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“Well, before you allow me into your kitchen,” he said, “I have some good news for you.”
“What’s that?”
“I always wash my hands after I piss.”
I furrowed my brow for a second, cringing when I realized what he was talking about.
“Spencer overheard me telling an employee that.”
Holt’s grin was amused. “Is that what happened? All he told me is that Shea wants people to wash their hands after they piss.”
I burst into nervous laughter. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know he was there when I said that. I’d never”
He put a fingertip over my lips, stopping me. “It’s okay. They’ve heard much worse from me.”
“Oh yeah?”
He shook his head. “The kids and I were out for pizza a few months ago and I was hangry. We’d been waiting for more than an hour and I was grumbling. So the server, who’s probably a teenager, comes up to the table to apologize and Marley says, ‘My dad wants to know where our fucking pizza is.’”
“Oh no!” I laughed. “Marley?”
“I know, right? It’s so unlike her. But she’s really latched on to me since the divorce, and if she thinks somebody’s doing me dirty, she’s all over them.”
“That’s really sweet.”
“She’s a doll. She likes her hair braided this certain way her mom used to do it. It’s called double Dutch braids. You know what that is?”
I nodded. “I do.”
“Well, I’ve been watching YouTube videos about how to do it and she just sits there patiently and lets me try over and over.”
The image of Holt trying to braid Marley’s hair left a mushroom cloud in place of my ovaries. It was unbelievably sexy that he worked so hard at being a good dad.
He’d left behind fame, millions of dollars and a chance at championships and records, all to raise his children. And from what I’d seen, he had no regrets.
“Do you miss hockey?” I asked him.
“I thought I would. I’m not ashamed to say I cried many tears at the end of my career because I didn’t think I was ready to retire. I played for thirteen years and I loved every minute. But I’m good. My kids need me more.”
“You’re a great dad.”
The music had switched to a faster pace, but we were still slow dancing, oblivious to the world around us.
“Thanks, but I haven’t always been,” he said. “I missed a lot of my kids’ early childhood because I was so focused on hockey. Even in the offseason, which is when I did endorsement stuff and offseason training. My ex-wife...” He looked away and then back at me. “She said she cheated on me because she felt like a single mom, and I’m not excusing what she did, but...I own that I should have been a better partner and parent.”
He was a unicorn, a man who was emotionally healthy enough to own his shit and not blame everyone but himself for his issues. Every man I’d ever dated had been...well, not a unicorn.
The music stopped and we stood together in silence for a few seconds as the singer for the band announced they were taking a break.
“Hey!” a voice boomed from nearby. “Music’s over, asshole. And that’s my sister.”
Holt and I both turned to find Grady glaring at us. I rolled my eyes at him.
“Fuck off, Grady.”
My brother didn’t like it when men so much as looked at me, and he about jumped out of his skin if he saw someone actually touching me. To him, I was eternally his innocent, underage little sister.
“Let it go, man,” Holt said to Grady. “She’s not wearing a habit.”
