Everything in her chest softened, as if someone had filled it with feathers. “Thank you. That’s nice to hear. But…there are a few things I need to figure out for myself first, you know?”
He nodded. “Sure. It’s just…you’ve been so stressed these last few years. Are you happy right now?”
She tilted her head, considering the question, but today it wasn’t difficult to find an answer.
“Yes, I am,” she said, surprised even though her father had let her down again, even though she still had to prove herself on the Hawks’ medical team.
“I’m happy, Jack,” she whispered.
He smiled. “Good. Then you’re doing everything right.”
Yes. Maybe she was.
Her phone vibrated with a message.
Want to come over tomorrow and have breakfast with Melody and me? And bring your plaster saw. Melody would never forgive me if I didn’t remind you.
Definitely. She was definitely up for that.
Chapter Twenty-One
Twenty-first encounter
“You don’t have any food in the house.”
"So you looked in my cupboards?”
“I wanted to know if you had any granola bars or something. I need something to eat before round two.”
“You want to eat with me?” she asked, perplexed.
One corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile. “No. Whether you’re here or not is irrelevant.”
Ten minutes with Melody and Lucas at the breakfast table and Anna knew why the goalie always smelled of honey: His daughter loved to smear it all over his face. To tickle him under his chin. To giggle when he did the same to her. And there was something to be said for watching the two of them make a mess. Observing Lucas with Melody...did strange things to her. In her medical opinion, an earthquake must be the reason for the turmoil in her insides. It couldn’t be anything else. A tall, muscular, and typically bad-tempered hockey player calmlyexplaining to his daughter the difference between a trident and a fork, and that it was a trident, not a fork, in the Ariel movie, had no effect on her emotions whatsoever. Or her hormones, or her heart, which fluttered nervously. No. It had to be tectonic plate movement.
She knew that Lucas could be just as gentle as he was tough, but to see what it looked like when he truly loved someone...
“Do you have your saw with you?” Melody interrupted her thoughts — and she was glad she did! She didn’t like the turn those thoughts had taken.
“I have it in my backpack,” she said, nodding firmly. “I’d be happy to show you how I use it.”
“And can I use it?” she asked hopefully.
Uncertain, Anna looked at Lucas, who was frowning. “I don’t know, Melody. You might be a bit young to use a plaster saw.”
“Not at all!” Her eyes widened. “I’ll be six in less than a year.”
“Oh yeah, when?”
“In February,” she said seriously. “That’s soon.”
Anna laughed. It was May. “We’ll see. And I like February.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s short, but I get the same pay for my job,” she whispered earnestly. “And now because of your birthday.”
“That’s a good reason,” Lucas confirmed, still trying to rub honey residue off his fingers.
