Comeback by Catherine Gayle Read Free Book Online Page A

of his teammate’s head.
    Vladdie whipped his head around to glare at him. Nicky raised his brows and shrugged, leading to Vladdie rattling off a long stream of Russian blabber that was likely not very complimentary based on his tone.
    “What’s that Berezin is saying?” Darryl asked, and I couldn’t help but groan. Whether Nicky understood what his teammate had been saying or not, I doubted it was anything that could be repeated on air.
    “Vladdie says next time he’s going to get the better end of a hit against Ekman-Larsson, but I think if he’s going to do that he needs to spend a little more time in the gym.” When Vladdie’s head whipped around this time, Nicky flexed his arm muscles almost comically.
    More Russian babble came after that, followed by a very audible, Fuck you, Nicky , that the television censors apparently weren’t ready for.
    Nicky smiled from ear to ear. “You too, buddy. You too.” Then he looked straight into the camera, disproving my earlier assumption, and he winked. “Hope my mic didn’t pick up any of that. My niece and nephews are watching tonight. They don’t need to learn any dirty Russian. They already know too much dirty Swedish.”
    It warmed my insides to see him smiling like that, particularly with all I knew he had going on in his life.
    Darryl kept talking to him for another minute or two. All the while, Nicky kept smiling and joking, seeming as though nothing was wrong. This was the Nicky I’d come to expect in the time that I’d known him, a man who could make light of any situation. Only, in the last several days, he hadn’t been like that at all. Maybe he was better at putting on a mask and pretending everything was all right than I’d given him credit for. If I didn’t know everything happening with his sister right now, I would have never been able to guess that anything was bothering him.
    That was how things had been with my ex-husband, Steve. At least for a while. Any time he wasn’t drunk, he’d seemed as put together as could be. No one outside of our marriage had ever suspected that he had a drinking problem. He’d been the life of the party, always ready with a smile or a laugh, always there to ensure everyone around him was having a good time. It was only when we’d been alone and he’d been drunk that everything about him changed, and he’d become a surly, angry, depressed man determined to bring me down with him.
    I’d stayed with him for six years of that before I’d started trying to convince him that he needed help. And when he’d refused to try, I’d known there was nothing else I could do. Whether I loved him or not, I couldn’t keep living like that. So I’d left and I’d started over. He was the last addict I could ever let myself love because it hurt too damn much.
    Nicky signed off so the commentators could go back to calling the game, smiling into the camera one more time, and then he winked as he took the headset off. The broadcast went back to the full screen on the action, and he wasn’t grinning at me anymore. I reminded myself that he hadn’t been grinning at me , anyway. It had probably been for his sister, for his niece and nephews. It had been a smile meant to show the whole world that he was fine, that he wasn’t broken inside.
    It had been a lie. I had to remember that or else I’d end up as broken as he was.

    EMMA, HENRIK, AND the kids were all still up by the time I got home from the game. It was after eleven but it was a weekend, and they were all still jet-lagged and trying to adjust to the time change.
    I’d barely come through the door before Hugo and Nils were attacking me with hugs and attempting to climb up my legs. Henrik looked at me from the kitchen, where he was putting away dishes. He chuckled and shook his head at the way they were all over me.
    “Did you see that goal Golston scored?” Nils demanded.
    “I did.” Nicky nodded. “I was on the bench with a great view.”
    “Spin-o-rama! Between