“Bitch. Get the fuck out of my house!” I yelled as the heel crashed onto my armoire behind me.
She stood there in the middle of my room, pouting, and her blaring green eyes would have killed me if that were possible.
“Make me.” She popped out her hip and started tapping her bare feet on the area rug that surrounded my bed.
“Wrong answer.” Right as I was about to pick her up and throw her over my shoulder to physically remove her from my home, Myla’s small frame came into view in my doorway.
“Bray? What in God’s name are you doing?”
The random girl gasped. “Who that fuck is this bitch?”
Wrong move. Myla was the epitome of the Shakespeare quote:“Though she be but little, she is fierce.”
I grabbed Myla’s wrist before she got close enough to slap the chick that was clearly from Staten Island—her style, accent, and entitlement issues gave it away in seconds.
“This is my sister, Myla, and again, it’s time for you to go.”
“Fine, whatever. You ain’t worth my time anyway. Fucking hockey player. Oh well, everyone slums it for one night.”
I rolled my eyes. Did she really think her words meant anything to me?
“All right cunt bag, there’s the door. You know how to use one of those right?” Myla cracked me up. She was so sweet and innocent for the most part, but once her patience was tested, there was no saving you.
Myla
After yet another one-night stand huffed out of our house, I was easily able to bribe Brayden to make me breakfast. Usually, all it took was a puppy-dog face and aplease, but this leverage was going to be fun to exploit. I was going to keep it in my back pocket for when I really needed it, but at the moment we had bigger fish to fry.
“I really don’t think it’s going to work out, Brayden.” My big brother set a plate of scrambled egg whites with goat cheese, diced tomatoes, and spinach in front of me while I slurped my iced green tea. Then he took his seat across the table with the same meal in front of him. He knew the way to talk me into anything: my favorite foods.
With his bright amber eyes, Brayden beamed at me with all the encouragement a big brother could give to his kid sister. “Look, Myla, you have to do this. I am not going to sit by and let you waste away in this house. You need to get out there and do something!”
“Yeah, like you did last night?” It was a snarky jab, but I needed to stack the deck a little bit in my favor.
He rolled his eyes. “You know what I am talking about.”
I pushed the eggs around my plate, whining. “But being a figure skating coach’s assistant seems like a big fucking joke, Bray! I mean come on!” I was a little annoyed with Brayden for getting me the interview completely behind my back. It was nice of him, and sure, his heart was in the right place, but forcing me to get back on skates just a little more than a year after my hip and femur were fractured in the accident was a little more than I could wrap my head around.
“Mom would have wanted you to get back out there and you know it.”
There it was, the line I hated, and he knew it. It crawled right under my skin and festered there. It broke my heart because he was right, and I hated the power that lay in his hands because of it.
“Look, Myla, I have to go back on the road in a week, and I want to know that you’re going to be taking care of yourself. Doing this will be good for you. You need to meet people and get your nose out of those books for a little while, and with your physical therapy completed—”
“All right.” I sighed, cutting my brother off with a harsh glance before shoving a huge bite into my mouth. I quickly heaved away from the table, leaving most of my breakfast on the plate. “I guess I better get ready and get my skates sharpened before I meet the head coach. What’s his name anyway?”
Brayden’s smile was infectious as he tried to hide how giddy he was that I had given in so easily. “It’s Simon Abramson.”
The name clicked and my mouth fell open. “The Simon Abramson? Like five-time gold medalist?”
Brayden nodded. “Yup, the one and only.”
“How’d you…?” I was standing in the middle of our kitchen in complete shock.
“He comes in from time to time to help the team with some skating techniques. I got his number when he was bitching about losing his other assistant to maternity leave.”
I shuffled my fuzzy pink slippers over to my big brother, threw my arms around his neck, and kissed him on the stubbly jawline. “Thanks.” I smiled down at him. Even though it was going to be hard and I still didn’t know how I’d feel once I was back out on the ice, it meant a lot to me that Brayden cared so much.
Chapter 5