Sarah
Okay. Turning on airplane mode.
Carter
Text me when you land. Fly safe.
Another text pops up, this one from Anna. It’s a picture of the girls sitting at the island in her kitchen, their hands and faces covered in rainbows of finger paint. Their smiles are wide and happy; I can just see the beginning of Poppy’s missing front tooth growing in.
Anna
They miss you already! Forget New York and come home.
I love the image, then send a quick response.
Sarah
Kiss them for me. Back in two weeks!
I sink back into my seat, thinking of how different leaving the girls would feel if I knew I wouldn’t see them but a few times a year. There aren’t words to describe my sense of relief.
And that’s all thanks to Carter.
11
CARTER
Shelby meetsme at the house late on a Thursday afternoon. The Jaguars leave for a week on the road first thing tomorrow morning, so I’m glad it worked out that I can see it now. We’ve already got paperwork for an offer ready to go. If I like what I see today, I’ll sign, and Shelby will have everything she needs to negotiate and work out the details while I’m gone.
Assuming Sarahalsolikes the house. Which is definitely an important piece of this.
She’s been in New York just over a week, and I’m already itching to see her again. She’s on my mind pretty much all the time, which somehow feels both reckless and inevitable.
We still don’t really know each other—that makes it reckless. But we’re about to announce our engagement, so how can Inotthink about her? I’ll see her the day after tomorrow, and I’m already counting down the hours.
Since she posted about our relationship and tagged my account, I’ve been inundated with messages from family and old friends and former teammates.
The captain from my AHL team, Alec Sheridan, called and said I owe him a phone call with a very thorough update.
And Mom texted to say she was happy we’d finally gone public so she can talk about it with her friends. I honestly didn’t expect her to wait, so I’m impressed by her restraint.
Even after eight years of playing professional hockey, I still feel surprised when people I know respond to news they hear about me…not from me.Instead, they read about it on social media or see a headline on ESPN. Generally, I try to avoid all the social media stuff. The team has people who will let me know if there’s anything I should be concerned about.
But this time, I find myself itching to look, to see what people think of Sarah and me together, especially now that everyone knows she’s Miles’s sister.
I push my hands into my pockets and look toward Shelby’s car. She’s gotten out, but she’s on the phone, leaning against her driver’s side door. She looks up and makes eye contact, mouthing asorryas she holds up one finger.
I wave to let her know I’m fine. While I wait, I pull out my phone and text Sarah, letting her know I’m at the house and that within the hour, I should be able to call her so she can look at the place with me.
We’ve been texting quite a bit since she left, not about anything in particular. Just casual stuff. How much she loves to read. My secret ability to identify all eighty-eight constellations in the night sky. She told me a little about growing up in Canada. And I outlined all the things I both love and hate about having an identical twin.
She shared the playlist she listens to when she’s painting, and I’ve been playing it in my truck every time I drive anywhere. We have surprisingly similar tastes in music. Well, sort of. If you subtract the nineties boybands and add in alittle bit of nineties country,thenwe’d be almost entirely aligned.
Everything that brought us to this point happened so fast, it’s been nice to feel like we’re getting to know each other. There’s also a certain safety in texting. A distance that makes it easier to ignore how attracted I am to her.
The one thing we haven’t talked about is her childhood. She’s mentioned a few vague things about Canada, but mostly, she steers clear of anything that even hints at her life growing up.
I have to believe that has something to do with why she doesn’t go to hockey games. I won’t say I wasn’t disappointed when I found out I’ll never see her cheering in the stands. Having family support is a big part of hockey culture. Then again, she isn’t myrealfamily, so do I really have the right to be disappointed?
