Page 24

CHAPTER 24

ROMAN

“ S top eyeing my sausage.” Peggy elbows Hollis in the ribs. “You’re the one who ordered peameal.”

He purses his lips. “I thought you’d be willing to share.”

She scoffs and points her speared sausage at his plate. “Your peameal. My sausage.” She nibbles the end of the link.

I barely resist the urge to tell her to use her fork and cut it up like a normal person, but I’m also aware she eats it like this to irk me. Otherwise she has impeccable table manners. Besides, mostly I’m thankful our tradition of breakfast at the Pancake House after an away series has remained intact, despite all the other changes in our lives.

Hollis stares at her and says nothing.

“Get a side, if you’re desperate for your own.” She turns to me. “You were great during the away series. How does it feel to almost have a total shutout over the last three games?”

“Amazing, to be honest.” I was legitimately worried about how I would perform, especially with the constant tension between me and Lexi. But I managed to keep my head in the game. We returned with three wins, shifting us back into the top ten teams.

“I love that you’re both having such a great season. Especially with it being your last. And maybe yours.” Peggy rests her cheek against Hollis’s biceps.

“Probably mine,” Hollis says.

“They could extend,” I argue.

“Doesn’t mean I have to accept the offer, though.” He pokes at his food.

It’s looking more likely that he’ll hang up his skates at the same time as me. Not being alone as I navigate what’s next sounds nice.

“We’ll figure it all out.” Peggy pats his arm and directs her next question at me. “Are you any closer to making a decision on what you want to do next year?”

“I talked to my agent about the Hockey Academy satellite campus opening here and I reached out to Alex Waters.” I won’t move away from my only daughter. And I have no plans to leave Toronto when Lexi is here.

Peggy reaches across the table to touch my arm. “It would be so good if you stayed close. Both of you would be great coaches.”

“I would never leave you. You’re my baby.” It doesn’t matter that she’s self-sufficient, she’ll always be a top priority. “They have a summer program for university students that they hope to start in May.” I’m testing the waters.

“It’s too bad we’ll be in playoffs then.” Hollis sips his coffee.

“Unless I take early retirement.”

Peggy laughs. “As if.”

Rainbow, our regular waitress, stops by to freshen our coffees. “Is everything okay with the hash today?” she asks Hollis.

“Oh, yeah. It’s great as usual,” he assures her. “Just overdid it on the snacks before I got here.”

Peggy gets a message, distracting her from the Hockey Academy conversation. “Looks like you can finish my sausage after all. I need to head over to Rix’s.” She shoves her phone in her banana duck bag .

“Everything okay?” I ask.

“Mostly. Nate is moving in with Flip next week so they need to get his stuff out of storage and Rix is stressing about the wedding. Summer is basically tomorrow in her head. It’ll all be fine, but she needs some girl time.” She kisses Hollis on the cheek. “Love you.”

Hollis arches a brow. “I love you too, Princess.”

“I know. It’s written all over your gorgeous face every day.” She squeezes his arm. She slides out of her seat and comes around to hug me from behind and kiss my cheek too. “Love you, Dado.”

“Are Rix and Tristan okay?” I ask once she’s out the door. Tristan, who is known for being a notoriously surly fucker is the happiest I’ve ever seen him. But I know they’ve had some ups and downs, especially with all the damage Tristan’s mother left behind.

“They’re good.” Hollis stabs Peggy’s sausage and transfers it to his plate. “Rix is a bit overwhelmed about planning a wedding and being full time in university and trying to work part-time, though.”

“Why is she still working part-time with all that going on?” She also preps meals for a bunch of us on top of everything else she does.

“I guess Tristan has been topping up her account, but instead of using it, she’s invested it, which sounds like a Rix thing to do. But also, she’s running herself a little ragged. She’s terrible at accepting help, always wanting to be self-sufficient. Aurora is trying to be a sounding board. She knows what it’s like to be surrounded by big earners and be in a job that doesn’t have the same kind of potential.” He drags the sausage bite through Peggy’s pool of maple syrup.

“Is Peggy struggling?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No. I mean, she thinks it’s pretty comical when we compare bank statements, but she’s used to it because she’s grown up in it. Rix is still trying to catch up. ”

Rainbow stops by, and Hollis asks for a takeout box. We settle the tab and leave the Pancake House, crossing the street and pushing through the doors of our building.

“You busy, or uh…you got a little time to hang out?” Hollis asks as we step into the elevator.

I swipe my fob and hit the button for the penthouse floor. “I can hang out.”

“Great. Cool.” He leans against the rail and runs a hand through his hair. Then shoves his hand in his pocket.

“Everything okay?” I ask.

“Yeah. Good. Great.” He nods a bunch of times.

He’s cagey as fuck. The elevator stops, and a couple joins us—from the gym based on their workout clothes and slightly sweaty appearance. They get off a few floors before us. Again, Hollis waits until I get off before he does. He follows me into my penthouse, sets his takeout bag on the entry table and wipes his hands on his jeans.

