CHAPTER FIVE
Cole made himself a couple of sandwiches while he waited for the promised call to watch Amelia practice. He’d been so focused on his career that he knew very little about his nieces and nephews.
His recent time home had made him feel a little convicted about how distant he’d been from his family over the years since graduating from high school. These were people who’d supported him through all his growing-up years.
Because of the span of their ages, most of his siblings had been established in their adult lives when he’d been in high school, yet they’d still found time to support him. They’d come to his games and cheered him on. Whenever they’d gotten together for family dinners, his siblings had always spent time talking to him.
Once he’d left Serenity for college and then moved on to his career, Jay had been the one most still involved in his life, but his other siblings always sent him congrats on wins. He hadn’t been as good about congratulating them on incredible things happening in their lives. Like the births of their children.
But he was alive, so there was still time to make up for his lack of involvement over the past decade.
He took his food and drink out to the large patio, which overlooked the swimming pool. There were times when his expansive backyard was full of people, partying and having a good time.
That hadn’t been the case for several months, however.
Cole set his plate and cup down on the table next to one of the lounge chairs, then sank down onto it and stretched out his legs. Though the view in front of him should have been calming, his thoughts moved like tumbleweeds through his mind.
When he’d gone to the doctor with a suspicious lump just before the end of the last season, it felt like his whole focus shifted. The duration from biopsy to results had seemed to stretch out like an eternity, and during that interval, he’d had lots of opportunity to think about his priorities in life.
And even when he had other things he needed to focus on—like a game or a meeting—his brain had still insisted on bringing it to the forefront of his thoughts. So by the time he eventually ended up with a clean bill of health, he’d already realized he needed to consider making some changes in his life.
Learning that Shiloh—Aiden and Skylar’s daughter, who had been adopted by his other sister, Charli and her husband Blake—hadn’t been as fortunate in her diagnosis, had been another wake-up call for him. And then he’d found out that he would have the chance to help her beat her cancer if it recurred.
His visit home had also made him aware that his folks were getting older. Everyone was. Gareth even had streaks of gray in his hair now that he was in his forties.
And then there were his nieces and nephews… Layla’s change was the most shocking, mostly because he remembered her as an eight-year-old, and now she was a teenager, soon to be a young adult.
He’d gained everything he set out in search of. Fame. Money. Accolades for his basketball skill. He’d won titles and championships.
It hadn’t been all self-centered. He’d volunteered at a children’s hospital and helped with fundraisers the team had done. He had also put on free basketball clinics for underprivileged kids.
What was left?
As he ate his sandwiches, he once again contemplated if it was time to step off his current path. Leave while he was at the top.
He was set for life, financially, as long as he didn’t develop a gambling habit. Retiring didn’t necessarily mean losing an income. His name would still open doors that would give him the opportunity to earn money if he wanted to.
He had almost a year before he had to officially make his decision. However, his current team could begin to discuss things with him well before that. And his agent was constantly hounding him, trying to get him cornered for a meeting.
As with every other stretch of thinking he’d done, Cole still had no answers when the chiming of his phone interrupted his thoughts. He set down his glass and picked up his phone, grimacing when he saw his agent’s name on the screen.
“Hey, Theo,” Cole said.
“Cole? Cole, is that you?” Theo responded, his voice laced with irony. “Did you finally find your phone?”
“Whatever, man,” Cole said with a huff of laughter. “You’re constantly calling.”
“And you’re constantly not answering.”
“Because I know what you want, and I still have nothing to say.”
“We can’t put this off forever,” Theo said. “I’ve already had a call from the assistant general manager.”
“What did he say?”
“He was putting out feelers about an extension,” Theo said. “Which is why we need to have a conversation about it.”
“I don’t know what I want to do,” Cole confessed.
“Do you want to consider offers from other teams?” Theo asked. “Do you have one in mind?”
“No. I’m not interested in a trade.”
There was a long pause before Theo said, “So, are we talking… retirement here?”
Cole also paused, just because he had yet to share the idea of retirement with anyone. “Possibly.”
“Really?” Theo’s voice held a boatload of skepticism. “We haven’t talked about that. In our last conversation, you were still interested in a new contract. What happened?”
