“I have to answer some emails. Do you mind driving back out? If you’re tired, I’ll do it.”
“Nah, I don’t mind.” She smiles and circles around to the driver’s side.
Aiden’s already in the back seat, his AirPods in his ears, watching something on his phone, when we pull out of her driveway and head out of town.
Andy’s emails are pissing me off.
We’re thirty minutes from home when my phone rings.
Fucking Andy.
Why have we spent all this time emailing if he was just going to call me anyway?
“Hello.”
“You’ve been avoiding my calls for almost amonth, James!” He’s pissed as fuck.
I don’t care.
“But we’ve been emailing all day. I didn’t go off the fucking grid.”
“You know I prefer to talk over sending messages.”
“Andyouknow that my dad died, and I’ve been taking care of my family and everything going on here.” I sense Willow casting a quick look my way. “The season is over, and I’m under no obligation to you right now. The team has told me to take care of things, and there’s no rush to discuss anything else yet.”
“Well, they’re starting to ask questions. They want a commitment. They’ve already sent me the paperwork for a two-year contract, with more money than the last one, and you’ll get to stay in Seattle where you belong. We need to get this signed.”
I shake my head. “No, we don’t.”
“Listen.” I hear him take a breath, and his voice calms, as if he’s trying to talk to a wild animal. “I know you’ve had a lot going on in Montana. I understand that. But the team needs answers. Hell, thefansare starting to wonder if it’s the team’s fault that you haven’t committed, accusing the Blizzard of not offering you enough money. Once you sign the new contract, all the hype will calm down, and you can do whatever you need to do until training camp starts.”
“I’m not signing another contract.” He starts to swear on the other end of the line, but I talk over him. “I’m retiring, Andy. I’ll come to Seattle for a press conference, and I’ll keep the commitments we’ve made for sponsorships, but I’m not signing anything new.”
“You ungrateful piece of—”
I hang up on him and blow out a breath.
“You’reretiring?” Aiden asks from the back seat.
“You’re listening?” Willow counters in surprise. “I thought you were watching something on your phone.”
“I can do both. I can multitask,” Aiden says. “So are you really gonna retire, Ry?”
“Yep. The ranch is my job now.”
“I thought that Andy works for you,” Willow says. “Not the other way around.”
“What are you getting at?”
“I don’t like the way he speaks to you.” Her voice has an edge to it that makes my dick twitch. “What a colossal jerk.”
“I’m severing ties with him,” I reply. “I’ll still need an agent moving forward because there will be guest appearances and stuff, but I don’t want to work with Andy anymore.”
“Good.” She reaches over to pat my thigh, and I snatch her hand up in mine, keeping her close.
Her eyes leave the road long enough to look at me, but I still don’t let go. I want to touch her. I want to keep her close.
And I’m done fucking fighting it.
