End Game (Bellevue Bullies 4)

She chuckles. “Not even kinda.”

I smile. “My uncle Shea is one of the best defensemen in NHL history. He played for and retired from the team my aunt Elli owns, the Assassins. My goal is to play for the Assassins and be just like him.”

Man, saying it out loud just gives me the drive to do more.

When I glance over to Sofia, she is tearing apart a cookie, licking the frosting out of it. “You guys are really close to them, right? Shelli is their daughter?”

“Yeah, we all grew up together. I had just turned six when Shelli came, and since I idolized my uncle even back then, I wanted to be there to help.”

She smiles fondly. “That’s really nice.”

“Did you not have that?”

She shakes her head. “Not really. Too busy. I hardly saw my mom.”

“No?”

“No, I trained, I did homework, and slept. Nothing more, nothing less. Even when I was hurt, I was in the gym watching the girls and living through them until I could get back on the floor.”

“Wow,” I say. I feel sorry for her. “You didn’t want more?”

She shrugs. “I didn’t know there was more. Or maybe I did, but I ignored it. I had a goal. The Olympics.”

I scoot to the edge of my seat. “Why didn’t you make it? I mean, you’re fucking awesome.”

She grins, her face warming as she waves me off. “I’m good, but my body let me down.”

When she points to her knee, I shake my head. “No way.”

“Oh yeah. Because of the break, there is no way I can throw big skills that will get me the points to beat the girls who aren’t hurt. There is difficulty in my skills but not enough difficulty to get me a gold.”

“That sucks ass.”

She nods quickly. “Very much so. It broke my heart, but then my mom got real sick, and my goals changed.”

Concern fills my features. “Is she okay?”

“She’s better, but with MS, there isn’t a cure, so each day is different.”

“Man, I’m sorry.”

She sends me a grin. “Thank you, but really, she is doing so much better. She just has off days where she has to use a walker. But she still works three jobs because she’s trying to put me in an early grave.”

I chuckle. “Three?”

“Yes, she’s insane,” she says, shaking her head. “But that’s what she knows. She did it my whole childhood. That’s how we paid for everything, and when I blew out my knee, she had no choice but to work even more and—” When her lips turn down, I lean forward on my knees to see her better. She holds her hands up. “Jesus, what is wrong with me?”

“What?”

“I was about to tell you something I haven’t told anyone.”

That only makes me want to know even more. “What?”

“No way,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t even know why I almost said that.”

“Tell me.”

Her eyes burn into mine as she brings her lip between her teeth. As she shakes her head, I swear she whispers she is a dumbass, but then her eyes are back on mine. “I sometimes feel like it’s my fault she has MS. That I ran her into the ground.”

My heart breaks for Sofia. “No way.”

“I mean, I know I didn’t. It’s a disease of the nervous system, but still, if I were just a regular gymnast instead of an elite, maybe things would have been different.”

I reach over to her, taking her hand in mine. She looks down at our fingers as I lace them together. Our gazes meet, and a jolt of electricity runs through me as I say, “I’m pretty sure your mom did what she did to make you happy, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.”

I can see the pain in her eyes. “Which is why I have to do everything in my power to get a damn good education and then open my gym so I can take care of her.”

My heart clenches in my chest. “I think that’s amazing.”

“She did it for me.”

I swallow. “Is it hard to be away from her?”

Her shoulders fall as she turns toward me, putting her coffee down before grabbing another cookie. She could have let my hand go to do that, and the fact that she didn’t has my heart knocking in my chest. “It is, even though I was in the gym and I trained in Texas for a while, away from her. After I got hurt and then she got sick, we spent every second together, but she pushed me to come to Bellevue. I mean, not too many girls get the scholarship or the funding I received. I didn’t even know I could have a sponsor like I do.”

I grin. “It’s an awesome program they have here. Usually, the hockey sponsors are some of the players from the Assassins.”

She grins. “That’s neat. I wonder who does the gymnastics program?”

“I don’t know, but I assume someone who believes in the program. And after the show you guys put on for the first meet, I bet they’re happy.”

“I hope so,” she says softly. “I want to meet mine, thank them.”

“Maybe you can ask to?”

“Yeah,” she says offhandedly. Her face turns suddenly serious. “I’m worried about working for your mom.”

I startle a bit at the change in subject. “Why?”

“Well, my coach says it should be fine as long as I don’t mess up anywhere. But in my scholarship contract, it says that they want me to focus on school and gymnastics. That if I need anything to request it. But my mom is totally against me asking for a plane ticket for her to come see me at a meet, so I took the job with your mom to pay for it.”

“Oh, but it’s not like you’re doing it daily.”

“Yeah, I know,” she says, and then I realize that her thumb is moving along the back of my hand. It sets my body on fire. “I just want to pay for my mom to fly because she’s trying to drive, and that’s not good for her legs.”

“I’d say not.” Man, Sofia is so pretty. I love that she loves her mom. When she licks the inside of the Oreo, it pleases me that she likes them. I was worried she wouldn’t eat them. Some athletes are weird. “What about your dad?”

She shrugs dismissively. “I don’t have one.”

“You don’t have one?”

“Nope,” she says, shrugging again. “My mom was busy when she was younger, I guess you can say. She didn’t know who my dad was, and to be honest with you, I doubt he wanted to know me. He never tried to find me, so I don’t want to know him.” Before I can comment, she sends me a grin. “Wow, I’m talking a lot. Let’s change the subject.”

“I love it.”