She sees me looking and mouths, “Hydrate.”
I grin and take a swig. Christ, look at her. That’s mine, I think before I can stop myself, a raw flash of possessive joy I feel all the way in my ribs.
Third period, Buffalo finally gets on the board with a lucky rebound. Doesn’t matter. We keep pressing. Camden blocks a shot with his thigh and doesn’t even flinch. Knight and Viktor bait the defense into a tripping penalty, and we capitalize fast.
Final score: 5-1.
The crowd explodes. We raise our sticks. The team mobs me at center ice.
As we head to the tunnel, Cam leans in. “You going home with the puck or the girl tonight?”
I clap him on the helmet. “Same answer as always. Both.”
And I mean it. For once, the idea of going home doesn’t feel like a place. It feels like her.
Chapter Nineteen
Minerva
I’ve never been happier in my life. I assumed that the grad school years would be the best of my life, since I was free from my father’s influence, not yet bound to Luca, and doing my final bit of exploring before being thrust back into the real world.
The real world, of course, meaning my mother’s world. Dresses and makeup and empty gossip, and sharing bitter rumors about people behind their backs.
Instead, I’ve escaped it all and found a new kind of freedom that I was never brave enough to imagine.
Most mornings, I either accompany Tristan to morning skate, where I color-code his schedule and review his biometrics, or I stay home to work on things I want to do around the house. In the afternoons, or when Tristan’s traveling for an away game, I dedicate my free time to working on my device or, if I feel like it, diving down rabbit holes of information with no obvious intellectual value. Sometimes I craft, bake, or try my hand at a new hobby. In the evenings, I either spend time with Tristan at home, or we go out with our friends to whatever activity they have in mind. Sometimes I go by myself.
It should feel so normal, but as someone who grew up in a family that was anything but, it feels more like a gift. I’ve found my rhythm. A quiet certainty settles under my ribs—maybe I’m allowed to have a life that feels like mine.
Going no-contact with my family was the best thing I ever did for myself.
One afternoon, I’m sitting on the floor of the living room surrounded by books about frogs and platypuses, when Keplercomes tumbling down the stairs. Tristan is right behind him, thumping along every step.
I look up from my book just in time to see Tristan scoop Kepler up from the floor and hold him at eye level. Kepler has a black sock in his mouth. Tristan has a bare left foot.
“You little asshole,” Tristan says. He shakes his head, then adjusts his grip on Kepler so that my little guy is lying in his arms like a baby. Kepler happily chews on his prize while Tristan tickles his belly.
I sit back against the couch. “Let me guess. He stole the sock off your foot?”
Tristan comes over to sit on the sofa, with Kepler still in his lap. “I don’t know how. I didn’t even feel him doing it. One minute, I was on my Zoom call, wearing two socks. The next, my foot was cold. Maybe we should teach him to rob banks.” Tristan pitches his voice higher and boops Kepler in the nose with one finger. “And then somebody could pay his share of the mortgage. Yes, he could! Yes, he could!”
Kepler squiggles free and leaps out of Tristan’s lap, still carrying the sock that is definitely his now.
“Do you want me to get that back for you?” I ask.
“Nah.” Tristan runs one hand through his hair. He watches Kepler run laps through his playground, shaking the sock as he goes. “It was getting a hole in the toe anyway. He can have it.”
He’s still wearing its mate, though he doesn’t seem to realize that his feet are only fifty percent naked. Nobody in my old life would have tolerated a theft like that. If my father or Luca ever chased Kepler, I would have gotten in their way to intervene. I realize how much I’ve relaxed since I came here, and I know exactly why.
Tristan.
He catches me staring and him and breaks into a grin. “What are you working on down there?”
“I’m researching natural paralytic toxins found in nature.”
“Any particular reason?”
“Other than that they’re cool? No, not really.”
