Page 46 of Hutch (Minnesota Raptors #2)

Daisy

Morning came with a trepidation I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Hutch was up and gone before I even thought about getting out of bed.

I think it was nerves. He said something about going for a run and then picking up Collin who stayed at the hockey house.

He’s so nervous about today, but I think the real nerves will set in tomorrow when he gets on the ice.

Man actually thinks he’ll get a practice in today.

He has paperwork and onboarding as well as meetings.

I highly doubt he’ll see the ice today, let alone get on it. I guess we’ll see who’s right.

Today also starts his new plant based diet.

He is not looking forward to it and I don’t blame him.

No meat is crazy, but I did some research and several sports teams swear by the diet stating they’ve all improved since starting it.

I did more research trying to find recipes I could tinker with.

I went out and bought groceries yesterday to make a dish that’s sort of like a ratatouille, but not quite.

It has tofu in it. I put the tofu in a marinade last night to help give it flavor.

I’m going to make enough that they can just reheat it for a few days if they like it.

If not, the people in the house will eat it.

The sports guys devour anything put in front of them no matter the taste.

Cherese Stone, Hutch’s lawyer, and a local one at that, called last night to tell me she was going to go put the petition before a judge this morning as soon as the courts opened.

She apparently knows a judge she’s gone before many, many times over the years and he agreed to see her first thing.

And I didn’t have to be there either since she knew the judge so well.

I was nervous about having to go tell everything again to a judge who may or may not believe me.

It’s all moving so quickly now and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Given everything that I’ve been through, I highly doubt a restraining order will do anything to keep Joe away if he chooses to come looking for me.

It’s not like he doesn’t know where I am.

And he’s escaped consequences once already.

Why wouldn’t he assume he’d do the same again?

The whole thing has put my stomach in knots.

My morning classes went by quickly and I got a voicemail from Cherese while I was in my psych class.

The judge signed the order and it was faxed over to a process server in Texas.

She thinks it’ll be served quickly since Joseph is very well known in and around his university campus.

She assured me that the server knows to be discreet and to serve it when he’s alone if possible to maintain his and my privacy.

I called her back and thanked her. She seems very nice and told me to let her know if I need anything else in regard to Joseph. She said she’d let me know when she got confirmation he’d been served.

I’ve been on pins and needles since that phone call waiting for her to call. His reaction will not be a good one. He’s not going to let me go that easily. His words of my being his have echoed over and over for days. He’s insane.

Christa bumps into me as we both head up the steps to go into the house. She agreed to help me cook since Jenny has a late class today.

“Sorry,” I say and unlock the door.

“You should know how klutzy I am by now so don’t apologize.”

“Partly my fault. I keep waiting on the phone call.”

“She’s sure he’ll get served today?”

I shrug and put my things down by the door. “I don’t think he’ll be hard to find if they follow him from football practice.”

“Athletes are predictable, aren’t they?” She tosses her bag on the floor and pulls off her light jacket to hang up in the hallway closet.

I don’t trust putting my coat in there. The girls in this house aren’t picky choosy about who’s clothes they grab by mistake.

I shove mine in my bookbag. I’ll take it all upstairs later.

“I’m turning the heat on.” It’s gotten colder over the last few days and Jenny says its finally starting to feel like fall in Minnesota. I checked the temps back home and they’re still in the sixties during the day. Seems like everyone is having a late start to fall/winter.

“I’m surprised no one turned it on this morning.” Christa yawns and heads for the kitchen. “Do we have enough to make a lot? You know every guy in this house is going to demand some.”

“I thought about that so I bought enough to feed everyone and still have enough to portion out several days for Collin and Hutch.” Going over to the sink, I pull the massive pot out I found yesterday in the basement. It took a lot of cleaning, but this thing will hold everything.

“Where did you find that?” Christa’s eyes widen at the sheer size of the pot.

“In the basement. It needed a good cleaning, but it’s good to go now.”

