Page 5

Five

Jade

The waiting room at the hospital is half full as Reed and I try to find a seat after leaving Mom before she was taken away for her eye surgery.

“I don’t know how she’s going to keep her head down for seven to ten days,” Reed says, placing his messenger bag on the chair and going over to the coffee station.

“It won’t be easy, that’s for sure.” I follow him.

He prepares his coffee black while I use some of their vanilla creamer and a packet of sugar.

“Word is Aubrie had a great birthday.”

No sooner does he say that than we hear women talking loudly as they enter the waiting room.

My gaze shoots to Reed’s as I stir my coffee.

He shakes his head. “Should’ve known,” Reed mumbles, but his smile says it doesn’t bother him that my mom’s friends, Chelsea and Hannah, have come to wait with us while she’s in surgery. “Chelsea. Hannah.” He nods hello to them.

They swarm him with a hug.

“How’s our girl?” Hannah asks, but then she sees me. “Ah! There she is.” Hannah pushes off Reed and comes over to me.

As usual, she’s dressed as if she walked off the runway at Paris Fashion Week. I realized a long time ago I’d never be as put together as Hannah always is.

“Hi, Aunt Hannah,” I say as she hugs me and kisses my cheek.

“Still gorgeous. Chelsea was just telling me how grown up you look.” She pulls back from me and takes me in.

I’m sure she’s admiring my frumpy jeans and sweater set.

“Your mom misses you. You need to come home more.” She studies me to make sure I understand.

I get it, but it’s not like I don’t see my family. They just come to me now.

I nod since I don’t want any issues. Chelsea and Hannah will grill me as to why I’m not coming home if I argue.

“Jade, Aubrie had the best birthday. How can I thank you?” Chelsea nudges Hannah out of the way, hugging me just as tightly as her daughter does.

I don’t have the heart to tell her the truth—that I ditched Aubrie for Henry and left three horny rookies in charge of her that night.

When we’re done hugging hello, Reed’s already sitting in a chair, messenger bag at his feet. Hannah slides gracefully into one across from him, and Chelsea gets comfortable in the one next to her. I sit next to Reed and sip my coffee.

“Henry is so sweet,” Hannah says out of nowhere.

Reed’s head raises, and he looks at her as though he doesn’t understand what she’s talking about. Obviously, Aubrie must’ve shared that I saw Henry the other night.

Henry’s parents died when he was young, so he was raised by his grandparents. They signed him up for Big Brother/Big Sister to have a male mentor, and Reed was assigned to him. The two of them have remained close all these years.

It’s the entire reason Henry and I were best friends. Reed and my mom started dating, then their marriage solidified the fact that we’d spend a lot of time together.

“Henry?” Reed asks, turning his attention to me then back to Hannah.

This is Reed’s natural reaction when it comes to Henry being mentioned in my presence. The breakup was uncomfortable for all of us.

“Yeah, Aubrie wanted to celebrate her birthday at Peeper’s Alley.” Chelsea glances in my direction. “Didn’t Jade tell you?”

Reed swivels in his chair. “No, she didn’t. Did you know he’d be there?”

Here’s the thing about Reed. He’s definitely more of a father figure to me than my own father. Not that I hate my dad. I love him, but he picked his career over raising me. He’s more like the fun dad, and Reed is the one who spent time with me, who knows what’s hurting me before I do sometimes. In terms of a stepdad, Reed is the best one ever. Except for times like this when he can read me too well.

“Not until I got there and saw the sign outside the building,” I say.

“You didn’t tell her?” Hannah scolds Chelsea.

“I didn’t know. Do you think I frequent The Nest? I didn’t know until Aubrie told me about her night and explained the bar they went to.”

In a split second, all three pairs of eyes are on me, filled with questions.

“Stop it, you guys.”

“The Nest.” Reed scoffs. “So stupid. I told him to move out of there a while ago.”

“It’s kind of cute,” Chelsea says, and Reed frowns at her for taking the opposing side. “Or not.” She shrugs, diverting her attention to an older woman walking into the room.

