Page 33 of Hot for the Hockey Player (The Single Moms of San Camanez: The Vino Vixens #2)

Gabrielle

“What were you thinking?” I demanded, cupping my son’s face as if he’d fallen off a cliff and might have broken bones, rather than just got off the bus at an earlier stop.

I patted his arms, his hoodie damp under my fingers.

“You know you have to tell me if you’re going to do that.

After what happened to Marco …” I pressed my forehead to his. “Damon. Don’t do that, okay? Please?”

He nodded softly. “Sorry.”

My gaze drifted to Maverick’s, where he stood uncomfortably just inside the entryway. “Thank you for letting me know where he was and bringing him home. I was just about to go looking for him when you texted.”

“Happy to help,” he said, his lips pressing into a thin flat line. Then his eyes shifted to Damon. “Damon, maybe you could tell your mom how you’re feeling?” He gave my son’s shoulder a squeeze.

My kid lifted his eyes to mine, and his chin trembled. “I … I hate school, Mom. The kids are so … they’re awful.”

That was what his rebellion was about? The kids at school. I was about to open my mouth and say that he just had to graduate. Then it’d get better, but Maverick spoke up.

“I think you should hear him out. I was there on Friday, and while I only saw a glimpse, your son is not like the other kids. He’s kind.

He’s respectful. He doesn’t put on airs.

And if what he says is true, four years is going to seem like a lifetime of torture.

And those years could drastically impact his mental health. ”

Torture … Mental health.

Now he had my attention. I grasped Damon’s shoulders. “What happened?”

With a pained effort to keep his emotions in check, he told me how the boys in his grade and the grade above teased him relentlessly about our family being part of a cult.

That they kept asking when we were going to drink our “night night Kool-Aid” since cults all had suicide pacts.

Then there was stuff about their degradation of women, including the girls in their school, even female teachers, and how long it’s all been going on.

“I hate it there, Mom. I really do. And I’m not trying to be dramatic or whine. But … I’d rather die than go back there—ever.”

I glanced up at Maverick, who merely offered me a small, encouraging smile as he stood there silently listening to my son pour his heart out while simultaneously ripping out mine. I had absolutely no idea how bad it was.

“I want to try homeschooling,” Damon finally said, a tremble wracking his whole body. “I promise I’ll do the work. I’ll get up early, finish all my homework. I won’t spend all day playing video games. Just please, don’t make me go back there.”

Emotion hung thick and spiky at the back of my throat.

I tried to swallow as the backs of my eyes burned.

I couldn’t say anything, so I just hauled my son—who was much taller than me already—into my arms and hugged him as tight as I could.

“We can try homeschooling,” I said against his chest. “You don’t have to go back. ”

His gangly body shuddered in mine. Like just giving him that bit of hope released all the built-up tension in his body.

He relaxed and really hugged me back, draping a significant amount of his weight on me.

I couldn’t remember the last time my son hugged me like this, and despite the harrowing circumstances, I soaked it up like a sponge.

After a moment and a couple of poorly veiled sniffles from my fourteen-year-old, he pried himself off of me and wiped his eyes, looking away from Maverick.

“You don’t have to go to school tomorrow,” I told him. “I’ll call Principal Wellington in the morning and let her know what’s going on. Then I’ll sign you up for homeschooling. It shouldn’t be that hard to do. I’ll start doing some research into different programs tonight. Or you could too.”

He nodded vigorously. “I can do that right now.” Then he hugged me again, catching me off guard, and tugging more emotions right to the surface. “Thanks, Mom.” He released me and turned to Maverick. “Thanks for your help with this, Mav. I really appreciate it.”

Maverick nodded. “Anytime, bud. I’m always here for you. And we’ll figure out when we can play video games again. I promise.”

With an enormous smile, and a light unlike anything I could ever remember seeing shimmering in my son’s eyes, he grabbed his binder and math textbook from his backpack, shot us each another ear-to-ear smile, and headed to his room with a noticeable lightness in his step.

I hung my head. “I had no idea it was that bad.”

Music started playing from Damon’s room, and I knew Laurel was already in her room doing her homework.

I sucked in a shuddered breath as a tear slid down the crease of my nose.

