Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Conor
I’m back at the gym, and these are my favorite kind of days because we’re all here. Even Henry.
“I heard the girls went shopping,” Rowan says to Henry.
“Yeah, it’s our first time trusting Owen and Waylon to watch Bodhi. God knows what’s going on over there.”
I chuckle because Jade’s twin teenage brothers are super competitive and always seem to be up to something they shouldn’t be.
“Where’s Mack?” Tweetie asks, referencing Henry’s manny.
Henry blows out a breath. “He’s on vacation. Before I forget, there’s something I’ve been thinking about that I wanted to bring up. You know Jagger’s dinner?”
We’re all by the weights, doing different exercises. My agent, Jagger, gets all of his hockey clients together every August for a big dinner to kick off the season. This year he’s having it in Milwaukee, so we only have to drive there instead of flying. Not that I’m opposed to flying somewhere, but I don’t really want to be away from Eloise for long.
“What about it?” I ask, putting my weights down and grabbing my water bottle.
“I think we should go camping that weekend,” Henry says.
Rowan and Tweetie stare at him as though he’s just missed scoring on an empty net.
“Why would we do that?” Tweetie asks.
“I get that there won’t be any girls there. Well, other than the ones we bring.” Henry glares at Tweetie. “But you can survive for the weekend, I’m sure.”
“You’re bringing your women?” Tweetie lifts the weights to his sides, staring at himself in the mirror.
“They’d be with us for the dinner, so yeah… I think it will be fun. Something different.” Henry’s really pushing this.
I can’t say it’s a bad idea, but I don’t want to be sleeping in a tent with Tweetie and hearing my sister moaning my teammate’s name.
“I’m sure Kyleigh will be game,” Rowan says.
I’ve never thought of my sister as the camping type, but that’s for Rowan to figure out now.
“What about you?” Henry asks me.
I shrug. “You buy my earplugs, and I’m in, but I get my own tent.” I eye Tweetie, and he scoffs.
“Like I’d want your snoring ass in my tent. I might bring someone if we’re really going.” He puts his weights down and sits next to Henry on the bench across from Rowan and me.
“You’re going to bring someone?” I ask.
Tweetie shrugs. “Yeah, if I’m stuck in the woods with all you fools, I at least want to get laid at night.” He laughs at me. “Sorry I can’t be your wingman.”
“What about Eloise? I think she’s shopping with them today.”
I startle. Henry waited until now to tell me that?
The thought had come to my mind about asking Eloise to be my date to Jagger’s dinner, but I was afraid if word got out about the party, and my picture got taken… She flipped out so badly that night at the hotel, and I don’t want to put her in a bad situation when things with Tristan still aren’t resolved.
“She got a text from Tristan yesterday.” All of them remain quiet, so I continue. “And I haven’t asked what her plans are.”
“You mean she might go back to him?” Tweetie asks with disgust.
I shake my head. “I don’t think so, but I’m sure they have to talk. Which…”
“Fuck, you really like her.” Now Tweetie looks horrified.
Henry elbows him.
“Where the fuck have you been? He ran into her wedding and objected.” Rowan shakes his head.
“I thought it was a drunk thing.” Tweetie shrugs.
“Yeah, and then he asked her to move in with him just because.” Henry shakes his head and groans.
“Jesus, I hate this feeling inside of me. We were out shopping yesterday, and we were flirting the whole time. You know when you get those flutters in your stomach when she brushes up against you?”
Rowan and Henry glance at one another while Tweetie tries to act as if he doesn’t have any idea what I’m talking about.
“Then the text came in, and it was like freezing cold water being dumped over us. I ended up retreating for most of the night. I was never adamantly against commitment, I just hadn’t met anyone who made me want to, but I also didn’t think I’d ever be stuck in this situation. She’s nowhere near ready for a new relationship. Maybe asking her to be my roommate was a stupid idea.”
“Ya think?” Tweetie gets up from the bench and picks up his weights again.
