Page 55

ERIK

A few more weeks passed. I’d held on to a secret for the past few days, and didn’t want to let Kayden in on it until the right moment.

It wasn’t that I wanted to keep him in the dark or anything.

Honestly, I’m not sure of the exact reason, or if I even had one.

If anything, I needed to believe that this information was true.

We’d gone out to the Colter Bay Grill where people now cheered for us when we walked in. But I knew their response hadn’t been so enormous because we’d won a National Championship for the Larkin Lions. Not just because of that, anyway.

Buffalo is a city that accepts everyone, even if that was too hard to see when Kayden and I had kept our relationship secret.

I’d almost gotten used to receiving a warm reception in so many of the places we’d gone in the city.

The gym, restaurants, and even the grocery store were prime locations to have praise heaped on us.

Again, I knew all the reasons why. Before, I would’ve found it scary to have everyone knowing our story, even if it meant living in a sense of freedom I could never have dreamed of.

Now I felt like I’d been missing something right along.

We made our way to our usual table with people clapping us on the back the whole way. We’d gone from being practically invisible to heroes in no time at all. Our server talked our ear off, which was no problem. It would be excellent prep for when we reached the big leagues.

He’d been right about perseverance. If we hadn’t shown copious amounts of it, we never would’ve survived game seven of the championship series.

We sure as hell wouldn’t have stayed together.

Even now that things were going perfectly for us, I hated to admit that he was right about anything, let alone one hundred percent.

“Something’s on your mind,” he said. “What is it?”

“What makes you think I’ve got anything on my mind?”

“Because you’ve barely touched your food and hardly said anything. Plus, I can read your mind. Don’t you know that?”

I set down the half-eaten chicken wing in my hand.

He had me there. Sometimes thoughts got stuck in my head and eventually took over.

He’d caught me in one of those moments. I’d drifted off, thinking about what I’d wanted to tell him but had held out for the right moment. Now, I would have to spill everything.

“If you can read my mind, then you don’t need to ask that question.”

“Huh?”

“What I mean is, if you could read my mind, you’d already know what I’m thinking. There would be no reason to ask.”

He grabbed another wing, stuck the whole thing in his mouth and pulled it back almost meatless. Then he threw it down onto the growing stack of bones.

Some things never changed.

“The draft is coming up,” he said.

“Don’t I know it.”

“You’re gonna be happy being with me one way or another, aren’t you?”

“Of course I will.”

I had to say that. After everything we’d talked about, I had to at least make him think I would be strong about this.

“Even knowing what my chances are,” he said, “I’m worried something will happen. Like, maybe everything Leon Purvis told me would happen will fall through. Maybe something will come along to shake up the draft and screw everything up for them…and me.”

“That won’t happen.”

“Seriously?”

“It’s all going to work out, Kayden. You’re gonna make it.”

He eyed me as if to question my sanity. After all, I wanted him to stay in Buffalo, right?

“I was thinking that if I get drafted, you can come on the road with me. Like, we don’t need to be apart any more than we really have to. That’s one way we can make things work.”

“If the team will allow it. I mean, they’re gonna have rules.”

He paused like he was surprised that I didn’t find the idea more exciting.

“I know the Lions’ schedule could make it hard for you. But like I said, we’re gonna make it work one way or another.”

I smiled. Part of me wanted to let him in on my secret, but another part wanted to keep him in the dark for as long as possible.

“Worst case scenario is that we get married and I support both of us for a while,” he said. “Maybe a really long while. That doesn’t bother me. I figured the same thing would’ve happened if my original dream had come true.”

“The one about having a wife and three sons?”

“Yeah.”

“So, I’m going to be your wife now?”

He paused, knowing I was kidding, but refused to fall into that trap.

“You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”

“I think I do,” I said.

“Would it bother you if you did something else for a living other than play hockey?”

“I don’t think I’ll have to.”

“You know what I mean, don’t you? But I think your time in hockey really will come. You believe in yourself.”

“I really should.”

He paused, and lifted an eyebrow, like he knew there just had to be some underlying meaning to my comment. I summoned every last ounce of strength to keep a smile from appearing on my face.

“Something’s going on,” he said. “Why don’t you tell me?”

“No, why don’t you tell me . You’re the mind reader, aren’t you?”

He half-smiled. A relationship with this kind of banter could never be all bad. I would just tell him. I’d hoped to wait for the perfect moment to come, but figured that would never happen.

“I got a call from Leon Purvis,” I said.

My boyfriend shook his head, either in disbelief or like he didn’t know who the hell I was talking about.

“Huh?” he said.

“Leon Purvis. Toronto Maple Leafs. Big shot. Wears a suit and tie everywhere.”

“I know who he is. But why would Leon Purvis be calling you?”

I paused.

“You give up?” I asked.

“Sure, what did he want?”

“Come on, Kayden, you’re not really going to make me come out and say it, are you?”

He paused, lips moving, considering all possibilities. And then his eyes widened.

“The Leafs want to draft you too?” he asked.

“Bingo.”

“Seriously?”

“Uh-huh. Well, it’s just like what he told you. It’s not an ironclad guarantee. They might have to make changes on the fly. Now that I’ve entered the draft, maybe another team will pick me up first.”

“In your dreams.”

“If it can happen to you, it can happen to me too.” I leaned back in my chair, putting on the best self-satisfied air I could. “Now, what do you think of that?”

“I think it’s awesome. It’ll solve all our problems.”

“And he told me the Leafs actually love the idea of a couple playing for the team. It would be unprecedented. We would be like pioneers, wouldn’t we?”

Kayden paused, like he needed to let that soak in, even after all that’d happened to us.

“I never thought something like that would ever happen,” Kayden said.

“Neither did I. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’ll always be on the same roster at the same time.”

“Yep, that’s the minors for you.”

“I know it isn’t perfect, but things couldn’t have worked out better for us, don’t you think?”

He smiled.

We couldn’t complain about the situation.

It still beat the idea of staying behind in Buffalo while Kayden played hockey anywhere in the United States and Canada.

That wasn’t my only thought, though. It’d occurred to me that the media attention we’d received might’ve given me the boost needed to be drafted.

Or maybe the Toronto Maple Leafs couldn’t help but take notice of how well Kayden and I had worked together as a team.

“You’re not jealous, are you?” I asked. “This won’t turn into one of those situations in which you refuse to share your toys, will it?”

“Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Then aren’t you going to congratulate me?”

“Why don’t we wait until you’ve actually been drafted first?”

I smiled at him. Sure, I could be a pain in the ass, but my boyfriend totally took the cake.