Cole hadn’t shared anything about his health scare with Theo, nor what was going on with Shiloh. What if she needed him for a stem cell transplant, but he couldn’t get away because of his game schedule?
But even more than that, he hadn’t shared with Theo that he felt he’d reached the pinnacle of his career, and it would only be downhill from there.
“You’re at the top of your game,” Theo said. “You could ask your price, and any team would make room on their roster for you.”
“So if I’m at the top of my game, it only means it’s going to go downhill from here.”
“There’s no reason to think you’d have a decline like that,” Theo said. “One of the things that makes you so appealing to teams is that you’ve been incredibly healthy throughout your career. So there’s no reason to think your physical condition would go into a sudden decline. If you’re that worried, we can try for a one-year extension, then go from there.”
Cole stared at the pool where the water sparkled in the hot afternoon sunlight. If the temperature didn’t drop much, he’d think about going for a swim later.
Before he could reply to Theo, he received notification of an incoming video chat. “Listen, Theo, I’ve got a call coming in that I have to take. I promise I’ll get back to you in a couple of days.”
“You better,” Theo growled. “This isn’t something you can just ignore.”
“I’m well aware,” Cole told him. “Talk soon.”
Ending that call, he clicked over to accept the video chat, a smile forming when it was Annie’s face that filled his screen.
“Hey there,” he said when the call had connected. “How’s it going?”
“Well, it’s definitely colder in here than outside,” she said. “I’m glad Benji told me to wear a jacket.”
The view switched from Annie to the rink, where two people were standing close together in the middle of the ice. Though Cole would have preferred to continue looking at Annie’s face, that wasn’t the purpose of the call.
“Amelia is training for a competition in September,” Annie said. “Lexi said she’s putting in lots of practice time, even though it’s summer.”
“It’s great that Lexi has been able to coach Amelia.”
“Lexi is an amazing skater, so I imagine Amelia has a bright future ahead of her.”
“Do you watch figure skating?” Cole asked. It was weird to have a conversation with Annie when he couldn’t see her on the screen, but he’d said he wanted to see Amelia skate, so this was what worked.
“I do,” Annie said. “I like figure skating and gymnastics.”
“What about basketball?”
Annie gave a soft chuckle that made Cole smile. “Yes. I do watch basketball.”
“Just Benji’s games?” he asked. “Or do you watch the pros play as well?”
“I watch whatever Benji wants to watch. He usually comes to my place to watch the professional games.”
“So you’ve seen my team play?” Cole waited for her answer while his gaze followed Amelia as she circled the ice, gaining speed as she skated.
“Oh yes. Since you’re Benji’s favorite player, we watch all your games.”
“Do you have a favorite player?” Cole asked, wishing he could see her face. For all he knew, she was rolling her eyes at him.
As Annie shifted her camera to follow the action on the ice, she chuckled again. “I suppose that’s probably you as well. I don’t know much about many other players. Plus, you’re the hometown boy, right? It seems almost illegal to not be a fan of yours.”
That made Cole grin. “Well, I’ll take any fans I can get, regardless of the motivation.”
“Ooooh, that was a great jump,” Annie said. “Good job, Amelia.”
She didn’t raise her voice, so Cole doubted his niece could hear her. Annie probably didn’t want to distract her as she trained.
“Hi, Lexi.” Annie shifted the phone so that Cole could see that his sister-in-law had skated over to the boards near Annie.
“Hi, Lexi,” Cole said.
“Who’s that?”
Annie’s face briefly appeared on his phone’s screen, then she turned the phone so that Lexi could see him.
“Cole?” Her gaze darted to the side, which Cole assumed meant she was looking at Annie. “I didn’t expect to see you on the phone.”
“Surprise!” Cole said as he lifted his hand and waved. “When Annie said that she and Benji were going to watch Amelia practice, they invited me to tag along.”
“Oh?” Lexi’s gaze was curious, and Cole couldn’t exactly blame her for it.
He didn’t know Lexi well since she’d come on the scene after he’d left. But she seemed to make Wilder happy, so Cole was glad she was part of the family.
“Are you in LA?” Lexi asked, her gaze going back to the ice.
“Yep. Hanging out on my deck, sweating to death.”
