Page 105
Story: Need You to Choose Me
But the dim remains in her eyes.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Olive
Seeing a half-nakedAlex lounging in nothing but a pair of boxers in his bed is a sight I never thought I’d see outside of my wildest fantasies. But here he is, laying on top of his made bed with…a crossword puzzle in his hand?
“I didn’t know you liked those,” I say as he scrawls the pen across the little boxes.
He sets it down on his chest. “They’re my mom’s favorite. I got used to doing them with her. You should see her in action. I get stumped by half of these things, but not her. Her doctor says brain teasers are good for her.”
I peel the comforter back and crawl in, fidgeting with the hem of the top sheet. “Are you planning on visiting her soon?”
I’m not sure if I’m overstepping any lines by asking about her, but it seems logical. They talked on the phone yesterday, but the call seemed short. He wasn’t in the best mood after he hung up.
He closes the pen into the book and puts it on his nightstand. “I’m going to see her next week. Pam, her head nurse, has been trying to get me to go to therapy with her.”
A small smile meets my face. “I think that’s a good idea.”
“My father is one of her biggest triggers,” Alex murmurs, sighing. He rubs his closed eyelids tiredly. “His death messed her up. I’ve learned to avoid talking about him, so she doesn’t go down a dark place. Now she’s finally listening to her counselor at Logan’s and thinks it’s a good idea to talk about him again.”
“Embrace his memory,” I note.
His chin dips down. “Exactly. If it helps her, I’m willing to try. She can’t live at Logan’s forever, so she needs to adjust to hard conversations. I need to learn how to help her do that since I’m all she has.”
It makes me sad that her family hasn’t tried harder to be there for them. “It’s good that she has you. It sounds like your relationship is important to her, especially since she showed up here to check on you.”
He harrumphs. “She shouldn’t have done that” is how he responds. Wetting his lips, he drops his guard. “But it felt kind of nice that she did. She felt like my mother.”
I smile. “That’s good, right?”
“Yeah. It is.”
We fall silent, my eyes focused on the sheets that I’m fidgeting with while his burn holes in the profile of my face. “What are you thinking?” he asks.
Wetting my lips, I lean back on the pillows stacked behind us. “Nothing about your mom,” I reassure. “I’m sorry that I upset Moskins today and made a scene. Sometimes I forget that people’s egos are a big part of them in this industry.”
“He needed to be knocked down a peg or two. You don’t need to apologize for that.”
“He was pretty mad.”
“Trust me, that’s his default,” he says easily. “Notice how none of the guys were shocked by it? We’re used to him lashing out. But it’s usually when he doesn’t get his way on the ice. He’s not used to women telling him he’s not the god he thinks he is.”
His teammates kept the conversation lighthearted after the tension with Moskins. Jess and Alex went back and forth about Alex’s return next week, and the training regimen that they would do together to get back into shape for the season officially starting. Moskins didn’t say anything else to me the rest of the night, and I’d felt bad for bantering with him. Sebastian used tosay I’d come off a little too snobby when I joked around, and nobody here knows me well enough to tell the difference.
Whoops.
“They seemed nice. Quieter than I expected. Probably because I’m related to the enemy.”
Alex snickers. “Clarkson’s stepsister is a big Pats fan, as you know. If football and hockey played the same time of year, she’d ditch her Penguin’s all-access season pass to see New England’s team in a heartbeat. Even over Clarkson.”
“But they like Belle,” I point out, biting down on the inside of my cheek.
“They don’t know you yet,” he points out, his hand reaching out to take mine. “There’s a difference. Once they do…”
It’s sweet what he’s trying to do, but I’m a realist. “I understand where Moskins is coming from. He’s protective of his team. That’s admirable.”
Alex frowns. “He was being a dickhead.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Olive
Seeing a half-nakedAlex lounging in nothing but a pair of boxers in his bed is a sight I never thought I’d see outside of my wildest fantasies. But here he is, laying on top of his made bed with…a crossword puzzle in his hand?
“I didn’t know you liked those,” I say as he scrawls the pen across the little boxes.
He sets it down on his chest. “They’re my mom’s favorite. I got used to doing them with her. You should see her in action. I get stumped by half of these things, but not her. Her doctor says brain teasers are good for her.”
I peel the comforter back and crawl in, fidgeting with the hem of the top sheet. “Are you planning on visiting her soon?”
I’m not sure if I’m overstepping any lines by asking about her, but it seems logical. They talked on the phone yesterday, but the call seemed short. He wasn’t in the best mood after he hung up.
He closes the pen into the book and puts it on his nightstand. “I’m going to see her next week. Pam, her head nurse, has been trying to get me to go to therapy with her.”
A small smile meets my face. “I think that’s a good idea.”
“My father is one of her biggest triggers,” Alex murmurs, sighing. He rubs his closed eyelids tiredly. “His death messed her up. I’ve learned to avoid talking about him, so she doesn’t go down a dark place. Now she’s finally listening to her counselor at Logan’s and thinks it’s a good idea to talk about him again.”
“Embrace his memory,” I note.
His chin dips down. “Exactly. If it helps her, I’m willing to try. She can’t live at Logan’s forever, so she needs to adjust to hard conversations. I need to learn how to help her do that since I’m all she has.”
It makes me sad that her family hasn’t tried harder to be there for them. “It’s good that she has you. It sounds like your relationship is important to her, especially since she showed up here to check on you.”
He harrumphs. “She shouldn’t have done that” is how he responds. Wetting his lips, he drops his guard. “But it felt kind of nice that she did. She felt like my mother.”
I smile. “That’s good, right?”
“Yeah. It is.”
We fall silent, my eyes focused on the sheets that I’m fidgeting with while his burn holes in the profile of my face. “What are you thinking?” he asks.
Wetting my lips, I lean back on the pillows stacked behind us. “Nothing about your mom,” I reassure. “I’m sorry that I upset Moskins today and made a scene. Sometimes I forget that people’s egos are a big part of them in this industry.”
“He needed to be knocked down a peg or two. You don’t need to apologize for that.”
“He was pretty mad.”
“Trust me, that’s his default,” he says easily. “Notice how none of the guys were shocked by it? We’re used to him lashing out. But it’s usually when he doesn’t get his way on the ice. He’s not used to women telling him he’s not the god he thinks he is.”
His teammates kept the conversation lighthearted after the tension with Moskins. Jess and Alex went back and forth about Alex’s return next week, and the training regimen that they would do together to get back into shape for the season officially starting. Moskins didn’t say anything else to me the rest of the night, and I’d felt bad for bantering with him. Sebastian used tosay I’d come off a little too snobby when I joked around, and nobody here knows me well enough to tell the difference.
Whoops.
“They seemed nice. Quieter than I expected. Probably because I’m related to the enemy.”
Alex snickers. “Clarkson’s stepsister is a big Pats fan, as you know. If football and hockey played the same time of year, she’d ditch her Penguin’s all-access season pass to see New England’s team in a heartbeat. Even over Clarkson.”
“But they like Belle,” I point out, biting down on the inside of my cheek.
“They don’t know you yet,” he points out, his hand reaching out to take mine. “There’s a difference. Once they do…”
It’s sweet what he’s trying to do, but I’m a realist. “I understand where Moskins is coming from. He’s protective of his team. That’s admirable.”
Alex frowns. “He was being a dickhead.”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125