Chapter 23: Cassidy

##Chapter 23: Cassidy

Book One: Stay

My father has always been blunt, and he cuts right to the heart of the matter as he stabs a finger at me. "That's no longer your equipment to take. You forfeited it when you got kicked off the team and flunked out of college."

The razor-sharp comments leave me wincing, but I keep my face an emotionless mask. I'll be damned if he sees how much his words and attitude are still able to inflict damage. Sometimes it's difficult to believe we were ever close. I'm his eldest and the only daughter who followed him into hockey. He used to be so proud of me and my accomplishments.

Both on and off the ice.

Miranda and Lexie had refused from the beginning to take skating lessons. He didn't bother trying to get them to play hockey. I, on the other hand, had loved it from the very first lesson. Sometimes I wonder if the reason I'd loved it so much was because we were the only two who shared it. Hockey was a bond that neither my mom nor my sisters could penetrate