Page 76 of Challenge Me

“Pancake-off. We’ve got two perfectly good judges right here.”

“I’m supposed to be at practice in an hour,” he said, glancing at the clock, then at me. His eyes changed, though I wasn’t sure I’d seen what was in them before. “But maybe I’m sick today.”

“Won’t you get in trouble?”

“They can give me one day.”

“Well, well, well.” I set my phone on the counter and turned on my favorite playlist. Leonard Cohen came on, and I immediately felt excited about this. “I’ll have you know that I don’t fight fair.”

“We’re just making pancakes.”

“Think fast.” I grabbed the cinnamon container and jerked it in his direction, making a cloud of it dust up in front of his face. He coughed and waved his hand, and I took the chance to grab the little bottle of vanilla, then stuffed it into my pocket.

Let him try to make better pancakes without vanilla. It would never happen.

Chapter 20

Remi

If ruin is the birthplace of dawn,

Then let me wake, though everything is gone.

As Avery and Mal packed their things, the apartment felt tense. Something hung in the air, gloomy and inevitable. When the sound of a zipper reached us, Amir’s lips thinned.

I took his hand to draw his attention and offered him a smile. “It’s only a few more weeks.”

“Yeah, then all the season games, back and forth, all over the place.”

“You don’t have to be such a downer about it.”

He huffed. “God forbid I want to see my kid regularly.”

“Hey.” Moving closer, I studied his face. “You do this every year, right?”

“Usually she’s with me for half of it.”

My eyes widened. “Am I the only reason she’s not?”

His gaze remained on the bedroom door. I didn’t like that he was avoiding me. I especially didn’t like why he was avoiding me.

I pulled away. “This isn’t worth all that. So some skeevy journalist wants to make you the bad guy. Who fucking cares?”

“I do.”

“Why?”

“You know how hard it is for kids whose parents are in the spotlight? Do you know how many eyes are out there, watching our every move, waiting for us to screw up so they can be entertained?” He shook his head. “I refuse to put Mal through the shit I’ve seen other families in the league go through.” His eyes closed as he drew in a breath. “Not Mal.”

“It’s a story. Not even a crazy one. It’ll all blow over.”

“We pulled her out of school when we started the divorce. I hated to put her through more changes, but New Haven is only a couple hours from Boston, and there are fans around. Normally, a family can deal with things however they choose, but she didn’t get that option. Some kids at school knew about it because of their parents.”

“Were they mean to her?” Something rose in my chest at the idea of it.

“Not really, but she had a hard time. She didn’t want to hear about it constantly or deal with the rumors. People had their theories, of course, and kids listen to what their parents say. One of them told her I cheated on Avery because that’s what the girl’s mom said. Mal hated when I had to travel for away games after that. It upset her so much, she started to act out while I was gone, hoping I’d have to come back.”

His dark expression made me take the sides of his neck and stroke his skin with my thumbs. “That’s horrible.”