Hollis and I have been friends for a long time. I can read him pretty easily, and while I missed a lot of signs when he and my daughter were sneaking around last season, it’s pretty obvious he’s nervous about something. “Okay, man, what’s going on?”

“We need to talk.”

His tone makes my heart beat double time. “Not a good sentence to start with. I swear to fucking God, Hollis, if you’ve gotten my twenty-one-year-old daughter pregnant?—”

“No! She’s not pregnant. She’s on the pill. We’re super careful. We use extra protec?—”

I hold up a hand. “I don’t need more information about that.”

“Fair. Right. Yes. I’m sorry.” He exhales a long breath. “We’ve been together for a year.”

“Openly for a little better than six months,” I point out.

“It’s more like nine,” he argues. “She’s it for me, Roman. I love her more than life. More than hockey. I know this has been hard to get used to, and that you’ve got a lot going on already, but I can’t see a future without her. There’s a good chance I’ll retire at the end of this season with you. I just want to be prepared, you know?”

“For?”

“The next step. I want her to be my wife, and I know it seems fast, and I’m not saying I want it to happen right away, but the past couple of years… We’ve been through a lot together.” He rubs his bottom lip. “I’m asking for your permission.”

“To propose?”

“Yeah. Not like next week, but at least within the next year. Probably more like six months.”

“I need a drink.” I cross to the bar and turn over two crystal glasses. They were my dad’s. My mom gave them to me when he passed away and she moved to Arizona to be closer to her cousins.

I pour both of us a scotch. Three fingers. I pass him a glass and take a hefty gulp of mine. It’s two in the afternoon.

“Roman?”

“Just give me a second, please.” I take another gulp. “She’s my baby.”

“I know.” He sips his scotch.

“She’s…so young.”

“We can have a long engagement,” he bargains.

I hold up a hand. “I’m not going to stand in your way, Hollis. I know how much you love her. And I know she loves you back just as fiercely. She’s always been sure of her path in life. You have my permission. I just…” I swirl the amber liquid in my glass. “Didn’t think this was coming so soon. I thought I’d be settled. I thought maybe…” I shake my head. “I thought I’d be in this position before my daughter.”

“Well, to be fair, you haven’t put a whole lot of effort into meeting someone.”

“I wanted to be done with the travel.” I move to one of the armchairs and sink into it.

Hollis does the same. “No offense, Roman, but that sounds like a convenient excuse not to get into something. And I get it. For a long time I used my breakup with Scarlet as a reason not to get involved—just like not wanting to upset your relationship with Aurora was yours. But she’s settled. Hell, she settles me. You’ll never stop being her dad, but I’ll take care of her. I’ll love her and be devoted to her. You’re good to focus on you.”

“I can’t have what I want right now, anyway,” I retort.

“You want to talk about that?” Hollis sips his scotch and gives me the eyebrow.

I blink at him.

He blinks back.

It’s a standoff.

“It’ll probably feel good to talk about it. This is me, Roman. I’m still your best friend.”

“You’re dating my daughter. The dynamics have changed. Your allegiance is to her now.” It sounds harsher than I intend, mostly because I feel like a bag of shit for lying to him for as long as I have.

But this is Hollis. He doesn’t take offense. “To a certain point. But if you tell me something in confidence, I’ll keep it to myself.”

“Like you kept the sandwich and shirt fuck to yourself?” I inquire.

“Dallas told Hemi first. Probably so she wouldn’t make him dress up like a clown for keeping it from her for so long,” he grumbles.

“That’s fair.” And I had Lexi to talk to. Besides, I’m tired of the lies and the way they make me feel. “Remember that weekend you and I were supposed to go to New York, but Micha went into labor?”

“Yeah, of course. You went on your own.” His expression turns knowing. “And met Lexi.”

“I met Lexi,” I agree.

“Fuck. I knew something was up when her dad came to the Watering Hole. Did you two spend the night together?”

“The whole weekend.”

The weight in my stomach lifts as I unravel the lies I’ve had to tell him. I fill him in on everything, right down to the kiss we shared last week at the club before she went home. I messaged to make sure she got back okay. She did. And she also said that it couldn’t happen again.

“Well, that’s fucking messy,” Hollis says. “That makes what happened with Dallas and Hemi last year seem like a walk in the park. How are you going to deal with this?”

“We wait until I’m retired before we pursue it.”

Hollis blows out a breath. “What if we make it to the final round of the playoffs again? I know what the odds are, but it could happen. Do you think you can toe that line until then?”

“I won’t ruin her career. And that’s exactly what would happen. It’ll be hard enough when I’m not playing anymore. It would ruin her if it got out now. I can’t do that to her.”

Hollis takes a long swig of his scotch. “I see what you’re saying. But as someone who tried to stay on the right side of the line, even knowing what I stood to lose, eventually I broke.”

“It’s a handful of months.”

“Can you both keep your distance for that long?”

“I know what the optics are. What other choice do I have? Unless I retire early.”

His brows rise. “I thought you were joking earlier. Is that something you’re considering?”

“It could solve the problem.”

The question is, would it create new ones?