Rush: The Season (Austin Arrows Book 1)(39)

Bianca

“Oh, my God, Bianca. What if he becomes your dad? How cool would that be?” Gabby asks.

As soon as I got up to my room, I called Gabby to tell her what happened at the game. I told her about all the new Twitter followers I got and how those reporters followed us out of the building like my mom was famous or something.

“I don’t think that’ll happen,” I tell her. Although, I did think about it on the drive back to the house. I pulled up Kingston on Twitter and I saw the tweets about him. Apparently a lot of people are happy that he’s found a girlfriend. I’m only a little upset that my mom didn’t tell me herself. Part of me thinks that this might not be real since Uncle Optimus seems to be talking to Mom a lot about it. But the people are believing it and they are tweeting about it.

Only, they aren’t all good tweets. Some of them are mean. Like, really mean.

Come on, @KingstonRush39. You can do better than a single mom.

You don’t aim high, do you, @KingstonRush39? A bartender? Really?

Someone needs to tell @EllieTPB that she can do better than him. Much better.

I don’t want to read those, but I can’t help it. It makes me mad that they’d talk about my mom and Kingston like that.

“But what if it does happen? What if Kingston marries your mom?” Gabby squeals. “You’d be so freaking cool. Everyone would love you.” Another squeal. “No matter what, I’m still your best friend. Doesn’t matter who else likes you.”

I laugh. “Of course you are.” I can’t imagine anyone else being my best friend.

“What if you get a boyfriend because of this?”

“That won’t happen.” I think Joseph is cute, but I don’t like him the way Gabby likes some boys.

“Never say never,” Gabby says, giggling. “This is so freaking cool. Mount Rushmore could be your dad.”

I think about my Facebook post. It’s only been three days since I posted it, but I haven’t received any messages, and my mom hasn’t mentioned anyone calling her. There are a lot of comments from people I don’t know, and over a hundred shares, but nothing from anyone who might be my dad. I worry that my real dad won’t see it, and I’ll never get to meet him.

Sure, I like Kingston. He’s cool. He always wants to do things, and he buys me great presents on my birthday and Christmas. But I don’t think it’s the same.

I really want to meet my dad. I want to see his face when he realizes he has a daughter. I want to see the love shine in his eyes because he finally gets to meet me. And most of all, I want to feel his arms around me when he hugs me for the first time and tells me his life is now complete, the same way mine will be.





Ellie

It is abundantly clear that Kingston isn’t going to open up to me tonight. Whether that’s because of what happened at the rink or simply because he doesn’t want to share the details with me, I’m not sure, but I know better than to push for more. At least right now. I have every intention of interrogating him at some point, but he looks as out of sorts as I feel.

Grabbing my keys from my purse, I hold them out to him, letting them dangle from my fingers while I watch his expression. He’s showing absolutely no emotion and I briefly wonder why that is. I remember Spencer mentioning an issue during a game in Detroit, which is how I found myself in this pretend-girlfriend predicament in the first place, but I didn’t actually ask for specifics at the time. Truth is, I didn’t even think about it. But as soon as that reporter asked if Kingston had ever touched me out of anger, I knew exactly what he was talking about.

“Sorry about tonight,” Kingston says, reaching out and taking the keys from me.

“No need to apologize,” I tell him, meaning it. What happened at the arena freaked me out a little, but it isn’t as though I hadn’t known it was coming. The guy is hockey’s equivalent of a rock star. People love him. I get that. I’ll be better prepared going forward. “And congrats on the shutout,” I add with a smile. “One hell of a way to kick off the season.”

The mischievous smirk tilts the corner of his lips. Evidently the change in subject brought out the ruthless flirt once more.

“Did you decide what to do about mountain climbing?”

Yep, and there he is again.

I roll my eyes, not bothering to answer. The man is relentless.

“If you ever decide to, I’ll be happy to show you the ropes.” His grin widens. “Pun intended.”

“Of course you will,” I mutter, trying not to imagine myself actually climbing his big, beautiful body. Heat spears me. Before I can come up with something else, my cell phone rings. Grabbing it from my purse, I hit the talk button. “Hello?”

“Ell, please tell me you’re at home.”

I hear the concern in Spencer’s tone. “I’m at home, why?”

“Where’s Kingston?”

“Here with me,” I tell my brother. “He brought me and Bianca home.”

“Thank God. Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“The arena was a madhouse. Seemed the hottest topic of the night was how Kingston was hooking up with my sister. No one seemed to give a shit that we had a shutout against last year’s Stanley Cup champions.”