Page 13 of Learn Your Lesson

Ava stood next to where I sat, pressing up on her tiptoes to get a better look at all the action. As usual, shedidn’t wear a smile, but just like she had when I brought her to practice, she lit up like I’d never seen her before.

“You really like hockey, don’t you?” I asked her.

“Mm-hmm,” she said, barely acknowledging me as she watched the players warm up. It was almost seven-thirty, and from what her father had told me, she usually went to bed around eight or eight-thirty. But tonight was a special occasion, and she didn’t look the slightest bit sleepy.

I turned my attention back to the ice to where the players were, and I didn’t realize I was chewing at the skin on my lip until Ava said something about it.

“How come you move so much when you’re sitting still?”

I blinked, then chuckled, blushing a little as I realized she’d picked up on my nervous tics. I had a habit of wringing my hands together or fussing with my hair when I was uncomfortable — had ever since I was a kid. It drove my mom and grandmother absolutely batshit, but I had yet to find a way to control it.

To be honest, I rarely realized I was doing it at all.

“Just like to fidget, I guess,” I said. “You know, kind of like the fidget slinkies we have in class?”

“Those are kinda fun.” She looked at me then. “Maybe you should carry one in your purse.”

I rolled my lips together against a laugh. “Yeah, I probably should, huh?”

“Chloe?”

I turned toward the voice coming from above and behind me, finding a stunning woman smiling at me from the next row up. She had jet black hair styled in tight curls, her honey-colored eyes glowing against her warm brown skin.

“I’m Maven,” she said, extending her hand for mine.

“Oh! Hi,” I said, standing so I could turn to face her and take her hand. Will had told me about Maven. She was one of his teammates’ fiancée and helped out with Ava from time to time.

“Glad to see you made it in okay,” she said, and then she leaned over the seats to give Ava a hug from behind and a kiss on the cheek. “Hey, you.”

“Hi,” Ava said, but she kept her eyes on the ice, as if Maven was bugging her as much as I had been with my question.

“I’m surprised you’re not down there on the ice,” she said to Ava. Then, to me, she added, “Warmups are about the only time the kids can get their dad’s attention before the game.”

She nodded toward where a player was making faces at a little boy who couldn’t have been more than three years old to illustrate her point, and I smiled.

But Ava just shrugged. “Daddy needs to focus. I’ll see him after.”

Maven shot me an amused smile, her perfectly shaped eyebrow arching a bit. “Okay, as her teacher… is she always this serious?”

“Afraid so,” I mused with a grin of my own at the little angel. “I’m working on her, though.”

“Tough to soften up someone raised by Will Perry, I suppose.” Maven assessed me for a moment. “Well, I’m just a few rows up, if you need anything,” she said, pointing to her seat. When she did, a woman with rich brown skin and straight black hair cut in a sharp bob waved at us. “That’s Livia. She’s my best friend and also the team’s dentist.”

I waved back at her, my head spinning a bit.

The team had its owndentist?

“After the game, I can walk you to the friends and family lounge. That’s where we meet up with the players,” Maven explained.

“That would be lovely. Thank you.”

“Sure thing,” she said with that dazzling smile. “Oh, and… don’t be a stranger, okay? Just the way those guys down there are a family, we’re a team, too,” she said, as if I were a wife or partner to one of the players.

I hoped my skin wasn’t as red as it felt.

One last look at Ava had her chuckling to herself, and then she retreated to her seats. I watched her for a split second with her best friend, the way they so comfortably laughed and clutched each other’s arms like they had a million inside jokes.

It made my stomach ache.