I’m about three seconds from beating my chest like a caveman. I doubt she’d respond well to being hit over the head by my stick, but it’s worth a shot. Right?
Eloise holds up a shirt for Victoria, who wrinkles her nose. I’m moving in her direction, only a few feet away when a tinyvoice demands more goldfish. My heart stops beating in my chest as I stutter to a stop.
The ba-dum of the brewing headache is drowned out by the tiny person’s voice.
The squeak of my shoes on the linoleum draws Victoria’s attention. Frozen in place I glance down at where the voice came from then back to his mom. She’s far more relaxed than I am in this situation.
Do I run? Do I stay?
Eloise catches my eye, and her brows peak.
Instead of yelling or shooing me away, Victoria beckons me closer. Can’t tell if it’s to punch me in the face or to say hi, but she nods, and I take that as an invitation to step into their space.
“Hey.” It’s one word, and I’m already breathless.
“Hey, yourself.” Her returning smile is almost shy, it’s not like her. She’s probably nervous about how this is going to go. She’s not the only one.
Eloise’s surprise has shifted to intrigue but she stays quiet, observing the scene unfolding.
“Hi.” The miniature version of me steps out from behind Victoria’s legs and beams up at me. Guess he’s not in the least bit shy or scared of strangers. “I’m Wyatt.”
Crouching down to his level, I offer a fist bump. “Hi, Wyatt. I’m Raffi. I’m a friend of your Mom’s.”
Returning my fist bump with his tiny clenched fist, he smiles. “You like fish?” He offers me one of those food catcher containers that are impossible to get your hand out of once you put your fingers in.
“Ilovefish. But I’m good, thanks.”
My dude isn’t taking no for an answer. He shoves the container at me, making his mom laugh. “He doesn’t want a goldfish cracker right now, buddy. You have them. Great sharing, though.”
Wyattlooks at me for a long moment, like this guy said he loves fish but he doesn’t want fish. His little brain is trying to figure out how someone couldnotwant fish.
He turns his attention back to cramming crackers in his mouth, and tears fill my eyes. This kid is part of me. He’s a walking, talking, goldfish-cracker-eating miniature copy of his mom and me. What the fuck do I do with that?
Every bone in my body wants to swoop this little guy up and smush him until he punches me in the face to put him down. But that’s not cool. Not yet. Maybe never. And I need to be okay with that. Even if my heart aches to just breathe him in.
Victoria’s jade eyes are watering like mine when I stare up at her. Her face softens, and for a moment, there’s only the three of us. My girl, my kid, and me, right here in the hockey store.
“You free tomorrow night?”
My headshake is so slow because I’m half tempted to blow off practice and the gym for whatever she might want me to do.
She scrunches up her face like she knows what I’m doing and isn’t cool with it. Don’t blame her—if all she’s known of hockey is misery, there’s probably no changing her mind.
Have I blown my chance? “Next night?”
She nods. “How do you feel about tenderloin?”
A woman after my own heart. “It’s a date.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. It’s a commonly used phrase, but here and now, in this context, it’s more, and we both fucking know it. So does Eloise by the small gasp that escaped from behind her fingers as she tried to cram it back into her mouth.
Victoria’s bright red face almost matches her hair, but she nods and my soul takes flight. “It’s a date.”
CHAPTER 23
Victoria
“So Raffi, Raffi Shaw, from the Raccoons hockey team, is Wyatt’s—your son’s—father?” Eloise points at me across the table in Bitches Brew, her words half whispered and half mouthed so the kid in question doesn’t hear or repeat her words back to her. “Oh, wow. I mean, it makes sense. I can see it now you’ve pointed it out to me. But considering I still struggle to tell Ares’s brothers apart that doesn’t say a lot.” She smiles, picks up her large hot chocolate and blows the cream on top before taking a sip and hissing. “That’s…a lot, Tori.”
She stays quiet for a long moment before she opens her mouth. Nothing comes out, and she snaps it shut again. Takes another sip, more carefully this time. “And you didn’t know? Like…this whole time? That he was right here? Playing hockey?”
