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She took off, her stride quick. “Tough game last night. You okay?”
“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You used to get so disappointed when you lost at anything.”
That was another lifetime. He’d like to think he’d matured somewhat and could take the lows in his stride but given how he was dealing with this Ashley business, achievement definitively not unlocked.
He didn’t respond to her observation. She didn’t have a right to make it, to call up something from the past, like she knew him better than anyone else.
Until Ashley. That woman knew him, the guy inside struggling to get out. She saw a different version of Dex, one who didn’t need clubs or women or fans to tell him he was good enough. He just needed to graduate from this course in manning the fuck up.
A couple of minutes later they arrived at their destination. “A cat café?”
“You don’t like cats?”
“I love cats. And they love me. You should see them go nuts for me at the shelter.”
Except she couldn’t because he’d thrown a fit when he saw her with Cleo.
“They’re great for de-stressing,” she said, as if this was new information to him. He volunteered at the local animal shelter!
She headed inside and he followed, taking in the surroundings. The cats seemed to have free rein here, much different than his usual gig.
“What would you like?” he asked her.
“English breakfast tea, please,” she said to the girl behind the counter.
Like Ashley. Freaking universe doing its freaking thing.
When he asked for a coffee and tried to pay for the entire order, Ruby shook her head. “I’ll pay for my own.”
“Okay.”
Petrov’s advice had resonated, meshing perfectly with Ashley’s words about facing his problems: he needed to get back on an even keel, not let his emotions rule on the ice, which meant fixing things off the ice. But he had no clue how to do this without getting all emo about it. The ground underfoot was shaky and unsure.
Ruby took her cup of tea and headed to a table in the corner. A cat was sitting on the other seat and she picked him up, a cute tabby, and placed it in her lap. Dex was allowed to sit, apparently.
He aimed for a neutral icebreaker. “How was work?”
“Fine. It keeps me busy.”
He nodded, wishing he could fast forward to a finished conversation and a clue what came next.
“Dex, what did you want to talk about?”
“Nothing. Everything. I don’t know how to begin.” He took a sip of his coffee, which was still too hot, not unlike this explosive-loaded conversation.
“Tell me how you’ve been.”
“How I’ve been? Fantastic. I got into trouble and there’s a court case. And there was a whole lot of stuff last year. You probably saw.” Shame stole over him at the idea his mother had read about his exploits. Or worse, witnessed them on YouTube.
“I did.”
“But then I met someone.”
“Ashley.”
Just hearing her name was a comfort. “Yeah. She doesn’t take my shit and I guess I’m not used to that. I’ve relied on hockey for so long to carve me an out. People gave me a pass, excused my shenanigans, but she didn’t. She challenged me to be better, to grow up.”
