I stare at my phone while the crowd roars around me. Aiden jumps and squeals, while I’m dying inside. I’m divorced. Jerrod doesn’t get a say in what I do. I’m allowed to move on.
Aiden has never been happier than these past couple of months with Eli. More than I can say about Jerrod.
I don’t respond. But that doesn’t stop more texts arriving.
Jerrod: I know what the jersey means. I don’t want our son getting close to him.
Jerrod: End things with Lewis now, or I’ll take you back to court and fight for custody.
My breath runs shallow. On what grounds would Jerrod base it on? That I let our son smile again? That I’m back with a man he can’t stand? Well, he needs to get over it because this time, I’m not walking away from Eli.
Besides, how would Jerrod afford to take me back to court, what with his new wife complaining every time he sends the court-ordered money he owes me for support?
I don’t answer his texts, as even more arrive. Not with Aiden right here and Eli on the ice just twenty feet away. He can probably sense when I’m the least bit upset. My phone vibrates again, but I shut it off and stick it in my purse. I need time to process this.
The second period horn sounds. I look up just as Eli skates to the glass, pounding his glove against it to get our attention. He flashes a smoldering smile at me first, and then drops his glove on the ice. He presses his fist against the glass, low for Aiden, who bumps it back with his little fist and giggles.
For one suspended moment, nothing else exists but the bond those two share, even if glass separates them. Jerrod was never a father who could quite connect on a deep, emotional level with Aiden. He would never understand the kind of joy Eli gives to Aiden every time he’s around us.
After the Aspenswin the afternoon game 4-1, when we get into Eli’s van, he announces plans fell through to have Thanksgiving dinner with Tyler’s parents. Apparently, they’ve hosted holidays for him and his single teammates for the past few years, and we were invited. We made pumpkin pies, which sit on the backseat next to Aiden. But both parents came down with the flu and had to cancel.
“Instead, our dinner plans shifted to my place in Denver,” Eli clips, clearing his throat. He seems less than pleased.
“Is everything okay?” I ask, wishing I could reach over and pat his thigh, but with Aiden here in the car with us… When would be the right time to tell Aiden about us? And how should I tell Eli about Jerrod’s threats?
Eli’s jaw tenses, and he works his hand tighter around the steering wheel. “Fine. I wasn’t expecting company, you know. I would have had the place cleaned and things prepared.”
Usually, when he wins a game, he’s hard to contain: talkative, happy, sexy… There’s more to it today, I think, given his sudden quietness. Which, when we make our way up the long driveway, I think I figure out why.
Mansion would be a better word to suit his home here. My head snaps to his as he parks at the elegant, curved staircase leading to the front door.
“This is yours?”
“It means nothing to me. Just a place to sleep. I bought it during the marriage.” He shrugs it off casually, like it’s a sparejacket. “I’ve been meaning to sell it, but haven’t gotten around to it.”
Eli’s teammates beat us here—Tyler, Sean, and Mason. Michelle too. Sean and Tyler brought dates. Mason and Michelle didn’t.
When I get over the awe of the grand enormity of the entryway and main level floors, and over the fact that there is a lack of furniture in most rooms, I help Michelle and Eli in the kitchen. We scrounge for plates, silverware and napkins, and we put the food out, minus the turkey that Michelle’s parents were going to cook.
Somehow it all comes together, and we eat in the dining room, sitting on the floor with our backs to the walls. Aiden laughs and thinks this is funny, and I suppose from his point of view it is.
I enjoy watching Eli’s interactions with the guys, open and joking around, and they all know Michelle well enough that they tease her a lot. Aiden asks a lot of questions about the game, which impresses them all, and they sweetly take the time to answer him. But Eli doesn’t sit beside me, and for a stupid second, I wonder if this house, this life of his pulls me somewhere I can’t follow.
After dinner, we get the grand tour of the game room downstairs. I’m guessing that’s where the decorating budget went because they have everything. Aiden’s eyes are enormous, taking it all in, but I’m not impressed. These are boys with their toys, and I’m not ready to let my little boy grow up to be one of them yet.
Somehow, though, they talk me into letting him play a video game with them. His eager little face begs me. Eli is there to play as they start, and they find a game that is age-appropriate for him. Michelle has disappeared somewhere in the house, so I wander back upstairs and around looking for the bathroom.
I find the garage instead. Scratch that. It’s more like a car museum. I can’t even name the cars, except one is a Ferrari, I think. Who exactly am I dating? Eli of the past never put much stock into cars.
Suddenly, he rushes into the garage. He spies me standing in the middle of all the shiny chrome, and his shoulders drop. “I wasn’t ready for you to see the house and all of this yet.”
“It makes me feel like I don’t even know you,” I say, spreading my arms and moving in a slow circle to take it all in. With a humorless laugh, I drop my arms, facing him again.
He scoffs. “You know me. Search your heart, and that’s where you’ll find me. All this stuff I don’t need. They’re just material things that I thought would make my ex happy, and things to soothe the hole in my heart when I divorced. Butyouare the only thing that fills me up.”
“Mom said hockey players have lucrative contracts.” I joke because it’s the only response I have right now.
He sighs and saunters closer to me, hands in his suit pockets. His hair is still a little wet from the post-game shower, and he smells fresh like soap. Aftershave must have been all but forgotten as he was in a hurry to get to us so that we could have a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Even without it, he sets my pulse racing the nearer he gets.
