Chapter 36
Asher tosses a bag of reusable food containers into my back seat and then climbs in.
It’s what he does at the end of every week that we play at home.
Once he’s gone through the meals I’ve prepped for him, he gives me my containers back, and I refill them.
I don’t hide my habit of taking care of him from anyone; we just don’t go around announcing it.
He’s incredibly private, and even now, after he’s started accepting my constant presence in his life, I still don’t know if he likes me half the time.
When I offered to cook for him, it was after he’d pulled me aside and asked if I knew of anyone on the team who used a private chef.
He wasn’t exactly an open book about why he wasn’t home enough after games or during days off to cook for himself, but I did learn that he’d been staying with his mom for a while and couldn’t keep ordering takeout if he wanted to stay in shape.
I mentioned that I was big on meal prepping and offered to add a few more portions to what I was already doing for him to have. After doing it for six months now, it’s become habit.
“Thanks, Finn,” he mutters once I’ve slipped behind the wheel.
“Don’t worry about it.” I check my phone for the thousandth time since this morning and frown at the lack of calls or replies from Aubrey. “Have you heard from Bree today?”
“No. Why?”
My heart clunks in my chest as I put the car in gear and drive out of the parking garage. “We had lunch plans, and she didn’t show. I haven’t been able to get a hold of her at all.”
“You didn’t miss a text?”
“No. I’ve looked.”
He straightens in the seat and pulls his phone out. I glance across the car and see him pulling open a text chain. When he starts typing, I look back out the windshield.
“Did you call the office?”
“I didn’t want to go that far yet,” I admit.
“Why not?”
I laugh tightly. “Calling her there felt a bit extreme, given . . .”
“That you’re fucking?”
“Not completely the reason, but yes. I guess so. It’s more complicated than that.” I rub my palms over the steering wheel. “I’m starting to think that I should have called, anyway.”
It was fear of looking desperate that kept me from calling when I first began to worry.
I’ve felt like an asshole all afternoon while I was sitting in the dugout, watching the game.
After the amazing morning we had, I didn’t want to ruin anything by pushing her too much, too fast. It’s not the first time she’s been too busy with work to reply to a text or call me back, but maybe I should have taken what’s going on between us as a sign that today is different.
What if something’s wrong and I’ve wasted my day worrying instead of taking care of it?
“I can call,” Asher offers tightly.
I click my tongue to the roof of my mouth as I eye the time. “No. It’s too late now. Her assistant will be gone. If Aubrey’s still there now and isn’t picking up her phone, I want to go there myself. Do you mind if we stop by on the way to your place?”
“I won’t be able to let it go until I know where she is.”
Jerking into the turn lane without bothering with my signal light, I say, “I need to ask you something.”
“Go for it.”
“Your interest in her isn’t romantic, right?”
His lack of response draws my eyes. The tick in his jaw does little to settle me.
“No.” It’s firm, final.
I absorb that. “She hasn’t told me why you’re so much more comfortable around her than the rest of us. I figured you’d do it eventually.”
He raises a hand and scratches his throat. The tension beating off him is concerning. I keep quiet, giving him the room to decide if he wants to open up to me or tell me to back off.
“She saw me sitting in the hospital a while back. We were there for the same reason. I guess I decided that I didn’t want to keep everything to myself for a few minutes and told her more than I should have.”
“Because of her grandmother,” I say, answering the question bouncing around in my head.
Aubrey spent plenty of hours on the oncology floor of the hospital, sitting beside her grandmother while she went through chemo for stage two colon cancer.
She had it successfully removed and has since entered remission, but I remember driving up to join them both every few weeks with a new edition of Monopoly to keep her entertained.
“We sat together a few times while we waited. I asked her not to say anything to you,” he admits.
“I’m sorry, Asher.”
He shrugs it off and taps his fingers to the window. “That’s life. My mom’s better now.”
“Do you see her often?”
“I was gone in Chicago for too long before getting traded here. She was diagnosed a few months before I found out because she didn’t want to tell me while I was playing out of the country.
When I heard that I was on the move, I forced her to sell my childhood house in Hamilton and bought her somewhere here so I could keep her close.
Things get put into perspective when you watch someone you love fight for their life. ”
I take the turn down the street leading to Aubrey’s office. “I’m glad you’re here, man. The Havoc are a family, so whether you tell the rest of the guys this or not, we’ll take care of you. Your mom, too, if you ever needed us to.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
The emotion in his voice is obvious before he clears his throat and looks out the window. I keep my mouth shut and let the conversation drop before I push too far and make him jump out of the moving car to escape me. He knows that I meant what I said, and that’s good enough for me.
