“My point is that I don’t like hockey. I mean, I never liked it. I never got into it. It was always just a part of my life.”
“So you wanted to be defiant.”
“As expected,” I said.
“And this somehow all ties into everything? Why you have no pictures on your walls? Why you can’t make a decision for your career?”
“This isn’t about that, Mav,” I said. “This is about me telling you what happened. Okay? There was a situation with the last team.”
“You slept with the goalie. I know that part.”
“That’s right,” I said. “I usually find a new hockey team and just show up to the locker room, naked. I get on the floor, open my legs, and tell the goalie to have his way with me. Is that what you want me to say?”
Maverick’s lip curled.
Someone was definitely jealous hearing that.
Not that any of what I just said was actually true.
“Why can’t you just tell me the truth, Madison? Why is it so hard?”
“It’s not about telling the truth or not, Mav. It’s about what I want to tell and who I want to hear it.”
“You do realize that maybe in the wildest event of our lives, we met and hooked up as a one-night stand but it become more? And that’s okay?”
I sipped my drink.
I took a deep breath.
“The goalie,” I said. “You heard what I said. And that part was true, okay? I hooked up with a goalie before I met you. Did I know who he was? Yes. I knew who he was. I didn’t think anything of it until it blew up in my face. Until it hurt my family.”
“Am I allowed to ask for more?”
“Look, it was just all stupid stuff. I was taking pictures for the team. I told you about my father and everything that had happened. Okay? When my mother died, he became overprotective of me. Without saying it. He refuses to show any weakness ever. And maybe I feel some obligation to him. To make sure he is okay. He never showed real emotion when my mother died. He was running the other team and the goalie was just there all the time. He was flirty. He was good looking. The opposite of any guy I would normally go for. I thought I was falling for him, Mav. I thought something was really happening.”
“But it wasn’t happening?” Maverick asked.
I sighed and nervously tucked my hair behind my ears. “I don’t know what was happening. It was quick. Way too quick. He swooned me fast, okay? I wasn’t even sure what happened at first. Then everything came crashing down.”
“Your father found out?”
“No. This goalie used everything against me. Against my father. Against the team.”
“Leverage?”
“Exactly. He wanted a new contract. He wanted to get paid. He used me for that.”
“Used you…”
“That’s right, Mav. He used me. Everything he said and did. Making me feel the way I did. Making me feel like I could take that chance and want to be with someone. I had this dream suddenly that I was going to be more involved with hockey. Like it was a good thing, you know? Since hockey meant so much to my father. And if I was with the goalie of the team my father was running…”
I looked at Maverick and swallowed hard.
“Who was it, sweetie?”
“You know.”
“Just confirm it.”