I breathe a little sigh of relief at the thought that Riley could have already made a friend. Most of her friends from middle school went to a school in our neighborhood, but Riley had her heart set on a visual and performing arts school, and she went without knowing anyone. She has seemed happy enough in the week that she’s been at the theater, but having a kid in high school is new for me, and doing it alone makes mefeel like I’m tiptoeing around a bomb just trying to keep it from detonating.”
“It’s hard.”
I look up at Olivia, and when I see understanding all over her face, my breath gusts out of my lungs. I barely know her, but between seeing the woman I can’t get out of my head in the lobby just now and thinking of my daughter suddenly being a teenager, I can’t hold it all in anymore. “She’s my baby. Five minutes ago, she was curling up on my lap and begging for just one more bedtime story, and now she’s a teenager going to high school and begging me for trips to the mall. I can’t get my head around it. The guys on the team are my brothers, but no one has kids as old as mine, so I don’t really have anyone to talk to about it. Sorry,” I say with a grimace at the way the reminder of how alone I sometimes feel parenting two kids on my own comes slipping out. “I didn’t mean you need to be the person I talk to about it. I usually have more of a filter than this. It’s a weird day.”
The understatement of the century.
Olivia gives me a warm, friendly smile. “I’m right there with you. Brian, too. Our oldest is a senior, so this should feel familiar to us, but somehow, it feels like the first time all over again. I’m a pretty good listener if you ever feel like spilling your guts to me again. Want to come over for dinner next week? We can have a barbeque before the season really gets going, and the girls can meet if they haven’t yet. It’s hard to make friends as a parent to teenagers. My sister and brother and pretty much all my friends have kids in their twenties, so their lives look a whole lot different than mine and yours. We can be your compatriots in the trenches of parenting teenage girls.”
I hesitate, because as good as that sounds, thirteen years in the league has taught me a lot about how close to get with the people who hold your career in their hands. Also, this is Maddy’s family, and I’m not sure how she would feel about me befriending them like this. I’ve only known her for twelve hours—only known her name for about forty-five minutes—and how she feels has suddenly risen to the very top of myimportant thingslist.
But that is definitely an inside thought.
“I appreciate it Olivia, but your husband is my literal boss. Maybe dinner isn’t such a good idea.”
Olivia snorts, waving that away. “Maybe if you were ten years younger I could see where you’re coming from, but let’s be real, Cam. You’re going to retire a Renegade. This is your place and your team. Having dinner with Brian and me isn’t going to change that.”
I feel a shot of warmth at the thought of finishing out my career with the only team I’ve ever been a part of. “You calling me old, Liv?”
She shrugs. “I’m, like, eight years older than you, and Bry is ten years older than I am. If you’re old, we’re practically ancient. Or, at least he is,” she says with a smirk. “And yet, we’re going to be bonded by the moods and whims of freshman girls. So, what do you say, Cam? It’ll be the week before the home opener, so you guys will still have the time. Brian will grill steaks, I have a new cookie recipe I’ve been dying to try, and my oldest can talk all the hockey Ethan wants.
Without any reason to say no, I shrug. “Okay, I guess we’re coming to dinner.”
A brilliant smile spreads over Olivia’s face. “Amazing. Now that we’ve taken care of all our business, we can switch to personal, and you can tell me why you were staring at my sister Maddy earlier like she was the last woman on earth, and why she was looking at you like she had seen a ghost until she tried her absolute hardest to not look at you at all.”
I swallow hard because, okay, I guess we’re doing this.
“Your sister? Isn’t she your niece?” I ask, partly out of curiosity and partly as a way to stall for time to figure out what the hell to say becauseI fucked her all night last night and now I think she’s a part of my soulisn’tgoing to cut it.
Olivia shrugs. “I mean, I guess yeah, in the technical sense that I married her dad’s brother, but she’s always been more like a little sister to me. My brother’s wife and Maddy’s mom have been best friends for like thirty years and are more like sisters themselves, too. It’s all kind of complicated, but sufficed to say, our family doesn’t care much about who’s related to whom by blood or whatever. It’s what’s inside that matters, and inside, Maddy is my sister. What’s she to you?”
I wince inwardly because I walked right into that one, but I try for casual anyway. “I thought I recognized her from somewhere, but I was wrong.”
Olivia smirks at me. “That might work on someone, but it definitely won’t work on me. No way in hell was forty-five minutes ago in the lobby the first time you’ve met her.” She studies me for a second and the back of my neck prickles, like she’s seeing far more than I want her to. “Your secret is safe with me. But I’ll just say this. If you wanted to get in her way a little, I would be on your side. Maddy deserves a good man. I’m an excellent judge of character, and I think you are a very, very good man.”
I feel a shot of adrenaline at Olivia’s words because all I want to do is get in Maddy’s way and have her get in mine, but that’s also an inside thought. “I try to be. Anyway, it’s nothing. She has a really important job to do, and I have a season to prep for. And Ethan’s hockey game. And I promised Riley a celebration dinner afterwards. So, my plate is pretty full.”
Olivia smiles like she knows something I don’t and pushes up from her seat. “It’s been great talking to you, Cam. Your meals will start next week, and, in the meantime, I have your number, so I’ll text you about dinner at our place. I’m going to go make my husband take me to breakfast, and since you’re already here, why don’t you head down to the training floor and have someone look at that hip of yours. I know it was giving you trouble at the end of last season. Can’t be too careful with the regular season starting soon.”
I stare at her for a second, wondering why she’s talking to me about the hip I rehabbed all summer. The hip that’s been perfectly fine through two preseason games already. It’s only when she winks at me and sails out of the room that it hits me.
Training floor.
Maddy.
I really shouldn’t. There are a million reasons why going to look for Maddy is a bad idea, although right now, I can’t think of any of them. All I can think of is her soft skin and her pretty eyes, and the way her red hair looked spread out all over my pillow. The way she took exactly what she wanted and gave me something I didn’t realize I needed. The sounds she made when she came and how, when I woke up alone, the ache that settled in my chest felt like way too much for a simple one-night stand.
Nothing about last night was simple.
Nothing about my life of being a widower and single parenting two kids is simple.
And yet, as I stand here, all I can think is that simple is overrated, and maybe what I need in my life is some complexity.
Maybe what I need in my life isher.
Tapping the table with my knuckles, I make my decision. Grabbing my phone and shoving it into the pocket of my shorts, I head out of the conference room to go see about a girl.
CHAPTER THREE
