Page 32

Thirty-Two

Jade

I walk down the stairs of the arena, following the usher who insisted on helping me find my seat. Most of the Falcons’ fans are decked out in jerseys, and it’s odd to see Henry’s last name splashed across their backs. Odd in a really good way.

The usher stops us at the first row. I’m not sure why I didn’t assume I would be front and center, but it still surprises me.

“Miss Jade!” Bodhi shouts, and heads turn in my direction before he runs toward me, wrapping his arms around my legs. Just like at his birthday party, he squeezes them tightly.

I place my hand on his back. “Hey, Bodhi.”

He places his hand in mine, tugging me down the aisle.

I mumble apologies to the other fans who are very interested in who I am—probably because they know who Bodhi is. He’s wearing a sweatshirt with Hensley on the back and Henry’s number twenty-three.

“Hi, Jade.” Kyleigh stands and hugs me. “Just relax.” She runs her hands down my back. “I can feel your heart beating. But I must warn you that Henry has stopped his warm-ups, and you are now his sole focus.” She giggles and releases me.

A pounding on the plexiglass grabs my attention.

“Daddy! Miss Jade is here!” Bodhi shouts and points at me.

And there’s Henry. The man I’m now dating. In secret, which doesn’t thrill me, but there’s already a lot of pressure to get this right. I don’t want outside expectations to leak into us discovering one another.

“Wave, Miss Jade,” Bodhi says.

I lift my hand and give him a small wave.

Henry smiles and congregates with his teammates, skating around.

“Sit!” Bodhi tugs my arm, and I fall into the seat.

Kyleigh smiles at me over his head as though she wants me to enjoy how much this kid loves me. Oh boy, please let this work out. I won’t be able to bear it if this little boy is collateral damage.

“Daddy never lets me come to games on school nights.” He wiggles in his seat then gets up on his knees, leaning over and sucking his drink up with the straw.

“So, Eloise called me,” Kyleigh says. “She scheduled another dress fitting.”

“Oh.” I’ve clearly missed something since she hasn’t told me that.

“Who is Eloise?” Bodhi asks, his head volleying between Kyleigh and me.

“My best friend,” I answer. “I’ve known her a long time too.”

“I thought Daddy was your best friend,” Bodhi says with disappointment.

Kyleigh frowns.

“I can have more than one friend.”

“Not your best. You can only have one.” He raises his finger as if he has to explain it to me. “Mine is Micha.”

“Well, as you get older and meet more people, sometimes you can have more than one. Relationships change and morph.”

“Morph?” His little nose wrinkles.

I’m out of my league here. I have no idea how to answer him.

“Do you like my daddy?”

Kyleigh cringes, which conveys exactly what I’m thinking but trying not to show.

“Yes. I like your dad. We’re friends.” I cross my legs.

Someone pounds on the plexiglass, and I’m thankful for the distraction. Except it’s Henry. He holds his hand up to Bodhi, and Bodhi jumps out of his seat, slapping his dad’s hand from the other side of the glass.

“Good luck, Daddy!” Bodhi shouts, jumping up to keep slapping the glass.

Henry’s attention turns to me, and his eyes coast down my body and back up in a sexy way I hope no one else notices.

Kyleigh is too busy paying attention to Rowan, lifting her hand. He’s reading something in her palm. She kisses her other fingers and presses them to the plexiglass.

“Kick some ass,” she says, and he nods.

Conor and Tweetie skate over, each high-fiving Bodhi.

A bunch of fans rush over, and I hurry to pick up Bodhi before he gets trampled. He wraps his legs around my waist and his one arm is slung over my back. Henry high-fives a few fans, but his gaze never leaves us.

“Who are you?” the woman next to me asks. “The nanny?”

She says it with a sneer, and I want to put her in her place, but as of right now, we haven’t even gone on one date.

“She’s my daddy’s,” Bodhi says in a tone I’ve heard him use at playtime when someone tries to take the toy he’s playing with.

The woman doesn’t say anything, her attention going back to Conor, but they all skate away from the boards and wave one last time, heading into the locker room.

We sit back in our seats and wait for the game to start. A short while later, the arena lights dim, and colored lights streak across the ice.

Bodhi gets up on his knees. “It’s about to start!” His little hands come together. When Henry is introduced, he jumps off the chair to go to the glass, pounding his fists.

I’m distracted by Henry skating up to meet Rowan and Tweetie. I forgot what it was like to watch him play, to see him in the spotlight doing what he loves. The little boy grown up into a hockey god.

There’s a lot of back and forth in the first period, and Conor does an exceptional job of not allowing Minnesota to score. Rowan is fast and smooth like all the reporters say. And Tweetie is definitely a chirper. I see his mouth moving more than his stick at times. But seeing all three of them together is something rare. How in sync they are together, their movements flawless as they pass the puck and seem to know instinctively where the puck is going to go.

