AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kinny had a broken arm. What this woman had gone through was on a whole other level. When she’d seen him, she didn’t know if her son would live.
“I’m sorry for what I did. If I hadn’t sent that text, Booker would be playing hockey right now.” The lines on her forehead tightened. Was he upsetting her? “He’d definitely be giving Cole a run for his money. At the very least as Sexiest Man Alive.”
His attempt at humor failed. Instead, she looked concerned. “Apology accepted. I won’t pretend it wasn’t a terrible time for us. But now, it’s my turn. Please, sit down.” She led Jaime to a set of chocolate-colored leather couches.
Before he even sat down, he launched into his apology. “I’m sorry I put you through that trauma, and I hate myself for ruining Booker’s career in hockey.” It felt so damn good to get it out. To say it to the woman he’d nearly destroyed with his selfishness. “I wish I’d left it at just a bonfire. I wish I’d never jumped. If I could go back in time, I swear to God—”
“No.” She popped up. “No, no, no. Let me explain something. I’m a city girl, born and raised. When my husband took the job in Calamity, I thought it would be so much fun to live in a charming little town. What I didn’t expect was the women wearing hiking sandals with their cargo capris. They had kayaks strapped to the tops of their Subarus. They didn’t want to meet for coffee. They wanted to hike. They wanted to ski. I didn’t do any of those things, and Booker…” With a smile, she shook her head. “He was a rascal from the start. That boy was always climbing the furniture, trying to ride our dog…he was full of energy. And it turned out Calamity was the best thing for him and the worst for me.”
He didn’t know where she was going with this, but she had a story to tell, and he would listen.
“That day in the hospital, I couldn’t tell you what I wore. I don’t remember whether it was sunny or raining. The only thing I remember is thinking I’d lost my son.” Her features flinched as though witnessing a gruesome crime scene. “That will stay with me forever. But now that I’m talking to you, I remember when you saw us at the hospital. We’d only just gotten there. We hadn’t talked to the doctor yet. At that moment, there was a very real chance my son would die.”
“I know.” He lowered his chin, shame washing through him. “I’m so damn sorry.”
“Jaime, honey.” The kindness in her tone had him looking up. “What I’m trying to say is Booker might not have wanted to jump that night, but he would’ve done it on any other one. How many times did my son lead the way? If it hadn’t been you sending that text, it would have been one of the other boys.”
“Not the night before he moved to LA to play with the Cavalcade.”
“You’re not hearing me. It was what you boys did when you were together. Do you understand? It was the basis of your friendship. In the beginning, when he first started playing with you boys, I grounded him, I tried to get him to play an instrument. I put him in Boy Scouts. But he didn’t want any of it. Nothing would’ve kept him from doing the things you did. He was an adrenaline junkie. I used to say, ‘That boy’s got a death wish.’ I’m a homebody and a city girl, so I didn’t understand any of it. But let me tell you something, that night was the end for me. I couldn’t take it anymore. And that’s why we moved.”
“I can understand that. I put my parents through hell.” Wait, had he, though? After talking to them the other night, he couldn’t really hold on to that false belief anymore.
“But if you want my opinion, as far as hockey, I think what he loved about it was playing with you boys.Thatwas the joy for him. I’m not entirely convinced he would’ve loved it on his own.”
“He would’ve. It’s hockey. It’s the greatest game in the world. There’s nothing like it. The speed, the strategy. There’s no other truly team sport where you can’t win unless you do it together. No, he would’ve played, and he would’ve been one of the greats.”
A slow smile spread across her features. “I think you’re the one who should be playing. Why aren’t you? Weren’t you considered a phenom?”
“Oh, I…I own the team.”
“You didn’t ten years ago.”
“No, but I had the ranch. And a daughter.”
“Don’t professional athletes have families?”
“Yes, ma’am. But that ship has sailed for me.”
“Okay, well, you know what else he’s great at? Negotiating. He loves it. Jaime, I don’t know what would’ve happened if he hadn’t gotten hurt that night. I do know that the average career in the NHL is four and a half years because their bodies get broken down.”
“True.”
“His passion used to be running around with you guys and defying the laws of nature. But now, he’s found a new way to challenge himself as a sports agent.” She got up, moved around the glass coffee table, and sat beside him. Her hand settled on his arm. “Thank you for coming over to apologize. It shows what a good man you are, and I’m sorry you’ve been carrying this guilt all these years. But you can let that go now, Jaime. He’s fine. He’s thriving. And we hold no ill will for anything that happened that night.”
* * *
Never had she appreciated moving out of her parents’ house more than the day after leaving Jaime Dupree. Because that first morning home, she couldn’t get out of bed.
Her mom would’ve whisked the curtains open, her dad would’ve asked her to help him bake a ricotta cake to take to their second cousin on his brother-in-law’s side, and Grace would’ve gone along with it.
Because that was what she did. She went along with it.
That day, though, she’d just felt heavy, like someone had covered her in a thick wool rug.
And she knew she only had herself to blame. She’d known from the start Jaime was wounded. For a few weeks there, he’d pushed past it to be with her.
It would’ve been easier if she could have chalked up the attraction to chemistry, good sex. But it was so much more. Together, they were magic. Apart, they were…well, it was almost like they needed each other’s energy source to become fully alive.
