She nods in agreement.
“Have you always been checking me out every time I hit the ice?”
“Maybe,” she plays coy, but it’s obvious.
I lick my lips and grin to myself. “Thought so.” I lean over the wall. “And you are the hot hockey mom I’m always checking out.”
“Thought so,” she repeats my words.
Skating back, I don’t tear my sight away from her until I have to turn to skate forward.
It never gets old, Elle watching me on the ice. In truth, she gave me the drive to play harder and better. Now? She makes me excited for my next chapter on and off the ice.
The kids all pile onto the ice again and skate a few laps. A few times I catch Connor watching his mom sitting in the stands. When the kids come to circle around me, I’m setting down one more cone. We’re going to practice passing the puck side to side.
I notice my son staring at me more intently than normal. I give him a wink, but he rolls back his shoulder.
Fuck me, I wish I could freeze time so he can’t grow anymore.
Sometimes I wonder when he’s older if he will ever puzzle the pieces of Brielle’s and my life together, connecting the dots that we sacrificed a lot for him, but he’ll appreciate that we love him so much which is why we lost time. Most of all, I wonder if he will look back to now when his parents decided that the puzzle can only be completed if we’re together.
Because that’s what we’re doing.
13
BRIELLE
Holding my sun hat, I breathe in the fresh air and take in the sunlight hitting my face and skin, as I’m only in my bikini with a mesh cover-up. Ford is driving the boat across the lake. Luckily, this time we are on the speedboat and not the rowboat, which I am fairly convinced he used the other day because he knew I wouldn’t be able to row us back if I tried to escape.
Staring at Ford, my mouth forms a half-smile. He looks good with his sunglasses on, no shirt, and steering the boat. He’s the man I’ve always wanted, and he is now within my reach.
“Daydreaming?” he asks as he turns the wheel.
“I’m that obvious, huh?”
“Yeah. I hope you’re thinking about when I get to see whatever is in that bag from Piper’s boutique.”
I wave my finger in the air. “Nuh-uh, I haven’t decided yet. I’m never going to hear the end of this, am I?”
After seeing Connor at camp yesterday, Ford and I picked up some takeout from Catch 22, the restaurant on the water, then we went home and watched a movie before heading to bed where he most definitely used his hands and fingers in ways that I can’t even manage to say out loud.
The lingerie set that Piper gave me is elegant and deserving of a big reveal, not an afterthought between rounds, therefore I’m reserving it for a special occasion.
“Suspense is your play, I respect that. It just means you envision a very long timeline for us; I do hope you realize that.” He smirks to himself.
“I might.”
This morning, I arrived downstairs, and Ford was closing a cooler, telling me not to worry about packing the picnic. I’d be lying if I said I don’t have butterflies in my stomach.
I haven’t been back to this lagoon since, well, before Connor.
“How do you know the lagoon isn’t covered in garbage or the trees are gone. Maybe we are hyping this up,” I think out loud.
“It’s there.” Ford is sure of himself.
“You’ve been back?”
“Once or twice. I would drive by with the boat, never went in, though.”
