Offside (The Barker Triplets 1)

“I don’t begrudge your hockey career, Billie. I don’t. And you have to believe me when I say that I’m sorry things worked out the way they did, and….” She lowered her eyes. “You were right. I [i]was[i] insanely jealous of you and Betty for a long time,” Bobbi spoke softly, her fingers splayed around the wine glass as she slowly swirled the dark liquid. “The two of you took off and had these awesome careers and lives that didn’t include me. I was stuck here, Shane was…things got complicated and…”

Billie waited for her sister to finish but she took a sip of wine instead and wiped away the past with a quick brush of her fingers across her brow. “The point is that I think I’m just a little jittery about the future and Gerald and well, I was out of line the other day and I said some things that weren’t exactly nice.”

“Okay,” Billie said quietly.

“Okay.”

Bobbi chewed her bottom lip for a few seconds. “But we need to talk about Dad. About what his illness means and what his future looks like.”

Panic hit Billie in the gut. “But, he seems to be better.”

A sad ghost of a smile touched the corner of Bobbi’s mouth. “He does. And he has been before too, but it comes and goes and I’m afraid that he’ll do something crazy when neither one of us is around to look out for him.” Bobbi sighed and shook her head. “He came after you with a rifle.”

“But there were no bullets in the damn thing!”

Bobbi gazed at her in silence, while inside that little piece in Billie’s heart, the one that had been frayed and torn, sort of disintegrated, leaving a hole where it had been.

“What are you saying?” Billie whispered.

“I’m saying that he won’t be able to stay home forever. I’m saying that his dementia isn’t going to get better and you’ve got to prepare yourself for that. I’ve had time to digest it but you haven’t.”

For a moment there was only silence.

Bobbi cleared her throat and cocked her head to the side. “What’s going on between you and Logan Forest?”

“Nothing!” Billie glanced up in surprise. “I mean,” she swallowed and took a moment. “What do you mean? Why would you say…” but she couldn’t finish her sentence because A) it was a lie and B) her sister wasn’t stupid.

“I know you’re leaving the house every night around nine and coming home before I leave for work in the morning. So you’re spending the night with someone and since Shane says it’s not him, the only other guy I can think of is Logan.”

See? Not stupid.

Billie sat up straighter, suddenly more interested in the fact that her sister had talked to Shane.

“When did you see Shane?”

“Tuesday morning.” Bobbi’s cool façade was back in place, in spite of the smudged makeup and glittery eyes.

Billie thought back to Tuesday morning, back to the moment when she’d practically been having sex with Logan in his kitchen and Shane had walked in. Heat suffused her cheeks as the image in her mind wavered. What the hell? Shane wouldn’t have sold her out, would he? Logan had promised no one would know. If anyone found out she was sleeping with Logan, her already shady reputation would be mud. It would be worse than mud. It would be heading into the crud that was beneath the mud kind of territory.

She didn’t need that. Not right now.

She thought of the fundraiser that previous weekend, of the jeers and insinuations thrown her way. She thought of Sabrina Fairfax, joking about her servicing the entire league, and her stomach rolled.

“What did he…” she cleared her throat and grabbed the bottle of wine. After taking a long drink straight from the bottle she wiped her mouth. “What did he say exactly?”

“That he wasn’t sleeping with you.”

“Oh,” she muttered, hating that her cheeks felt as hot as the red paint on Bobbi’s nails.

“So you’re sleeping with Logan Forest.” It wasn’t a question. It was definitely a statement.

So. Not. Stupi

d.

Billie thought about denying it but what was the point? She pushed the bottle of wine toward her sister—who’d just drained her glass.

“Does anyone else know?” she asked quietly.