Asher waits in the car while I take the elevator up to Aubrey’s floor and head down the dimly lit hall to her office.
Familiar with me after years of my presence in this building, the security guard downstairs didn’t give me a second look before confirming that he hadn’t seen her leave for the night yet and handing me a visitor’s pass to get to her office.
My relief didn’t last long. If she’s still here and hasn’t thought to check her phone, that means she’s too deep into her work.
It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I worry.
She’s always been the type of person who dives into their work headfirst, but she can get lost in her task list and refuse to come up for air until she sees everything checked off.
That’s who she is, and I accept it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try and help her break the surface whenever I can.
I pass empty offices and closed doors. It smells like paperwork and burnt coffee in here the way it always does, even after hours. Downtown Vancouver twinkles on the other side of the floor-to-ceiling windows, reminding me that the sun’s nearly set already.
We won our game five to four, and I declined Beck’s invite to celebrate at his place. He had a killer game, and I know the rest of the guys will make sure he knows it. I play tomorrow, but the last thing I want to do is rest right now.
Aubrey’s door is closed when I reach it.
The blinds are closed, hiding her from view.
I rap my knuckles to the door and wait, but after a few breaths, nothing happens.
When I twist the handle and it moves easily, I push the door open.
The computer monitor beams brightly, illuminating the otherwise dark room and casting a glow over Aubrey’s hunched body.
An invisible hand wraps around my heart and squeezes. Her head is on a stack of papers, and there’s a pen poised in her still fingers. The soft sound of her even breathing hits me hard in the stomach as my mouth quirks into a soft smile. Without thinking twice about it, I cross the room.
She doesn’t move a muscle while I grab her heavy purse from the ground and set it on the other side of the desk.
Her heels are lying sideways beneath her desk, leaving her feet bare on the cold floor.
I pick them up and shove them into her purse before opening the small cabinet by the bathroom door and grabbing the slip-on sandals she keeps inside.
I reach for the button on the back of the computer monitor to turn it off but pause when I see the email still left open. It’s a reminder from Rowena about the upcoming gala. The same one that she still doesn’t have a date for. Or, I guess, she does.
Me.
Even though we haven’t talked about it yet, I know that I want to be the one she takes. The mere thought of her taking anyone else has my eyes narrowing on the screen. I press the button and watch the screen go black.
Before waking her, I pull my phone out and send a text to Asher letting him know that I found her and that he can take my car back to his place so I can drive hers home. He replies instantly.
See you tomorrow, Finn.
I tuck it back into my pocket and look down at Aubrey.
Her hair has fanned out across her desk, looking like ink spilled across the endless sheets of paperwork.
I take the strands into my fist and move them over her back, exposing her soft cheeks and parted lips.
Her nose is pushed awkwardly, and I swallow a chuckle at seeing her look so innocent.
Like we’ve gone back in time and I’m catching her napping during a boring social studies movie.
Gently, I trail my hand down her curved spine and bring it back up before murmuring, “Aubrey. You can’t sleep here, baby. It’s time to go home.”
Her tongue pokes out of her mouth and runs along her bottom lip. I keep rubbing her back as she wakes up and groans, instantly reaching for her neck.
“Finn?”
I hum. “You had me worried, Bree.”
She jolts upward, forcing my hand to drop. Still half-asleep, she spins her chair around and stares up at me with glassy eyes. “Shit! Lunch. I bailed on you and didn’t even call. I meant to. I was going to call when Lydia left, and then Rowena came in and we got started on the affidavi—”
“Hey, it’s okay,” I soothe, bending to stroke her jaw. “I was just worried something had happened.”
“Kevin showed up to his visitation drunk. Today was such a clusterfuck of paperwork and phone calls. I’m so sorry that I didn’t even get a text off. This isn’t how I wanted to start things.”
Shaking my head, I place a hand on her waist and help her out of her chair. She stands with her back to the desk and stares up at me, her bottom lip wobbling. It’s enough to destroy me on a good day, let alone when my emotions are running high and I’m just so damn glad to see her.
“Don’t apologize to me. All I want is to take you home and make sure you eat something. Does that sound okay?”
“God yes.” She nods, exhaling softly. With her heels off, I have a few more inches on her, so when she goes to kiss me, I drop my head to help eliminate the distance.
Her lips meet mine gently, cautiously. It’s not enough. I thread my fingers through her knotted hair and tilt her head back as I deepen the kiss, tasting her deeper. After missing her all day, this is exactly what I needed.
“I should have called you here when I didn’t hear from you,” I murmur, palming her waist over the loose fabric of her blouse.
“You will next time.”