Rush: The Season (Austin Arrows Book 1)(37)

Turning around in the hopes I’ll find a place to sneak off to, I hold Bianca against my side, but before I make it two steps, I run smack into a wall of muscle. Okay, it’s a chest of muscle, covered by a really nice suit, actually, but same difference. That chest is like a brick wall. A brick wall that smells really good.

“No questions tonight,” the deep voice bellows as a strong arm wraps around me, the other going around Bianca.

“Rush! Is this serious? How long have you and Optimus’s sister been a thing?”

“What does your brother think about this, Ms. Kaufman?”

“Ms. Kaufman, has Rush ever put his hands on you out of anger?”

Still completely baffled by the situation, I allow Kingston to shield me and Bianca against his big body, herding us down the corridor and out into the night. My car is somewhere in the parking lot, but I don’t get a chance to tell Kingston that before he’s leading us to his truck and hurrying us inside.

As he’s pulling out of the parking lot, I stare over at him, not sure what to say. In a matter of minutes, I’ve gone from being unknown to most of the world to being hassled by reporters. Not exactly how I imagined this night—or any night, for that matter—ending.

“Sorry about that,” he says, not looking over at me as he steers down the dark streets. Most of the traffic has already thinned because the game ended nearly forty-five minutes ago.

I replay the last few minutes in my head, trying to figure out what happened. Then it hits me.

“Did you tell the press about us?” I ask, my voice a rough whisper. I have yet to explain the full situation to Bianca, and now doesn’t seem the appropriate time to go into it.

Kingston glances over at me, the sharp angles of his face highlighted by the blue lights from the dashboard. “It might’ve come out. Apparently I’ve got a few stalkers on Twitter that I didn’t know about.”

Twitter?

Oh, no.

It never occurred to me that posting that Tweet—or Kingston responding to it—would cause this to happen.

“Oh, my God!” Bianca exclaims from the backseat. “I’ve got fifty new followers on Twitter!”

Fifty? Wow.

I lean back in my seat and take a deep breath.

Yep. Looks as though me and relatively normal are no longer acquaintances. We have officially parted ways.

Meanwhile, in hockey news…

“Yes, Jim, based on what we saw tonight, I’d say the Arrows are looking to turn things around from last year.”

“I’m not sure you can say that after one game, Ed.”

“One game? On the season opener, the Arrows shut out Chicago. The Stanley Cup champs from last year. I’m not sure those two teams were in the same hemisphere last year. That can’t be said about what we saw out there tonight.”

“I’ll give you that. They seemed to have their stuff together. Nice puck handling, for sure. Their captain, Spencer Kaufman, took the lead. He looked good and the team meshed. A far different situation than last year.”

“And what about Patrick Benne? That kid is going to be someone to keep an eye on this season.”

“No doubt about it, Jim. There’s a reason he was pulled in the first round. Although the Arrows haven’t shown any substance for the past two years, if they utilize Benne, they’ll be moving in the right direction. But I want to take a minute to talk about Kingston Rush. I’m not sure he’s played a better game in … in forever.”

“Completely agree. He was smoking out there tonight. He seemed to anticipate every single move. Quite impressive. Hopefully that’s a sneak peek at things to come. And the big news of the night is what they confirmed in the locker room after the game. He might not be aware of it, but before the game started, Kingston Rush lit up Twitter with his response to the woman we’re now learning to be his girlfriend.”

“That did get some attention, I agree.”

“For any single ladies who were seeking the man’s attention, it looks as though Mount Rushmore is officially off the market. And he’s settling down with Kaufman’s sister, of all people. Maybe love has him working a little harder.”

“That’s a big leap from where he was at the end of last season. The allegations brought against him…”

“It’s important to call out that those allegations were later recanted.”

“True, Ed.”

“And how about Chicago tonight…”





12

Kingston

Although it appears I might’ve earned a few brownie points with Bianca by getting her a few more Twitter followers, I certainly didn’t intend for things to go quite like this.

Yes, it’s my fault. I never thought for a second that when I replied to Ellie’s tweet that the reporters would pick up on it. And then, when one of them mentioned it, for some insane reason, I opted to confirm my relationship with Ellie during my after-game interview. From that point, the shit hit the fan. The few reporters who were standing there waiting to talk to me actually turned tail and left, leaving me to finish the interview as fast as I could. I knew where they were headed, and I’d wanted to get to Ellie before they did.

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

As for how things turned out afterward … I didn’t quite expect the reporters to go after her so quickly. I should’ve known that the little morsel of gossip I gave them would induce a feeding frenzy and make them hungry for more.