“Good,” she says. “We have to go shopping today for back to school.”
“Oh fun,” I tell her, and she looks over her shoulder.
“Westley, Daddy is on the phone.” She moves away from the phone, and I see him walking into the frame.
“Hey, Dad,” he says. “Are you going to be at my hockey practice tonight?”
“Yeah,” I confirm, “I’ll be there. You and your brother are on at the same time.”
“Vincent,” he yells for his brother, “we’re on at the same time tonight!” The two of them have been on skates since they were both two years old. So has Nora, but unlike her brothers, she is not interested in playing hockey. She’s good to go skating, but it stops there. Now the boys are playing on competitive hockey teams, which makes it fun. Westley is good and I see him getting as good as Vincent is, but he needs a little bit more work. Vincent, on the other hand, doesn’t even have to try, it’s like he was born to play hockey.
“Let me talk to him.” I hear Josephine say and I bite my tongue to tell her to fuck off.
“Hi,” she says, coming into the screen and she is wearing her hair piled on her head, “I was thinking we could talk when the kids are on the ice.”
“I’d rather not,” I mumble. “We’ll see, I might have to do something else while I’m there.”
“Like what?” I hear her huff out in annoyance.
“Like not talk to you. Do the kids need to talk to me?”
“No, they are going to have breakfast right now,” she replies, “then we have to go back-to-school shopping. Do you want to come?” I shake my head. “Do you want me to buy extra clothes for your house?”
“I got it,” I tell her. “I’ll take them out with me next week when they are here.”
“You’re ridiculous,” she almost hisses.
“Great, thanks.” I hang up on her before she is about to say something else that will irritate me.
I finish eating and clean up the kitchen before walking back upstairs to my bedroom. After I left her, I stayed in a hotel for two weeks. I knew I needed to find a place to settle for the kids. I must have looked at twenty-five houses before settling on this one. It has five bedrooms and the thing I liked most about it was the front entrance and the family room had open ceilings that were all the way until the roof, making it seem even bigger than it was. I loved that there were three bathrooms upstairs. I also loved the big family room and the kitchen, and the fact there was a guest room downstairs, which was a computer room for the kids. The house made sense for us, and I’m trying my best to make it a home.
I get dressed in shorts and a T-shirt when I hear the horn honking from outside. “I’m coming!” I shout, even though I know they can’t hear me. I grab a bottle of water before I walk out of the house. Kirby sees me and still honks his horn, making me laugh. I open the back door and get in. “Hey,” I say, shutting the door and putting on my seat belt.
“Yo,” Jaxon throws over his shoulder.
I buckle my seat belt and I’m about to say something when Kirby looks over at me. “So, you met my sister last night,” he starts, and the back of my neck begins to get hot. I wonder if he’s going to kick my ass once he stops the SUV.
“Yeah,” I reply and I’m about to tell him how sorry I am for being an asshole, “listen, I’m--”
“She’s usually always with us, but she spent the summer in Phoenix,” he tosses over his shoulder at me, “so you’ll get to know her more now, since you hang with us more.”
“She’s the best,” Jaxon adds.
“She just moved here?” I ask, even though I shouldn’t because it really doesn’t matter. I do owe her a thank you for not telling her brother what I said to her, so I will do that. When I see her again.
“Yeah, she was living in Arizona, and I’ve been asking her to move here for years,” he explains, and I nod at him. “She finally caved and moved here when we started the foundation last year.”
“Well, you better make sure the rookies know she’s off-limits,” I say, and I immediately close my eyes when it leaves my mouth. My mind immediately goes to Kylie and the jeans she was wearing yesterday. She has one of the nicest asses I’ve ever seen in my life. She is sexy, and she has no fucking clue the number of heads that she turned as she walked out. I saw a couple of the new guys tap each other and motion with their chins toward her, which is why I said what I said, and not because of the fact I was one of the ones totally checking her out.
“Everyone knows that she’s off-limits,” he remarks, parking the car at the gym. “Besides, I’m not worried about her, I’m worried about them.”
“I can see that,” Jaxon agrees. “Smiles in your face while literally having you castrated, and you don’t even know it’s happening.”
“Good to know,” I deadpan, walking into the gym after Kirby, who holds the door open for me. The trainer is there waiting for us and for four hours we do four different courses from the bike, to the Stairmaster, to the treadmill, to weight training.
We walk out of the gym, the three of us not saying a thing to each other, completely wiped from the workout. We stop for protein shakes on the way home and when I get in, I toss my sweaty clothes into the laundry basket. I have a housekeeper who comes once a week when the kids are not here, and then twice a week when they are. She also does my laundry and changes the sheets, along with grocery shopping. I quickly shower and get into my SUV and make it to the rink in time to tie the boys’ laces and get them onto the ice.
“Hey, Dad,” Vincent says to me when I walk into the locker room, and I see some of the other dads there smile and acknowledge me with a chin lift.
