His demeaning attitude.
She warned me but I somehow missed it.
And in two days we’re going to add my mother to the mix.
This is shaping up to be the hardest week of my life—right in the middle of the playoffs. In retrospect, we should have waited until summer, but I know my mother. There is no doubt in my mind she’s already picked out another wife for me, and there’s a very good chance she’s bringing this woman with her. The only way to stop her plans is for me to be one hundred percent, legally and emotionally, unavailable.
“Just be careful,” Ashton says after a moment. “Men like that, well, they tend to play dirty. So you don’t want to get on his bad side.”
I stare at him. “What do you mean?”
He shrugs. “You know, politicians. They aren’t exactly salt of the earth most of the time. And now he’s your father-in-law, so you’re going to have to play nice.”
“Holly does not like him,” I say. “I did not like how he spoke to her. He will not treat her like this.” I set my jaw. “No way.”
“Hey, I hear you. Just make sure you and Holly are on the same page when it comes to family. Because it’s only going to get more complicated as things progress.”
He has a point.
Not that Holly and I aren’t on the same page—we definitely are.
But I need to be more cognizant of what’s happening on her end. I honestly thought my mother would bring all the drama. Holly trusted her ex with her trust fund, and he invested it in a tech startup that went belly up. She lost everything, and in addition to potentially losing her grandmother’s farm, she also explained that she didn’t want to have to admit that her boyfriend had swindled her to her father.
I thought the money I gave her would be the end of her troubles.
Apparently, I was wrong.
Now I have to figure out how to manage everything, while focusing on hockey, moving into a new house, and simultaneously trying to understand why I so desperately wanted to kiss my wife this morning.
Chapter Nine
Holly
By the time West drops us off at the apartment, it’s almost two so I’ve lost most of the day without packing anything. I stare at the apartment in frustration, because all my things are here now. I was living with Nathan before the breakup, and he wouldn’t allow me to take any of the furniture, so there aren’t big things, but there are lots of small things.
Luckily, I didn’t unpack everything since I knew this wasn’t permanent, but there’s enough. I have a lot of clothes. Shoes. Purses. Scarves and gloves and hats. Books. Photo albums. So many things.
“We will pack,” Viktor says gently, when I sit on the bed in a huff.
“Yeah, I know. I’m just frustrated. My father messed up my day.”
“Is okay. Come.” He looks around. “Where to start?”
With Viktor’s help, we manage to get almost everything boxed up or put in two large suitcases and one carryon. I picked up boxes and packing tape before we left for Vegas so now everything is stacked by the front door.
I was planning to bring some of this stuff to my grandmother’s house but now I want it with me, especially since our new house is huge.
His house.
I have to keep that in mind.
I’m only going to be living there for a year. Then I plan to move to my grandmother’s house for a while. Hopefully, a year from now, I will have found a job that will support me and the money I get from Viktor will keep the bird sanctuary running. My degree and experience is in finance but I don’t really love it. That was my father’s idea, not mine. If I’d been given a choice, I would have majored in environmental science or maybe avian veterinary medicine.
Instead, I let my father dictate my future and now I’m paying for it in more ways than one.
“You are thinking something bad,” Viktor says, interrupting me.
“Oh.” I shrug. “Not bad, just realizing how much I’ve let my father manipulate me over the years. I didn’t even study what I wanted in college.”
