“Maybe,” she said brightly. Too brightly. It sounded false. And she was avoiding my eyes again. “I’m not sure how hands-on he’s going to be with the team but I’m sure I’ll make it to a game or two.” She inched away another few steps, her eyes darting to the door.
Fuck. I didn’t know why I was making her so uncomfortable, but I didn’t like it. And I certainly didn’t want to prolong it. So, I slipped my hands into my pockets, even when everything in me was calling out to pull her closer, and took a step back.
“I sure hope so,” I told her. “It would be nice to really catch up.”
She nodded, but from her expression I was sure she considered the idea far from nice. “Good luck this week,” she told me. “With training camp.”
“We’re going to need it,” I muttered.
“Well…” she paused, almost backed up to the door now, and met my eyes again for a brief moment. “Night, Liam.”
“Night, Gracie.”
And then she was gone, leaving me to stare at the heavy wood door through which she’d escaped.
Gracie Knight. Holy shit.
Realizing that I probably looked pretty stupid staring at the door, I turned and made my way back to our table. Jason waswatching me, his eyebrows raised. “What the hell was that?” he asked, before I’d even managed to drop down in my seat.
“That,” I told him, sighing as I signaled the waiter for another beer, “was the one that got away.”
CHAPTER 3
Morning came too soon the next day. For a minute after my alarm went off, I blinked around the hotel room, unsure of where I was. The uncertainty was a feeling I was used to. An NHL player spent a lot of mornings waking up in strange hotel rooms. But the season hadn’t even started yet.
Austin,I remembered. I was in a hotel room in Austin. Because Andrew Knight had bought an NHL team and moved it here. And then traded to get me.
I rubbed at my gritty eyes. I definitely had too much to drink last night. It wasn’t all a reaction to the shock of seeing Gracie, either. It had been the first time I’d had a chance to catch up with Jay in ages. That had been one nice surprise when I was traded to Austin, finding out that he was going to be here as well. We hadn’t been on the same team since we met in college. I’d spent most of my NHL career in New York but Jason’s path had been decidedly different. He’d been traded again and again, sent down to the minors more times than I could count, and still he kept plugging along. I don’t think he’d stayed on the same team for longer than a season or two since we graduated.
Maybe Austin could be a place for him to establish some roots.
And speaking of putting down roots…I heaved myself out of bed and headed to the shower. I was supposed to be meeting with the real estate agent at the new house in less than two hours, and I still had to make it over to my in-laws to pick up Josie.
The thought of my eight-year-old daughter had a familiar anxiety brewing in my gut. To say that she had been unhappy about the move was an understatement. I couldn’t blame her. She was a shy girl and I knew the idea of starting at a new school was hard for her. Even worse, leaving New York meant leaving her mom. And even though Chloe had never been the kind of mother my baby girl deserved, she was still going to miss her.
Can you miss someone you barely ever saw?I thought to myself, feeling that old twinge of bitterness threatening to rise up.
A fresh start for everyone.It had become something of a mantra over the last few weeks. Maybe if I said it enough times it would become true. I climbed out of the shower, trying to feel positive. Josie would meet new friends in no time. The schools here were supposed to be really good. I had done a lot of research on the area since the trade went through and I knew I’d be able to find plenty of outdoorsy activities for us to do in my down time, and Josie had always loved being outside.
She was going to miss the snow come winter, but maybe I’d be able to get us away somewhere cold for a few days if there was a break in the schedule.
The real benefit of this move, though, was the house that I pulled up to twenty minutes later. It had been a stroke of the best kind of luck to get traded to Austin, which just happened to be the place where Chloe’s parents had settled down after their retirement. Josie’s maternal grandparents had always doted onher, even as their daughter dropped the ball again and again. Having them so close was a godsend. I would no longer feel so anxious every time I had to go on the road, leaving my baby girl with nannies. Everyone who had ever watched her had been extensively vetted, of course, but I still never liked the idea of leaving her with anyone but family. And since her mother could rarely be counted on…
Enough, I thought, climbing the stairs to the front porch. The last thing I ever wanted to do was let Josie know how little I thought of her mom. So no matter how annoyed or disappointed I was with Chloe, I would never mention it in front of my girl.
I knocked twice on the front door before pushing it open. “Anybody home?”
“In here,” Evelyn called out and I followed her voice back to the kitchen. My heart gave a tug at the sight that greeted me. Josie was standing on a chair next to her grandmother, helping to mix something in a big yellow bowl on the counter, while Peter, her grandfather, sipped coffee at the table.
“Something smells good,” I said.
Josie turned to me and her expression just about broke my heart. A brief flash of what looked like excitement to see me before a newly-familiar scowl settled in place. “Oh,” she said, voice flat. “You’re here.”
Peter shot me a sympathetic smile and I managed one in return. “We get our keys to the new house today,” I said brightly, ignoring the less than stellar reception. “You’ll get to check it out.”
“Yay.”
I almost laughed at her flat tone. I had thought I had a while before the sullen teen years kicked in, but my Josie had always been an early bloomer.
