Shut Out (Bayard Hockey #1)(84)

“I feel a little guilty keeping the truth from them.”

“I know. Me too. But I also don’t want them to blame you.” She meets my eyes. “Because I know it wasn’t your fault.” Her bottom lip trembles.

“Thank you, Ella.” My throat tightens. I know that was a difficult thing for her to sort out. “I hope they’ll find closure despite not knowing the truth.”

“Yeah. And…” She straightens her shoulders. “I’m sorry about telling you about Jacob.”

I blink. “Well, it’s not like you made it up.”

“I know, but…it was how I told you. And, shit, not knowing what had happened with you and Brendan…I had no idea how hard that was going to hit you. I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t know.”

“I should have. You should have told me. We’re best friends.”

I close my eyes briefly. “I should have told you. You’re right.”

We talk for a long time about what happened and how I was feeling, because Ella is experiencing some of the same emotions now.

“I’m going to see a counselor,” she says. “I haven’t been dealing with it very well.”

My eyes widen. “Oh. Oh, that’s good, Ella. It really helped me figure things out.” I bite my lip. “I hope you can forgive Brendan.”

She tips her head. “Have you?”

“I’m not sure.” I mull that over. “But I think I’m on my way.”

“God, Skylar.”

I set my laptop aside and reach for her, and we hug for a long, silent moment. Then I draw back and wipe my eyes, trying to smile. “I’m heading over to Jacob’s place to celebrate exams being done. Want to come?”

She gives me a teary smile back and nods. “Sure.”

Natalie and Brooklyn have already gone home. It turns out they weren’t taking Ella’s side against me; she hadn’t even told them exactly what happened. But they’d sensed the tension between Ella and me and weren’t sure how to deal with it.

We arrive at Jacob’s place to find a bunch of guys in the living room, some of them playing Xbox. Grady has already gone home, but Ben and Hunter are there, along with a few other players who haven’t left yet.

Jacob tries to hide his surprise at seeing Ella with me, but bugs his eyes out at me behind her back when she walks in. “Okay?” he mouths.

I nod and smile. “I think so.”

“Good.” He wraps an arm around my neck and kisses my forehead. “Gonna miss you so much, Sky.”

“I know. Me too.” I slide my arms around him and hug him. “We’ll talk, though.”

“Yeah.”

Jacob didn’t get suspended for the fight. When the coaches interviewed the other guys who’d been present, they all said Jack had instigated it. They all told exactly what Jack had said. The coaching staff said it wasn’t unusual in a team for players to cover for each other—but this case was unusual because often what happens is players are trying to cover up sexual harassment or bad behavior, but in this case they were trying to expose it.

The team management also heard from Victoria, who filled them in on the proposal Jacob had put forward that morning. Since his motivations were good, he got a stern lecture from his coach about appropriate behavior in the dressing room and that was the end of it. Luckily, Jacob only had some bruises on his back and his hand, and he’ll be fine to play in the tournament in Florida.

His parents saved up money for a flight home for him for Christmas and he leaves in the morning. I’ll probably go home tomorrow too. I’ve had some nice emails from Mom, and I’m not as anxious about going home as I was the last time, so that’s good.

But I’m going to miss Jacob so much.

It’s our last night together for weeks.

We join the others in the living room, where apparently Ella has just insulted Ben’s clothing style.

“You’re one to talk.” He eyes her. “Was there a sale at Frederick’s of Hollywood?”

“Ugh. Thanks for giving me a piece of your mind,” Ella snaps. “I know you don’t have much to spare.”

Ben laughs. “Funny. I bet you complain about shit in your sleep.”

“You’ll never know.”

“Damn straight I won’t.”

Ah. I wish my friend and Jacob’s friend liked each other so we could all hang out. This kind of blows, but I don’t know what we can do about it. I know Ben has formed an impression of Ella based on the way she’d been acting, and I can’t blame him for that. And she doesn’t like him because she thinks he’s all full of himself with his hair and clothes and car, all BMOC.

“How did your presentation go today?” I ask Jacob.

This morning he and Victoria made a presentation to the college president and executive officers about his idea to do special awareness training for athletes.

He grins. “I killed it.”

“Of course you did.” I roll my eyes. But I’m smiling, because I know his cockiness is just an act. Underneath it, he has the same hopes and dreams and fears as any of us, despite his gifts and talents.

“Seriously. It went well. They seemed really interested, and with other stuff that’s been in the news lately, they don’t want shit like that happening here.”