I shoved some of the pico de gallo into my mouth then turned back toward Damien, desperate to take the attention off me. “So how did you get all this insight? Are you secretly the relationship guru of the Hawks?”
“Not exactly,” Damien chuckled. “I’ve spent a lot of time with the teampsychologist, and he’s helped me realize some things, like how I can’t control other people’s actions or let it define who I am.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s incredible.”
“What? That I’m in therapy?”
“That you admit it so openly.” The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them, and my hand flew up in embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just…I come from a very traditional Greek family, and many people in my family don’t believe in mental health. They’ve been through a lot, but they’d rather bury those emotions down deep and ignore them. Even my ex-husband hated the idea of it. When things began going south with us, I suggested couples counseling, and he shot that right down. Said he had no interest in airing our dirty laundry to a stranger.”
He smiled as he leaned back on the wooden bench. “Can’t lie—I thought the same way for a while, but playing at this level, it can fuck with your head. The pressure can consume you if you let it, especially as a rookie. But in the last few years, there’s been more talk of mental health, and the Hawks have been great about providing support.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Yeah,” Damien said. “As uncomfortable as it was at first, if I wanted the other guys to try it, I knew I had to lead by example. So, I talk about it a lot to take that stigma away.”
I toyed with my fork, pushing the spare tomatoes around as I tried to put my thoughts into words. “I’ve been considering it lately. Going to therapy, I mean.” Damien arched an eyebrow, and I dared to continue. “The last year has been hard, even harder than I assumed it would be. Not only was gettingdivorced a gut-punch, but the fallout seems never ending. The bills, the new housing, untying everything we’d built over the past ten years.” I swallowed, trying to avert Damien’s gaze as I unloaded my soul to the man. But despite the nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me he didn’t want to hear my ramblings, I pushed on. “And while I’m ready, there’s still a little voice in the back of my head, reminding me what’s at stake.”
Damien took my hand, rubbing his thumb over the ridge of my knuckles. His touch was warm, steady, and exactly what I needed at that moment. “Then you should do it. Not for anyone else, but for you. Fuck everyone else. It’s your life, and if it’ll help you get to a better place, try it out.”
I chuckled as I still stared at Damien’s hand on top of mine. That invisible knot around my stomach wasn’t as tight when he held me; in fact, I enjoyed being here with him. As much as I’d tried to fight our connection, talking with him lifted a weight from my chest. “How do you know exactly what to say?”
He let out a loud laugh, and I couldn’t help but smile. I did that. I brought a wide grin to his face. Damien shook his head. “I don’t, not by a long shot. My sister says I have an innate need to take on the world’s problems, but it’s more than that. If someone I care about is hurting, I want to help any way I can, even if it’s just being here to listen.”
Someone he cares about. Did I count in that group now? Because despite my insistence to the contrary, he was at the top of my list. Over time, Damien had become more than a lover. He’d become my confidant, my biggest supporter, one of my closest friends. The idea of being the same for him melded the damagedpieces of my fragile little heart, and I tried to ignore the temptation to hand the whole thing over to him now.
I cleared my throat, needing to shift our conversation to a safer territory. “I met your sister. Mari, right? She was sitting with us during the all-star game.”
He chuckled. “Yup, that was her and her entire crew. Hopefully, she didn’t give you too hard a time. She means well, but she mother hens everyone, including her big brother.”
“Oh no, Mari was great,” I said. “Angie too. I especially liked Cami; she was asking me all about what to expect in middle school.”
His eyes widened. “Cami talked to you?”
“Yeah…” I drawled. “We bonded over our mutual love of math class and how much the social studies curriculum needs to be updated. Why?”
Damien shook his head. “Cami’s always been the quietest of all the girls. She’s great with family, but strangers are a different story, especially since the twins were born.”
“Well, if she ever needs someone to talk to, I’m more than happy to do it. She seems like a bright kid—they all do.”
“In that evil genius way, you mean.” Damien laughed. “I swear, those girls are going to run a Fortune 500 company or take over the world . There’s no in-between. The first time I babysat their middle two, Chloe and Cat, not only did they figure out how to undo all the child locks after I spent hours putting them on everything, they then turned them around and locked me out of my stuff.”
“Oh my God.” I laughed, relishing the mental image of Damien trying to corral two toddlers in his loft. “What did you do?”
“Nothing to do,” he answered. “I refused to ask Mari for help, so I had to use the guest bathroom for a month until I swallowed my pride.”
Heavy laughter poured out of me until tears pooled in the corners of my eyes. As I went to wipe them away, Damien beat me to it, flicking them away with the pad of his thumb. It was the least intimate gesture he’d done to me, and yet, it seemed more monumental than any other. “You love being with them.”
“I do,” he admitted. “But I also like it when they head home, and I have some peace. Does that make me a bad person?”
I shook my head. “Pretty sure most people feel that way about their extended families. I do when my brother’s kids come over.”
“A brother, huh?”
“Yup; he’s the older one too. Jason and his wife have two boys who I love more than life itself. But I also love being able to hand them back when they’re upset.”
Damien held up his drink in a toast. As I lifted mine to clink against his, he said, “To being the fun aunts and uncles for as long as possible.”
“Cheers to that,” I answered, grinning as we both sipped our margaritas.
