Her eyes shine, and she shakes her head desperately. “I didn’t know what you would want, Harrison. You were under so much pressure. Your career was about to take off. You had your whole life in front of you.”
“My career isn’t more important than family!” I snap a little louder than I expected and a few heads turn. Clearing my throat, I bow my head and take a deep breath trying to rein myself in. “It was never supposed to be.”
“I know that now,” she whispers. “I just…we were babies then. I was scared. I was…I didn’t think you’d want the baggage.”
I flinch. Not because she’s wrong about the pressure I was under, but because she was wrong aboutme.
She knew it then and she knows it now.
Her voice softens to something raw. “You weren’t the one I didn’t trust, Harrison. It was everyone else. The media. Your team. The agents. The expectations. I didn’t want them deciding if my kid got to exist.”
My anger dissolves, replaced by something sharper and deeper.
Straight up pain.
And a strange, aching respect for everything she carried alone.
I step closer. “We need to talk. Really talk.”
Harper nods once, wiping a hand under her eye like she’s furious she almost cried. “Okay.”
“Tonight?” I ask. “I’ll come to you. Or anywhere you want.”
She hesitates, nervous, calculating, and then she glances at Connor. He’s grinning at a kid who just dumped an entire bucket of pucks on the floor.
My throat closes.
“Yeah,” she says. “Tonight is fine.”
“Harper…” I lower my voice, not even knowing what I want to say next. Her eyes soften in a way that hits me dead center. “We’ll figure this out,” I promise. “For him.”
She nods again, shaking this time. “For him.”
Connor calls out, “Mom! I can’t get this skate off!”
Harper turns toward him.
I stay where I am, watching my kid—my son—laugh as he tries to yank his foot free.
And I feel the shift inside me.
Permanent.
Determined.
Terrified.
Hopeful.
Tonight, everything changes.
CHAPTER SIX
HARPER
I’m already anxious before I even open the door.
My palms are damp. My chest feels tight. And for the millionth time since seeing Harrison in that arena, I wish I could rewind the last eleven years and do it all differently.
