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Ahh. Got it.
“That's not what I’m saying.”
“Then what are you saying? Because it sounds like while you’ve decided to be faithful to our loveless marriage, I’m supposed to be out on the prowl looking for an opportunity to trade up. Because you won’t be free until I do.”
Something is seriously wrong with me. I’m telling her to find someone else and my inner caveman is flipping his shit when I even think about it happening? Not cool.
The whole point of this was to set her free, not lock her down.
“I’m not expecting you to be out on the prowl. All I’m saying is that one of these days you’re going to realize you want more. And I’m good until then.”
“No way. We need an end date that we both agree to so neither of us will be blindsided by the end of this thing. A plan.”
“What are you proposing?”
She pushes the glass around on the counter a bit, the wheels turning behind eyes I need to stop thinking about looking up at me as I moved inside of her.
“Two years. Twomoreyears. It’s long enough that neither of us looks like we didn’t take it seriously. We gave it a shot and it wasn’t right.”
I nod. “Long enough for you to realize this isn’t the life you want.”
“Well, hold on. I don’t—”
I hold up my hand. “It’s easy and believable. Think about all the time apart. Never being the priority. The constant threat of trades. For a woman bound to her family business, a trade to another team wouldn’t just uproot you, it would—”
“Okay, I get it. People grow apart all the time. It doesn’t always have to end in some epic betrayal and heartbreak. No one has to be the villain.”
“Exactly.”
“And”— she leans forward, giving up a smile too contagious not to meet —“no one is going to be trying to set us up anymore!”
* * *
We’ve got early practice,so I start a pot of coffee for Stormy and try to creep through the apartment without too much noise on the way out. I think about texting to let her know when I’ll be back, but she was up late and I don’t know if her phone is silenced. A sticky note with the garage code and spot number next to the keys will have to do it.
Then I grab my bag and head down for the Lyft.
We’ll get the car situation sorted out along with everything else as it comes. Once I clear the air with Nichols, maybe I’ll ask him to help me pick up Stormy’s car where we left it back at her office.
Crazy to think he’s going to be my brother-in-law. The guy’s so over-the-top chatty and friendly as it is, once we’re officially in-laws?
I huff a laugh into my fist as the early-morning traffic moves on the Drive. I could do way worse.
Most of the team is on the ice already, so I haul ass getting ready. I’ve just laced up when the man himself rounds the corner.
“Got a minute?”
“Yeah, man.” I push up from the bench, wondering if I should start calling him Noel. “Wanted to talk to you anyway.”
He nods, his mouth splitting into a wide grin. “I bet you did.”
The hair on the back of my neck starts to stand.
That smile he’s giving me… doesn’t look quite right.
In fact, I’m pretty sure the only time I’ve ever seen a look on Nichols’s face like this was when we played against the Blaze last month and that fucker Holtz checked Whalen into the boards from behind and the kid got carried out on a stretcher.
“You’ve been married a year, huh?”
