PUCKED Up (42 page)

After I stopped moping, I looked into their situation. It isn’t very good. Neither parent has benefits, so they’re out of pocket for all the medication. Applications for support can take months. It also looks like they’ll have to pull Michael out of hockey because they can’t afford it. Dealing with cancer as a kid is bad enough without losing one of the things that makes life fun.

“
Sidney and I have contacted a bunch of people, and we’ve already secured a few significant donations,” Vi reports. “And you’ve contacted the porno car wash guy, right?”

“
Yup. Gene’s all over donating as long as he can get center-ice seats.”

“
Easy enough.” Vi types frantically on her laptop. “Overhead is covered, apart from a few thousand dollars, so almost everything beyond that will go to Michael’s family. So far it’s looking good. I have a list of volunteers for the day of, and Sidney’s secured an arena, vendors, and security close to Michael so he won’t have to travel. We can start promoting ticket sales as soon as the teams are finalized.”

“
Awesome.” I’m amazed at the number of people required to run this event and how quickly we’ve been able to pull it together. My donation to the car wash fundraiser and my involvement in the camp have gone a long way in helping build positive buzz and to making this whole thing easier. Gene has been a great about sharing information and strategies, and he’s given me some new contacts.

“
I ordered the T-shirts,” she adds.

“
Nice. Wait. What? Why would you do that? I haven’t made a decision about the name yet.”

“
I made it for you.” She taps the space bar on the computer, pretending to do something so she doesn’t have to look at me.

“
I wish you hadn’t done that. Now I’m going to have to look at hundreds of people wearing shirts with Project Sunshine in huge yellow letters.”

“
They’re great shirts.”

“
Yeah, but—”

“
Yeah, but nothing. Sunny needs to see for herself what she let go. Besides, it’s too late to cancel the order for the shirts or the jerseys.” She gives me a big, jerky grin. “Also, Alex is going to the gym this afternoon.”

“
So?”

“
You still need a few more players, right? He’s been asking about it, but it’s not up to me if he can play or not. You might want to clear the air before the season starts so you don’t murder each other on the ice.”

“
We’ve punched each other out; we should be even.” I’d like to punch him again, but I won’t. “I guess it might be a good idea since you’re gonna marry him and all, huh? I’m gonna have to deal with him no matter what.”

Vi sniffs and wipes away a fake tear. “Look at you, growing up, being the man. I’m so proud.”

“
Suck it.”

“
Alex was unreasonable. We’re mostly okay, but I’m still not happy with how he managed himself. I’ve been doing a lot of withholding. It hasn’t been easy, but I think he’s starting to get it.”

“
Withholding?”

She gestures to herself. “He gets none of this right now. So I’m responsible for taking care of my own orgasms. It’s seriously fucking inconvenient for me, but I’m willing to take a stand for you, so remember that.”

I try to speak, but there aren’t any words to express the level of overshare or my gratitude.

Violet waves a hand around. “Alex hasn’t always done the right thing when it comes to Sunny, and he knows that, even if he won’t ever admit it to you. He also knows how miserable she is right now, and he’s worried. At the end of the day, he wants her to be happy.”

He can’t be all bad if Vi’s willing to spend the rest of her life with him.

“
I’ll talk to him when I see him.” I don’t want to get into another discussion about calling Sunny, so I change the topic. “How’re the wedding plans coming?”

Every time I bring this up, Vi has a mini freak-out. It’s fun to watch.

Her eye twitches, and she rubs her palms on her legs. “Ugh. Seriously. We haven’t been engaged that long. And with all this bullshit going on . . . you’d think we were in a state of emergency or something. Daisy and my mom are psycho about it. They have a running list of, like, two hundred people, and that’s just for the engagement party. I keep telling Alex we need to elope. I can’t deal with a five-hundred-person wedding. We’re not even Italian. It’s craziness.

“
I don’t get the whole need to be a princess for a day. I don’t want to be a princess. I want to be Violet Waters so I have a princessy, romantic name. The rest of it is total crap meant to propagate false expectations for marriage.”

“
Wow. Way to sell it, Vi.”

“
Screw you, Buck. You just wait. Your day will come, and when it does I’ll laugh it up like you are. Talking about this is giving me hives.”

At first I think she’s being dramatic, but then I see irregular red dots appear on her arms.

“
Does Waters know you’re this stressed out?”

“
Say one word and I’ll—”

“
Shave my balls. I know.”

“
I was gonna say armpits, but you had to go for the genitalia, didn’t you?”

“
Shouldn’t you be excited and not stressed? Don’t girls love this shit.”

Violet scratches the angry red welts expanding on her arm and ignores my questions.

The sound of the patio door opening in the condo next door puts me on alert. A new chick moved in while I was away. I haven’t officially met her, but we’ve chatted, and I’ve met her yappy dog’s nose through the tennis-ball-sized drainage hole where my privacy wall meets hers. The patter of nails on the tile follows, and his little brown nose appears in the hole, then it disappears and his paw shows up. He whines, aware he can’t get to me.

“
Doodle! Stop being a pest!” The woman next door snaps her fingers and calls out, “Hi, neighbor!”

“
Morning.” I call back.

Vi whispers, “Doodle? She named her dog after a penis?”

I shake my head and motion for us to go inside. This lady can be chatty for someone I’ve never seen, and for some reason her voice is familiar. We sneak back inside and finish planning the next phase of Project Sunshine. In two days I fly to Toronto to see Michael. We have a promo video to make—it’s been scheduled so it’s before his chemo treatment. Then I’m hanging around for that to keep him company.

