Page 13 of Game Changer (Wynn Hockey #5)

She slowly moves her head from side to side.

“If I’d told you all I didn’t marry Bob for his money, would you have believed me?

I don’t think so. I just wanted to live my life and love my family and I knew that one day you’d all see that.

I didn’t expect…this.” She waves a hand. “But this is our story now.”

She turns to pull mugs out of a cupboard. “What do you take in your coffee?”

“Just some milk, please.”

She pours the coffee and retrieves the milk from the fridge for me, then adds some to Grandpa’s cup as well.

“What about the future?” I ask. “At some point, it’s going to be too much for you.”

“We can afford help,” she says calmly. “Bob doesn’t want to be a burden on me or anyone else, so we talked about memory care facilities and we’ve explored options. We found a nice one not far from here, when the time comes.”

“Will you make sure you take care of yourself?”

She picks up the two mugs and smiles. “You sound like Everly.” She lifts her chin. “She and the boys have all been great. They’ll make sure I’m okay too.”

“That’s good.”

My throat feels scratchy. I take a quick sip of my coffee as I follow her back into the living room where Grandpa is watching a new show.

Back at the resort, I change into board shorts and head down to the pool to find Molly. I find myself out of sorts. Anxious. Guilty. Sad. I really, really want to see her, because her quiet understanding and sunny outlook feel like something I need right now.

I find her at the pool bar talking to a good-looking dude, who’s looking at her like she’s the most fuckable thing he’s ever seen.

Jesus.

“Hey,” I say.

Molly turns to me, her face lighting up. “Oh, hey! You’re back. Wow, what time is it?”

The dude looks at me, then back at Molly. “Uh…”

“Oh, Justin, this is my friend Jax. Jax, this is Justin from New Orleans. He’s here for the convention. The one that has all the rooms full.” She rolls her eyes.

I frown, my gaze sliding back and forth between them, then reach for Justin’s hand, eyeing him.

The bartender sets drinks on the counter in front of Molly and Justin, and she pays for hers while Justin charges the rest to his room.

“Do you want to get a drink?” she asks me.

“Yeah.”

“Why are you looking like that?” She sips her margarita. “Bad day?”

“Uh.” I become aware that I’m still scowling. “Yeah.” I order a beer from the bartender.

“I’ll wait with you.” Molly smiles at Justin, who picks up several drinks and starts off with them.

“Who the fuck is that?” I ask.

She shoots me a startled look. “I told you.”

“You just met him here?”

“Yes.” She wrinkles her nose at him. “Is there a problem with that?”

I pause. Is there? “You almost got married a few days ago.”

Her eyebrows shoot up. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. I feel like I need to watch out for you. You’re Steve’s fiancée.”

“No. I’m not.” She lifts her chin and meets my eyes. “And I can look after myself, thank you. I was just being friendly. I wasn’t trying to pick him up.”

I rolls my eyes. “Glad to hear it.”

“Wait, what? Even if I was, that would be none of your business.”

“It is if you’re sharing my hotel room.” Okay, I’m kind of being a jerk. I feel like I can’t help it.

“I wouldn’t bring him back to your room, for the love of goats.”

“So you’d go to a stranger’s room?”

Her mouth fall open. “What is happening here?”

“I don’t know.” I rub my mouth. The bartender slides my beer across the counter, and I sign the bill to charge it to the room then grab the drink to take a big gulp.

“And furthermore.” She straightens. “Sharing a room with you doesn’t give you the right to tell me what to do with my sex life.”

I cough. “I’m not doing that.”

“Yes, you are!”

“No, I’m not!”

She inhales a long breath and lets it out. “Come on, what are we arguing about? We’re friends. I’m a grown woman and I can do what I want, and so can you. Although…” She pauses, then sighs. “Never mind.”

“What?”

“I was going to say I’d appreciate it if you didn’t bring a woman back to the room, but then I realized that you should totally be able to do that because it’s your room and I’m just the pesky friend who’s crashing your party.” She sighs again.

