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“I can’t move to you.” I close my eyes while I say the words. “I’ve worked my ass off to be where I am and to start all over…” Tears roll down my cheeks. “I just can’t.”
“I figured that too.” His voice is broken, just as I am. “Worth a shot to ask, though.” He laughs bitterly. “Forget I asked.”
“Stone,” I whisper.
“I’m going to go and get on the bike,” he informs me. I look at the time, seeing it’s after nine o’clock. He never works out this late.
“Okay,” I mumble, “I’m going to head to bed.”
“Sleep tight, gorgeous,” he says right before he hangs up, and the phone slips from my hands onto my bed.
“He wants me to move to him,” I repeat the words. “I can’t move to him. How would that make me look?” I swallow down the lump in my throat while my stomach pushes it right back up. “Moving for a man? What if I move and then I hate my job? Or what if I move and then we break up? Or what if I have to rely on him? This is not the woman I am. So what if my job sucks lately. It’s just a bump in the road.” I lie back down on my pillow, looking over at his teddy bear.
“He was going to move to you.” The words come out of my mouth, and it feels like someone has kicked me in the stomach as the air escapes my whole body. “He literally was going to leave his home for you and move to a city he’s visited once or twice.” I put my hand in the middle of my chest, trying to calm my racing heart and rub away the pain forming. “That’s insane.”
I can’t help the way my hand moves as I grab my phone to call my mother. She answers after two rings, her voice is cheerful, “Hello, my daughter.”
“Mom,” I whisper, my voice cracking.
“Ryleigh,” she quickly says, “are you all right?”
“I’m not sure,” I say honestly. “Can you talk?”
“Of course,” she says softly, “talk to me.”
“Stone asked to be traded to Chicago.” I say the words, and even though we know nothing about hockey, she gasps. “They didn’t approve it or whatever. I don’t know the hockey lingo, but he asked me to move to him.”
“Okay,” she says, unsure of where this is going.
“I can’t move to him, Mom,” I quickly declare. “That would be insane.”
“Would it?” I don’t even know how to answer her. “Would it be the end of the world?”
“Yes,” I hiss, “it would be the end of the world. Look at everything I’ve done to get where I am.”
“Well, does all that work just go away?” She doesn’t give me a chance to answer. “Ryleigh, just because you move doesn’t make your success go away.”
“I am not moving for a man,” I snap. “I won’t.”
“So why are we having this discussion?” she asks me the million-dollar question. “Why are you even thinking about it? Why does this even bother you?”
Because I fucking love him, I want to shout, but I don’t. “You’re right.” I pretend I’m okay. “Thanks for the talk.”
“Anytime,” she says to me, instead of telling me I’m just bullshitting myself.
I hang up the phone and put it aside. Put aside everything that just happened. Put aside all the thoughts I’m now having. Put aside how empty I feel without him here.
The following morning, I’m off the elevator and smile at Claudia, saying hello. I’m arriving later than anyone else. I spot a couple of people I know, and Kristal comes out of her office and waves at me before walking into someone else’s office.
I walk into the office and sit at my desk. My hands tap the desk in front of me before I pick up my phone and make one more phone call.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
stone
We skate off the ice, every person with their head hanging down. The reality of the season hits us all at once. We are not making the playoffs. It’s mathematically impossible for us to make it. Bottom line, we needed to win the game tonight, and we missed the opportunity.
Walking into the locker room, no one is saying anything. I put my helmet on top of the shelf and then toss my gloves beside it before I turn to sit down. I grab the water bottle beside me, taking a sip of it. “We did everything we needed to do out there,” I state, and a couple of the guys look up at me. “It’s tough. It feels like we have let each other down. I know I could have been better, and it’s hard. I also know everyone in this room will think they could have been better, but we win as a team, and we lose as a team.” I get up, take off my jersey, and toss it in the bin in the middle of the room.
