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“It’s not that bad. What are you doing this weekend?”
“I have dinner with a couple of friends,” I tell him, tapping the counter with my finger as I watch the coffee pour into my cup. “Why?”
“I was going to ask you to come and visit me.” I close my eyes.
Say no, my head yells,say no. “It’s really short notice—” I start to say.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” His voice sounds dejected. “Anyway, I’m at the rink.” I know he’s lying to me because I know it takes him thirty minutes to get there from the last conversation we had. “Have a great day, gorgeous.”
My chest contracts. “You too, Stone,” I reply. He hangs up on me, and I look down at the phone.
“Going there would be a huge mistake,” I tell myself. “There is no reason for you to go there.” I grab the cup of coffee since it’s finished brewing. “I mean, technically, you can work at home for the next week since you have to get ready for trial.” I pour the milk in my coffee. “What would he say if I showed up there?” I take a sip of the coffee. “I mean, he did come and see you for the weekend.” I counter my argument. “But he was already in town for work, so it’s not like he went out of his way to come see you.” I take a deep inhale as I assess this argument. “But he could have gone home. Instead, he stayed with you for three days and gave you the best sex of your life.” I pinch my eyebrows together. “It wasn’t my entire life,” I scoff as if I don’t know the truth. “Either way, it would be a bad idea to show up at his place for the weekend.”
I lean back against the counter, the coffee in both hands as I argue with myself over the fact I want to go visit Stone for the weekend. “Or you show up to get him out of your system and worst case is you stay the weekend, having amazing sex and a tremendous number of orgasms.” I shake my head. “It’s a bad, bad idea,” I finally say and walk into my bedroom to get ready for work.
The whole time the lingering thought about going to surprise him is in the back of my mind. Even when I get to the office and slide on my shoes, I’m talking myself out of it. When I sit down and turn on my computer to search flights to Nashville, I tell myself it’s a bad fucking idea. I buy the ticket, just in case I want to use it. Worst case, I can cancel, and it’s no big deal. I also go online and look for hockey tickets, but I’m so out of my league it’s not even funny. So I pick up the phone and dial the one person I know who I can ask. It’s also the one person I don’t want to tell, but I have no choice. “Well, well, well,” Gabriella answers right away. “Look who it is.”
I laugh, turning in my chair and looking out my window at the skyline. “It’s your favorite sister-in-law,” I tell her, and she snorts.
“Considering you are my only one, I agree,” she retorts. “What’s going on? It feels like I haven’t spoken to you in forever.”
“Not much, busy preparing for a case, same old same old…” I trail off. “I have to ask you something but I need you to promise me you won’t tell anyone, and then you won’t judge me.”
“Uh-oh,” she mumbles, “am I going to need bail money?”
“No, nothing like that.” I smile, happy I know she would have my back. “Hypothetically—” I start.
“I love hypothetical questions.” Her voice pitches high. “They are always my favorite.”
“Good to know.” I take a second to think how to word this question, but there really is no way to sugarcoat any of this. “Let’s say I would want to go to Nashville and watch a hockey game. What tickets should I get?”
“Watch a hockey game,” she repeats, “in Nashville.”
“Correct.” I ignore the thumping of my heart and the way my palms are getting even more sweaty than humanly possible.
“Why would you want to do that, Ryleigh?” Her voice is questioning.
“Hypothetically, of course,” I start, “I would be going to visit a friend.”
“A friend,” she huffs. “Does this friend have a name?”
“Okay, knock it off,” I finally snap. “You know damn well he has a name.”
“Oh, I know he has a name, but you were doing all your lawyer cross-examining questions, and I decided to play along.” I roll my eyes. “Now, I have to ask, are you insane?” Her voice pitches high. “You have to be insane because, well, I don’t really know why, I just know this is a very bad idea.”
“Is it really? He was here last weekend, and we enjoyed spending time together.”
“He was there last weekend?” she repeats, her voice in disbelief. “And you enjoyed spending time together?”
I exhale. “What tickets do I get if I wanted to surprise him?”
“Surprise him,” she groans. “Listen, as someone who went to surprise a man, that did not work out for anyone.” My stomach feels like it’s going to vomit all over the floor. “Why don’t you give him a heads-up?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I haven’t decided whether I’m going.”Oh, you’re going,my head screams.
“Ugh, fine,” she finally concedes. “I think I can get you tickets.”
“No!” I shout at her. “You’ll have to call your family, and this is a do-not-get-family-involved situation, so I just need you to tell me where I should sit.”
