“Hey, can I have your seat for five minutes? I just need to talk to Lexi and then you can have it back.”
“No.” He gives her a slow, lazy smile. “But you can sit on my lap for five minutes while you talk to her.” They exchange a look I can’t quite decipher, but she doesn’t hesitate and quickly scoots down and plops onto his lap.
“Hey.” She puts a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t know what’s going on, but no one has approached me about replacing you and I would never. I leave for college mid-August and that’s not going to change.”
I shake my head. “I wasn’t worried about it. But thank you for saying so.”
“I don’t know who started that rumor, but it pissed me off,” she says. “I talked to Ford right away. He said that journalist was just trying to get you guys to make a statement about the pregnancy, but I wanted to make sure you knew it had nothing to do with me.”
“I appreciate you. Don’t worry about it. I have an idea how the pregnancy rumor got started anyway.”
“Okay. I just didn’t want you to be mad at me.” She looks so sincere I wish I could hug her.
“Not at all. Go enjoy the game. And anyway, if I go into labor on stage, you may have to help out for a few shows!”
She grins. “Well, that I can do. I’m going back to my seat now.”
“Where are you sitting?” Sam asks her. “I’ll walk you back.”
They get up at the next break in play, and I watch them walk away with a smirk.
“He’s got it bad,” Jonny groans. “And we do not have time for love.”
“I don’t think love cares about that,” I say gently. “When it happens, it happens.”
He grimaces. “We just got a record deal and recorded our first album. We’re going on tour with you guys in a few weeks, and she’s going to college in New York. That’s going to be a disaster if he doesn’t get his head out of his ass.”
“He’ll be okay,” Angus says with a smile. “Sam’s got a good head on his shoulders, and Kirsten’s a good girl. They’ll figure it out or they won’t. Either way, it won’t impact the band. You gotta separate the personal and the professional.”
“It’s not always that easy,” I murmur, my gaze drifting to the ice. Zaan is out there, and he looks tired. Slower than usual. Not quite himself.
And it’s my fault.
I hate that it’s come to this.
We really need to talk.
As much as it hurts that he wants me to slow down, potentially take a year off, we have to find a compromise. Maybe I leave the tour when I hit my third trimester. At six months, I should feel decent but getting to a point where I’m tired.
I don’t have any answers, but I think about a lot of options and possibilities as I watch the game.
And it’s brutal.
Both teams obviously want to win.
In my opinion, Seattle looks stronger, but Simon is an amazing goalie who keeps us in it.
As we get to the third period, they’re battling harder and harder.
The score is tied, 2-2, and there are two minutes left on the clock.
The arena is really loud, and we’re all on the edge of our seats.
Best case scenario: we score and win.
Worst case scenario: they score and win.
Most likely scenario: we’re going to overtime.
