“Fucking weird as all hell. I’m sorry. I got ahead of myself. I shouldn’t have done this.” I shoved up from the chair, ready to put my tail between my legs and leave that poor girl alone.
“Wait!” She flew up from her seat.
“Yeah?” I halted midstride.
She walked over to me, staring me dead in the eye. “Can I hear it?”
“Hear what?”
Biting her lower lip, she put her hand over her chest. “Can I hear his heartbeat?”
Without thinking, I grabbed the sides of her face and pressed her ear to my chest, right over my heart.
Soft sobs started to come from her. “It sounds the same,” she whimpered.
I rested my chin atop her head. “You can listen for as long as you want to.”
We both were weeping as we stood there in silence, her face glued to my chest. I held her tightly against me. Right then, I felt like everything I had been looking for had finally fallen into place. All the brokenness that was weighing me down was starting to come back together and heal. This was what I had been yearning for; for the better part of ten years without even knowing it. My heart was looking for its soul mate, and there she stood, locked in my arms.
That one moment changed me. That one connection stifled my longing and need to fill the empty hole. In that moment, my heart was finally filled.
Why did this have to take me so long to find?
“So, a hockey game would be nice.” She sniffled, pulling away to wipe her damp cheeks.
“Yeah?” I could barely contain my elation.
“I mean, it’s weird, but why not?” She shrugged. “I might still be in shock, I just don’t really know what to think. This is all so much to take in.”
I practically jumped for joy that Olive was agreeing to spend more time with me. “The Otters have a game this coming Thursday in New York. You can stay with me if that doesn’t bother you too much, and I’ll get my brother to get us some good seats. Maybe I can get a whole group together. We have kind of a crew—well, my brother does anyway. His wife and her best friend and his friends. Sorry, I’m rambling. I’m nervous. All I am trying to say is that it could be a lot of fun.”
“I would really like that.” She gave me a half smile and my heart started pounding in my chest. “I haven’t hung out with anyone except for Shaw in…I don’t even know how long.”
“Who’s Shaw?” I asked. Jealousy was a bitter pill that was coating the back of my throat. Of course someone as amazing as her would have someone already. How could I be so naïve to think she would be unattached?
Olive hit a button on the phone on her desk, her voice booming on an intercom. “Shaw, can you come in here really fast?”
Great, now I had to meet the guy whose girl I had every intention of stealing right out from under him.
Within seconds, a lanky kid walked through the door, covered head to toe in motor oil with sweat dripping off his brow.
“Hey Liv, what’s up?”
“Shaw, this is Griffin. My dad kind of saved his life.” Olive just threw it out into the universe as I stood in the middle of her office with a random dude staring at me with his jaw hanging open.
“You do know your father has been dead for nearly ten years, right?” Shaw sank into the seat in front of the other desk. He tried to laugh it off, but the awkwardness only thickened.
I stalked over to him and grabbed his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, and Olive is telling the truth. I have her dad’s heart.”
“No shit!” His eyes darted from me to Olive. “This is fucking insane.”
“Tell me about it,” Olive muttered.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to find you.” I glanced over at Olive before taking a seat again.
“I don’t know if I would have had the balls to do it ever.” She reached over her desk, putting her hand on my arm.
“At least I finally made it up here. To think, without him, I wouldn’t be alive. I was a sixteen-year-old punk when my heart decided to fail out on me, and this one’s been ticking pretty good for the last ten years.”