As if I’d want to bring another woman back to the room. “You’re not pesky.”

“Yes, I am. You’ve told me that before.”

“Okay, you’re pesky in a cute way. Look, I’m sorry.

I don’t know why I reacted that way to seeing you talking to that guy.

Like I said, I guess I still think of you as Steve’s girl and…

” I stop, clear my throat, then continue.

“And it didn’t seem right. But it’s true, you’re not his fiancée anymore, and it’s none of my business who you talk to. ”

“Thank you.” She eyes me over her margarita.

I nod.

“Come on. Come meet them. They’re nice people and we were having fun talking.”

She leads me back over to the group. I don’t want to meet a bunch of people. I want her to myself. Ah well.

She introduces me to the group.

“Holy shit,” Justin says, eyes opening as big as margarita glasses. “You play for the Chicago Aces.”

“Yeah.” I smile. “You a hockey fan?”

“Big time! The Lightning are my team, but wow, it’s great to meet you.”

Everyone’s in awe, peppering me with questions about hockey and other players, which I try to answer without insulting the refs, the league or other players.

“We need to get going,” Sarah says eventually. “We have a dinner tonight.”

“Yeah.” Justin makes a face. “Duty calls.”

“Your boss is here,” Sarah reminds him. “You better show up.”

They leave to go to their business dinner. Molly and I have finished our drinks.

“We should think about dinner too, I guess.” I sets my empty down on the small table.

“Yes, I’ve had enough pool time for the day.”

“No sunburn?”

“I don’t think so. How’s my back?” She turns.

I cough, admiring the expanse of smooth skin. “Looks good.”

“Whew. It’s hard to sunscreen your own back.” She pushes a book and magazine into her tote bag, folds up her towel and we start back to the room. “So, why was your day so rough? Your grandpa not doing well?”

I blow out an explosive breath. “No. It’s just…hard.”

She doesn’t press me, but I know she will at some point. “What do you feel like for dinner? Something here? Or should we go out?”

“Let’s go out. Somewhere fun and noisy.”

“Hmm. Okay.”

I let her shower first, then take my turn. When I come out, rubbing my hair with a towel, she’s dressed in another cute sundress and she’s looking at her phone, clearly upset. I stop rubbing my hair, lowering my arms. “What’s wrong?”

Her lips tighten. “Steve went on our honeymoon.”

“Aw. Fuck.” I close my eyes and shake my head. “I’m sorry, Molly.”

“It’s okay.” She pulls in a breath and stands.

“Fuck,” I mutter again. “How do you know that?”

She holds up her phone. “Grace sent me a text message. My phone’s been off, and I had a bunch of missed calls, voice mails and texts.

Most from Steve, but a lot from Grace and Brielle.

And one from Mom just checking in.” She hesitates.

“I didn’t listen to Steve’s messages, but I did read the others. ”

“Who’s he there with?”

“Grace says she doesn’t know.” She swallows, a pained expression on her face. “If he’s with Claire…”

Goddammit.

“I’ll finish getting ready.” She darts into the bathroom.

“No rush,” I call. “I’ll be out on the balcony.”

I grab my own phone and go outside where the sun is sinking down to the horizon. The ocean glints silver and turquoise, stretching out to infinity.

Should I text Steve and see who he’s with?

I run my thumb over the phone screen. Shit. I hate seeing Molly unhappy. It must feel like a slap in the face that he went without her. Especially if he’s with someone else.

It might seem weird if I message him. We weren’t best buds or anything. So I don’t, but I scroll through Insta while I wait for Molly.

She joins me a few minutes later.

“You okay?” I ask.

“Yeah. I don’t care about the honeymoon.

” She sits too. “Yes, I was excited to go to Europe, but it was my decision not to go through with the wedding, so I totally gave up the honeymoon too. It makes sense that Steve should go on the trip rather than waste a bunch of money. It just hurts that he may have gone with someone else.”

