“Yeah?” He tugged the laces of his shoes and started tying a knot.
“Drew is outside. Says he needs to talk to you. It’s urgent. Something about your girlfriend.”
Oh no.
Callen quickly tied his other shoe and ran for the door. He grabbed the knob to jerk it open, but a hand caught his shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Magnum moved in front of him, blocking his exit. Callen tried to shove past him. “I’m leaving.”
Magnum’s gripped tightened. “Not yet. I have a bone to pick with you.”
“Whatever it is…it can wait.”
Callen pried his hand off him, but Magnum wouldn’t budge out of his way. “I say it can’t. I didn’t appreciate that little stunt you pulled out there tonight.”
Aggravated, Callen rubbed his head. “What stunt?”
“That ridiculous behind the back pass to your buddy.”
“What?” Callen had no idea what the hell he was talking about. Sure, he’d attempted the same play he’d scored on the previous game, wrapping around behind the goal, but the goalie had scouted him. He beat him to the corner, so Callen had no choice but to pass the puck behind him to a trailing Sam.
Magnum was furious. “I was wide open.”
“Dude,” Callen said, his own anger on edge. He didn’t have time for this shit right now. “The goalie had that side of the goal blocked off. Even if I passed it to you, there’s nowhere you could have put it in.”
Magnum shoved him. “You and your little buddies think they’re going to save you, but they’re not. You’re going to Detroit.”
Callen’s eyes narrowed. “No, I’m not. All those rumors you’ve been hearing have been a lie.”
Austin walked up behind Magnum. “Is there a problem here, guys?”
“Yeah.” Magnum grabbed a stick that sat up against the wall with both hands. “There is.”
With one swift push, Magnum crosschecked Callen straight across the chest with the shaft of the stick. Callen reflexively threw his hands up to block the hit, but the shaft crushed into his wrist. Pain flooded him.
“Shit.” Callen dropped to the floor, clutching his hand against his chest.
It was broken. It definitely felt like it was broken.
Austin immediately grabbed Magnum, throwing him out of the way. Henrik was by his side in a flash. “Are you okay?”
“No.” The pain…it seared through his bones from the tips of his fingers to his elbow. “It’s broken. He fucking broke my hand.”
“You deserve it,” Magnum yelled from around Austin. “You and your stupid new contract is going send the rest of us home.”
“Get him out of here,” Henrik yelled to Austin.
Austin dragged a kicking and screaming Magnum from the room. Henrik rolled Callen over and tried to look at his hand. “I can’t move my fingers,” Callen said through his teeth.
“Someone get a doctor,” Henrik yelled. “And find Coach!”
“I have to get up.” Callen held his hand to his chest and tried to push himself up from the floor. “I can’t go to the hospital right now. Something is wrong with Penny.”
“What?”
It was hard to talk. Every time he tried to move one of his fingers, the pain raged back up again. “Drew is outside. He and Penny weren’t at the game. He said something is wrong.”
The team doctor ran into the room, and Henrik helped Callen sit up. “Don’t worry about it, all right? Let him go x-ray your hand. I’ll take care of Drew and Penny.”
“No—”
“That’s an order, Copley. I’ll make sure Penny is okay.”
The team physician took his hand, straightening out his fingers, and he screamed. Henrik disappeared, and suddenly Callen was alone.
Again. He didn’t know why, but his heart already broke.
Chapter Nineteen
PENNY’S BIG TRUTH
Penny threw stuff into her suitcase, the tears tumbling down her face in waves. All she could think about was Callen. His game would be over. Drew would have reached him by now. How did she let herself get in so deep? They all would hurt because of her. She should have known Angel wouldn’t leave or give up. Her phone rang from atop her pillow on the bed. It was an unknown New York number. It caused the tears to blur her eyes.
They cared.
She didn’t know who it was, but someone cared enough to call.
It made it so much worse. She was no better than Angel. She’d located them. Watched them. She intruded on their life.
A text popped up on the screen almost as soon as the ringing stopped.
Unknown: Callen is hurt. We need you.
Her eyes narrowed.
No. It was a lie. She hadn’t watched the game because she knew it would be too much for her heart to take. She couldn’t look at him again. She’d change her mind if she saw his face…heard his voice. The phone dinged again.
Unknown: This is Henrik. Please call me.
Henrik. Of course it was Henrik. First it was Drew, and now it was him. As if this night could get any worse. The phone started to ring again. She stuffed another shirt in the suitcase, biting her lip. She couldn’t ignore him a second time. She grabbed the phone and answered it.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Henrik’s reply was instant. “He wants you here. They took him to the hospital.”
Her chest ached. “What happened?”
“Meet me at the front doors of Presbyterian Hospital in lower Manhattan and I’ll tell you.”
She cried. No mattered what she did, it wouldn’t stop the tears. “You’re lying. You’re just trying to get me not to leave.”
There was a long pause. “Drew told me about your mother.”
“She won’t go away.” She sucked in a breath, her hand clenched in the fabric in her suitcase like she might throw it all back out. “She’s getting more desperate by the day. I’m afraid of what she might do next. What she might try to do to all of you.”
