Cade: Fire And Ice: A Second Chance Hockey Romance by Jessica Lake, Alana Hart Page A

they knew who I was and they knew who Cade was and they probably didn't have any idea why he was hanging out with me. He looked after me, though, directly meeting the glances of anyone who stared too long with his own cold gaze until they looked away.
    He also pestered me to fill the cart with more fresh produce than I wanted, because I couldn't admit that the fridge at home was full of bottles of cheap vodka and gin. If it wasn't, it soon would be and I knew my mother wouldn't think twice about throwing food away to keep her alcohol cold.
    By the time we were finished shopping my whole lower face had started to throb ominously, in a way I knew was only going to get worse, so Cade bought me a big bottle of ibuprofen at the pharmacy and we headed back to my family's trailer at around eight o'clock. I was relieved to see none of the lights were on - it meant my mother wasn't up and that meant I wouldn't have to explain my injuries to her.
    "Are you sure you don't want me to come in? I could help you make dinner for the boys."
    Cade was looking at me hopefully but I knew it was out of the question. There was no way I was going to risk a confrontation with my mother, who was a mean drunk on her best days and a borderline psychopathic one on her worst, in front of him. It was bad enough that he knew we couldn't afford groceries and that my little brothers - and me - barely had enough items of clothing to keep ourselves warm. The gruesome truth was going to have to stay hidden.
    "No, Cade, I'll be OK. The boys need to be in bed anyway, I'll just fix them a quick meal and tuck them in."
    "Will you be in school tomorrow? Will I see you?"
    I turned my head away and grimaced as a spike of pain shot through my nose and down through my jaw.
    "Yeah, I'll be there, Cade. Thank you for...everything, today."
    We said our goodbyes and I waited until he was halfway down the road leading back to his part of town before stashing the majority of the groceries in the shed and only taking what needed to be refrigerated and what I was going to feed the boys that night into the house.
    They were all sitting on the couch waiting for me and there was just enough light to see the stress on their little faces.
    "Hello, you three!" I whispered, holding up the groceries in the hopes of distracting them from all the bandages. "Who's hungry?"
    David hopped off the sofa and approached warily, as if he wasn't quite convinced it was me.
    "Ellie. What are all those white things?"
    I looked down at him, running my hand through his hair and noting that it needed to be washed.
    "I hurt myself at school today. I fell down the stairs! It's OK, though. It doesn't hurt. Are you boys hungry?"
    They were hungry. They followed me into the kitchen and watched as I cracked eggs into a pan and threw in canned corn, peas and carrots to make them my version of an omelet. The rest of the house was quiet.
    "Is mom sleeping?" I asked Jacob.
    "Yeah, she was awake when I got home from school but then she fell asleep. Is your arm broken?"
    "No, not broken. I just hurt my wrist," I lied, desperate to shield the boys from the truth.
    As soon as the omelet was ready I served it to them and then sat down at the table. My face and wrist were in pain but one of the ibuprofen pills seemed to keep it just about under control. I was just happy to see my brothers eating something nutritious. I wet a kitchen towel and wiped their faces when they were done, deciding against a bath due to the chance of waking my mom and then tucking them into bed and sitting in the dark bedroom with them until they were all asleep.
    It was when I was walking back to the kitchen to clean up the plates and the saucepan I'd cooked the eggs in that I walked straight into my mother, who hadn't bothered to turn a light on when she'd crept out of her bedroom to top up her drink.
    I just barely managed to stifle a scream, groaning into my palm and almost falling over as pain ripped through the lower half of my