Read Online Body Check by Deirdre Martin - Free Book Online

floor was shaking. She gestured towards the CD player, wincing apologetically. “Could you—?”
    â€œWuss.” Wills turned down the stereo.
    â€œThanks.”
    Janna gazed around the four walls of the messy room. Every inch of available space was covered with pictures of either Britney Spears and Christine Aguilera, or posters of Wills’s sports heroes. There was Mark McGwire standing at home plate, and Michael Jordan three feet off the ground in the middle of a slam dunk, and—
    Ty Gallagher, holding a place of honor above the head-board of Wills’s bed.
    Janna turned to him. “When did you get that?”
    â€œLast week.” Wills flopped down on his stomach on the bed. “Dad said you work with him. Is that true?”
    â€œYup.”
    â€œCan I meet him?” There was no hiding the excitement in his voice.
    Janna hesitated.
    â€œPleeeasse?” Wills begged.
    Janna cleared away some dirty laundry and sat down on the edge of the bed. “All right,” she promised, images of Ty telling her and her punky brother to take a hike dancing through her head.
    â€œYes!” Wills pumped his fist in the air. “I knew there was a reason you were my favorite sister.”
    â€œI thought it was because I baked you a double chocolate brownie cake for your birthday.”
    â€œDouble yes!” Wills exclaimed. He looked at his sister with outright adoration. “You rule.”
    â€œI try.” Janna’s eyes kept drifting to the bright color poster of Gallagher on the ice, his expression fierce. He looked so—manly. Intense. Like some kind of warrior, not at all like the arrogant, uncooperative jerk she knew him to be. She tore her eyes away, focusing her attention on her brother.
    â€œSo, how does it feel to be twelve?”
    Wills shrugged. “Dunno. The same.”
    â€œWhat did Mom and Dad give you?”
    â€œNew hockey skates,” Wills recited, bored. “New skate-board.” He shrugged again. “Stuff.”
    Stuff , Janna thought, her throat growing thick with words she longed to give voice to but knew she couldn’t. That had always been her parents’ way: to ply their kids with stuff, a way to assuage their guilt over not being able to give their children the important things, so caught up were they in their own drama.
    â€œHow’s it been around here lately?” Janna asked quietly. She watched as her brother flipped over on his back and stared up at the ceiling, his hands folded on his stomach in repose.
    â€œThe same,” he said evasively. “You know.”
    The same meaning their mother having one cocktail too many before dinner then tearing into their father, telling him she married beneath her. Both of them yelling about working-class this and hoity-toity that. Shanty Irish. Ice Princess. My God, Janna despaired. Didn’t they care how it affected Wills? Then again, why should they? They didn’t care how it affected her and her sisters.
    She ruffled his hair, a gesture he obviously thought he was now too old for as he jerked his head away. “Sorry,” she apologized. “Look, you know you can come stay with me anytime. I mean it. Or call me.”
    He turned to her, hopeful. “If I stay with you, can I meet Ty Gallagher?”
    â€œHow ’bout this.” Janna thought a moment. “How ’bout you come home with me tonight, and tomorrow morning, I take you to a Blades practice with me and you can meet the guys?”
    Wills jumped up. “You can do that? Really?”
    â€œSure I can do that,” Janna assured him, her heart filling with happiness as she saw the excited, little boy expression on his face.
    â€œAnd I can get autographs and stuff?”
    â€œYup.”
    â€œAnd a picture of me with Ty?”
    â€œWe can try.”
    â€œYou’re the best!” He hopped off the bed, impulsively kissing the side of her face. “Wait till I tell the