“If you want to leave, I won’t stop you, Penny. If that’s what you want to do, but you will tell Callen why. You can walk out on us, but I know you. I’ve seen you with him. You can’t just walk away from him.”
Was she really that transparent? Could the entire world see her heart on her sleeve? She tried to slow her breathing, to keep her thoughts calm and rational. “Is he really hurt?”
“Yes. And all he cares about right now is you.”
She kicked the side of her bed. The fear that planted itself inside of her so many years ago couldn’t compare to the way she loved him. She didn’t deserve his concern, but she also couldn’t deny him. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Tell him I’m on my way.”
Henrik was right. She couldn’t leave him behind. He’d promised to take her with him if he left. She owed him an answer. A goodbye, at least. Because that was what it would be when he found out the truth. He would assume the worst, and it would be true. Yes, she always had a crush on him, but she wouldn’t have put herself out there. She never would have been brave enough to talk to him if hadn’t been for her selfish plan.
He’d hate her for it.
And he should. She hated herself.
Penny went to the bathroom and wiped the tears from her face then grabbed her jacket. It took thirty minutes to make it to the hospital, and as he promised, Henrik stood at the front door waiting for her. She ran to him. “Tell me what happened to him. Is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine. Possibly a broken wrist.”
She let out gush of breath. Thank goodness it wasn’t serious. Henrik’s hand touched her shoulder. “You know he won’t care, right?”
She glanced up. “About what?”
“Whatever it is you’re afraid to tell him. It’s Callen. He’s crazy about you. Whatever it is…he won’t care.”
She shook her head. She refused to let hope surface. “It’s not that simple.”
“Try him.”
Her expression turned angry. It was either
get mad, or suffocate from the ache that spread through her entire body. “I’m afraid of losing him.”
“Losing someone isn’t the end. I lost Leila more than once. Anger fades. Love doesn’t.” He held his hand out to her. “Come on, I’ll walk with you. He’s waiting on you.”
It took her a moment, but she took Henrik’s hand and followed him into the hospital. They had Callen in a room, and according to the nurse, his wrist wasn’t broken. He’d only be out a couple weeks.
Henrik opened the door to the room. Everyone was crowded in there. Another nurse wrapped his hand with tape and applied a bag of ice on top of it. “Leave it on for at least thirty minutes,” she said, but Callen wasn’t listening. He was too busy looking at her.
“Penny. You came.”
She eased her way into the room. “For you…always.”
They all stared at her. She wondered how much Drew told them. It couldn’t have been much because they all still smiled at her. Except for Drew. He stood. “Are you going to tell him?”
“Drew,” Henrik warned.
His eyes narrowed. “I told you what her mother said. I want to know if it’s true.”
Her mother knew her plan. She’d been in the room when her grandmother told her to go find them. Angel didn’t understand, though. Penny didn’t want someone to take care of her. She didn’t want their money. She wasn’t her. “It’s not true.”
“Then why the fake name? Why did she call you Esa?”
“It’s not fake,” she said, the tears already threatening her vision again.
She couldn’t stand it that Drew was angry. It was what she feared the whole time. She could live with never knowing the truth, but she couldn’t stand knowing they hated her.
Callen scooted out to the edge of the bed. “Esa is her real name. I know that. Penny is just a nickname her grandmother gave to her. She’s changing it though.”
Drew’s eyes narrowed at her. “Is that the real reason?”
Penny looked away. Callen sat up on the bed, his hand tucked close to his chest. “What’s he talking about?”
“I met her mother tonight,” Drew said, moving closer to Penny. “She started accusing Penny of things, and the next thing I know, Penny wants to leave. I want to know if everything she’s been telling us is true.”
Hurt. It was already in his eyes. Like he expected it. “What is he talking about?”
Penny straightened her shoulders. “It’s not true,” she said directly to Drew, because she couldn’t bear to look at Callen. “I don’t want anything from you.”
“What is he talking about?” Callen repeated.
Penny turned around, her voice tight in her throat. “I didn’t come to New York on a whim.”
This was it. She had to tell him. She had to tell all of them. For better or worse…love or hate…they would finally know the real her. She scrambled around in her purse for her license. The paperwork still hadn’t come in for her name change, so her license still told the ugly truth of it. Hand shaking, she handed it to Callen.
“This is why I didn’t want you to see my license that night at the restaurant,” she said, her voice breaking. “Because then you would have known the truth right away.”
Callen turned the license over, his eyes rounding. She knew the instant he saw her name. Her whole name. “This can’t be right.”
“It is. I came to New York to find them.”
Drew stepped in front of her. “What does it say?”
“Her name is Esa Rylander.”
Drew twirled around. “Rylander? How are you a Rylander?”
Penny took a breath. “Turns out we have the same good-for-nothing father.”
Drew shook his head. “There’s no way. We can’t. You’re American. We were born in Sweden.”
