next. They’re all watching me, but not one of them looks the least bit ashamed.

“It’s only because we care. Jill was bad news,” Gavin says.

“You don’t know the half of it,” I mutter.

“Tell us,” Beckett implores.

So I do. I give them all the embarrassing details. The shameful ones. How Jill used me, how Vincent Lukov made a fool out of me. Despite the rotten feeling that settles in my stomach, the anvil on my chest lifts, and a lightness I haven’t felt in years trickles into me. Fuck, it feels good to no longer live in this darkness alone.

With every word, my brothers’ faces turn angrier. War’s jaw clenches, and Daniel scowls. These men have my back. These men have me. Knowing that only eases my trepidation further.

“I’m going to lay Lukov out every fucking game,” Daniel mutters, straightening and gripping the edge of the bar.

“He won’t make it past game one,” War promises. “His career is over.”

Gavin’s silence is its own support. As our coach, I’d expect him to tell his star wingers to stand down. Instead, he drops a hand to my shoulder and gives it a squeeze.

I roll my neck, then take another sip of my drink. “I can fight him myself.”

“But you shouldn’t have to,” Brooks fumes. “He was coming after our family, not just you. Fuck, I hate them.”

I stare at the brother I’ve always been closest with. He’s the biggest of us all, but he’s also the most gentle. That all went out the window last year when he found out that our former coach, Sebastian Lukov — who was not only our uncle by marriage, but is Vincent’s uncle too— was secretly dating Sara. He failed to tell her he was still married to our aunt though. At the time, Brooks and Sara were nothing more than friends, though Brooks had been pining for her for years. The fallout from it all was a shit show and it still remains a sore spot for Brooks. The guy isn’t rational when it comes to protecting the woman he loves. I get it. I’d be the same way. But I don’t want my brother to end up in jail for protecting me.

“What I need more than your muscles,” I tell him, “is your silence.”

Brooks frowns, his brows pulled low. “What?”

“I don’t want to answer questions. And I don’t want your women trying to ‘fix’ me.” With a sigh, I drop my elbows to the bar. I can already imagine how awful it’ll be when they find out about Jill. Sara might be worse than Brooks when it comes to protecting those she loves. “Just give me the summer to figure this out. To lick my wounds.”

“I don’t lie to Sara,” Brooks says on one side of me, spinning his beer bottle on the bar.

Gavin’s already shaking his head. “Not lying to Millie.”

“Come on.” I hang my head. “I’m calling team confidentiality.”

War snorts. “Oh, like Brooks kept our last team secret so well.”

Brooks adjusts himself and grimaces. Yeah, after we were all sworn to secrecy, he told Sara about how the group of us ended up with blinged-out dicks.

Gavin shakes his head. “Nuh-uh. I don’t have a glitter dick. This doesn’t apply to me.”

Huffing, I throw my head back.

Beckett takes a step closer and studies me. “This means a lot to you?”

“Yeah.” I sigh, running my hand through my hair. “She didn’t only cheat on me—I was a goddamn mark. Give me a few weeks to come to terms with that before you tell all your girls, and they’re all over me. It’s embarrassing.”

Beckett nods. “Fine.”

“Hey, you don’t speak for us,” Gavin tosses back.

Beckett merely glares at him, his green eyes hard. “I said fine. Get on board. Every one of you has had secrets in the past, and I’ve kept them. We’ll do the same for Aiden. That’s what we do.”

Brooks’s shoulders droop, but he nods. “Yeah, okay.”

Lips pursed, Gavin looks from brother to brother, then finally focuses on me. “This is a bad idea, you know. They’re going to find out, and then they’re gonna be all over this.”

I grit my teeth. That’s what I’m worried about.