Except Keats parades back to me, and I’m melting. “Distance does things to people. Knowing you and me, it will lead us down an unusual path.” The man actually swoops up my hand to kiss. What a chaste and saccharine gesture.
“You’re really being annoying.” I grin.
“Oh, but you love it.” He pecks my lips quickly before he saunters away to his luggage in the entryway to the living room. “If there is anything then just call,” he reminds me and gently knocks on the frame of the door.
I want to burst out what I’m holding in.
There is something.
All I ever want is you.
Alas, I save my words for when he gets back.
21
KEATS
Chewing on my pen, I skim the lines of the contract on my screen. Jotting down a quick note on my pad of paper, I’m grateful that I’m one paragraph away from being done. Sitting on a plane in first class for the morning red eye, I’m not loving the grueling week, even if I love working with the Spinners’ general manager Vaughn Madden or the fact that Oliver is also present on this trip.
The thing about being the legal counsel for a hockey team is that there are always constant curves in the way you approach others in your work. It’s not always straight and narrow. Contracts in relations to players are high stakes, and contracts with team sponsors require a bit more finesse.
Imagine that. I manage to transform my style in law, but when it comes to Esme, I lose my ability to adapt to situations. Such as being direct about what I’mreallyfeeling.
That’s probably with good reason since I know I want her, and we’re not following any traditional timelines, but eventually that has to catch up to address the bigger picture.
Sighing and sinking back into my seat, I’m relieved that a week of schmoozing with sponsors is over. I evenmanaged to cut a day out of this trip. Esme has been out like a light with the flu, and she kept repeating that my work life has impeccable timing because she isn’t sure she could save me from the plague she has. Truthfully, I can’t recall a day that I had to take off because I was sick. Not ever, actually.
And remembering the days when I wouldn’t bother trying to get home at a reasonable hour seem long ago.
Actually, thinking outside of my work world is a new concept.
It’s because of her.
She makes me laugh and keeps me in line.
A wildflower that sways in the wind and blows away the only focus in life I had and carries in the realization that I can have something outside of work that I apparently never imagined.
But now I do.
There is more to life, and it’s spending it with someone.
A woman who makes me laugh, calls me out when needed, and surprises me at random moments.
It’s turning me into an absolutely sappy guy who needs to bring a little edge back.
The corners of my mouth tug when I picture Esme passed out in bed with probably a little snore. Surprising her will hopefully make her happy. But then her words before I left still poke at me. She kind of insinuated that she will move back when her house is ready.
It makes sense. Complete sense.
She has a house. That’s not something you can forget about.
Even if in a perverse way, I don’t want her to have that house at all.
Having forgotten that Oliver is next to me, I startle whenhe nudges my arm holding up his empty cup to the flight attendant to indicate for another water.
“You’re smiling to yourself,” he notes.
No point in hiding it. “Just thinking about how there is someone at home when I get there.”
