Page 4

CAM

Walking through this enormous house with Trev was nothing short of a miracle.

If I thought too hard about the odds of us making it here, I’d probably dissolve into tears.

Or a damn panic attack. Something. Because what if his world hadn’t gone sideways at the same time mine had?

What if he’d decided that I’d blown him off too many times and he wasn’t going to waste his time trying to reconnect again?

What if he hadn’t married his ex, and adopted their kids, and then gotten a divorce and found himself desperate for a nanny?

What if he hadn’t made it into the pros in the first place so he could meet the ex, afford the house, and?—

The odds were probably some ridiculous number with a ton of zeroes to one.

Somewhere on par with a meteor landing in precisely the right spot to smite my controlling, cheating, dickweasel of an ex-boyfriend.

While I would’ve been seriously thrilled if that had happened, this was even better, and it…

God, there were so many ways it could have not happened, and I was going to drive myself insane imagining them.

As we took the stairs down to the ground floor, I subtly pushed out a breath.

Regardless of the odds, we were here. I had a job and a place to live.

My best friend from high school was back in my life despite all the reasons he could’ve just pretended I didn’t exist anymore.

I had a bedroom—a damned suite —that was bigger than any apartment I could’ve afforded back home, and I didn’t have to pay rent. Not a penny of rent.

And part of the deal included full access to his house (minus his bedroom and home office), which also turned out to include…

“Oh my God.” My jaw actually went slack as I looked around Trev’s basement home gym. “Dude. There are home gyms, and there are…” I flailed a hand.

He laughed. “Eh. Sometimes I don’t like going to the training center, and I want to work out alone.”

“Right, but…” I blinked a few times. “I trained some pro athletes back home, and none of them had a setup this nice.”

“You should see our captain’s house,” he mused. “He’s got a half-sheet of artificial ice in his basement.”

I whistled. Okay, so Trev may not have had his own rink, but his setup was phenomenal.

An elliptical, treadmill, recumbent bike, and stair machine, all from the best manufacturer on the planet.

Top-of-the-line resistance equipment. A rack of dumbbells and another of barbell plates that would’ve made the owner of my last gym weep with envy.

None of it had that pristine, unused look either.

It was all in great condition, but was obviously used regularly.

I’d worked with a couple of wealthy clients back home who had home gyms that were utterly spotless—not a scratch or scuff on anything.

It was for show more than anything—something to impress their rich friends or to be featured in home magazines or whatever.

Trev obviously made judicious use of everything in here, but he kept it clean and in excellent condition.

“So… I can use this stuff?” I looked at him. “You don’t mind?”

“Absolutely. Have at it.” He paused. “And yes, the boys are allowed in here, but only if they’re strictly supervised. They know what equipment they can use”—he gestured at some mats and smaller dumbbells—“but they’re kids, you know? They’ll try to push limits.”

I nodded. “Oh, I get that. One of the gyms I worked at didn’t enforce their policies about kids, and they’d get into and on everything.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m genuinely shocked the place didn’t get sued into oblivion.”

Trev grimaced, shifting uncomfortably. “Yeah. I can imagine. Some of my teammates bring their kids to the training center’s gym, but they watch them like hawks, you know?”

“As they should. Do your kids like coming in here?”

He quirked his lips, then wobbled his hand in the air.

“Sometimes? They’re still too small to use a lot of the equipment, and they get bored if I’m in here for a long time.

I don’t like to keep them in here if they’re getting restless because I don’t want them to associate boredom and restlessness with the gym, you know? ”

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” I scanned the room. “I did work with some of the youth fitness groups, so maybe I can modify some things for them. Just so they can have fun with it.”

Trev’s smile made my knees weak. Oh my God, I’d missed this man.

Unaware of my rush of butterflies, he said, “I’d be thrilled to have you work with them in here.

” He paused, smile fading a little as he gazed around the room again.

“I’ve played hockey with a lot of guys who don’t have a healthy relationship with exercise or food, and they’ve passed that on to their kids.

