I glanced up and laughed. “Hardy har.”
He pushed open the door to the rink and stepped onto the ice to join me, already suited up in most of his pads. A pang hit me as I caught sight of the Raven’s logo.
Dirks’s voice snapped me out of it. “Think you can still take a few shots on me?”
I smirked as I grabbed my stick and tapped it against the ice. “Oh, I’ve still got it, old man.”
Dirks laughed, taking his position in front of the net. “We’ll see about that.”
I took a deep breath, and for the first time in a long time, I felt alive. The puck glided effortlessly under my blade, my muscles remembering every move. I charged forward, all the doubts and fears melting away, replaced with pure adrenaline.
I fired a shot, the puck slicing through the air, and Dirks lunged to stop it.
“Still got it,” I muttered, grinning as the puck hit the back of the net.
Dirks shook his head, but he was smiling too. I let myself feel it—the freedom. Maybe this was the start, but it was mine, and I wasn’t letting go.
2
charlotte astor
“You can come on back home anytime, darlin’. There’s no shame in it. You know you’re not cut out for all that teachin’ nonsense. Come back, and we’ll have you settled in like you never left.”
I closed my eyes as my mother rambled on about how people like me weren’t meant for teaching or working. In her mind, I was supposed to be back home in Georgia, brewing peach tea with a herd of kids running around while I baked homemade biscuits every morning.
There was nothing wrong with that life—it just wasn’t the one I wanted. What my mother couldn’t understand was that I craved independence. I wanted to build something on my own, without relying on the Astor name. That was why I took a teaching job at an elementary school in the suburbs outside Chicago. I knew the city itself would be too overwhelming, especially after moving from a small town in Georgia to the Midwest, but I wanted to try something new.
“Ask Jacob,” I said. “He’ll tell you that coming to the North Shore of Chicago isn’t scary. I’m settled into my house, which happens to be a block from the lake.”
“A house we paid for.”
“Yes, Mother. You so graciously paid for with my inheritance.”
Laura scoffed, and then I heard a bustle of commotion. “Stop it. I’m on the phone with her?—”
“Charlie?”
I sank into the reading chair in the corner of the apartment.
“Hi, Jacob,” I whispered into the phone. “It’s so good to hear your voice.”
“You can call or text me anytime, Char. I miss the hell out of you.”
Jacob was my older brother by eleven months. My parents had us back-to-back, but he’d always taken on the role of a mentor. Though he was my mother’s favorite and became exactly what she wanted—the model child who followed every expectation to the letter. He was deep in corporate America, running things from the office on our family’s pecan farm, as they’d always planned. Meanwhile, I’d been trying to carve out my own path, away from the life Mom mapped out for both of us.
“I know. I need to be better about texting.” I sighed. “Hey, I got to see my classroom today though, so that was cool.”
My brother always supported me, even if that meant letting me go up to the Midwest to live out this dream and gain some independence.
“In Chicago.”
I laughed. “Yes, where they pay teachers better than down there.”
It was one of the main reasons I had picked this area. The pay was much higher than most districts, even in Illinois, so it was hard to say no.
“What grade do they have you teaching again?”
“This year it’s kindergarten.” My goal was to teach first grade, but the only available position was kindergarten.