“We’re definitely not sweating at the moment,” Annie said. “It’s freezing in here.”
“Amelia, come over,” Lexi called out with a wave at the girl.
Without hesitation, Amelia skated over and came to a stop in front of Lexi.
“Your uncle is watching you from the phone,” Lexi said.
Amelia frowned. “My uncle?”
Cole knew that, technically, he wasn’t Amelia’s biological uncle. However, she was Charli’s step-daughter, so there was no question but that he’d claim her as niece. He was quite sure that Charli didn’t differentiate between biological or non-biological children, so he wouldn’t either.
“Hey, Amelia,” Cole said as Annie turned her phone toward the teen. “You’re doing great!”
“Oh. Hi, Uncle Cole. Thanks.”
“How’s practice going?” he asked. “I hear you’re preparing for a competition.”
“Yep. I’m working on my jumps. Especially my triple Axel. If I can land it consistently, my score would go up.”
“Practice makes perfect. I remember when I was trying to increase my ability to make three-point shots from anywhere on the court. It took lots and lots of practice.”
“But it definitely paid off,” Annie said.
“You’re known for your three pointers,” Benji said.
Annie again shifted her phone, getting Benji in the shot too. The tall teen stood with his arms braced on the top of the boards. Amelia shifted on the ice to stand a little closer to him.
“I’ve only gotten those shots because I practice them religiously.” Only it had been awhile since he’d put some serious time into practicing. He needed to change that because he still had to make it through another season, and he owed it to himself and his fans to give them the best season he could, especially if it was going to be his last.
“Back to work, Amelia,” Lexi said with a clap. “Break’s over.”
Amelia propelled herself backwards away from them, then turned and skated toward the far end of the rink.
“Are you training other skaters, Lexi?” Annie asked as she turned the phone back toward her and Lexi, allowing Cole to see her face.
“I teach skating classes, but I only have Amelia and one other skater who are part of the competitive circuit.”
“Does the fact that Amelia’s a relative make it harder or easier to coach her?” Cole asked.
“I think it makes it easier,” Lexi said. “We’ve been together for a while now, so we know each other really well. It helps with the coaching relationship.”
“Amelia didn’t want to do pairs like you did?” Annie asked.
“No, which is fine by me. There is a dynamic to pairs that can be challenging, plus finding good male partners can be difficult.” She called out a correction to Amelia, encouraging her to keep her leg lifted on the follow through of her jumps. “Thankfully, Amelia isn’t interested in partnering. She’s doing great as a single’s skater.”
“Do you know how to skate, Annie?” Cole asked.
“Yep. Both Benji and I skate. Growing up, our dad always set up a rink for us.”
“Did you want to become a figure skater?”
Annie chuckled. “Well, I wanted to because I have always admired female figure skaters. But the reality was that I enjoyed sitting on the couch watching them perform more than I liked being on the ice. It required too much working out for my liking.”
Lexi gave a laugh. “Yep. It sure does require a lot of physical exertion.”
“So you don’t like exercising, Annie?”
“Not really. At most, I go for walks and lift some light weights.”
Cole found it interesting how she wasn’t even trying to impress him with the answers she gave. Most women would be sure to tell him how much they exercised to get their very fit figures. He wasn’t sure how fit Annie actually was because he’d only seen her in loose fitting clothing.
“You and Benji should come to one of the open skates we have here,” Lexi said. “It’s pretty relaxed. Doesn’t require too much physical exertion.”
“I’m pretty sure your definition of not much physical exertion and mine are not the same.”
That made Lexi laugh again. “Perhaps.” She turned to face Annie’s phone. “Do you skate, Cole? Or have you always been focused on basketball?”
“Oh, all of us Halverson kids learned to skate,” Cole said. “Like Annie, we had a rink in our backyard, so we all got pretty good on the blades. Not all of us liked it, though. Jay was a solid no when it came to ice skating.”
“Next time you’re home, we should all come skating,” Lexi said.
Cole wanted to protest that Serenity wasn’t home, but he held it back. He knew what she meant. “We could always try. It has been a looooong time since I was last on skates. Might be a bit rusty.”