” Meeting my gaze, he added, “I don’t want to do that to my boys. ”

“I don’t blame you. I worked with a lot of clients who were the same way.

Their own relationships with food and exercise, and what they did with their kids.

” I gestured at all the mats and kid-sized equipment.

“I can make it fun for them. But kids don’t need to be lifting weights yet.

I’m sure they get plenty of exercise when they’re playing. ”

He laughed and nodded. “Yeah. If I had that much energy, I could play an entire sixty-minute game without slowing down.” He motioned toward the weights. “They just like to come in here and imitate me, you know? Dad’s lifting, so they want to.”

I smiled. “A lot of kids are like that. And it’s a good opportunity to teach them correct form. Learning that young and internalizing it will cut down on injuries, not to mention bad habits they’ll have to unlearn later.”

“Exactly. I just don’t want to put pressure on them.”

“You don’t have to worry about that with me.”

Ugh. God. I’d missed this man’s smile so, so much.

“Anyway,” he said. “The gym is off-limits for the kids unless someone is in here with them.” He gestured toward the door. “Come on—let me show you the yard.”

His yard was, much like the house, huge.

A tall white privacy fence encircled a long, narrow, and gently rolling lawn, and it was immediately obvious the kids spent a ton of time out here.

Though the front yard was pristinely landscaped, the backyard had a few areas of dug-up ground with dirty toy trucks and bulldozers scattered around them.

The grass was mowed, but had definitely taken a beating from feet, bicycles, and whatever else kids could do to a surface.

Looked like heaven for a couple of high-energy kids.

The one thing that gave me pause, though, was the very large swimming pool off to the side.

There was a waist-high fence around it with a padlocked gate, but still…

kids and pools. I’d spent exactly one summer as a lifeguard, and though I’d been very fortunate not to see or experience much, I’d heard some horrific stories.

The training alone was the stuff of nightmares; my instructor had even opened by saying, “Welcome to 1,001 horrible ways for kids to die,” and she hadn’t been entirely kidding.

Trev either remembered me talking about that or he saw the dawning horror in my eyes. “The boys know the pool is absolutely off-limits unless an adult explicitly tells them they can get in.”

I arched an eyebrow. He and I were living proof that kids could hear all the reasons something was dangerous, then immediately forget when the dangerous thing sounded exciting.

Bike jumps, stunts involving trees, extraordinarily stupid things on skateboards—we did it all.

If anyone in our area had had a pool, well…

“Trust me,” he said, his expression completely serious.

“We didn’t even put water in it until they’d taken swimming lessons, and Bryan and I have both explained to them how dangerous it is.

” He grimaced. “I think we even went a little overboard, because Zach was actually afraid of the water until a year or two ago, and Zane still doesn’t venture too far away from the shallow end.

They absolutely love swimming now, and it’s a struggle to get them out of the pool when it’s time to quit, but they do have a healthy respect for the water. ”

I considered that, then shrugged. “I mean, I don’t want kids to be afraid of the water, but there are worse things than being cautious, I guess?”

“That’s kind of where we landed. We still swim with them a lot, and we want them to be strong swimmers.

And like I said, they enjoy it now.” He gestured at the pool.

“It helps that they’re still absolutely joined at the hip, so it’s incredibly unlikely one of them would end up in the pool completely alone.

If one of them fell in, the other knows to throw in some pool noodles and then come get help.

” He paused. “We’ve also taught them how to tread water, stay afloat, get to the edge…

” He waved his hand and exhaled. “Honestly, with as much as we’ve done to make sure the kids don’t drown, even as much as they love it now, I seriously considered just ripping the damn thing out or filling it with concrete.

It stressed me out more than I enjoyed it for a long time. ”

“I believe that.” I chafed my arms. “It would stress me out too. Why did you get a house with a pool if it was so stressful?”

He suddenly looked exhausted, and he shook his head. “Because Bryan and I were idiots.”

I raised my eyebrows.