I take everything out of the fridge while Christa gathers the things from the pantry and then we set out cutting all the veggies and prepping the spices.

I found this recipe online and am tweaking it a bit, making it slightly spicy to give the tofu more flavor.

I’m going to fry it in the spice rub before adding it to the mixture to make sure there’s some texture to the dish.

“I heard your friend will be in town this week.”

“Yeah, Lucy’s team is playing the team here tomorrow. Some kind of charity event. She’s supposed to stay over and head back on Wednesday. She got special permission from her coach to not travel with the team.”

“This is the same Lucy who found you that day?”

I nod. “I’d probably be dead if she hadn’t gotten me help as quickly as she did. I had a lot of internal bleeding.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” she says softly. “I know you probably don’t want to talk about it and I’m not going to push you to, but I’m here if you need to talk or just a shoulder to cry on.”

“Thanks. As much as I’d rather not think about it, it’s hard to do anything but that while I wait on Cherese to call me.”

“I hate waiting on things, especially things that make me anxious. It’s good we have something to keep our minds off it.”

“I almost called to see if I could pick up a shift at work to make sure I was busy, but it’s Hutch and Collin’s first day. I wanted to be here for that. Did I tell you they think they’ll actually get on the ice today?”

“Really? They should have asked me. AJ’s first day with the Florida team was spent on paperwork, meeting with marketing, the PR rep, and then the coaches. I don’t think he actually saw the actual ice for a few days.”

“Days?”

Christa nods thoughtfully. “I think it had to do with rebuilding the Florida team. It was the same one Shaw Chandler was on. He got out before it blew up and AJ was one of the first pickups to start to rebuild it after they fired everyone. That might have had something to do with the delay.”

“Probably,” I agree.

“They’re going to get a big culture shock too,” Chrisa continues as she starts chopping vegetables.

“They only practice as a whole team once or twice a week, usually on days they don’t have games.

The rest of the time is spent in the gym, with the conditioning coach, and with their individual coaches. ”

“They get individual coaches?”

“Well, the position they play does. With Hutch, he’ll do a lot of work with the coach for the position of center since that’s what he plays. He’ll get individualized attention as well as playing with the other centers to help improve his skills.”

“You know a lot about hockey.”

“I learned since it was important to AJ and I hate being in a room where they’re talking shop and I don’t understand what’s being said. I’m too much of a nerd to just shrug and pretend to understand. I want to put my two cents into the conversation.’

“I should probably learn shouldn’t I?

“Probably. I have some books that will explain the player positions, what they do, and the game in general if you want to borrow them.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“I’m assuming you and Hutch are a thing now?”

“He wore me down.”

“He’s a good guy.”

“I know. I guess I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought Joe was a good guy too, but he turned out to be awful.”

“I get that, but I don’t think comparing Hutch and Joe is fair.”

“It’s not and I’m getting better at not doing it.

It’s more of a me thing. I don’t trust myself to make calls about guys anymore.

But Lucy verbally knocked some sense into me.

If I don’t take a chance, then I let Joe win and I miss out on something really special and I know in my bones, whatever this is between me and Hutch, it’s special.

It’s what gave me the courage to finally say fuck it, I’m in. ”

“It’s so weird to hear you cuss,” she muses.

“I don’t do it a lot. Nana was not one for putting up with foul language, but even she agreed some situations called for it.”

“I think I would have liked your Nana.”

“She would have loved you. Anyone who was friends with her babies, she adored.”

“Sound like my grandma.”

“I think grandmas are the same in that regard.” I add the three whole onions I just diced up to the pan along with butter to start them. The garlic I’ll add in just a few minutes as I don’t want it to burn while the onions soften.

“Did your Nana teach you to cook?”

“She did and everything else I learned from watching The Food Network. I don’t watch it as much anymore, though. They have fewer cooking shows and more shows that go looking for restaurants or things like cooking in a parking lot. Not something you can learn from.”

