Do you listen when they tell you you’re acting like a shit? That you should stop working when you are spending time with them?
He couldn’t get Hazel’s voice out of his head. Nor her smell and sighs. If even Hazel no longer recognized him, how bad had he really become?
He’d been friends with Cian and Connor for so long that they were naturally a part of his life, but he obviously wasn’t a part of theirs if they felt they had to force him to spend time with them.
And it bothered him. Fuck, a lot of things had been bothering him since that damn Hazel contract, which was supposed to make his life easier, not harder!
“Hey, Clark.” Thomas Lyle, the Hawks’ general manager, stopped him in the hallway. “Coach mentioned that we might want to make a trade before the season starts. Blake Ford is playing horribly, and we need a second goalie who can shine when Moreau is sidelined. I’d like to discuss it so we can start searching for a replacement.”
“Not right now. But let Penny know, and we’ll set up a time. We can watch him during training camp.”
Lyle raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Aren’t you on your lunch break? I thought we could…”
“I have plans, sorry,” he said, and those words shouldn’t have been so damn difficult for him.
“Let’s assume Party A broke the rules, and Party B locked her in her bedroom because of it. How long can Party B keep her there without committing a crime?”
Gareth frowned. “How serious was the violation?”
“Huge. Party A didn’t get home until ten, even though I told her to be home by eight. I think eternity is a reasonablepunishment, but I wanted to hear your expert opinions from you both first.”
“I’d threaten with half an eternity before I exploded,” Gareth said.
“Half an eternity is too tame for me.”
Connor sighed heavily. “You’re both stupid. Cian, you can’t lock your daughter in her room for the rest of her life because she was late.”
“Why not?” The Irishman pointed his fork at Connor’s chest, which, as always, was clad in a white shirt. “When Mother Gothel does it, it’s okay, but when I…”
“Ada isn’t Rapunzel, Cian, and Mother Gothel was killed for holding the poor princess captive — and I hate you for knowing that!”
“You weren’t the one who had to watch the movie with her for a third time. Cian isn’t to blame,” Gareth pointed out.
“I never would have had to watch the movie the first time if you’d been there, Mr. Workaholic,” Connor retorted sourly. “Because then we would have played poker, like we were supposed to.”
Right. He’d had a meeting with a player’s agent. But Ada would have won at poker anyway; none of them had the inner strength to let the thirteen-year-old lose, so it hadn’t seemed that important to him to show up…
But maybe it should have been.
Fuck. Hazel really needed to vacate his damn mind!
“God, she’s becoming a real teenager,” Cian said, ignoring them both. “And I don’t know if I’m ready for it. Her favorite phrase used to bechocolate, please, now it’syou’re annoying, Dad!What am I supposed to do with that?”
“Maybe you should take the direct feedback to heart and admit you’re annoying,” Gareth suggested innocently.
Connor nodded earnestly. “That’s the most sensible thing that’s come out of Gareth’s mouth today.”
“You can both go to hell,” Cian stated matter-of-factly. “That kid’s already too clever for me. She waits until I come back weakened from a court appearance, then she stares at me wide-eyed and demands terrible things from me.”
“She wants a goat and maybe a second turtle, Cian, not nuclear weapons,” Connor noted.
“It starts with the turtle, and if I’m not careful, next thing she’ll want to date and drive a tank.”
“A tank?”
“The step from owning a turtle to driving a tank isn’t that big.”
“Is that why you’re in such a bad mood? Over a turtle?” Connor asked.