I nod.

“And if he’s with Claire, that just reinforces that I made the right decision.”

“I guess that’s true.” That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still hurt, though.

“This view is incredible.”

I set down my phone. “It really is. I get why the rest of my family likes living here.”

“Would you want to play here?”

“Christ, no!”

She chokes out a laugh. “Okay, then.”

“My family owns both the local teams here. I don’t want to work for my family. Holy shit.” I shake my head.

“But what if you got traded? Players don’t always have a say where they’re going.”

“True.” I grimace. “Let’s hope that never happens.”

“I found a place for dinner. Mexican. How’s that?”

“Sounds good.”

We find the restaurant easily. It’s a typical cantina with wooden tables and chairs, stucco and brick, and lots of greenery.

We start off sharing cheese chips with guacamole. Molly orders the chicken mole and I go for beef fajitas. While we sip our drinks and wait for our meals, she changes the subject back to my visit with Grandpa.

“So how’s your grandpa doing today?”

I purse my lips briefly, then tell her about my conversation with Chelsea, ending with, “She’s not bailing on him.”

She watches me closely. “Do you feel more comfortable about her now?”

“Yeah. She’s looking after him. I tried to talk to Grandpa but I don’t think he really understood.”

“Oh no.”

I sigh. “I left it too late. I thought he was the enemy and now it turns out we know better, and it’s too fucking late.”

“Maybe he understood more than you realize. At least he wasn’t…hostile. Or was he?”

“No.”

“So he probably picked up on the fact you want to make amends, even if he didn’t understand all the words.”

I consider that. I’d like to believe that. I knew Molly would make me feel better. “Last night he seemed so with it.” He shakes his head. “Chelsea says his cognitive abilities vary from day to day.”

“You’ll have more chances to talk to him while you’re here. I’m sorry.”

I nod, tightening my lips. “Thanks. We have to deal with it. I also heard from Everly.” She texted me earlier. “She’s getting everyone together tomorrow night.”

“Oh good.”

“She said to bring you.”

Molly shakes her head. “No. That’s family stuff.”

I shrug. “It’s not that big a deal.”

“I don’t want to intrude. I’m just tagging along to escape Chicago. I’ll be fine here.”

I tell her a few anecdotes about my afternoon with Grandpa, and she listens so attentively I keep talking.

“Did you ever play hockey with your grandpa?” she asks at one point.

“Yeah.” I smile faintly. “When I was little. He’d play with us kids when we got together for Christmas.

It was really cool, because he was always so much better than us, but then…

Théo started to get better than him. Faster.

Softer hands. And then JP, Asher, Harrison and me too.

He loved it, though. And Noah and Riley played goal, so we gave them a run for their money every time.

There aren’t many players in the league today who can say they stopped shots from Bob Wynn. ”

She smiles. “I guess not.”

“Grandpa was so proud of all of us.” My lips twist. “Even me. And we loved trying to outskate him.”

“What about your dad? And your uncle? Did they play too?”

“Oh yeah, of course. My mom played hockey too.”

Her eyes widen as she picks up a chip and dunks it into the guacamole. “Really?”

“Yeah. She just played for fun when she was a teenager.”

“That’s awesome.”

“My mom’s pretty cool.”

“Where does she live?”

“Toronto, right now. But apparently she may be moving to Los Angeles too.” I rolls my eyes. “I hope she doesn’t.”

“Why?”

I shrug. “My dad’s here. He’s an asshole. And the rest of the family can be a lot.”

“They don’t like her?”

“No, no. Actually they do. I just think she’s better off not being involved with them.”

“Los Angeles is a big city. And…” She grins. “She’s a grown woman. I’m sure she can make her own decisions.”

My lips pucker up and then I smile. “Yeah. I guess that’s true. Women don’t like being treated like children, huh?”

“Fuck the patriarchy,” she says mildly, and I burst out laughing. Molly and I have always laughed over the same things, and right now it feels good to laugh with her.