Page 49

Forty-Nine

Henry

Jade is busy eating the food we ordered from room service while I’m busy staring at her. It’s as if I want to make sure I’m not hallucinating, that I’m really here with her. For a long time, I thought we’d never be like this again.

“Are you sure you don’t want any? How are you not starved?” She holds a piece of her steak to my lips.

I open my mouth and slide the meat off the fork. “I only feel halfway satisfied right now.”

She smiles at me with a blush on her cheeks. “Only halfway? Jeez, you’re a machine.”

“It’s really your fault.” We’ve spent the entire late afternoon and evening in bed. I had intentions of us going to visit our old campus, but this is so much better.

“Blaming me on your dick not willing to go down?” She cuts off another piece of steak and brings it to my mouth.

She’s not wearing my jersey, but she is wearing the sweatshirt I wore back from the game. And damn, she looks too good in my clothes. Possessiveness roars inside me like a beast.

I accept the steak.

“You have to get your calorie count in.”

“Look who’s tracking my diet now,” I say.

“It’s entirely for selfish reasons. It’s only eight p.m.”

I’m already beat from the game and the sex, but I don’t want to waste any of the time we have alone. However, her words remind me of something important.

“Do you mind if I call Bodhi before Mack puts him to bed?” I reach for my phone.

“Of course not. Does he know we’re here together?” she asks. “I mean, I’d like to talk to him, but if you didn’t tell him, I understand.”

I inch forward on the bed, closer to her, and kiss her temple as she stabs her salad with the fork. “He knows. We had a whole discussion about how sometimes we’re going to need some alone time and that doesn’t mean we don’t want to be with him, but adults need adult time too.”

She frowns. “Did he understand?”

“I’m not sure, but Mack was a good distraction when he brought over this whole tent and fort contraption he said they could build in the family room.” I lift my phone and press Mack’s number.

It rings three times, and I worry they’re out at Starbucks or somewhere getting a late-night snack since Mack is famous for that when he watches him on the weekend.

“Daddy!” Bodhi exclaims, and Jade smiles at me. “You won!”

“Yeah, bud, pretty great, right? How are you?”

“Good. Mack made a sundae bar.” I hear a spoon hitting a bowl.

“What toppings did you put on?” Jade leans over and says into the phone.

“Jade?” Bodhi asks. I can hear the excitement in his voice.

“Yep. Tell me Mack has sprinkles.”

I hold the phone out toward her.

“Yeah, colored ones.”

“The best.” She cuts another piece of steak and forks some asparagus before putting it in front of my mouth. I’m liking this whole her feeding me thing way more than I should.

“And caramel sauce. That’s my favorite.”

“Mine too,” Jade says. “Whipped cream or no whipped cream?”

“Whipped cream. A lot of whipped cream.”

She eyes me. “I like whipped cream too. A lot.” Her tongue slides across her bottom lip. Hint taken.

“I miss you guys,” Bodhi says.

“Hey, we’re having fun,” Mack says in the background. “Stop spoiling our fun.”

“I’ll be home tomorrow,” I say.

“And Jade?” Bodhi’s voice sounds so hopeful.

She giggles. “I’m coming back to Chicago too.”

“But are you coming here?”

I have a home game Sunday, then I’m off to Toronto on Monday. We’re running into the grueling part of the season, and I worry that none of us are going to have the time we need to be together to really solidify this thing.

I ask her with my eyes if she wants to come over, and she nods.

“Yeah, Jade will come over, and we can go get dinner somewhere together.”

“Yay!” he shouts. “Mack, I need more sprinkles,” he whispers as if I can’t hear him.

Jade laughs and shakes her head.

“Tell Daddy and Jade bye, they’re ruining our fun,” Mack says.

“Bye, Daddy. Bye, Jade. See you tomorrow. Love you.” He hangs up before we can say goodbye too, so I figure I’ll send Mack a message to give him before he goes to bed.

“Anyone tell you that you have one pretty awesome kid?” She feeds me another piece of steak, and I slide back against the headboard, continuing to watch her.

“Yeah, but your opinion matters most.” I won’t mention that I hope that one day he’ll be her kid too.

She gets up off the bed and places the food tray on the desk. “Are you sure you don’t need to eat some more?”

I shake my head. “I’m good.” I pull open the covers. “Just need you.”

She jumps in and slides under the covers, cozying up to me. We sit there with one another in a comfortable silence until she asks me a dreaded question. “Can I ask you about your first experience playing for Chicago? Or do you just want to forget it?”