Hannah holds up her hand. “Okay, I’m sorry, someone explain this to me.”

I take the directive since I’m sure Reed won’t, and Chelsea got the information second-hand. “The Nest is what they call the building that Henry lives in with some of his teammates. There are three different condos above the bar, Peeper’s Alley. Henry lives in one. I’m not sure who named it The Nest, but last night there was a cardboard sign with it written on it on the security gate they use to access their condos, along with a bunch of little notes I suspect are from women leaving their phone numbers.”

“I don’t understand why these women are chasing these men around.”

“Well, they’re hockey players.” I chuckle.

Chelsea nods, agreeing with me.

“But to write your name on a piece of paper and not play hard to get? How do you expect the man to respect you?”

I laugh because Hannah is kind of old school, and I’d bet that Roarke, her longtime silver fox partner, pursued and won Hannah over, not the other way around.

“Pretty sure they’re not looking for respect. They just want to sleep with a professional athlete,” Chelsea says. “Think back to your youth, Hannah.”

“Even in my youth, I never chased a man.” She shakes her head.

“How do you know about The Nest?” Reed asks, just when I thought maybe he wasn’t listening anymore.

“You can’t look up anything about the Chicago Falcons without knowing about The Nest,” I say. “People post about how they left their number or wrote up the new sign after it had been torn down. I bet you can search for the hashtag The Nest, and you’ll see a bunch of selfies outside that black security gate.” It’s slightly embarrassing that I know so much about where Henry lives, but there are nights I’ve grown desperate to know what he’s doing right at that moment.

“Oh, I didn’t know it was like that,” Chelsea says. “Well, whoever Alvin is, he and Aubrie really hit it off.”

“Alvin?” Reed asks.

“One of the rookies,” I tell him.

“There’s no Alvin on the team.” A line forms between his eyebrows.

“It’s a nickname. Like Henry being called Daddy,” I explain.

He balks, turning to look at me. “They call Henry Daddy ?”

“Daddy?” Hannah says with disgust. “Is that some dirty reference?”

“No.” I laugh, and Chelsea shakes her head.

“Why do they call him Daddy?” Reed asks, clearly still confused.

How have I been gone this long and still know more than him?

“Feel like you don’t know your firstborn, huh?” I use the joke we used to have back in the day.

Reed and Henry were much like father and son—he guided him, helped him, and I’m pretty sure paid for a lot of what allowed him to get where he is today. Hockey is not a cheap sport to participate in. Henry might never have made the league if Reed hadn’t ever come into his life. And I know Henry has always struggled with wanting to pay Reed back for it.

“I clearly need to go to more games.” He pulls out his phone, and I peek over to see if he’s texting Henry.

“You know Henry, guys. He’s always the responsible one. That’s probably why they call him Daddy. And Bodhi probably just cemented it. I mean, what other professional hockey player adopts a kid in the prime of their career?” I laugh, but none of them do.

In fact, each of them barely look up from their laps. Do they know something I don’t?

“What?”

Chelsea is the first to look at me, and she shakes her head. “I’m sure we all have our theories as to why that happened.”

Reed’s thumbs are moving over his screen, and I really hate that he has some kind of privacy screen thing so I can’t see who he’s messaging.

“Like?”

“Sweetie, I think part of the reason might have been because he was lonely,” she says a little reluctantly.

Is she suggesting that’s because I never returned after he sent me packing? There’s so much none of them know about our relationship, but I’m not getting into it right now.

“I think he wanted to pay it forward too,” Hannah says. “Because of how good Reed was to him. He wanted to give another child a better life.”

“And what about you?” I look at Reed, who only glances at me before burying his head in his phone again.

“I don’t know. That’s a question for him.”

“But if you had to guess?”

Reed knows Henry the best—definitely better than I do these days.

“Wait, did you see Henry on Saturday?” he asks, changing the line of conversation.

“I want some coffee. How about you, Hannah?” Chelsea says.

“Nah, I’m restricting myself to one cup a day.” Hannah crosses her legs, getting more comfortable in her seat.