“I’ve never watched it so I don’t know.”

“The one show I’d say to watch is Worst Cooks In America . It’s funny and you do learn a few things here and there.”

“My mom should be on that show. We’d have all starved if not for Dad. Mom tried to cook last time I was home and she nearly set the kitchen on fire.”

“At least she tried.”

“True and we did manage to get Dad to order takeout from the new Chinese place in town. They’re so good!”

“You know I’ve only ever tried one Chinese place I really liked and that was Rice Fun down in North Carolina.

They didn’t just use one basic brown sauce.

They had a different sauce for every dish.

I loved it. I even thought about applying to school in Charlotte for that reason alone, but in the end, it was too close to where Joe went to school, so I came here instead. ”

“I for one am glad you came here. I got a new friend out of it.”

“Me too.” I add the garlic and give it a good stir. “You ready with the first batch of veggies?”

“Nope. I was too busy talking.” She laughs and sets about chopping while I take the tofu and add it to a hot pan. I need to brown it and let it be in the mixture for as long as possible to make sure it soaks up all the flavors of the stew.

We work quietly for the next hour as we talk about anything and nothing all at once. Mostly to keep my mind off the phone call, but I appreciate the chit chat only meant to fill up the silence and keep my mind too busy to obsess.

“What now?” Christa asks once we’ve added in all the ingredients to the stew pot.

“We wait. It’s going to need to cook for a couple of hours at least.”

“Are you a Potter fan?”

“Uh yeah. Who isn’t a Potter fan?”

“Want to have a Potter marathon? I own them all on Prime Video.”

“Girl, yes. We can order pizza and chill. How long before the horde descends?”

“Probably another hour, two at the latest.”

“Then we’d better hurry and order…”

My phone rings.

Heart in my throat, I pick it up and recognize Cherese’s number.

“Hello?”

“Daisy. Good news. The papers were served and it was done privately as well.”

“I…”

“I know you’re freaking out, but this is a good thing. It gives us legal standing if he tries anything.”

“I know and thank you, Cherese.”

“You’re more than welcome. If he starts harassing you, let me know and I’ll bring it to the court. Now, I have to go pick up my kids and get dinner started.”

We say goodbye and I turn to Christa. “They served him.”

She lets out a breath. “That was quick.”

I nod. My phone rings again and it’s the sheriff from back home. I let it go to voicemail. I don’t want to deal with him.

“That Joe?”

“No, it’s his uncle, the sheriff from back home.”

“He can go get fucked. That asshole let his nephew off.”

“And here you said I sounded weird cussing.”

She shrugs. “Like your nana said, sometimes it’s called for. Go pull up Prime Video while I order pizza. My account is already signed in since I have more movies than anyone else.”

“Aren’t you afraid someone will just start ordering stuff?”

“I have a lock on it. They have to know my pin number to make purchases.”

My phone starts ringing again. It’s Joe this time. I let it go to voicemail. I don’t want to hear his voice.

Christa takes my phone. “Go turn on the TV. I’ll keep this for a while. If Hutch or Collin calls I’ll give it back. Okay?”

I nod, feeling myself start to shut down. Panic is setting in. He’s mad. I know he’s mad. Why did I let Hutch talk me into doing this? It’ll only make things worse.

My phone rings again and I jump but go sit down. My fingers fumble with the remote and it slips out of my hand its shaking so badly.

What if he comes here and no one’s home? I’m not strong enough to fight him. He’s bigger than me and has more strength than I do. He proved that the day he almost killed me. I’m not stupid enough to think he won’t kill me if he gets his hands on me again.

“Easy,” Christa whispers. “It’s going to be okay, Daisy. I promise.”

It’s a promise she can’t keep. We both know it, but I’ll hold onto it until Hutch gets here. Maybe I’ll start to feel safe with him wrapped around me.

Closing my eyes, I say a prayer and do my best to keep myself from falling apart until he gets home.