It didn’t get any straighter than this.
“Get the number of Gage’s lawyer and do whatever the fuck it takes to keep my niece out of foster care.”
Chapter 2
Ivy
“You mean, I can keep it?” Hannah asked, her little voice quiet, almost as if she was afraid of the answer.
It broke my heart.
I swallowed around the lump in my throat and continued to braid the bright pink feathers into her soft brown hair. I’d snagged them the last time I was at the salon, knowing I’d see Hannah at practice again. I hadn’t realized it would be this soon or under these conditions.
How could Connor’s sister leave her?
It had been a week since Connor told us and I’d immediately offered to help in any way I could.
“Of course, Hannah Banana,” I said when I could finally speak without my voice cracking. I hated that she was so cautious about gifts or compliments or praise—at least from anyone who wasn’t Connor. She trusted her uncle more than anyone in the world, even her own mother, who I’d never met but had heard enough about to know she was the source of Hannah’s cautiousness. “I saw them and knew you had to have them.”
I flashed my eyes up to Pepper, who had paused her work, sitting behind her desk in her office.
We were identical twins, but her hair was now a mess of bright teal and blonde while mine was left as golden as the day we were born. Still, in that moment, we shared an identical look—one that knew how lucky we’d been even though we’d lost our mother at an early age. Lucky that we never had to question if someone was genuine, if they were coming back when they said they were, if a gift was a real gift or something that would be pried from our fingers later on, likely to sell for…God knows what.
“Thank you, Ivy!” Hannah squealed but didn’t dare wiggle in her seat, never one to mar up her hair while I was in the process of French braiding it down the center of her head. “I can’t wait to show Uncle Connor,” she said as I finished up, sealing the braid with a glittering pink hair-tie.
Heat swept over my body despite my best efforts to stop it.
Connor Bridgerton.
Tall, broad, lean as hell—not only was the man a rising star NHL player, but he swam in his free time. A man who was climbing the Seattle Sharks’ rank as one of the best skaters and scorers on the ice, but also one who loved his niece more than ten Stanley Cups.
All of that was enough to leave any woman breathless.
And it almost made up for the fact that we couldn’t stand each other.
Almost.
I loved Hannah.
Adored her sweet nature, her kind heart, and the way she mothered all the Sharks despite being five. She had every reason in the world to rebel. To scream and rage at the world, and yet she wanted to heal it. She saw the good in every single person.
Even me…
Unlike her uncle who thought I was an awful sister and even worse human being. Thanks to my ex, Crosby, for whatever lies he told about me in the locker room, and for my rash decision when trying to save Pepper from Eric Gentry when I found out she’d been seeing him behind my back.
Fuck, I guess I couldn’t blame him.
Didn’t sting any less.
Besides, I’d made up for it with Pepper. Why couldn’t Connor cut me some slack?
Not that I’d ever date another hockey player, but it would be nice if we could at least be civil toward each other. I’d become one of Hannah’s favorite babysitters during the last few practices and games. I was always here to support Pepper anyway, but I genuinely enjoyed being around the little girl. Something about her—perhaps her penchant for glitter and unicorns and all things girly—reminded me of…me.
She’d found a kindred spirit in me when she focused on all the sparkle the world had to offer despite seeing more than her fair share of darkness.
“I’m sure he’ll love it,” Pepper said, her eyebrows raised toward me.
“Right,” I said. “Yes. Of course, he will.” I shook off my thoughts, twirling Hannah around. “Mark the moment,” I said what had quickly become our saying whenever we finished a new hairstyle or new experiment with glitter, and squeezed my cheek against hers as we smiled for a selfie.
Hannah smiled a genuine grin that would so get her in trouble in ten years—if her uncle didn’t lock her up first.
I handed her the phone and let her play with a few of the filters while we waited.
“You and Eric have big plans tonight?” I asked my sister, never once tiring of that special glow that shone through her skin any time Eric’s name came up.
“He’s taking me to our favorite restaurant, and then we’re Netflix and Chill bound.”
“Sounds epic,” I said, a hint of jealousy in my tone.
Okay, maybe I was just a little tired of the stardust, but only because it was so swoon-worthy. Pepper deserved every ounce of it. She’d been through enough hell and managed to land the perfect guy on the end of it.
She wasn’t like me.
I fell hard and quick. Loved to get lost in the moment like a strong ocean current jerking me this way and that. The adrenaline in the fall, the sweetness in the middle, and then, of course, the inevitable smack when you hit the bottom.
It was a game I’d come to know well.
I had scars to prove it.
I thought Crosby would be different. Wanted him to be different.
Sure, he’d had the whole macho, hockey-star bravado thing going on in public, but in private? He’d said all the right things. We’d laughed and joked and liked most of the same things—ferocious days and wild nights. Not that I’d slept with him. I’d wanted to, but I’d been down that road too many times. Leaping into bed with a guy just because he was hot wasn’t on my big-girl bucket-list anymore.
No.
I wanted…something.
A connection.
A spark
.
A person who totally got me and loved me despite the crazy lurking underneath the polish. Someone who would listen and challenge me and never let things get boring. Someone who could keep up with my wild cravings and not judge me for it.
Maybe I wanted too much.
But Pepper had managed to find the perfect man for her.
That meant somewhere, someday, my perfect would come too.
Luckily, I was no longer in a hurry.
My career.
That is where my focus and attention laid.
Except for when braiding hair and puppy-filter requests were made.
“You ready?” I asked Hannah as I glanced at the clock.
Connor would be showered and waiting outside the locker room for us by now.
“Yes!” She leaped off her seat and rushed toward the door, a flurry of pink and shine.
I couldn’t stop a smile from my shaping my lips as I followed her into the hallway after waving bye to Pepper.
This girl was seriously everything. She only had one flaw, and it was—
“Take long enough?” Connor said, using the bite in his tone he reserved especially for me.
I glanced at my cell. “God forbid I’m thirty seconds late.” I kept my tone sweeter than sugar, knowing how much he hated it from the way he always cringed at the sound.
I certainly didn’t do it because when he did cringe it made this super sexy crease form between his dark brows, accentuating those even darker eyes that were equal parts playboy and parent. And I definitely didn’t notice how those carved muscles of his bunched together when he caught Hannah mid-leap as she ran for him.
Nope.
He umphed against her impact, hiking her up and up and up until…God this guy was an Adonis. An asshole Adonis but still…