"That's perfect!" Amaya's eyes lit up. "We could go to the lake together!"
Chapter
Sixteen
Aelin showedup at the rink on day two of hockey camp with a knot in her stomach. Ryan hadn't come to the door that morning, just waved from the car, which she hadn't thought much of until she'd heard Amaya and Bailey talking over breakfast.
He said people don't just join family vacations, but why not? He says he wants to go on a road trip, but it would just be me and him.
Then there had been a lot of whispering. Whispering was never good.
Aelin had tried to pull the information out of them when they were at the library that afternoon, but both girls insisted they didn't know what she was talking about. She finally gave up when she got another slew of forms in her email inbox and had to pull together every scrap of evidence she could think of to fight Clark on his outright attack on her in mediation.
He wanted to put the house up for sale on August tenth. It was a ridiculous request, but one she knew he could get away with. She didn't have the financial means to keep the house. Yes, she had a job now that paid the mortgage, but the taxes were high, and she hadn't paid the homeowners insurance. Since Clark had made his income look laughable, she couldn't requestthat he pay for those things, especially when he didn't have fifty-fifty custody during the school year. Having Bailey was the goal. But having Bailey also put her in a precarious situation where finances were concerned.
By the time she got to the rink, her brain was fried. Amaya jogged off to find her gear, and Bailey ran to the glass. Aelin followed, looking out over the rink and locking onto Ryan as he glided over the ice. He had two kids following in his ice tracks like ducklings.
Aelin turned to Amaya. “I thought the camp didn’t start until three thirty.”
Amaya looked up. “It doesn’t, but he always does this.”
“Does what?” Bailey asked.
“Finds kids who need help. When I was doing skating lessons, we’d always do free skate for a half hour after. Dad would have kids lining up to do lessons with him.” Amaya found her gear and stacked it next to the bench.
Aelin smiled. “During free skate?”
Amaya nodded, and Aelin turned back to see Ryan cheering with his hands over his head.
“And the crowd goes wild!” He glided with one foot in front of the other in a perfect arc. “Let’s try it again, this time, our turns are going to be tighter.”
Aelin was fairly sure she spontaneously started ovulating. “Okay, let’s get going.” She spun from the glass and headed to the door.
With Ryan skating circles in her head, she didn't think twice about how simple it was to convince Bailey to leave compared to the day before. Bailey didn’t say a word, only waved to Amaya and followed her to the front.
"Thanks for being onboard with waiting for next week to do hockey." Aelin pushed through the main door of the rink.
"You're welcome." Bailey walked along beside her. "Mom, I was thinking."
"Okay . . ."
"We haven't been to that ice cream place you love in a long time."
Aelin's brow furrowed. "Which one?"
"The one with the guy's name."
They crossed the street and walked toward her car in the back row of the parking lot. Guy's name. She flipped through her mental list of places. "Oh, Made by Marcus?"
Bailey's eyes lit up. "Yes! Can we go tonight after dinner?"
"I think it's a little closer to here than our house. Maybe we could?—"
"No, I want to eat something healthy first, and I know you have teriyaki chicken in the Crock-Pot, right?"
Aelin's eyes narrowed. "Since when do you want to eat something healthy?"
Bailey shrugged and hopped into the passenger seat. "Since now."
