“Please, it’s nepotism and favoritism wrapped in a bow.”
“It’s a spare bedroom, Bianca, not a gift basket.”
My father stood, moving over to the window that looked over the practice rink. I could see the weariness he hid from everyone else in his reflection.
“Do you think I want this? You think I want my daughter staying with one of my players?”
I got up out of my chair and began pacing back and forth. There had to be another way. Anything would be better than that.
“Every extended-stay hotel within a reasonable distance is fully booked. I have already checked. Your options are making a forty-five minute commute each way or accepting this arrangement. If my place were bigger, and you had a proper bedroom, you could just stay with me.”
I sat back down, anger flooding me. I wanted to argue with him, to push back and to find another solution, but when he turned around, I could see it in his eyes. He was telling me the truth; he’d already exhausted the alternatives. My father wasn’t impulsive, and I knew if this were the solution he’d arrived at, he’d already eliminated all other options.
“Does Evan know?” I questioned.
“I’ll be telling him after practice.”
“What if he says no?”
I watched as a hint of a smile flickered across my father’s face.
“He won’t.”
I stood, needing to move and to think. This was a disaster, and living with Evan Callahan meant people would scrutinize every interaction. I was going to be in close, constant proximitywith someone I needed to always treat professionally and maintain boundaries with.
“I will try to push the property management company to have the repairs completed in six months, Bianca, but at most, it will only be nine months. That’s all. You stay out of his way, he stays out of yours, which should be easy considering the team’s travel schedule. Separate spaces, separate schedules. Think of it as having a roommate that you hardly ever see.”
“Roommates don’t have forty thousand people watching their every move, Dad.”
“If that is what you are worried about then don’t give them anything to watch. You’re professional, Callahan is professional. This is nothing more than a short-term housing arrangement, and anyone who wants to make it into something else is going to be disappointed.”
I looked at my father, knowing that arguing was pointless because he had already decided.
“When?” I asked, my hand on the door.
“This weekend. Friday. You’ll bring your bags with you.”
“I won’t have a car. The rental has to go back, and my new car won’t be ready until Sunday.”
“That’s fine. We will take it back Thursday night, and you’ll come to work with me on Friday morning. We can leave your things inside the storage area downstairs.”
I nodded. I had nothing more to say. I turned toward the door and opened it.
“Bianca.”
I paused and then turned and looked at my father over my shoulder in time to see his expression soften a little.
“This situation is only temporary. You will get a place of your own soon, and you will forget about this. One day, we will look back and laugh at this bump in the road.”
Chapter 4
Evan
Fire rippedthrough my shoulder as I stepped off the ice. It wasn’t the same sharp pain that had been present at the end of last season after I’d been body-checked by Knox Evans during our last game against the Vancouver Dominators. The only thing between my face and the boards was my shoulder. I’d shaken the hit off, played out the last of the season, and mentioned nothing about the pain, figuring the summer off would have healed it.
“How’s the shoulder?” Alec asked.
I knew the guys had seen what happened, each one of them concerned, but I assured them I had been fine.