Lexi’s attention had been on the ice throughout the conversation, so after calling out something to Amelia, she gave him a smile, then pushed away from the boards. “Gotta get back to work.”
“You treating my niece right, Benji?”
“Huh?”
Annie was laughing as she turned the camera so that Cole could see Benji, and Benji could see Cole. The teen was staring at him with wide eyes and his mouth open.
“You doing that, Benji?” Cole asked.
“Of course, I’m treating her well,” Benji said, his expression morphing from shock to earnestness. “Annie wouldn’t let me do anything else.”
“Plus, you’re just a really caring person by nature,” Annie said. “You wouldn’t treat anyone badly.”
“That’s a good quality to have, Benji,” Cole told the teen. “Never lose it.”
Benji’s gaze left the phone for a moment, then he said, “Annie has it too, you know. She’s nice to everyone.”
“Somehow, I knew she’d be like that. Glad to know I was right.”
“You owe me an ice cream, Benjamin,” Annie said.
“Why?” The teen lifted his hands into the air. “What did I say?”
“Using me as a way to deflect Cole’s questions about you and Amelia costs you an ice cream.”
Cole grinned at the back and forth between the siblings. Though there was a large discrepancy in their sizes, they looked fairly similar. They both had light brown hair and blue eyes, though, if he remembered correctly, Annie’s were more of a blue-green.
When music started playing, Annie and Benji stopped talking and turned to the ice. After a moment, Annie glanced down at her phone. “Oops. Sorry.”
She lifted her phone and once again fixed the camera direction so that he could see Amelia on the ice.
Cole had never watched any figure skating competitions. If Lexi had still been competing when she and Wilder had gotten together, he probably would have paid more attention to the sport. So watching Amelia show both artistry and athleticism on the ice for the first time was an amazing experience.
He winced when she fell on a jump. However, she got up like nothing had happened and continued to skate to the music.
Cole appreciated that Annie followed Amelia’s progress across the ice. It truly was a beautiful thing to watch. He knew some people joked that it wasn’t a sport, but right then, all he saw was his niece doing things that he couldn’t. That a lot of people couldn’t.
Figure skating was strength wrapped in beauty, and not every sport could say that. Basketball certainly couldn’t.
When the music ended, Amelia froze in place in the middle of the ice. Without even thinking about it, he began to clap, and so did Benji.
“That was beautiful, Amelia,” Annie called out. “Just beautiful.”
Amelia curtsied and waved at them, and Cole wondered if that was how she ended every program she skated in competition. He hoped that he’d be able to get to one of her competitions, but unfortunately, he was pretty sure that her competitive season ran during the same months as his.
He’d just have to settle for watching videos of the competitions. At least for the upcoming season. After that? Well, who knew where he’d be.
Amelia and Lexi skated over to where they stood at the boards, both smiling broadly.
“That was great, Amelia,” Benji said as he held his hand up for her to slap.
Her smile grew as she smacked it. “Thanks. Even though I fell.”
“But you got back up,” Cole said. “And that’s the most important thing when you fall. Pop right back up and keep going.”
“You don’t always pop back up,” Annie said. “You basketball players fall more than figure skaters, and boy, do you play it up.”
Cole’s mouth dropped for a moment, then he started to laugh, unable to stop himself. “You aren’t wrong.”
From the angle Annie held the phone, he couldn’t see her, but he could see the other three, and they were staring at them with wide eyes.
“Annalisa Turner!” Benji said with a gasp. “You can’t be saying that to Cole.”
“She’s only telling the truth,” Cole told the teen. “You know that too.”
A grin slowly crept across Benji’s face. “Well, yes. I do know that, but I would never have said that to your face.”
“Oh, I didn’t say it to his face,” Annie said. “I said it behind the phone.”
Cole grinned, appreciating Annie’s sense of humor and how she just didn’t seem to really care who he was. He really only experienced that candidness with his family or the guys on his team.
Most single women his age were more interested in keeping his attention on them, so they wouldn’t risk taking little jabs at him that might drive him away.
Maybe he needed to plan at least one more trip back to Serenity before the craziness of the season set in around the beginning of October. To see his family, of course, but maybe also to spend some time with Annie.
She intrigued him, and he wanted to see if she possibly felt curious about him too.