Page 30

CHAPTER 30

(Not Really) Sneaking Around

KELLEN

Saturday, December 14

“ S o you listened to me,” Bri says.

We’re standing at her kitchen counter. I’m chopping up a cucumber, and she’s peeking in on the crockpot mac and cheese we made for a house full of Ava’s friends, here for her sixth birthday party.

“What do you mean? I often block you out, so you’ll have to be specific.”

But I’m sure I know where this is going.

She puts her hands on her hips.

“Three weeks ago. We talked at the KFDPC meeting. About Lucy. Who was your fake girlfriend.”

“Is? Is.”

“See? That’s what I’m talking about. Do you still not know what’s going on?”

I don’t make eye contact. Slice, slice, slice.

“Lucy’s here, at our daughter’s birthday party. Ava adores her. Ava’s friends adore her. I even like her, which is unexpected.”

I stop cutting and look up. “I don’t see what the big deal is. ”

“Kellen.” Bri rubs her forehead. “Lucy gave Ava her favorite birthday present.”

“The stuffed dog that looks like Mister Barky McBarkface?”

“Yeah. That one.”

I shrug. “Ava loves MBM. And yeah, she loves Lucy. That’s all this is.” I toss the cut cucumber into a bowl.

But my heart thumps in my chest as I know I’m full of shit. I know that’s not all this is. And Bri does too.

Bri rolls her eyes and stirs the crock pot with a big spoon.

I grab a green pepper and chop.

“And remember, I also invited Atticus, Lachlan, and Harley.”

I don’t like how Bri can read the situation so perfectly.

Bri opens her mouth, but before she can say something back, Ava saves me by bursting into the kitchen with a trail of five- and six-year-old girls and boys behind her. They’re making a conga line, one of them carrying an iPad with Taylor Swift blasting out of its tiny speakers. Lucy is right in the middle of it all.

Bri and I cheer as they march by, and Lucy throws the biggest grin at me, her cheeks flushed, her hair wild.

When they’ve descended the basement stairs, Bri spins my way.

“I’m not sure if you’re in denial or you’re lying to me. But… maybe figure your shit out.” Then she stomps after the kids.

It’s been a little over two weeks since Thanksgiving, but it feels like Lucy and I have lived an entire life together.

And my hockey game has definitely not suffered.

The Blizzard is on a winning streak, and during the last home game, I was on absolute fire. Not quite the hat trick from the first game Lucy went to, but knowing she was watching from the stands was everything. It allowed me to focus. To score. To assist Harley’s goal. I easily ignored the other team’s trash talk. I saved Lachlan from a fight. We won 4-0. Should’ve been an even higher scoring game, but I’ll take it.

Lucy and I need to fit it all in because there’s a timer on this relationship.

The KFDPC group chat had been blessedly quiet, up until yesterday when the conversation about our fake breakup kicked up.

Tomorrow. My insides twist thinking about it.

The main floor of Bri’s house is much quieter with all the kids downstairs. Only the hockey boys’ voices in the family room mix with the moms who stuck around for the party.

Lucy comes up from the basement without a trail of kids behind her. She moves next to me, looking around before ducking under my arm and wedging herself between me and the countertop.

“They’re all downstairs,” I say into mounds of curly red hair, breathing her in. She presses her cheek to mine.

Without thinking, I take her face in my hands and press my lips to hers.

Fuck, those lips.

I pull back and slide a finger under her chin, memorizing the scattering of freckles over her nose and cheekbones.

I thought we could get this out of our systems by hooking up all the time. That we’d get sick of each other.

But we haven’t.

I want more.

The team has been traveling a lot over the past two weeks, but while home, I spent every moment I could with Lucy.

It even ate into my Ava time, which makes me uncomfortable.

But I cannot resist this woman.

I grab Lucy’s hand and pull her around the corner into the mudroom area, strewn with shoes and jackets, but quiet and absent of children and interested adults. Lucy slides her hands up my chest, and I press into her, kissing her deeply, wishing we were truly alone.

The room falls away and there are only her lips, her curls tickling my neck, her waist under my hands, her warm breath in my mouth. We kiss as the world lazily spins, until a scream of delight from the basement startles us apart.

Lucy’s cheeks are flushed, and her lips swollen with my kisses. Exactly as they should be.

“Wow,” she says quietly, green eyes wide and locked with mine.

I nod. What else can I do?

“Lucy?” Bri calls.

Lucy detangles herself from me and glides out of the mudroom. Her and Bri talk and laugh, and then the door to the basement opens and shuts.

I press my palms on my eyes, willing my misbehaving heart to stand down. After a few deep breaths, I return to the counter and my half-chopped pepper.

“So your sister is working for the Blizzard?” one of the moms asks in the family room, around the corner and out of sight.

“Yup,” Atticus says. “Just for one season though. Not even for the whole season, actually. She’s trying to get a job with a pro soccer team in England.”

“That’s wild,” another mom says. “So she’s here temporarily?”

“If you want to know if Ava’s dad is going to be single again soon, just ask,” a third woman says. They think they’re being quiet, but the voices carry to the kitchen. They must think I’m downstairs.

There are a few low laughs from the hockey boys, because they all know the real deal. Well, most of the real deal.

I’ve kept it purely platonic with all the single moms and women associated with Ava. No soccer coaches or ballet instructors or girl scout leaders. I’ve never wanted to get messy like that.

But I can’t imagine anything messier than the situation with Lucy now.

“She worked for our father’s soccer team back in D.C.,” Atticus adds.

Lachlan appears in the kitchen doorway .

“Didn’t know you were in here,” he says and lowers his voice. “There’s a mom in there that has a thing for you, I think.”

I grunt and shrug.

“I can’t date my daughter’s friends’ mom.”

“But you’ll date your teammate’s sister?”

I look up, and Lachlan’s eyebrows are raised.

The door to the basement bursts open, Ava leading the way with Mister Barky McBarkface in her arms.

“Pinata time! Come on, Daddy!” She leads a line of kids into the kitchen.

“Hold on!” Bri squeezes to the front of the group and points to the mudroom. “Everyone get your jackets and come outside to hear the rules. After, we’ll have dinner.”

“Come on, kids!” Lucy appears and leads the way into the mudroom. I wink at her as she passes, and she grins back. A curl hangs over her right eye, and I desperately want to touch it.

A herd of moms help with kids’ hats and gloves and puffy jackets. Lachlan heads out back with Lucy, throwing his arm around her shoulders and whispering something in her ear that makes her laugh.

I sigh and hang my head. Lucy blends in perfectly with my family and my friends. With my life, really.

But tomorrow?

Tomorrow it’s all over. My heart rate picks up, and I head out back to help manage the pinata.

I touch Lucy on the back as I pass by, letting my fingers linger on her jacket.

We’ll have a public breakup. Then we can both move on with our lives. I can get back to focusing on only hockey and Ava. She can get back to trying to move across the Atlantic Ocean.

No matter how I feel about it, this thing with Lucy Knox will definitely be over.