Chapter 38 #2
He had set a table with a pretty floral runner and full flatware settings, then added a pitcher of orange juice, a fruit plate, and a vase of flowers.
Pale pink roses, my favorites. That should have bothered me because they were part of my wedding bouquet, but it didn’t.
I liked the idea of that bad memory being attached to something new.
“Thought you might like to eat in a nice setting. As Conor would say, ‘chicks dig that shit.’ It’s a French toast bake, kind of a Kershaw tradition.” He looked a little embarrassed, probably at my OTT reaction. “This is what I wanted to feed you for breakfast before you fled Saugatuck.”
I couldn’t believe he had gone to all this trouble. But then I remembered the schedule timing for this afternoon.
“Is this why I can’t pick up your dry cleaning until five p.m.? Have you actually booked me for the whole afternoon?”
“I figured it’s the only way to get on Summer Landry’s busy schedule.”
“I-I can’t do this. It’s not … professional.”
“Violates the client-delivery person relationship, does it?”
I thumped his arm for his cheekiness. To be fair, this example was probably the least egregious of our sins. It was only breakfast at two in the afternoon in the home of someone who employed me vis-a-vis an independent contractor. Barely a blip on the ethics radar.
We spent a couple of minutes getting situated: juice poured, fruit side plated, napkins unfurled (cloths ones with pewter rings. I was in heaven.). He had even made me English Breakfast tea in a teapot! I took a bite of the eggy bread and closed my eyes.
“So. Good. I love French toast, but this is out of this world. What’s that flavor?”
“Flavors. Cinnamon, vanilla, and orange zest.”
I licked my lips. His gaze dipped to my mouth turned smoky.
“And?”
“A dollop of love. Or that’s what my mom would say.”
I grinned. “That’s it. Made with love.”
“It’s the first meal my dad made for my mom.”
“Really? Was that after they’d spent the infamous one night together?”
“Before, actually.”
My eyes went wide. “Sounds like a good story.”
“You’ve probably heard some of it. Dad in his dinosaur-themed underwear and a Santa hat.”
“I knew you were nicknamed Dino Boy, but I never got all the details. Dash said it was locker room talk, and I wasn’t allowed to ask.”
Hatch arched an eyebrow. “It’s rather tame for the locker room. My mom used to be in the military with Levi Hunt—”
“The league’s oldest rookie?”
“That’s the one.” Hunt had been famous back in the day for giving up his spot in the draft so he could serve his country.
By the time his stint in the Green Berets was done and he was ready to join the league, he was considered old by hockey standards.
“Anyway, my mom had completed her service, and she came to stay with her old army buddy, Levi Hunt. My dad was living across the hall, and he was interested. But Mom wouldn’t give him the time of day. In public, anyway.”
“Oh, I like where this is going. Secret crush, huh?”
“The way my dad tells it, Mom was stalking him online. He had a zillion followers on Insta and he was doing daily lives that she’d be watching with her finsta.
Dad was always busting into Hunt’s place to raid the fridge, so one morning, after he’d locked himself out of his own apartment wearing just a towel—”
“Classic.”
“Right? He snuck in with a sack of groceries to replenish the fridge.”
I started giggling. “That’s what we’re calling it? ‘Replenish the fridge’?”
He took a sip of tea, clearly trying not to laugh himself. “Not a euphemism. Anyway, long story short, he made her French toast for breakfast, chicken parm for lunch, and they watched Hallmark holiday movies while my dad sat around shirtless in his Dino-themed boxer briefs.”
“Parmed, armed, and charmed. Your old man had moves.” And so do you, Hatch Kershaw.
“Mom was a goner, and when she got pregnant, he immediately stepped up. He never had a doubt about where he was meant to be. His own dad had abandoned his mom—my grandmother, Aurora’s daughter—and he was determined to not be like him.”
“Oh, that must have been tough. Does he know his dad now?”
“Yeah. Grandpa Nick isn’t the easiest guy. But Dad got Jason and Sean as new brothers, and their mom Jenny is awesome, so he figures the pros outweigh the cons.”
I liked his attitude about it. “I didn’t know my dad either.”
He grasped my hand. “No?”
“He left when I was little, and my mom brought me up by herself.” With an assist from Smirnoff vodka and Kraft Mac ’n’ Cheese.
“Is she still around?”
“As far as I know. We fell out. Sometimes I think about getting in touch, but it feels like backsliding to this part of me I tried to leave behind. Shelby Mae is supposed to be history.”
