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I try not to bristle. We have bigger problems. So I ask, “Grace, I don’t know how long it will be before Wade can talk, but does anyone have an idea how this got out?”
So far, the answer is no. But the Gradys’ family and friends are making calls, checking to see if anyone’s seen or heard anything.
Within an hour, the lawyers are getting results from their end. The news and gossip sites begin updating their stories, posting apologies, and removing the mugshot that never should have been taken, let alone released.
Wade comes to check on me between meetings and calls.
He’s exhausted, but it’s me he keeps worrying about, pulling me onto his lap and holding me quietly before going back for more. It pays off, and the Slayers contract comes through. Pete thinks the endorsement will too, but eventually he sends us home for the night.
It’s not the celebration we’d planned, but it’s been such a trying day and there’s still so much up in the air, we order DoorDash and eat dinner on the couch and then crawl into bed together.
The next morning, Tommy’s talked to Collin and swears the guy had nothing to do with the arrest getting out. It’s a period of his life he’s tried to put behind him, and even Wade doesn’t think he’s got anything to do with it.
But there’s something in his eyes that has me sitting down beside him and taking his big hand in mine. “Wade. What’s going on? Did you hear back from Pete?”
He shakes his head and holds up his phone for me to see.
Kelsey: Can we talk?
The hair on the back of my neck stands up. “You don’t think…”
Scrubbing a hand over his face, he hits Call.
“She’s still there?” comes Kelsey’s flat voice through the line.
“Yes.” Wade’s head drops forward.
She sighs, and the answer no one wanted to consider is there in that hopeless sound. It was her. “I thought she would leave when she saw it. I thought she’d leave and you’d see that she wasn’t the one for you. And then when the truth came out, you’d already know that she wasn’t the woman who would stick by your side and love you through everything.”
“Fuck, Kelsey. How could you do it? Why?”
“Because I’ve been here this whole time,” she sniffs. “Right here, waiting for you to realize what you could have if you wouldjust take it. Waiting for you to come home and have the life we’re supposed to. You coaching hockey. Me, cheering you on.”
Wade’s eyes meet mine. We’re both seeing it. The dinner with his family. Her shock that he might not come back to Enderson after the NHL. I text his parents. She loves them, and until today I’d have bet my life she would never hurt anyone in their family. But now I don’t know.
She lets out a short laugh. “Instead, you choose someone who doesn’t understand you. Who would rather hide you from her family than stand proud beside you. I thought… maybe it was time foryouto have a lesson in disappointment.”
Grace’s text comes back in seconds. Kelsey’s not at the house. Her car is gone. Bill’s calling the police.
“Where are you?” Wade asks, eyes bleak.
“The courthouse. I sent the files from work. I didn’t think about it when I did it. But I heard Bill asking about tracing the emails… They’re going to go back to my terminal.”
“Jesus.”
It’s quiet for a moment, then she has to go. Her boss is there, and she’s going to tell him what she’s done.
When we update Pete and the lawyers, they think she’s looking at fines more than jail time. She’ll lose her job.
But Wade and I both know, the price that will be the hardest for her to pay will be losing his family.
I ask if Wade wants a minute to talk to his parents alone, but he pulls me into his side, holding me close as we call. Grace is a mess and Bill is quiet. They blame themselves, but Wade assures them it’s not their fault. That he was the one who hadn’t been honest enough about the situation with Kelsey.
And when I take his hand and quietly tell him I’m sure… he explains the rest. About us. How it started. Where we are now. That he loves me.
And when Grace says she loves me too, I start crying again.
* * *
