CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ALEXIO
On the plane,I watched as we began our descent into Boston. There was something to be said about flying private when I was solo. I didn’t do it all the time. I rarely splurged on this kind of cash, but I also wasn’t in the mood to hang around Seattle with my thumb up my ass when I could be home.
When I could be with him.
When I could be fixing everything that I let go wrong because I left without him knowing how I felt.
Pulling my phone out of the holder, I opened up the last string of texts I’d exchanged with Jonah. We’d been talking this whole time—about everything, about nothing. About his breakfast and the weather, and the shoe his cat tried to eat.
But the last thread was different.
It was last night, in my hotel room. I was alone, horny, missing him so badly I ached in places I didn’t know I could ache.
Me: I can’t wait to see you.
Jonah: What will you do?
Me: Pin you to the door, suck your brains out through your dick, eat your ass, then fuck you senseless.
Jonah: I’m already down one since. Maybe leave those alone?
Me: Fine. But am going to make you come so hard you hear the voice of god.
Jonah: always wondered what he sounded like.
Jonah: I want to know what you’ll feel like inside me. Sometimes I swear to god you could fuck me cited.
Me: I will give it my best shot.
There wasn’t a chance after that I was staying in Seattle any longer than I had to.
No one asked me to stay when I told them I was leaving. Well, except Vanya, but he was always in my fucking business. Luckily, he didn’t ask to come along. He just told me to tell everyone hi and to give Athena a kiss from him.
It took me a moment to remember that was Jonah’s cat.
Twisting my coin in my fingers, I fought the urge to call him as the plane began to taxi. It was late afternoon, and I had no idea what Jonah was doing now, but I knew that he didn’t have a game, and Nikos had already texted me, letting me know that the court thing was over and Jonah had gotten the power of attorney.
It meant they could move forward with Peter and get him somewhere he could be safe. It meant he could maybe start treatment that would make his life a little less…whatever it was.
A small part of me wondered if maybe he should suffer after everything he’d put his boys through, but the bigger part of me didn’t believe that. And I knew Jonah agreed, considering he was doing everything he could to make all of this happen.
It was why I liked him.
It was why I?—
No. It was too early for those three words.
The plane came to a stop, and I stretched my back, wincing at my fresh bruises. My ribs were swollen from a nasty check I’d taken that had sent me flying into the goal pipe, and I’d taken a puck to the jaw. It clipped my bucket first, which had knocked me sideways and taken the momentum out of it, so nothing was broken.
No teeth needed to be repaired or replaced.
But I was a little worse for the wear and once again starting to think about retirement and what it would be like to not have my body beat to shit by the end of the season.
It was warmer now in Boston than it had been just a few weeks ago. There were clouds in the sky making it hazy, but it was creeping toward April, and the cherry trees were reaching the end of their bloom.
As I climbed into my car and started down the road, I could see a few of them starting to sprout their small green leaves.