I was still staring at the tile floor when Maverick stepped forward and gripped me by the shoulders.

“You are an amazing mom. You didn’t know because he’s a boy and boys are notoriously closed off.

He didn’t want you to know. But it was to his own detriment. ”

I swallowed. “I should have known though. I’m his mother.”

“Look at me, Gabrielle.” He squeezed my biceps a little in encouragement.

I lifted my head, his blue eyes and their deep, mesmerizing clarity making my breath snag in my lungs.

“Do not beat yourself up over this. He’s a kid, and kids make mistakes.

His mistake was not confiding in you sooner about his struggles.

But now you know, and together, you’re going to make it right.

It’s not too late. Remember that. It’s not too late.

We got through to him, are able to help him before it …

well, before he did something really rash. ”

My head bobbed in a nod as another tear slid down my cheek.

With his big thumb, he reached up and swept it away.

“You listened to your kid, and you’re going to get him the help he needs.

You’re going to help him thrive. Because he is a phenomenal kid.

You’re doing a great job with both of them. Know that.”

I still couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I just kept staring into his eyes, internalizing all that he was saying, and wondering why on earth I dismissed him the way that I did earlier when he was just so wonderful in every imaginable way.

“I need to apologize,” he started. “For earlier. I made you uncomfortable, and I’m sorry.

” His sigh made his shoulders slouch a little and ruffle some of the hairs around my face.

“But after seeing you in the stands at my hockey game, I couldn’t get you out of my head.

You have been the benchmark for women in my entire dating life.

A lot of my past girlfriends even looked like you. ”

My eyes went wide.

His sheepish smile only endeared him to me even more.

“I know I already said these things, but you are the whole package. Brilliant, compassionate, fierce, kind, beautiful—”

My hand reached out and grabbed him by the front of that tight, white T-shirt before my brain could tell it not to, and with my chest heaving, I hauled him close and crushed my mouth to his.

His lips were soft, warm, and full. Immediately, he started kissing me back.

It was a rush of endorphins, hormones, relief, and overwhelming gratitude that propelled me to bury my other hand in his hair, tugging him down to me. His hands roamed down the sides of my body and cupped my butt, then he lifted me up, making me gasp, and plunked me onto the counter.

We continued to kiss, tongues tangling, teeth nipping.

I felt him smile against my lips, and I smiled in return, enjoying the thick, unmistakable prod of his erection against my inner thigh.

He cradled my back with his big hands like he was protecting me, cherishing me, and I savored every second of it.

I was lost to his lips and his touch, craving more of him. My hand was still bunched in the front of his shirt while the other one tugged on his hair. I moaned when he scraped his teeth across my bottom lip, and almost didn’t hear the telltale sign of a bedroom door opening.

It had a bit of a squeak to it, so it was Laurel’s.

Reality hit me like a bolt of lightening and I shoved him away, both of us out of breath.

He stumbled a little, and I quickly hopped down off the counter just as Laurel, nose in a book, entered the kitchen, oblivious to the world outside of Westros.

She grabbed an apple from the fridge, didn’t even glance at either of us, took a bite, and retreated back to her room.

I glanced at Maverick, and his smirk made me want to jump his bones again.

All of this was so out of character for me. Maybe I had a brain tumor?

“Come to my cabin tonight,” he said, gently adjusting his jeans, which of course pulled my eyes right there.

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

He turned to go, his body angled away from me, and for whatever reason, the way he glanced back at me, his brows pinched, an amused look on his face, made my entire lower half clench.

“That wasn’t a request.” Then he headed to the door, opened it, and didn’t even look back before taking the porch steps down to his truck.

I leaned against the side of the fridge, hand to my wildly beating heart as I processed what had just happened.

I kissed Maverick Roy.

And he kissed me back.

Boy, oh boy, did he ever kiss me back.

My other hand touched my lips, which still tingled from the memory of his mouth, of his tongue and teeth.

The door opened again and my stomach flew up to my throat that it might be Maverick, back for more. But it wasn’t. It was my cousins.

They ditched their shoes, took one look at me, and all three of them halted in their tracks. Or, I should say, Raina stopped, which caused Naomi to bump into her, and Danica to bump into Naomi.