Vi leaves before lunch, and I head to the gym. I staunchly avoid the coed section and the smattering of bunnies hanging around looking to chat. I also note that Randy avoids the bunnies, which is atypical for him. After two hours of hardcore training, I hit the showers.

Waters is already in there with his back to me. This is the first time I’ve seen him since he broke my nose. Here’s hoping he’s going to be civil about it. I leave a shower between us and turn on the spray, adjusting it until it’s hot enough to relax my tight muscles.

“
Waters.”

“
Butterson.” He glances my way briefly and motions to my face. “Looks like you’re healing up good.”

“
Yup.” Most of the bruising has faded to that ugly yellow-green, and I’m done with the bandage. The stitches came out a couple of days ago.

“
That’s good.”

“
Yup.” I love awkward, naked conversations.

“
Violet stopped by your place this morning.”

“
Yup. We had a breakfast meeting. Business stuff.”

“
She’s been at your place a lot.”

“
We’re working on a project.”

“
Yeah, I know.” He rubs a bar of soap over his almost hair-free chest. “How’s that going, anyway?”

“
It’s good. I think it will be successful.” Now would be a good time to get him involved. Except he beats me to it.

“
You know, if you need extra players, I’d be happy to join.”

“
Sure. Yeah.” I cut the water. “That’d be cool. There’s a couple spaces left. Vi’ll fill you in on the details.”

“
Great. Good. I think what you’re doing is commendable.”

“
Thanks.”

There’s an awkward pause and then he asks, “Vi seem all right to you?”

“
She’s been fine with me. Why? Is something going on?”

“
Skye and my mom want to plan an engagement party. I’m not sure Vi’s too thrilled about it.”

“
She mentioned that.”

That gets his attention. He stops washing his hair to focus on me. “She say something?”

“
You know how she is about being the center of attention. You can always tell how stressed Vi is by how much ice cream she eats.”

“
Two nights ago she ate a whole pint of Ben and Jerry’s and had to sleep on the bathroom floor.” He’s not laughing about it the way I usually do.

I consider the conversation Vi and I had about ice cream being punishment. I can’t imagine why she would feel the need to punish herself over being stressed about their engagement party. “Sometimes I replace the ice cream with frozen yogurt. The aftermath isn’t as bad. If you can get her to eat sorbet instead, you’ll avoid the whole issue.” This is a weird-ass conversation to be having in the shower.

“
Thanks for the tip. Did she say anything else to you?”

He’s legit worried about her. I don’t mind putting him on the edge. “What Vi and I talk about is in confidence. I’ve already said more than I should.” I grab my towel.

Waters is quick about rinsing off as I collect my shampoo and soap. “Come on, Butterson.”

“
Just talk to her. I’m sure she’ll tell you what’s what.” Both Waters and I know that’s not true. Vi can sit on a problem for weeks before she finally says something about it. It’s her personality. She’s a marinater.

“
I know you two are close. If you know something important, it’d be great if you told me, Miller.”

I don’t think Waters has ever used anything apart from my last name to address me. I wrap the towel around my waist and face him. This is the opportunity I’ve been looking for. It’s perfect. He’s stressed over Violet’s stress. I’m happy about that. It means he cares.

“
Vi left my place today with hives because I asked her about the wedding. They popped up out of nowhere. She’s stressed. If I were you, I’d take good care of her right now. Make sure she’s okay with what’s going on. You don’t want to end up swimming in shits creek with me. I remember what you were like the last time she dumped your ass. It wasn’t pretty.”

I expect some assholey reply, because that’s usually what I get, but I’m met with silence. I turn to walk away.

“
Miller.”

“
What?”

“
Do you think she’s okay? I mean after this shit—” He motions between us. “Should I . . .”

“
Be worried?” I finish for him. “Yeah, man. She may not be my blood, but she’s my family, and me and Vi, we’re tight. Right now you’re fucking things up.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

PUCK WATERS AND HIS TIMING

Late the next night I get a phone call from a number I don’t recognize. I’m apprehensive about answering. If it’s a bunny, I don’t want to deal—I’ve had more calls than usual since I got home, or maybe I’m noticing them more now that Sunny and I aren’t talking every day. It’s late for a business call. Still, I don’t want to miss something important. I’ve been fielding a lot of calls for Project Sunshine this week.

“
Hello?”

“
Hi, is this Miller?”

The female voice is familiar, and she doesn’t call me Buck, so it can’t be a bunny. “Yup. Who’s this?”

“
It’s Lily.”

“
Oh. Hey.” I have a million thoughts, most of them of the
WTF
variety. “Is Sunny okay? Did something happen?”

“
She’s okay. Well, mostly.”

“
What do you mean
mostly
?” I’m already throwing off the covers.

“
Nothing bad has happened, not apart from you breaking up with her.”

That sounds like a dig. I lay back against the pillows, the kick in my chest settling. “If she’s okay, what’s going on?”

I get silence for so long I think she’s hung up. Finally she clears her throat. “I wanted to apologize.”

Lily doesn’t seem like the type to do the apology thing. Not without some difficulty, anyway. Maybe she’s different with people she likes more.

“
For what?” I ask.

“
I was wrong about you. I feel bad about the way I’ve treated you. I just—I didn’t want Sunny to get hurt, and I made some assumptions I shouldn’t have.”