Page 38

Twenty-Two

Finn picked at the plate of pancakes in front of him. The vet suggested they get breakfast while they waited. Not wanting to spend two hours sitting on a wooden bench, Alek herded them across the street to the Oak Creek Diner. It was familiar stomping grounds for many of the town’s athletes.

“Do you want some of my cinnamon roll?” Sheridan asked Finn.

He shook his head. Finn hadn’t said much since Claire dropped him off an hour earlier. His eyes were still red-rimmed and puffy from when he’d sobbed in Sheridan’s arms once he arrived, but he was putting on a brave face now.

“How much longer?” He’d been asking the same question every five minutes for the past hour.

Sheridan rubbed his back. “I’m sure they’ll call us soon.”

She’d been repeating that answer for the last hour, also.

Alek checked the time on his phone. They were approaching the two-hour mark. The restaurant was busy with customers wanting breakfast before a busy Saturday of errands. A few waiting for tables had begun to throw pointed looks their way.

“How about if we box this up in case you want to eat it later?” Alek said to him.

“I’m not really hungry,” Finn replied.

Alek was signaling to the server when Sheridan’s phone pinged with a text. Finn sat forward in his chair.

Sheridan shook her head. “It’s Claire. You left your phone at Gunner’s house. She’ll bring it by the house later today.” She looked over at Alek with the first smile he’d seen from her this morning. “And good news from the hospital. Jackson is awake. All indications are good. No long-term damage.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s awesome.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “We’re going to get the same result here, too. I know it.”

After stopping to take a few selfies with fans, they arrived back at the clinic as the surgeon walked into the waiting room. The confident look on his face did wonders for Alek’s nerves.

“Perfect timing. Everything went as expected. We removed the offending items without having to disturb any parts Hattie needs.”

Sheridan’s eyebrows shot up. “Items?”

“Yes.” The vet nodded. “It’s quite the treasure trove. A few socks. Several hair scrunchies and, ahem, the culprit doing the damage, a pair of thong underwear.”

Alek choked back a laugh. All morning, he’d been feeling guilty that Hattie might die because she’d eaten a pair of his briefs. It turned out her underwear fetish didn’t discriminate. He nudged Sheridan’s shoulder playfully. She buried her face in her hands.

“But she’s gonna be okay, right?” Finn’s lips trembled when he spoke.

The vet gave him a reassuring smile. “You must be Finn. Hattie has been asking for you. She is well on her way to making a full recovery. Believe it or not, the surgery is the easy part. The difficult part will be keeping her from opening up her wound again.” He patted him on the shoulder. “Can I count on you to help with that?”

Finn nodded earnestly. “Can I see her?”

“I know she’d like that. She’s still a bit groggy and the techs are finishing dressing the wound. Someone will be out shortly to bring you back.” The vet looked at Alek and Sheridan. “There’s only room for one person at a time, I’m afraid. You’ll have to take turns sitting with her.”

“No problem,” Alek said. “Finn can have my turn.” He extended his hand to the vet. “Thank you. We really appreciate it.”

“Glad I could help. I’ll see you back there in a few minutes, young man.”

Finn stretched his arms around both Sheridan’s and Alek’s waists and hugged them. Sheridan buried her fingers in the boy’s hair. Alek swallowed roughly as he pulled them both in closer. His little makeshift family was going to be okay.

She plans to go back to being a traveling nurse. To show Finn the world.

Collin’s words echoed in Alek’s head. With everything that had gone on last night and this morning, he’d forgotten to bring up the subject of the guardianship hearing. Or Sheridan’s future plans. She’d only promised him this season. But that was before. Surely she’d changed her mind by now?

The cold rushed in when someone opened the door to the clinic.

“Hi-yee!”

The sound of Sloane’s voice had Sheridan jumping away.

“Oh, this better be a happy hug and not a sad one,” Sloane cried.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Valentine mumbled as he stomped the snow off his sneakers.

Finn pulled out of their embrace and raced over to Sloane. “Hattie is gonna make it!”

Sloane let out a dramatic sigh. “Oh, thank the lord.”

“How did you know we were here?” It was hard to tell if Sheridan was surprised or annoyed.

The other woman unwrapped the colorful scarf from around her neck.

“The WAGs had an emergency meeting for coffee this morning. We were brainstorming ways to help Brooke out with all this mess with Jackson.” She lowered her voice.

