I rub my eyes. “You brought sheets?”
“Of course I did.” He offers me a hand and tugs my tired body off the mattress. My limbs feel heavy. My heart is both full and achy.
“I’ll help you,” I say.
He points to another bed in this bunk area and says, “Sit.”
Before I go over there, he hands me a T-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts that are way too big for me. I bring them to my nose anyway, both of them, inhaling the clean, fresh laundry scent.
He shakes a sheet out over the mattress as I duck into the bathroom to change. He’s seen me naked and fucked me senseless, but if we’re sticking to the partnership plan, I don’t want to make things harder for either one of us. When I return, swimming in his clothes, he’s spreading a blanket on the bed, and my chest squeezes from the thoughtfulness. It’s white with a sage green-striped pattern and flowers around the edges.
“Did you pick that out?”
“It’s Charlotte’s. She said it was pretty. It was just an extra blanket from the house, but it’s fairly big.”
“And she has good taste.”
“She does.” He fluffs the pillow and puts that down, then pats the bed.
I trudge over and sink onto the mattress again, this time reveling in the clean sheets and soft blanket. I rest my head on the pillow, sighing contentedly. “This was a good idea.”
“You need some rest.”
“So do you. Don’t you have a game tomorrow?”
“I have hockey, and you have baking.” He bends down and dusts the sweetest, most poignant kiss onto my forehead.
It’s hardly the code switch we promised earlier, but I’m not going to protest. Especially since it feels bittersweet, like the kiss is saying it wishes it were more but knows it can’t be.
“Good night, Mabel.” When he pulls back, his brow is furrowed, as if something just occurred to him. “I meant to ask. What did your mom mean about the job in food services?”
Oh, right. That. A pang of sadness lances me as I remember what Mom said. The way my choices never seem like enough for her. “She said she could get me a job at the university in food services. She wants me to have benefits. It’s her weird way of looking out for me.”
“I take it you don’t want to work in food services?”
I shake my head, a soft smile tugging at my lips. “I like it here.”
“We’re going to make this work,” he says, and it’s a new promise, one that settles into my bones as he leaves.
But even though he’s gone, I can’t help but think—or maybe hope—that I’m his favorite part of the day.
29
SEE ME IN MY OFFICE
CORBIN
Morning skate just hits different. Every shot feels loose and relaxed. Every sprint down the ice is powerful. Every pass lands.
I don’t want to rest on the laurels of practice, though, since the devil is in the details, and the details are in the game.
As I finish my pre-game warm-up with a sweaty, intense session on the bike, where I log nine miles in twenty-two minutes, a text pings on my phone.
Mabel: Alexa, send a note to Corbin letting him know I sold out of orange habanero cookies and his sweet and salties, the gluten-free kind. Alexa, set a reminder to place an order for more gluten-free pretzels for the sweet and salties. Everyone is asking for them! Alexa, tell Corbin I didn’t think of his dick once today. Just kidding, Alexa, don’t tell him that. Okay, customers coming. More later.
I crack up, but I can’t resist replying in kind.
Corbin: Alexa, tell Mabel I approve of the above message.