Penny bit her lip, afraid of them finally knowing everything she hated about herself. “My mother was a model. She traveled the world doing odd jobs. She met your father on a trip in Stockholm. I was born nine months later in the back seat of a cab in London.”
Drew couldn’t speak. Penny turned to Henrik. “This isn’t how I wanted you to find out.” She tried to wipe the tears off her face. “I also understand that seeing as how Drew and I are practically the same age, that I’m a product of your father’s affair. It’s okay if you don’t want to know me. I just needed to know you. To know that it was true, and I didn’t know for sure. Not until Drew told me his father’s name earlier tonight.”
Shit. She couldn’t stop crying. “When my grandmother got sick, she told me that you existed. That somewhere I had a half-brother. She wanted me to find you, to have a family after she was gone. I had no clue about Drew until I got here.” She turned back to Callen. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
Callen stood. “You came to New York for them.”
Yes. He’d put two and two together. “Yes, but I want to stay for you.”
The pain was so clear in his eyes. “When you talked to me at the Bistro…was that because…”
He couldn’t even say it. He knew it was the truth.
“I love you, Callen. Nothing I said changes the way I feel about you.”
Hurt. Betrayed. It was all there on his face. And he didn’t say it back. That was what hurt most of all.
She cupped her hand over her mouth, fighting back the pain. She loved him and he didn’t say it back.
Penny turned and ran for the door. She couldn’t do this. She shouldn’t have come here. If she had left, he might have hated her, but deep down there still could have been love there. Now there would be nothing. She threw herself against the door and bolted into the hallway. She tripped over her own feet, falling to her knees, and she didn’t have the strength to pull herself back up.
He didn’t say it back.
The door behind her opened, and a hand touched her shoulder. “I meant what I said before.” It was Henrik. He pulled her up, helping her to her feet. “Anger fades. But love won’t. Give him time.”
She could barely see him for the tears. Henrik wiped them away with the sleeve of his shirt. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t you dare apologize to me.” He had her license. He turned it over, showcasing her name. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
“That was my plan. My mom always said she met my father at a bar, that he was divorced. She stayed in Stockholm for months, dating him, until she found out she was pregnant. Apparently, they got in some big fight about it, and she left. But then, I came here to find you, and I saw Drew. We looked the same age. I looked up his stats up on his team’s website last year. We were born a month apart. Who wants to hear that their father cheated on their mother?”
“Look—I know my father. Nothing surprises me about him. He left us when Drew was a baby. He abandoned us all.”
The door creaked open behind them, and Drew, head down, stepped into her view. “I can’t believe I didn’t know. You look just like us.”
Henrik smiled and reached over and touched the end of her braid. “She definitely has the Rylander hair.”
Penny tried to catch her breath. “Do you hate me?”
Drew shook his head. “No. I’m sorry I made you tell us like this.”
Penny stared at the door. She willed it to open again. It didn’t. “He will hate me.”
Drew looked back at the door that still—still—remained shut then walked to her. “You didn’t use him.”
“I liked him. A lot.”
“And your mother was wrong.”
She nodded furiously. “I don’t want anything from you. I only wanted to know you. I only wanted a family again.”
Drew pulled her into a hug. “And you will.”
Penny laid her head on his shoulder. Everything in her head was such a mess. “My mother, though…she won’t go away.”
“Yes, she will,” Henrik said, his voice certain and strong. “You’re not alone anymore. She’s outnumbered now.”
Penny cried as she smiled into Drew’s shoulder. He held her tight, pr
omising her it would all be okay. It should have been the happiest moment of her life. She had a family again.
But…she’d already had that with Callen. It wouldn’t be the same without him. Henrik’s words echoed in her mind. Love won’t fade. The ache in her heart wouldn’t ever go away.
She loved Callen Copley.
And she always would, no matter what.
Chapter Twenty
CALLEN’S CHALLENGE
Penny is a Rylander.
He kept saying it over and over. He sat on the bed. He didn’t recall sitting down. Nothing in his head made any sense. He barely remembered why he was even at the hospital until a sharp pain shot through his wrist when his hand clutched at his heart. Was it breaking? Was that what it felt like? Physical pain that caused your world to explode around you?
Fingers touched his temple. “Cali?”
“Penny is a Rylander,” he said out loud, or maybe he’d been saying it out loud this whole time.
Leila’s hand clenched his shoulder. She had tears in her eyes. “I know.”
She smiled.
He turned to look at Magnolia. She too smiled and cried. What kind of emotion was that? Happy tears? Why didn’t he feel like that?
“She initiated the conversation with me,” he said, trying to figure it out in his mind. “She spoke to me first. Because I’m their friend.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that. Why else would she have talked to me?”
Austin stood from his seat across the room. “I know you’re angry.”
“Damn right, I am.”
“And you’re hurt.”
Callen gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to admit to that. Austin walked toward him. “But ask yourself something. How many times did she ask you about Drew or Henrik?”
Never.
Austin sat on the end of the bed. “When she had the chance to hang out with Leila and go to Henrik’s house…what did she do instead?”
The Girl With Daisies (Midtown Brotherhood #3) Page 16