“It’s a shitty situation you’re in, no doubt, but it’s her decision to make when she’s ready,” Henry says.
“He’s right,” Rowan adds. “You know how you hear those stories where a couple breaks up and then one of them is engaged or married to someone else, like, six months later? If she never truly loved Tristan, and it was something she felt forced to do, she might not need that much time to get past it. You might’ve stopped the wedding, but I saw her face when she stood at the end of the aisle.”
Henry nods. “Yeah, I saw it too.”
“What?” I look between them.
“She looked like she was walking to the electric chair,” Rowan says.
“She looked at Tristan, but he was busy laughing it up with his best man. Her disappointment was clear before she put on a fake-as-shit smile.” Henry brings his drink to his lips.
“And yet she was going to marry him,” Tweetie says, lifting again while the rest of us shoot the shit.
“Because she was scared to call it off,” Henry says, setting down his drink. “I’ve known Eloise longer than you guys, and she doesn’t like to see people upset. Jade’s alluded that her relationship with her dad was strained for a lot of years. Like Jade, Eloise was yearning for his attention. Then he dies after he tells her that he loves her and Tristan together and how happy seeing them together makes him.”
“Fuck, really?” Rowan asks, pushing a hand through his sweaty hair.
Henry nods. “Give her some time, man, but I don’t think you’ll be waiting forever for her to get over Tristan.”
I wonder if Henry could be right. I guess the only way to find out is to ask her.
Henry and Rowan stand and pick up their weights, spacing out to do shoulder raises.
“She sure is spending a shit-ton of time with you,” Tweetie says. “What have you guys been doing?”
I stand and put plates on the bar. “We went to the bookstore yesterday.” And then I remember what I wanted to tell them. “You’ll never believe this, guys, but they write about fictional hockey players in these romance books. Like, there’s a whole table of books with the hockey player as the leading male. I guessed they’re called hockey romances. And there’re so many books with the word puck in the title it’s crazy.”
Each of them stare at me in the mirror.
“No shit?” Tweetie says.
“Seriously, it’s a huge thing.”
I catch the door opening in the mirror and watch Easton Bailey walk in. He’s a hot shot on Chicago’s professional baseball team.
“What are you doing here?” Rowan asks.
“I just needed something different.” He changes out of his street shoes and comes over to me. “I’ll spot you.”
“Thanks.” I lower myself on the bench, positioning my hands on the bar.
“This season is shit, and no, I don’t want to talk about it.” Easton stands by my head, staring into the mirror at the other three guys’ reflections.
“Well, Pinkie was just telling us how hockey guys are a big thing in romance books,” Rowan says.
“Really?” Easton looks down at me. “What about baseball?”
I lift the bar off the handlebar. “Sorry. One lady told me it’s hockey and football first. She didn’t even mention baseball.”
He grunts. “That’s because we use our brains, and we don’t act like barbarians hitting one another into the boards and glass.”
We all laugh.
“Don’t be jealous because we’re tougher,” Tweetie says, flexing his muscles.
“We play America’s pastime,” Easton says.
“I’m not saying it’s fair, but you guys better start charging the mound and throwing some fists if you want to rank on the romance book boyfriend lists.” I put the bar back after doing my reps.
“I’ll get right on that. Then again, if we don’t start winning, it just might start getting ugly.” Easton nods toward the bar for me to do another round of reps.
For the rest of the afternoon, Easton fills us in on the Colts and how they won’t make the playoffs this year and how he can’t wait for the season to be over so he can go back to his small hometown in Alaska to regroup. We gripe about how long our seasons are, both baseball and hockey spanning a good part of the year.
The entire time, I calculate a timeline in my head of how long I’ll have to wait until Eloise might be ready to date, and I consider whether I can really start dating someone during hockey season. I’ve never done it, and I know it’ll be hard as hell to balance the two.
Then again, Rowan did it with Kyleigh. Maybe if you want something badly enough, it’s not that hard. First, I need her to put Tristan as far in her rearview mirror as possible.