Page 35 of The Sweet Spot (Kodiaks Hockey #3)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Wolseley

I had fully intended to have dinner with Brooke and Brandon for his very subdued birthday—he insisted we not make a big deal about it—on Sunday evening, then let them spend Monday together, Brooke’s last full day in town, but Brandon wanted me to come along on his tour of Vancouver. We had a great time visiting Stanley Park after we watched the Kodiaks practice. We then ate lunch at a great little Greek restaurant I’d heard about. After that, we did a walk through the neighborhood, and by the time we got back to Brandon’s place, we were all exhausted.

I headed home, but before that wished Brooke a safe trip back to Toronto. She’d embraced me into her life as much as their parents hadn’t. I was convinced that Brooke and Brandon made it their mission not to be anything like their parents, which was an excellent plan.

Brooke flew out early Tuesday morning, and Brandon told me to skip breakfast because he was heading to Graham Place for practice right after that. I made Ryan’s breakfast, which Delia picked up from my place, then I headed over to Brandon’ s to start prepping his early lunch and then his pregame meal. I had so much I wanted to talk to him about now that Brooke was gone, but it could wait until after that night’s game.

I told Delia I didn’t need her for her Wednesday mid-morning shift. I had reserved that time to finally have a conversation with Brandon, the conversation I’d been wanting to have with him since getting back from Minnesota, and I didn’t want Delia around for that.

Brandon slept in a little longer than normal because Coach Anthony had made it an optional skate that day. Brandon wanted the day off. I prepped breakfast for him and Ryan, and Delia came to get it. She was already gone when I heard the door to Brandon’s room open. He wandered into the kitchen, bleary-eyed, and poured himself a cup of coffee. He sat down at the island and froze. He stared down at Jan’s invoices.

“Oh shit,” he muttered, suddenly wide awake.

“Imagine my surprise when I went to thank Jan, asked the receptionist how she could do this all pro bono, and the unwitting receptionist handed me this. And don’t you get her into trouble. She made a mistake, and I don’t want her to be reprimanded.”

He massaged his temples and groaned. “Am I in trouble?” he asked.

“Maybe. I’d like an explanation,” I said, presenting him with his breakfast sandwich and a side of hot quinoa cereal.

“I meant to tell Jan to charge you something, and I forgot to do that.”

My gaze narrowed, and I wanted to punch him. “Not that kind of explanation, smarty-pants!”

He scratched his head, no doubt wondering how he was going to get out of this. “I thought what had happened to you was shitty, so I told Jan I would pay all her fees because I knew you wouldn’t be able to. At least not right away, and this asshole needed to be dealt with, pronto.”

“So right from the start, you were meddling in my affairs?” Oh god. Literally my affairs. “My issues, I mean.”

“Yup. I arranged it with my aunt and Jan. I knew you were down on your luck, and if you couldn’t pay a lawyer, Daniel was going to ruin your life, and I didn’t want that. I should have told you the truth, but once it was settled, I kind of forgot about it. I also thought you’d get mad at me. I guess I was right about that.”

He was giving me puppy dog eyes, and dammit, it was working. “I feel a little stupid. You and Jan had me believing it was all pro bono. Meanwhile, you were footing the enormous bill.”

“It was the right thing to do.”

I nodded. “True enough. And now, the right thing for me to do is pay you back.”

He groaned again. “Come on! You don’t have to. I wanted to pay the bill.”

“And I don’t want you to.”

“I won’t accept the money.”

“You will.”

He looked at me with those blue eyes again, the ones I could get myself lost in. “I made the choice to pay those lawyer fees. My aunt put you in touch with Jan. You aren’t paying them, and if you do, I’ll give you a bonus for the same amount.”

I channeled Jill and Tangi. I could hear both their voices telling me to back off. “Fine. But you can’t do that again. No more crappy secrets like that, okay?”

“Promise,” he said with a meek smile.

“In the future, I have to clean up my own messes.”

“Got it,” he said, giving me a salute.

He dug into breakfast, and I started prepping lunch and the pregame meal. Without Delia, I had more to handle, but I could get it done with plenty of time since she’d be in that afternoon. But this extra time alone with Brandon gave me time to talk to him.

“It was nice meeting Brooke. She is amazing.”

“She is. I’m glad we got to spend some time together. We talked about my parents and some other things. Since we’re all about honesty, I told my parents that I’m not speaking to them until they apologize to you. Of course, my parents are sociopaths and think they did nothing wrong, so it looks like I won’t be talking to them for a while.”

He ate his breakfast sandwich like he’d just told me he’d canceled the newspaper and not his parents. Granted, they were probably two of the worst people I’d ever met, including the likes of Daniel, but cutting his parents out of his life? That seemed so extreme … and then it hit me. I was cutting out my birth mother. But this wasn’t the same thing.

“Are you sure? Because they are your parents.”

“I’m sure, and while I’m at it, I’m going to take advantage of the counseling I can get through our players’ union. I think it would be good to talk to someone about this. You know, I need to find my inner peace.”

He was starting to sound like me.

“That’s a great idea. And about my birth mother, I’ve been thinking about that too. Like my brother, I want kids. I should probably know what I’m dealing with medically. A little part of me is also curious about her, but I worry that even though my parents say it doesn’t upset them, what if it does?”

“Don’t you think you can take what your parents say at face value?”

He was making a lot of good points. When I set out to have this conversation with him, I didn’t expect us both to have all these epiphanies .

“I guess so,” I said.

He ate while I chopped onions and then garlic. He startled me when he said, “So about these kids, is that something you want sooner rather than later?”

He seemed almost afraid to ask the question, which made me afraid to answer it. Was I walking into something? “I’ve always envisioned a few kids. I would be totally flexible about getting married, though. I think in this day and age, no one has to be married to be a family. How about you?”

I was just as cautious with my question back, also afraid of what he would say.

“If you asked me six months ago, I would say no way. I didn’t see myself married or having kids, mostly because I was afraid of being my father. It’s just in the last few years that I’ve made changes, and I sure have made a lot of changes since September.”

I was blushing again. Ugh! “Don’t give me credit. You did it all by yourself.”

“My point is that, yeah, now I can see myself settling down and having kids.”

“Maybe one day that will happen for us,” I said casually. I was focused on our conversation but also on trying not to make my eyes water from the damn onions.

“Would you like that?”

I stopped chopping. “With you?”

“Is there someone else I don’t know about?”

For crying out loud, I was blushing again. And my eyes were watering.

“No. And, of course, I’ve thought about that with you.”

“I’ve thought about it with you too. A lot.”

I gasped. “You have?” I asked, feeling my heart about to explode.

“These last couple of days with my sister opened my eyes to a lot, and I know we haven’t known each other that long, but I feel like we’re a perfect fit. Brooke said yin and yang. How often does something like that happen?”

“I don’t know,” I said, wiping happy onion tears from my eyes. “I’ve never had it happen to me.”

“Me neither. Until now.”

“So what do we do?”

“Get married?”