I looked down at her as I started to move inside her body and I knew in that moment that all night would never be enough. I wanted her tomorrow and the day after that, too. I wanted to come back to this city someday with her and my daughter, to show her around with Josie at our side. I wanted her to come back to Minnesota with me when I went to visit my parents, to make only good memories there so she could forget the bad. I wanted to be there with her through every struggle and celebration of her life.
I wanted her forever.
Because I was in love with this woman. Pretty sure I always had been.
And I was damn sure not going to let her go.
The morning came too early.We had crashed hard after our first round, exhausted from the game and traveling, respectively. But I’d found a second wind after a few hours of rest and I kept her up for most of the night.
Absolutely worth it, I thought to myself as I tried to stretch my sore, tired muscles on the team jet. The only way the night could have gone better was if we could have had the morning together. Grace was flying back on Andrew’s personal jet, not the team plane, so I would have had to say goodbye to her at the airport regardless. But God, what I wouldn’t have given to be able to sit with her in the waiting area of the charter terminal. To walk her to the jetway and kiss her goodbye in front of everyone. For the whole world to know that this amazing woman was mine.
Soon, I assured myself over and over as we headed home. I was going to convince Gracie that we could talk to Andy, that everything would work out fine if we went public. There might be some uncomfortable moments for her at school, and for me at the rink. But it was worth it.Wewere worth it.
I was still thinking about exactly what I would say to convince her when I pulled up in my driveway a few hours later. I was so lost in my own head that I didn’t notice the unfamiliar car in front of the house until I’d climbed out of my Range Rover.
My attention was torn from the car by the front door banging open and Josie’s excited voice ringing across the front lawn.
“Daddy!” she cried, beaming and bouncing on the balls of her bare feet on the front porch. “Daddy, guess what?”
I grinned at her automatically, happy because my little girl was happy.
The feeling didn’t last long.
“Daddy,” Josie yelled, clapping her hands. “Mommy is home!”
CHAPTER 24
The high I’d been riding since arriving in Liam’s hotel room started to wane by Sunday evening. I tried to push off the anxious feeling in my belly as typical work week dread. No one who had to wake up early on a Monday really enjoyed their Sunday night, right?
It didn’t help that my mom had been blowing up my phone with increasingly nasty texts about her lack of funds. She seemed to think that Andy should be financing her life—her addictions, more like—and when she was unable to get in touch with him, she turned her anger to me. I knew that Andy was right, that I should just block her and be done with it, but something always held me back.
Not hearing from Liam all day made my bad mood worse. Which was ridiculous, really. I mean, just because he had said he’d text me when he got home didn’t mean his radio silence was a sign of something bad. He had probably just gotten distracted hanging out with his daughter after a long road trip. Perfectly understandable.
I managed to control myself enough to not call him throughout the day. I wanted him to enjoy his time with Josie. So I focused on laundry and lesson plans and all those littletedious details to get ready for another week of teaching. I did send him two text messages, just to thank him again for the amazing night and to let him know I was thinking about him.
He didn’t respond.
I had a hard time falling asleep that night. Part of my brain wanted to relive those unbelievable memories of our night in Liam’s hotel room on an endless loop. I still couldn’t quite wrap my mind around the fact that he had gone to so much trouble, for me. Sure, Liam was an incredibly wealthy athlete, and as the sister of a legit multi-billionaire, I knew better than most how much easier it was to accomplish amazing things when you had gobs of money to throw around.
But he had thrown that money around forme. And it wasn’t an attempt to get into my pants—at this point, he had to know I was a pretty sure bet. He had said I deserved it, to have a fuss made over me. And he seemed genuinely happy to be the one to do it.
So why couldn’t I just smile at the memories and fall asleep? Okay, I hadn’t heard from him since New York. But it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours. I had never been a clingy person before, and obsessing about one missed call wasn’t like me.
But as I lay there in the dark, I had to admit to myself a simple truth—there was a part of me that was probably always going to be second guessing things where Liam O’Conner was concerned. I had been absolutely certain about his feelings for me in New York. I would have put money on the fact he saw our relationship as more than hooking up, that he honestly and truly cared for me. But I’d believed that about him once before, and I had been wrong.
Could it be possible that I was yet again seeing things that weren’t there when it came to this man?
With a groan, I shoved my pillow over my face. If I hadn’t heard from him by tomorrow evening, I would call up the girlsand spill the whole thing. Maybe all I needed was an outside perspective. I had jumped to negative conclusions with Liam once before—and they might have been the correct conclusion, for all I knew. But I had spent a lot of time over the years regretting the fact that I hadn’t just asked him about prom. It might have been an uncomfortable conversation, but it would have saved me a hell of a lot of heartache and wondering if I would have just put on my big girl panties and mustered up the courage to ask him straight up if he wanted to go with me, just me, as a real date.
I wasn’t going to make that mistake again. I was a lot older now, and a hell of a lot more mature. I could damn well ask the man I was sleeping with how he saw the status of our relationship.
My night of tossing and turning resulted in an awful morning. I finally fell asleep for a few hours only to wake up late, forcing me to rush around my house to get ready. Lack of sleep always left me with a headache, and this one was a doozy. I managed to swallow a couple Advil on my way out the door, knowing what I really needed was a cup of coffee. Hopefully someone more organized and together than me had gotten to school early enough to start a pot in the teacher’s lounge.
My hopes were dashed when I darted in with only five minutes to spare. “Sorry, Grace,” Beth, the school secretary said, looking apologetic. “We’re all out of grounds. I meant to go this weekend and it just slipped my mind.”
Since Beth was just about the sweetest lady on earth, I did my best to smile and not let my extreme disappointment show. How in the hell was I going to get through the day without coffee?
I allowed myself to indulge in a perfect little fantasy of Liam dropping Josie off with a cup of Starbucks for me. He’d done it a few times in the past few weeks, on those mornings when her grandparents didn’t drop her off. I tried to send out a panickedbrain signal to let him know I was in the midst of a serious caffeine emergency.