“And Brad.” She shook her head in disgust. “Claire told us why you were unavailable. Of course I had to run over here to check on our little superstar.”

“Of course.” Valentine was still mumbling.

Alek shot him a quizzical look, but his teammate shook his head.

“That’s very sweet of you,” Sheridan told her.

“Her fans are very worried about her.” Sloane pouted.

“You posted about her surgery?” Sheridan no longer sounded as if she thought Sloane was all that sweet.

“She has hundreds of thousands of followers. Who knows? It might have been their good mojo that helped her pull through,” Sloane replied with a smug look.

One of the techs emerged from the back. “Hattie is ready for visitors,” he announced.

“Oh, yay!” Sloane pulled out her phone. “We can update her status.”

Sheridan blocked the other woman’s path. “Only one visitor is allowed back at a time. And that will be Finn.”

Sloane looked like she might object before donning her social media smile. “Of course. Maybe I can interview the vet who saved her life?” She arched an eyebrow at the tech. “Hattie’s followers would love that.”

“Uh, I’ll see if he’s available,” he said before ushering Finn back and closing the door.

“Tell him it will be awesome publicity!” Sloane called after them.

“For you,” Valentine said just loud enough for Alek to hear.

“Trouble in paradise?” Alek whispered back.

Valentine grimaced.

“So you two made quite a cozy photo op when we walked in.” Sloane bounced up on her toes.

“Nothing to chirp about there. They’re friends,” Valentine snapped. “Sheridan and Finn are like Ice-Berg’s siblings. Don’t read anything into it.”

A shadow fell over Sheridan’s face. “Didn’t you say you wanted to get in with the trainer today?” she said to Alek. “Finn and I can Uber home when they kick him out of back there.”

Alek felt a little like he’d taken a body check.

He knew Sheridan was simply steering the conversation away from their private life.

That didn’t mean he had to like the tactical way she did it.

He wanted to pull her aside and remind her that he did not think of her as a little sister.

She was so much more to him. Except he didn’t think he could put what exactly “more” was into words.

And he certainly didn’t want to have that conversation in front of Valentine and his content creator girlfriend.

“Timothée and I can take you home,” Sloane offered.

“Actually, I could use a good stretch of my shoulder to work out the kinks before tomorrow’s game,” Valentine said. “If you’re headed to the practice facility, mind if I hitch a ride?”

Alek felt a little like he’d been backed into a corner.

He wanted to stay with Sheridan and Finn.

Hell, he wanted to stay with them forever.

But not if Sloane was going to hang around, poking her nose into everything and turning it into fodder for social media.

He looked over at Sheridan, willing her to read the question in his eyes. She nodded ever so slightly. He sighed.

“No problem. Text me when you leave here?” he asked because he had no right to insist that she did even though the Neanderthal within was begging him to do just that.

“Of course.”

He wanted to kiss her. To bring them back to the connection they’d had last night and all morning.

The guarded look in her eyes stopped him, however.

She wasn’t angry with him. He understood her well enough to know that.

It was the situation that had her ticked.

Not only Sloane’s intrusiveness but also the fact that they needed to figure out where this relationship was headed.

Alek thought he knew the direction he wanted it to go. But, dammit, Collin’s words had sown a tiny seed of doubt. He’d thought he’d been on the same page with women who meant something to him before. Both times, it turned out he’d been reading the wrong book.

“I’ll see you at home, then.” It was the only thing he could say.

He stopped at the front desk and handed over his credit card. “Whatever the dog needs, I want her to have it.”

The receptionist ran it through the card reader and passed it back to him. “We’ll keep this on file.”

“We’ll be back with a bag of dog toys tomorrow afternoon.” Valentine winked at her, making the woman blush.

The snow was really coming down when they stepped outside. Valentine brushed off Alek’s side mirrors with the sleeve of his jacket before climbing into the passenger seat. His groan echoed throughout the interior when Alek started the car.

“That sounds heavy.” Alek remarked.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” his teammate said. “Sloane is every guy’s wet dream wrapped up in a very stylish package.”

Alek pulled onto the highway. “But?”

“But I can’t help feeling like she’s using me.” Valentine slumped down into the seat.

“It comes with the territory. You’re a rich professional athlete. Top of the food chain.”

“Yeah. Those women are normally easy to spot. At least they used to be.” He groaned again. “I thought Sloane was different. I thought we wanted the same things.”

“What changed?”