“You like hockey.”
“I like you. I tolerate hockey.”
“Gasp! You wound me.”
I rolled my eyes and headed to the bus to grab my stuff.
“You’ll get over it.”
“I guess it’s okay. I hate country music.”
“You hush your mouth.”
“Will you be home at all before the next leg of the tour?”
I sighed. I looked at the calendar Gavin and I shared. The one I created so we’d know where each other was and when we’d be home. Gavin had a house in Nashville, and I lived with him. While he didn’t need help with the bills, he hated living alone, but he also hated people. He invited me to move in when my roommates got us evicted, and I needed a roof over my head.
“Yes. I should be home in two weeks.”
“Love, you need to move your dad to Nashville.”
“I know. That’s on the to-do list. I hate moving him, but I get so little time at home, and it would make things so much easier if he were closer.”
Not to mention cheaper. Right now, if I wanted to spend a few days visiting in a row, I had to get a room nearby or drive the two-hour round trip each day.
“Let me know if you need my help. And when you get home, we’ll go out to celebrate.”
“What are we celebrating?”
“Does that even matter? Oh! Shit. I’m late. Bye, squirt!”
Checking his schedule, I sighed. He’d be lucky not to get a fine or benched because, if the schedule was correct, and I knew it was because I made sure it was, there’s no way he’d be making it to practice on time. And that’s even if he made it to the arena without being pulled over.
If anyone needed a Daddy, it was Gavin Samuelson.
2
DECLAN
Iwoke up, scrubbing my hands over my face. Today was going to be a good day, I decided. Did I believe it? Absolutely. But every morning, I woke up and told myself it would be a good day.
It worked for the half second it took me to register the gold band that still graced my left hand.
Hayden Marin still held my shattered heart in his clutches, and I didn’t see it ending anytime soon. The man had opened up a world to me I hadn’t realized I wanted to dwell in. Now that he and it were gone, I had no fucking clue how to live.
So, I didn’t.
I existed.
I took up space.
But I didn’t live.
I hadn’t since the day he walked away from the beach house.
That day had been the most anticipated day of my life. Or it was until I came out of the bedroom with my suitcase and saw Mara closing the front door. When she spied me, she grinned and walked away. There was only one reason on this planet that raging cunt bag smiled, and it had nothing at all to do with happiness.
She was a vile, evil, conniving bitch, and the only reason she smiled was when she was destroying someone else’s happiness. And she’d been pissed enough at me to set her nefarious heart on me.