“Then you can help me make mine,” Chelsea says, tugging on her sleeve.

“Why would I—” She finally sees the look on Chelsea’s face and springs out of her seat. “On second thought, a second cup won’t kill me.”

The two of them go over to the coffee station, huddled and gossiping the entire way.

“Well?” Reed asks again.

I’m baffled why he’s so concerned about this. “Is that him?” I nod at the phone.

He places it face down on the table next to him.

Okay, so it was.

“Answer me, Jade.”

I face him. “Did we just go through a time warp, and I’m sixteen again? Why does it matter?”

“It doesn’t. But you didn’t say anything.” His shoulders lose some tension, and he places his hand over mine on the arm of the chair. “The two of you are just…”

He doesn’t have to say it. I know what he means. And I should’ve left that bar before I ever saw him. I shouldn’t have let Tweetie challenge me, but I lose all power over my actions when Henry is involved. It’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed away for as long as I have. It’s too easy to just slide into one another again.

“It was a coincidence. We caught up. Nothing big.”

“Are you sure?” His attention shifts from me to his phone.

I want to act like a toddler and steal it and read what Henry said, but I need to act like an adult. “Of course. I’m here to help you and Mom with the twins, and after Christmas, I’ll be gone again.”

He squeezes my hand. “She really misses you. We miss you.”

“I miss all of you, but…” I push back the tears that want to spill out of my eyes. “Chicago doesn’t seem that big of a city when Henry’s in it.”

He nods. “Have you ever thought of?—”

“No.” I shake my head. “I just need to keep myself busy for the next few months.”

“Mom won’t need you during the day since she’s mobile and just has to keep her head down. God knows if you tried to dote on her 24/7, you two would be on each other’s nerves in days.” He chuckles. “And the boys will be in school during the day, so you might need to find something you can do to keep yourself busy.”

I sit back, unsure what that might be.

“Why don’t you take some photographs of Chicago? It’s a beautiful city.” I nod, and he tilts his head, seeing my lack of interest. “What am I missing?”

I huff, but I shouldn’t be surprised he’s the first one I’m telling. Though if Henry were still in my life, it would be him. “I’m not feeling very creative lately. I keep forcing myself, and it’s not helping. It’s like I’ve lost my eye for it or something.”

Just the thought of picking up a camera makes my stomach churn because lately, everything I produce is utter crap.

“Well, I’m the wrong person to talk to about creativity, but maybe you need to step back while you’re here and let your creativity come back without any pressure. Do something different. I heard there’s an opening at St. Pat’s.” He laughs as though that’s absurd, and it is. He sits on the board of my old K-8 private Catholic school, which is weird, but then again, the twins just graduated from there last year.

“You mean teach?” I ask, laughing as well because I’m no teacher.

“You have your bachelor’s degree, and with a winning reference from me, I’m sure they’d hire you. Mrs. McConnell has to go on maternity leave soon, so it’s a short stint.”

“I don’t know. Miss Keebler?” I cringe, thinking about whether I could handle a classroom full of kids. But it is just down the block from my childhood home, and it’s only during the day. I could keep busy and make some money. “What grade?”

“She teaches first grade.” He picks his phone up off the table. “Just let me know. No pressure.”

“Okay, I will.”

Chelsea and Hannah slowly walk back over as though they’re testing the temperature of their bath water.

The entire time we sit there and wait for news about my mom, my mind shifts to Henry. There’s no long plane ride to see him when the urge strikes. All I have to do is hop in an Uber, and bam, I could be standing in front of him. I can’t torture myself like this for the next three months.

“I’ll take it if they accept me,” I say to Reed without thinking.

Reed’s eyebrows rise to his hairline that now sports a few gray hairs. “Really? I’ll make the call.”

“What’s going on?” Chelsea asks.

“I’m going to be a teacher,” I say with trepidation because other than the twins, I don’t have much experience with children.

“Congrats?” Hannah says it like a question.

I just hope I survive, but I know chasing around a bunch of first graders will keep Henry far from my mind, and that’s the objective.