Page 16 of Learn Your Lesson

“So now you can teach me?”

“It’s like we’re switching places!”

“It is,” I agreed with a grin, tapping her nose. “It’s a good thing we have each other, huh?”

At that, her little brows tugged inward, and she grew quiet, nodding.

But then a fight broke out on the ice, and she grabbed me by the sleeve and tugged me down to her level to explain why.

If You Want

Chloe

After the game, Maven and Livia led the way to the area where friends and family waited for the players — and it was absolute chaos.

Wives and partners of the players were everywhere, along with various family members and a bunch of kids running around. It felt like my classroom on Halloween.

The Ospreys had pulled out a win, scoring two goals to our opponents’ one, and Ava had heaved her fish with all her might… only to have it land in the section below us.

Fortunately, it seemed all the fans were used to this. Fish went flying the way hats would during a hat trick — a fact Ava taught me halfway through the third period — and if one landed by you, you picked it up and threw it yourself until it made it to its intended destination.

I had to admit, it was quite a spectacle.

Although nothing was as fun to watch tonight as Will having more than two-dozen saves — another term I’d learned from his daughter.

It had been addicting, seeing how determined and focused he was on the ice. I watched him block shot after shot, most of which I felt were impossible to fend off, but he made it look effortless. Whether he had to block the puck with his torso, an extended leg, or his gloved hand — he found a way.

He only let one shot get past him, and I could tell by the way he shrugged off his teammates’ assurance that it was fine that it completely pissed him off.

That man. He demanded perfection of himself.

I couldn’t imagine how exhausting that must have been.

It had also been the most heartwarming moment of the game, because as he attempted to shake off the goal, Ava had sighed, whispering under her breath, “It’s okay, Daddy. We are doing our best.”

It was the same thing she’d said yesterday when I’d brought her to his practice, and I wondered if it was a sort of mantra for them.

I loved it.

Even if it made my eyes water every time she said it.

Ava was just finishing up a chicken nugget from the snacks provided in the family lounge — and ignoring every kid who tried to play with her — when Will spilled in from the hallway.

And I promptly stopped breathing.

He was freshly showered, his long, damp, chestnut hair pulled into a low bun at the nape of his neck. That delicious stubble peppered his jaw, his signature scowl firmly in place, his eyes as deep and haunted as ever. He was no longer in his gear, but in a charcoal suit, instead. It was custom fitted and hugged every lean angle of his body, a black tie fastened at his neck, and he didn’t have to turnaround for me to know those slacks would show off that perfect ass of his, too.

And as if allthatdidn’t make it hard enough not to drool, he searched the room with a menacing scowl before softening as soon as he found his daughter.

She ran to him, her arms open wide, and he dropped the bag off his shoulder and slung her up the second she made it to him. It didn’t matter that she was five. It was like she weighed nothing in his arms, and he pressed a kiss to her nose before listening patiently as she talked about the game.

He watched her like she was his entire world.

My guess was that she likely was.

I knew from my first meeting with Will before the school year that his wife had passed away in the first year of Ava’s life. Every time I thought too hard about it, my eyes would prick with emotion that I’d have to sniff away.

I couldn’t imagine losing my husband, especially after having a child.