Page 26 of Break my Heart
“That’ll be fun. So, who’s picking you up? Are they here yet?”
“My brother drove us,” she says.
I glance at one of the boys she pointed to and frown. “Isn’t he, like, ten?”
Kia bursts into a fit of giggles. Before she can answer, Hayes skates over with two boys trailing behind him. One of them looks about twelve, the other younger, maybe eight or nine. When Hayes scoops Kia up into his arms, her face lights up.
“Did you have fun, squirt?” His tone is gentle in a way I wasn’t expecting.
“Yeah! Can we come back next weekend?”
With a smile, he shakes his head. “Nope. This was a one-day thing, remember? We talked about it.”
Her pout is immediate, and I can’t help but soften at the exchange.
“These are your siblings?” The question slips out before I can stop it.
His gaze locks on mine, that familiar grin creeping across his face. “Yup. All three of them.”
“My feet hurt,” one of the boys complains, sounding every bit the pre-teen he probably is. “I think I’ve got blisters.”
Hayes pats the top of his helmet. “I’ve got bandages in my bag. We’ll check them in the locker room.”
As they make their way off the ice, I realize the rink is mostly empty except for the Wildcats players who volunteered for the clinic.
Just as I step onto the rubber mats, a small hand slips into mine. Kia looks up at me with those big blue eyes. “Can I come with you? The boys’ locker room smells bad.”
The question catches me off guard, and I glance at Hayes, unsure how to respond.
He shrugs, clearly amused by the situation. “If it’s okay with Coach Ava, it’s fine with me.”
I look down at her again. “I mean... yeah, sure.”
“Yay!” she chirps before pulling me toward the girls’ locker room.
A grin simmers around the corners of Hayes’s mouth as we walk away. “I’ll grab her bag,” he calls after us.
A minute later, he hands me a pink hockey bag that’s bigger than she is. It could probably fit her and one of her brothers inside. I chuckle at the thought as I lead her into the locker room.
There are only a few other girls left, all pink-cheeked and sweaty, slowly peeling off their gear. Kia chatters nonstop as I help remove her helmet, then work on unlacing her skates.
“Are you friends with my brother?” she asks, her tone curious but innocent.
I hesitate, my fingers pausing on her skates. “Umm… yes?”
She doesn’t seem to notice the uncertainty in my answer, and keeps talking, completely unaware. “I miss him when he’s at college. I wish he lived at our house.”
“I bet that’s hard. Does he visit a lot?”
“Yup! Sometimes Mama brings us to his games, and we get to yell his name really loud.” She cups her hands around her mouth and shouts, “Hayes!”
When her voice echoes off the concrete walls of the locker room, I laugh. This girl is way too cute. “I bet he can hear you all the way from the ice.”
“He says he can.” There’s a brief pause and then her voice drops. “Guess what?” She doesn’t give me time to respond before blurting, “He’s gonna play in the NHL next year.”
I raise an eyebrow. “So I’ve heard.”
“And when he does, we’ll have lots and lots of money,” she whispers, as if this is a big secret she’s sharing with me. “He promised I can have a puppy.”