Overtime Read online

Jordie nodded. “I hadn’t even put two and two together. I just thought he really didn’t like the guy.”

  She shrugged, her heart kicking up in speed when she realized she was alone.

  With Jordie.

  Sucking in a breath, she looked over at him to find that he was watching her. “Well, come on. I need a drink to get through this.”

  He only nodded before going to the door and pulling it open for her. Going past him, she tried to ignore the thick coconut smell that came off him in waves, but that was like ignoring a wide-open net.

  She couldn’t.

  Standing as still as she could, she waited as he told the host how many people and then followed as he led them to their table. It was a booth in the back, only one table nearby, but it was empty, much like the rest of the place. As she slid into the booth, Jordie did the same across from her, picking up the menu as she threw her purse beside her.

  “What can I get you to drink?” the waitress asked and Kacey couldn’t order a mango margarita quick enough.

  She looked to Jordie and he smiled as he said, “A water, please.”

  Her brows drew together as her lips curved. Looking across the table at him, she scoffed. “A water.”

  He nodded as he laid the menu down, dunking a chip in the salsa before looking back at her. “Yup.”

  “Weird. I thought you’d get a Corona like you always do. Maybe you have changed,” she said offhandedly. She meant it as a joke to break the tension, but his eyes didn’t leave hers as he nodded.

  “Yeah, I have. I don’t drink anymore.”

  That was huge, and very surprising since Jordie was a big drinker. So to be sure she hadn’t heard him wrong, she asked, “Really?”

  “Yeah, I’m an alcoholic, Kacey. But I am a hundred and fifteen days sober now.”

  Her jaw dropped.

  Wait, no, that couldn’t be.

  But he wasn’t smiling. No, it wasn’t a joke.

  He was serious.

  Holy. Shit.

  “You’re serious?”

  Kacey watched him as he slowly nodded, lacing his fingers together as he leaned back in the booth. Stunned to silence, she could only stare at him wide-eyed as the waitress came back, setting their drinks down for them and asking if they were ready.

  “Can we have another few minutes, please?” Jordie asked, and she nodded before walking away.

  “Like, really? You know for sure?” she asked, but really, she’d always known he was. He really didn’t know how to stop when he started, and sometimes he drank for no reason. She was always too scared to say something because she knew it would give him a reason to blow up and break it off with her.

  “Yeah,” he nodded, his eyes cutting to her drink and then to her.

  “Does this bother you?” she asked, pointing to the drink.

  “Kinda, if I’m honest. But I’ll have to get used to people drinking around me sooner, rather than later. Sort of pisses me off that I want it, y’know? Thought I would be cured by now.”

  “It’s not an overnight thing,” she said softly, sympathy filling her chest.

  “Yeah, but I want it to be.”

  She could see the truth in his eyes, not to mention the way he was eyeing her drink. He was salivating for it, but he only glanced at it a few times. Who could blame him? It looked like a great margarita. One she wanted, but refused to drink with him across from her.

  “I really don’t know what to say,” she said before stopping the waitress. “I decided not to drink, I have to drive.”

  She nodded, but Kacey didn’t miss the annoyed look as she picked up her drink. “Water?”

  “Yes, please,” she answered before looking down at the table, sucking in a breath. “That was the last thing I thought you’d say. I’m a little shocked. But I’m glad; it was a problem.”

  “It was,” he agreed. “But I didn’t realize it until halfway through rehab.”

  She sat up straighter, her eyes widening. “So you actually went to rehab?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, for ninety days. Elli made me.”

  Kacey looked away, hating that he didn’t go for her. She knew he wouldn’t; she didn’t mean anything to him, apparently. But still, it hurt that he went because of Elli. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, since I already threw away everything that mattered because I was fucked in the head, all I had was hockey, and she threatened to take it from me.”

  Oh. Well, didn’t she feel like a jerk. She assumed Elli had talked him into it, not threatened him. “Oh, wow.”

  “She wasn’t playing. She had me in a group until a spot could open at the rehab ranch, but I was still drinking while going through the group, though.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I didn’t think I had a problem, because I thought it was stupid.”

  Just then the waitress came back and they gave their orders, but Kacey instantly forgot what she ordered. Looking at him, she waited for him to continue. She knew there was more, and she wasn’t sure if she could handle it. Those first days back, he’d looked so defeated, and while she’d assumed he was still fucking around and being him, he was actually fighting to be healthy. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t fucking around, that he had changed. She had to keep her wits about her. She couldn’t just jump across the table and cuddle him like she wanted.

  Not only for him, but for her.

  He looked across the table at her, catching her attention with those sullen brown eyes and shrugged. “I was wrong, obviously. Something I’m not proud to admit, but when you walked out that door back in Colorado, everything went to shit. Everything. I was drinking heavily, showing up to PT drunk, and then I went on this weekend in Louisiana that was a downright disaster. You’d think I’d learn from that, but I didn’t. I just drank and drank and drank.”

  “Louisiana? When you got hurt?” she asked, her heart in her throat. She hadn’t realized he had gotten so bad. And why the hell hadn’t he called or returned her phone calls? She would have helped him, been there for him, but he’d pushed her away.

  “Yeah,” he said, letting out a long breath and then slowly looking back up at her. “I went down there, met up with one of my old buddies. He had a party and I got shit-faced, high on some Molly that he had put in my drink without me knowing. And that was what Elli found out and used to send me to rehab.”

  “Oh my God,” she gasped, her jaw dropping. “But you don’t do drugs.”

  “You know that, I know that, even Elli knew that, but I put myself in a position to let it happen. Add in the fact that I was high, drunk, and fucking anyone who would have me, and the trip was not a success.”

  She looked away and shook her head. She shouldn’t have been surprised, but it still hurt to know he’d been fucking around when she couldn’t even dream of sleeping with anyone. She knew he had. It was Jordie; his sex drive was like a sixteen-year-old’s, but still, why wasn’t he as broken as she was?

  Because he didn’t love you! So what was he doing here?

  “I know—disgusting. But I want to be honest.”

  She looked up. “Well, it hurts ’cause while you were off fucking everything, I was borderline depressed, losing a child, and fighting for an Olympic medal—all while still loving you so much it hurt,” she said sharply, her throat thick. “So yeah, it sucks hearing you be honest.”

  He looked away first, pulling in a breath and letting it out. “Want me to lie and tell you that I left you because I didn’t want you?”

  She bit into her lip as she shook her head. “No, I want the truth.”

  “Good, ’cause I was gonna give it to you anyway,” he said, looking up at her. “I know it hurts—it hurts me rehashing it, but we can’t move forward without me fixing what I did.”

  Her brow raised. “You can fix it?”

  He shrugged. “I have no clue, but I want to try.”

  She looked away then, swallowing hard around the lump that was her heart in her throat. He wanted to try to fix what he had done, and Lor