Page 9 of Out of Bounds

“Of course. Feeling anything specific? There was next to no food in the old flat, and there certainly isn’t any in this new one.” Liam shook his head noncommittally, letting Gunnar know that whatever takeaway he decided on would be fine.

Making his way to Talia’s bedroom, Gunnar leaned against the doorjamb and asked, “So, you got a favorite food?”

She was hunched over the bed, tucking in the top sheet on her new mattress. Twisting, she threw a look over her shoulder at him, her face scrunched in confusion.

“I’m only here so I don’t have to keep living out of that motel. I don’t think we’re suddenly going to be some happy, sappy sitcom.”

The punch to the gut he felt with her words was unexpected. It’s not that he was expecting them to stay up late talking or anything, but he had figured they would at least try to get to know each other.

“In this moment my question was a little more practical than philosophical,” he said, trying to keep the hurt out of his voice. “I figured we needed to eat dinner, and I haven’t been keeping a lot of food in the house. How does pizza sound?”

“That works, just no pineapple.”

Just no pineapple. Maybe she really is my kid…

After the pizza had been delivered, Gunnar busted out some plates, and the three of them ate in silence at the small kitchen table he had ordered from Ikea. It had been more than big enough when it was just him, since even on nights when Liam had joined him for dinner, they’d usually sat on the couch watching a movie. But now that he was sharing the place, investing in a little bigger table was probably the way to go.

“Have you found a job yet?” he asked, breaking the silence.

“Not yet. But I was a waitress back in Prescott, so it shouldn't be hard to find something.”

“I could see if we could get you a job with the team.”

“That’s okay. Sports aren’t really my thing.”

“Any sport? None at all?” Liam asked around a bite of pizza crust.

“Nope. My dad”—she cut herself off mid-syllable—“Robert, the guy I thought was my dad, hated them. Said they were a waste of time. He really pushed me to focus on my academics, because those were what got you ahead in life. I’m sure you can guess he was not really happy when I dropped out of college.”

The chirp of Liam’s phone cut through the air, making all three of them jump. Gunnar saw Liam roll his eyes as he pulled the device from his pocket and checked the screen.

“It’s my youngest brother. I should probably take this. It’s the middle of the night back home, so either something’s wrong or he’s drunk,” Liam commented. He was the middle of five boys—the younger two had played under Gunnar in Dundalk.

“Knowing Ronan, it’s probably the latter,” Gunnar joked.

Liam let out a huff, tapping the connect button on the screen. Ronan’s booming voice rang out through the phone as Liam crossed the living room in three steps and slipped out the front door into the hallway.

“Why’d you drop out?” he asked, taking another stab at making conversation.

“Mom had a stroke. We were never really close, but getting that kind of call changes things, you know?” she said with a slight shrug. Gunnar nodded, even though he didn’t fully understand. He’d never known his father, who had died of a drug overdose shortly after he was born. His own mother had held out a few more years before succumbing to the same fate when he was four. “So I quit school and moved back home to help. But she passed away about six months later.”

“I’m sorry you had to experience that. Both my parents died when I was young, so I don’t remember them, but I lost my wife seven years ago,” he said, choking back his emotion. He hadn’t told anyone about Anya in so long, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to get anything else out.

“I'm sorry.”

A long moment passed between them, the air around them still and silent as they soaked in the losses they had just shared.

“I’m sorry to say that I don’t remember your mother. I know that probably makes me sound pretty horrible, but it’s the truth.”

“That’s okay. I don’t think her feelings would have been hurt. She told me in the letter she left me that you guys met at a bar and hooked up in the back alley. She was a flight attendant, in Paris just for the night, and you guys had just won some game.”

“I was playing for the Croatian National Team and we’d just come in third in the World Cup, which was our first one ever as a country. We celebrated pretty hard that night.”

“That’s cool.”

Talia’s phone buzzed, and she reached across the table to grab it. Gunnar silently cursed the device for interrupting them. They’d finally started to have a real conversation, and not just weird little snippets of words. For as strange a situation as this was, he wanted to make it work and get to know her. That's what Anya would have wanted him to do, and he got the impression that’s what her mother would have wanted as well.

The small smile that Talia tried to hide as she ducked her head, her fingers flying across the screen, told Gunnar that something was up. He may be new to this dad thing, but he’d know that look anywhere.