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“Go ahead!” Now she’s the one laughing, leaning back her seat. “I could use some fresh air and some quiet.”
With the sunroof open, I lean back my seat too and then reach for her hand in the dark.
For a while, we remain silent. I have a question stuck my throat, and a little package burning a hole in my pocket.
“Ugh, I don’t want to be worried about Ali,” Emily frowns, sitting up.
“We can call Meredith soon.” I assure her. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
She turns her gaze to me, looking at me questioningly.
I take the package out of my jacket, but don’t let her see it it yet. “Emily…” I start, “I know you want someone to take care of you and your little girl. Let me be that someone?”
I place the little velvet box in her hands, and she opens it curiously, not believing her eyes.
I know you’re supposed to spend three months’ salary on it, but the store didn’t have a ring that expensive.
“Andrew, this is crazy!” Emily laughs nervously and gives me back the ring. “We’ve just spent six years apart, and I’m only just relearning how to love you. This is not what Ali and I need!”
After placing the ring back in my pocket, I take in the brunt of the rejection and gather back the pieces of my ego from the floor.
With a sigh, I ask, “Just what do you need? Tell me and I’ll give it to you.”
Emily’s eyes well up, and I sense a wound deep inside me that feels like it just won’t ever heal.
“You want to be serious, huh? So, let’s be serious. For starters, your daughter needs a father by her side, Andrew,” she says, knocking my world upside down.
“Daughter?” I blink like crazy.
“You heard me,” Emily says, resolute. “There was never anything with Patrick Shire, and there was never any other man. I kept my side of the promise and waited for you, damn it!”
Quiet tears run down my cheeks as I sit wide eyed in shock.
My suspicions were correct, yet I feel like I have a clown nose superglued to my face, and that it will stay there until I can make things right.
But how can I possibly do that?
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry. Please give me the chance to make it up to you. To both of you. I wanted you both in my life and my future and I didn’t even know she was my daughter. What do you think I’d do now? Anything.”
My head and heart are still reeling to hear that Ali is really mine.
My daughter.
Of course, I had my suspicions, but to have them confirmed...
It changes everything.
There’s no way I’m losing them.
Emily holds my head firmly and looks deeply in my eyes in the moonlit darkness. “I’m already doing it. And you’re taking several steps in the right direction. Your world is so different from ours, and I’m not sure we can adapt.”
“Come over here.” I invite her to climb on top of me. “How about you come to know my world, huh?”
“What do you mean?” Emily asks, intrigued.
“Travel with me during these Stanley Cup rounds. It’s just a few months. We have a few more games here, but our next games will be in Florida. We can take Ali once she is out of school. You can keep on mingling with the players’ girlfriends and wives. You and Alissa can get more of an idea of this lifestyle. What do you say?”
She groans, leaning her head against my chest. “I don’t want to mingle with the players’ wives, I want to mingle with you.”