“Impressive, right?” Kyleigh asks.

“You’d think they’ve been playing together for years.”

She nods, and our attention goes back to the game.

Finally, in the second period, Henry gets a breakaway and Rowan speeds to catch up. Henry circles behind the net and passes it to Rowan, who is ready and tries the shot but misses. The puck ends up back in Henry’s possession, and he uses that wrist shot that’s been working for him all season, and he scores. The buzzer goes off, and the crowd goes wild while all his teammates huddle around him.

Bodhi stands on his chair cheering, and Kyleigh and I both go to grab him to make sure he doesn’t fall. Kyleigh backs off when she sees me doing it.

“Yay, Daddy!” he shouts.

After the huddle of players disperses, Henry skates by and winks. Oh, I’m in deep, deep trouble from the way my stomach flutters with butterflies.

“God, he’s so sexy with his kid,” a woman behind me says.

“Is that the girlfriend or something?” The woman next to her clearly isn’t trying to keep me from hearing her.

Kyleigh side-eyes me because she probably hears it too. It’s hard not to, now that the roars of the crowd have died down.

“That’s Magic’s,” one woman says. “So, I assume she must be.”

“They don’t look that special.”

Kyleigh grits her teeth.

I don’t react, but it really makes me wish I was wearing Henry’s jersey just to shove it in their face that I’m Henry Hensley’s girl.

When the second period ends, I figure we should get out of here for a bit. “Bodhi, want to go get a pretzel?”

His eyes go wide. “Yeah.”

“I’m coming too.” Kyleigh stands, glaring at the women behind us. “I need to make sure I have a lot of energy for after the game.”

The women scoff, and I laugh with Kyleigh once we’re at the stairs. Bodhi looks at us as if we’re crazy. His hands find their way into both of our hands as we walk through the busy area to get to the concessions.

“I see now why Rowan keeps begging me to sit in a suite,” Kyleigh says.

“The fans always a little brutal?” I ask, remembering college, but I’m sure the professional league is an entirely different beast.

“Some of the women aren’t nice. We have the men they’re dreaming about in our beds.” She shrugs, and we walk up to the concession stand to buy our pretzels.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Bodhi says.

We head over to the single-stall family bathroom, and after Bodhi goes in, I ask Kyleigh a question I’ve been holding on to.

“Do you think…? I mean, do women… you know, during away games?”

“You mean are the rumors true?” she asks, tearing off a piece of her pretzel.

I nod. I’ve always wondered if the temptation of women throwing themselves at Henry was too much for him to say no to. I know he’d never cheat on me. I just wonder how many he has turned down. Or how many he hasn’t.

“Yeah, they’re true, but you have nothing to worry about with Henry.”

I shake my head. “But before I came back?”

She laughs. “You’re kidding, right? I mean, I haven’t been with Rowan a terribly long time, but I’ve never seen Henry with someone. And that includes at the clubs. He just hangs out with the guys mostly.” She puts her hand on my arm. “But I get it. There’s a lot of temptation around them, and you’re wondering what he was like before you came along. I did for a while too, but when I’m with Rowan, he’s really good at making sure I know that I’m the only one he wants.” I don’t say anything, and she leans closer. “And I’m pretty sure Henry will be the same. You know, right?”

“Know what?”

She giggles and shakes her head. “That he’s been waiting for you.”

Before I can respond, Bodhi comes out of the bathroom. “Let’s go. I don’t wanna miss my daddy’s next goal.”

We walk back to our seats, but I can’t get Kyleigh’s words out of my head. Has he been waiting, and I took eight years to discover that I could have found myself here?

“Hey now, let’s give Rowan a chance to get a goal,” Kyleigh jokes with Bodhi.

I’m not sure what Bodhi said because I was so in my head.

“Daddy told me he was going to score a lot tonight.”

Kyleigh glances at me over Bodhi’s head as if Henry would do that to impress me.

In the third period, Henry is everywhere and scores another goal and earns an assist. Chicago beats Minnesota three to zero. I love watching Henry play, but it’s the smile on his face after they win that I love the most. Especially when he seeks me out in the stands, and his smile only gets bigger.

“Can we go see Daddy now?” Bodhi jumps off the seat and waits for Kyleigh and me to stand and take his hand. “Don’t worry, he showers before we see him,” he says to me.

Kyleigh and I laugh because I don’t think either one of us minds our men a little sweaty.

I shouldn’t be as nervous as I am to see Henry after he played such a great game, but all I can think of is that I want to give him a big congratulatory kiss.