He looked thoughtful. “So, don’t take this the wrong way. But when you were with Carter and working in the front office, you always came across as this sunny, wide-eyed, friend-to-woodland-creatures kind of gal. And I thought it was an act.”
“An act?”
“I didn’t doubt that you were a nice person. A kind person. But sometimes I’d get this snarky vibe from you … but only with me.”
I barked a laugh. “Because you deserved some snark. You were such a jerk to me!”
“True. And when you landed on me outside that window and we went on our fun journey to Saugatuck, you seemed a little sharper, more honest. In a good way, like you weren’t holding your breath anymore and were more yourself. Maybe more like … Shelby Mae.”
Oh. “I was a bit wilder back in Thunder Creek. My rough edges needed to be smoothed so I could succeed.”
“Ever think that you might be a little hard on that version of yourself? She’s the one who got you out of a bad situation, who gave you the grit and determination to succeed.
She got that tattoo, came up with the syllabus for Project Summer.
She might even have prodded you to jump out that church window.
Maybe she’s not so far in the past after all. ”
I had always seen her as my nemesis, the wild swamp girl I needed to expunge. In breaking free of the Shelby Mae cocoon, I would become that beautiful butterfly, the person I was destined to be. How could that girl exist at the same time as Summer?
How could she not?
Maybe Hatch was right. I should be more forgiving of her.
Why, thank you, Summer!
Still with the snark, Shelby Mae?
After that detour, Hatch brought the conversation back to the main road.
“Carter said you didn’t have any family at all. That’s why Addy made sure all the team sat on your side.”
In a way, the Rebels were my family, so it made sense even if they didn’t quite understand how much it meant to me.
I swallowed. “I must seem like a strange duck to you. So alone I need the seat-filling services of an entire hockey franchise.”
“I’m lucky I have a big family, and the way my dad has connected with players and more over the years, it feels like this huge network I can rely on. I can’t imagine not having them. With that said, there’s plenty of love and support to go around, Summer. It’s not a finite resource.”
Tears thickened my throat. “I do love being a part of this org. I wasn’t close with my mom. She drank a lot and treated me like her property. She hooked up with this guy …”
Hatch looked alarmed.
I placed a hand on his arm. “No, it wasn’t like that. But he arranged for me to marry someone, an older man who was a pastor in Thunder Creek.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “But you were sixteen.”
“You can marry with parental consent at that age. Or you can be forced to marry because most kids are owned by their parents. I knew if I ended up trapped like that, I’d never leave. Next would be babies and a life I couldn’t escape.”
“You ran.”
“My special skill, right? I’m obviously not destined to be a bride.
I thought I was making my own choices with Dash, but apparently, I was just sleepwalking into another cage, one of my own making.
I think hearing Mrs. C talking about these future kids of ours was the trigger to wake me up, right after I’d quit my job.
I was about to lose all autonomy, like a Stepford Wife, and Dash was completely on board. ”
His thumb rubbed my wrist, its stroke incredibly soothing. “But you figured it out. And now you can do anything you want, Sunshine.”
But I wouldn’t marry. I wouldn’t cede my independence ever again. What that meant for my future with Hatch … well, I couldn’t think of that now.
Anxious to turn my mind in a more positive direction, I changed the subject. “I have something to show you.”
He gifted me a wicked grin.
“Behave, Dino Boy. Last night, I ran a couple of reports for Lauren and sent them to her.”
“Very cool.”
“It is. I love getting into the weeds of analyzing stuff, which made me think about your stats from last season.”
His face fell. “Not so cool.”
I shook my head. “Actually, it kind of is. It would be easier to demonstrate on a laptop. Do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
We moved to the sofa, and I used the guest login he had given me in Saugatuck to access my profile on his laptop, which meant I could pop right into my Box account and open the files.
Hatch sat close, but not close enough, giving me the space I’d asked for, though in truth, space was the last thing I wanted from this man.
I was so gone for him.
I refocused on the task at hand. “I ran an analysis on your playing stats from last season, looking for patterns based on who you were playing with.”
“Other teams?”
“Other Rebels players. Analysts will do this to ascertain which players might be more compatible, which lines work best, that kind of thing. First off, I was interested in the times you and your dad played together versus when you didn’t.
And funnily enough you played much the same regardless of whether you were on the same roster or not. ”
He frowned. “Okay. So you’re saying I still sucked even if my dad was on the same ice.”