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I wasn’t sure I could hold it all together, but I nodded. “You got it.”
“Be here fifteen minutes early to do gassers before next practice. If you’re leading the team, you gotta lead by example.”
I nodded and shook his hand. I also shook JD’s before leaving. That was a trip, and I needed to process what the hell just happened. That was… not what I expected.
I didn’t realize others knew Quentin played dirty and crossed the line. He was a punk ass freshman who thought too highly of himself, and I just happened to be the force to knock him out. Reiner saw it though, which changed things.
One thing remained the same. Audrey didn’t realize what kind of player her brother was, and it wasn’t my place to tell her. If they were as close as Reiner made it seem, then I would never do that to her.
The meeting only lasted fifteen minutes, thank god, so I jogged back toward the entrance, but they weren’t there. Fuck.
Laughter caught my attention, and I jogged down the hall to find Daniel and Penny with Audrey playing a game with Cheez-Its.
“Okay, slide it through the goal and you get a point.” Audrey made a temporary goal with her fingers as Penny slid a Cheez-It on the table. “Goal!”
“Yay!” Penny danced, and as she spun, she saw me. “Theo! Audrey taught us a new game with snacks!”
“Yeah?” I ruffled her hair and studied my new buddy, the sister of the guy who I injured had to mentor. Our lives couldn’t be more complicated. It made my stomach twist. An incorrect move could blow everything up. My whole goal this year was to graduate, make sure my siblings were okay, and get better on the ice to go to the pros next year. That was all.
“It’s simple. Nothing, really.” Audrey stood and scooped up the crumbs and tossed them in the trash. “Your brother and sister are wonderful. Daniel told me about the zoo trip he just took. He wants to be a zookeeper.”
Yeah, I didn’t even know that. He’d always loved animals, and I was glad he opened up to someone, even if it was Audrey. “You’d be great at it, especially dealing with this monkey.” I picked Penny up, and she cackled.
Daniel smiled. “You hear that, Penny? You’re a monkey!”
Penny howled and made an oo oo sound that echoed around the small room. For one second, barely even a whole one, Audrey and I shared a smile. Her face softened, and she didn’t seem like the uptight, judgmental woman who glared at me. She was pretty and fun. When her full lips curved up on the sides, her entire face transformed, and it hit me how beautiful she actually was. Weird.
I shook that compliment out of my mind because it served no purpose.
“We can head back home now. I’ll drop you off.” I pointed toward the mess on the table. “Let’s clean this up before we go.”
“I don’t mind.” Audrey stood, all traces of our shared moment gone. “Go on. I’ll clean this up. This is easy.”
“I can help you!” Daniel jumped from his chair so fast, it knocked over even more crackers. “Oh no.”
“It’s alright.” Audrey smiled and immediately got on the floor to pick up the mess. “Easy fix.”
“Yeah.” Daniel sighed, but the tips of his ears were pink. It was fascinating to see him blush, first off. Secondly, Audrey was being ridiculously chill about this. I didn’t trust it. They picked up the mess within a few minutes, and my siblings and I were at the doorframe, Audrey remaining at the chair with a thoughtful look on her face.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, my throat feeling thicker than normal. “That was nice of you.”
“Of course.” Her gaze moved from my siblings, the smile falling as she focused on me again. “See you around, Sanders.”
Yeah. She would be. And I didn’t like the fact I owed her one.
5
Audrey
We had orientation today. Our weekly schedule would be Tuesdays and Thursdays, but the head nurse planned for us to do the orientation the Friday before so she could also pass on some studies she wanted us to familiarize ourselves with. There was no reason for the firework of nerves exploding deep in my gut, at least not for meeting with Marcy Rumble. I’d asked other students who worked with her at this ICU, and she was known for being blunt, to the point, safe, and exceptional.
It was the fact Theo stood in his scrubs, a half-smile on his face, leaning on the wall outside the hospital as I approached. The afternoon sun hit his hair just right, the shades of blond and brown combining together. He had thick hair, messy, but kept professional, and it was unfair how good it looked on him.
It was hard to accept Theo Sanders, an asshole on the ice, aggressive, and a shit-talker, was the same guy who cared for his siblings. He obviously loved them, and it annoyed me that I found it admirable. I didn’t want to think anything kind about the dude. We could stick to being professional at clinicals, and that was it. Nothing more.
The scrubs clung to his arms and chest, his muscles defined and chiseled in a way that made my pulse elevate slightly. I swallowed and hoped he wouldn’t see me, but I didn’t get another two steps before he glanced up from his phone and smiled.
“Hey, Auds.” He waved and pocketed his phone.