I lay my cheek on the top of her head and tighten my hold on her, squeezing her into my body. This is a rough story, and I don’t want it to backtrack us. “You can always ask me whatever you want. I thought I was good, and turns out, I wasn’t good enough. I cracked under the pressure. Every bad game, I spiraled further down.”

“Was it because of…”

“Not entirely. I mean, I really missed you, and I think I took you a little for granted before you left for Holland. In college when I’d have a bad game, I’d see you after, and you’d always pick up my spirits and help me get back into a better headspace. Or maybe it was just because I was yours that my confidence never wavered. But back then, I’d go to the one-bedroom apartment that you were originally supposed to be in with me, and I’d think about how I had sent you away. I don’t know. It was a lot of things, but you’re not to blame, so please don’t think that. Plus, that time of my life is over.”

Her hand runs down my stomach. God, I love her hands on me. She can explore all she wants. I’m not going anywhere.

“The coaching was some of the reason too, but in the end, I just wasn’t as ready as I thought I was.”

She nods, and I don’t know if she believes me or not.

“I wouldn’t trade it though. Those years taught me a lot.”

“Like?”

“Not to listen to the announcers for one. They’re brutal. To keep my mouth shut and not internalize it when fans talk shit or when they compliment me. Accept it and move on. You’re only one bad game from them hating you again. And I think mostly what it taught me was what I want out of my hockey career.”

She scoots up and sits cross-legged to look at me. “What do you want?”

“You know in Minnesota, I was pretty good and kind of the star, I guess. I thought I wanted that in the professional league too, but I see the pressure Rowan gets. I’m happy to contribute to the wins and try like hell not to let us lose. But I don’t need the spotlight. Sure, the endorsements are nice, but I don’t care to do a ton. I just want to play the game I love until I can’t anymore. All the rest of the stuff is just that—stuff. This job keeps me and Bodhi fed and housed, and we’re fortunate to have extra. I think for a while there, I forgot that I got into this because I love playing the game.”

She grins and kisses me. “You’re so put together.”

Except around her. All my control disappears.

I place my hand on the back of her head to keep her lips on mine for a little longer before letting her go. “Now you get a question.”

She chuckles a bit. “What?”

“What’s your favorite place you’ve been?” I think this might be a sore spot for her because I think she feels guilty for the time she was away, but I really want to put that behind us.

“Chicago,” she says and laughs, but it’s not her usual one. It’s forced.

I grab her hands and weave my fingers through hers like I used to do, watching our hands move together. “Okay, I feel like we have to address the years you were away, so they don’t taint our future. I want you to feel okay sharing things you saw and did. I want to hear your stories about your adventures. They’re a part of you, and I want to know about them.”

There’s a solemn glint to her eyes. “Why? It’s just time when I wasn’t with you.”

“It makes me happy to know you were happy back then. Believe it or not, I had some fun and happiness during that time too.”

She laughs, and her head falls to my shoulder. “I liked a bunch of different places for different reasons. Holland was amazing though.” She peeks up at me as if she’s saying thank you. “I’d love to take you there. Bodhi too.”

“We’ll plan a trip.”

“I enjoyed traveling around, and when I took pictures for a local hotel and then another one, finding a name for myself in that space, it was worth it because they paid all my travel costs. But eventually it’s tiring not to have a home. A place where you walk in and just unwind in your own space with your things and your memories.”

“I get it. After a long season, it’s so nice to be home all the time.” I can’t imagine eight straight years of shifting my home base all the time.

She shrugs. “I think that’s why when I came back and spent time at home, I knew I was done traveling. I was just worried about… us.”

“Understandable. It was hard for me too since we were so ingrained in one another’s lives, right? I have my own relationship with Reed and your mom. I see the twins a lot. You’ve seen Bodhi with them. But I never knew where I stood, you know? After you left, I stayed away for a little bit.”

She sighs. “When did you finally feel better about seeing them?”

“When your mom called me one day and said she made too much mac and cheese, and she wanted to know if I wanted to come over for dinner.”

“Really?” Her voice cracks, and she sniffles.

“Come on, that’s not going to make you cry, is it?” I tug her to my chest, kissing the top of her head. “It was a good thing.”

“I know, but I like the fact my mom did that on purpose.”

“What do you mean? She just needed me to eat her mac and cheese,” I joke, and she laughs in my arms. “All right, no more serious conversations. We need to binge a show or something.” I reach for the remote, but Jade’s hand slides under the sheet and wraps around my dick. “On the other hand…”

She lifts her gaze to me, and I bring her lips to mine.

We never binge watch a show, and we don’t end up passing out until midnight. Life is fucking great.