“She has food all the time,” I remind her. “She has her own personal water bowl that is hooked up to the bathroom faucet and gives her fresh water. She’s fine.” I push away from the counter. “But if you want to come and check in on her, I can give you a key.”
“Do you think I can take her to my house?” she asks and I snort. “Probably not, right?” she backpedals. “Okay, I’ll come over every night and sit with her so she doesn’t get lonely.”
“That works,” I agree. “I like the fact you’ll be in my house.”
“Oh yeah,” she says, loading the dishwasher and cleaning up, “why is that?”
“I don’t know, I just like knowing you’ll be here,” I tell her. “Go get your hair done and then we can go.”
“But you are leaving for five days and you want me to take you away from Jefferson for another day?” She shakes her head. “No can do.”
“You know she doesn’t even care, right?” I look around. “We’ve been up for two hours and she hasn’t even bothered to come and see if we’re okay.”
“But she knows we’re here,” she defends and then I can hear the sound of her bell coming closer to us. “See?” Lexi says, walking to her and picking her up and cradling her. She looks up at Lexi and then looks at me with a glare. “Don’t worry, pretty girl, we are going to stay here with you.”
The plane touches down just after noon on Friday and I look out the window at the sun. We usually head home right after we land, but we have a game tomorrow, so we have a late afternoon practice. The bus is waiting for us when we walk off, and I toss my bag under it before heading on and sitting down. Jaxon sits next to me and the two of us don’t say a word to each other. I pull my phone out and text Lexi.
Me:
Just landed. On our way to practice. Let me know if you are coming over tonight after dinner or not. I missed you.
I put the phone away, looking out the window. Her family started arriving today, and I know she has her big dinner with them. She’s nervous about fitting in, which is ridiculous since it’s her family and they will do anything for her. Her sister and the kids are staying with her, so I’m not sure if I’m going to see her, which I hate, but it is what it is. She’s been at my house all week with Jefferson, even sleeping there one night.
We get to the arena, everyone grabbing their bags and putting it in their respective cars before heading back and changing for practice. I step in and spot some of the other team walking into the visitors’ locker room from the ice. “I’ll be back,” I tell Jaxon who looks at me. “I’m going to go talk to Matty.”
“Are you insane?” he asks me. “Why are you doing that?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” I tell him, slapping his chest. “I’ll be fine,” I assure him and he groans. I walk to the locker room, sticking my head in and not seeing him there. I get a couple of chin-up hellos from some of the players, and I’m about to head to the ice when I see him walking down the corridor.
“Hey,” I say to him and he stops walking, and with his skates on, he has an advantage on me.
“Hey,” he replies, unsure.
“I’m Kirby Materson and I thought I should introduce myself,” I say, and his face tells me he has no idea what the fuck I’m talking about.
“And why is that?” he asks, taking off his gloves, and I can see the little glimpses of similarity between Lexi and him. She’s the one with the clearest eyes out of all three. The one with the darkest hair for sure.
“I’m in love with your sister.” Smooth, I think to myself, very fucking smooth.
“Excuse me?” He turns his head to the side as if he didn’t hear me.
“I’m in love with Lexi.” Fuck, this is a bad idea. Why didn’t I listen to Jaxon?
“She just left her husband!” he hisses out.
“Yeah, and that was a long time coming. Don’t you think?” I say and for the second time he’s shocked.
“You knew him?” His temper starts to go up.
“I met him over summer break,” I tell him. “It was when I got to know Lexi.”
“So you fell in love with a married woman?” He snorts out his disgust. “What does that say about you?” He turns and starts to walk away from me.
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it led to her leaving him,” I announce and he stops moving and turns back around. “That night”—I shake my head—“it got ugly and he said things that hurt her.” I don’t give him more than that. “I’m sorry she had to hear them.”
“What things?” he asks me, his glare deadly.
“You should ask her.”
