“I know, but sometimes, he’s really annoying. I’m not a kid anymore.”
No, she’s a beautiful woman with a heart bigger than the moon and DNA that makes her untouchable. It’s slowly breaking my heart. “Ignore him.”
She looks around my frame, right at Ash. “He’s a bit hard to ignore; he’s the size of a…”
“Bear?” I use his nickname.
“Brute,” she counters, her shoulders dropping as if defeated. “He’s always going to be around,” she whispers conspiratorially, and I understand exactly what she means.
While Ash is around, there is no hope of us ever being athing.
I throw a side glance over my shoulder before saying what I do next. “Maybe we’re just not meant to be, baby.”
The truth hurts, I know it does, and she looks like she’s about to burst into tears again. “I think you’re right.” She gulps loudly.
With my shoulder pressed against the door to keep it from closing, it breaks my heart when I whisper so softly that no one but Erika can hear, “We might never kiss again, but every goal I score will be for you. When I blow a kiss, it’ll be for you,” I assure her.
She swallows hard, biting back the tears.
Fuck, I might cry too.
“Get some sleep, baby.” I wink to hide how wretched I feel inside. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the game.”
The next night, with her lucky coin in my skate, I scored three goals, each one meant for her. When I blew a kiss into the air, I knew she was watching from the stands and that she knew they were for her. All my goals were always for her.
Then we went back to flirting, the banter, lunches together, movie nights, grocery shopping… all as friends.
CHAPTER SIX
Erika– Present Day
Having run away from the wedding that never was, Leon pulls up in front of his luxury mansion on the outskirts of Edmonton, which sits behind oversized gates to keep his obsessed fans out. It looks like a lone ranger, just as Leon has been for years.
“Stay there,” Leon instructs.
“Why?” I ask as I readjust my oversized wedding dress that feels like it’s eating me alive.
“Because you don’t have any shoes on. Sit tight.” He’s out of the car, opening the passenger door and unbuckling my seat belt before I can blink.
I squeal in surprise and throw my head back in laughter as Leon lifts me out of his car, a giddy energy rushing through me. It’s a little unnerving, but I feel elated with my decision to run away.
I’m not heartbroken like I thought I would be, and that tells me everything I need to know… I’m not in love with Huck. It’s something I’ve known deep down for months and makes me regret not calling off the wedding sooner.
In the early days of our relationship, I got caught up in Huck’s wannabe rockstar lifestyle. He was exciting, different, and his passion for music was contagious. I believed him when he said he was on the verge of stardom. Not that it mattered to me; I only ever wanted him to be happy and to do what he loved. Before we met, I admit I was lonely and wanted someone to share my life with. Maybe that sounds desperate; maybe I was, but when I met Huck, all my friends were married or in relationships, and I was tired of being lonely. Even Leon started dating, and that hurt more than it should have.
From the moment I met Huck, I loved his live-for-the-day attitude. It was refreshing and a stark contrast to my stressful, demanding job as an ER doctor. However, as the months passed, his mood grew darker, and he spent more nights in bars than in our bed, not coming home until the early hours as any hopes of him signing a record deal faded.
Something else I was aware of but chose to ignore was how he saw me as someone he thought he could exploit for fame.
As the sister and daughter of the well-known Johansson hockey brother-and-father duo, he asked me several times if my brother could introduce him to anyone famous who could help catapult his career. He even inquired whether Leon, who is very well connected, could help.
I mean, my brother and Leon know a lot of people. The same goes for Lily, my sister-in-law, who has arranged numerous weddings for pop stars, but I would never ask her or anyone else to hook Huck up. His band isn’t even that good, which is partly why they still don’t have a record deal. I’m sure of it.
Financially, I’ve supported him since we started dating. Stupid of me, I know, but I wouldn’t have offered if I had known his band was years away from signing a record deal, not weeks as he implied.
I’d be a millionaire by now if I’d gotten a dollar for every time he promised to find a job, but days turned into months, then years. He chose to play video games during the day and sing for free in bars at night instead. None of which helped pay the bills or fund the rockstar lifestyle he longed for. Lazy bastard.Unlike Leon, the man I’m smiling up at, who is carrying me like I’m his sacred treasure toward his front door, and works harder than anyone I know.
I secretly wish Huck were more like Leon. Leon is not only successful, kind, and super funny, but he’s also always thinking of ways to make my manic shifts at the hospital easier. From spa days and massages to sometimes even a picnic in the park, he just knows what I need, even when I don’t.
