Chapter 34
I ring the doorbell to Niko’s house, glancing over my shoulder at the car in the driveway one more time. Niko didn’t tell me anyone else would be here, but I’m not at all surprised when the door swings open and Hunter’s face is the one to greet me.
“Morning, Smith.”
A grunt is my only greeting and I push past him into the entryway. Slipping off my shoes, I look for any signs of Niko.
“Good morning, Coach. Good to see you. Aw, thanks, Connor. It’s good to see you, too,” Hunter says from behind me, mimicking a conversation he should know he’s not going to get.
Hunter and Sadie became best friends almost immediately after Sadie moved to Green Bay.
My other two coaches, Lincoln and Ellie, were always together and the two of them would tag along so it’s not like they had much of a choice.
But even if that weren’t the case, I’m pretty sure they would’ve found each other.
They are so freakishly similar it’s almost as if they were separated at birth.
Turning to face him, I glare. “Morning. Where’s Niko?”
As soon as I finish asking, Niko’s daughter, Sophia, comes barreling down the stairs.
“Uncle Connor!” She runs full steam into my legs. I reach down and haul her into my arms, lifting her to rest on my hip.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite girl in the whole wide world. I’ve missed you.” I tap her nose and she releases a giggle that fills me with so much joy.
I’ve never been one who dreamed of having a big family.
I suppose that might have something to do with both of my parents abandoning me.
The fear of turning out like them is something I battle with daily.
I know I’m a better man than my dad ever was, but it’s always in the back of my head making me question if I’d be a good father or not one day.
For now, I’m more than content being this little girl’s favorite uncle.
“I missed you, too! Where have you been? Daddy says you were at the Olympics and you’ve been busy helping a new friend. Can I meet her?”
Niko joins us, a smug look on his face.
“Your daddy has a big mouth. But yes, I was in Sweden at the Olympics and I’ve been helping out a new friend. You might’ve already met her at the team barbecue last summer or at the rink.”
Sophia taps her chin, looking up at the ceiling. I swear, she’s the cutest kid on the planet. After a moment, she turns to me. “I don’t remember. Can I meet her again?”
I’ve never brought a woman around Sophia before.
Hell, I’ve never brought a woman around anyone before.
It’s not that I didn’t try to find someone I enjoyed spending time with.
But outside of the physical stuff, every woman I’ve met was always lacking in some way or another.
Avery is not my woman to introduce, but the thought of her meeting Sophia makes me feel something I haven’t felt in a while. Hope, maybe?
While I’m trying to figure out exactly what that mystery feeling is, Sophia puts her hands on my cheeks. “Uncle Connor. Did you hear me?”
I turn and kiss her cheek before setting her down on the ground. “Sure, Soph. You can meet her.”
Her only response is an adorable fist pump and then she’s taking off down the hall somewhere.
“Thanks for that,” I say as I turn to Niko.
He shrugs his shoulders. “You know I don’t like to lie to my kid. I had to tell her something. And you have been helping a friend.”
He’s right. He’s annoying, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s not wrong about where I’ve been lately. And he’s one of the best dads I know, so I can’t blame him for not wanting to lie to his daughter.
I follow Niko into the living room. He takes a seat on one end of the couch so I join him on the other side.
“Ooh, a new friend? Does this new friend happen to be a new hire on the team this season?” Hunter invites himself into the conversation, sitting between us then lifting his legs and resting them on the coffee table in front of the couch.
“Why are you even here?” There’s no hiding the annoyance in my voice. When I turn to glare at his position, I cringe at the sight of his bare feet. “And why the fuck aren’t you wearing any socks? Put those things away.”
Hunter looks at me confused, as if flopping his big, nasty feet onto someone else’s coffee table is the most normal thing in the world.
“You’ll have to forgive Connor.” Sadie glides into the room holding a few yoga mats and takes a seat in the chair next to the fireplace. “He hates feet.”
I scoff. “Does anyone actually enjoy feet? Look at the claws on those things.” I can’t bring myself to look at them again, but I gesture to where Hunter still has his feet on the table, keeping my eyes on Sadie.
From my peripheral, I see Hunter lean forward. If I had to guess, he’s about to touch them, so I stand, ready to remove myself from the situation.
“I just got a pedicure! They are not claws! They’re nice.”
Nope. Not doing this.
“Niko, I’ll be in the kitchen. I can’t handle this shit.”
I hear Sadie and Niko break out into laughter, and I’m pretty sure I hear Hunter ask them what’s wrong with his feet. This only makes Niko laugh harder. Sadie is busy reassuring my coach his feet are nice when Niko finally joins me in the kitchen.
“I’m pretty sure you just gave Hunter a complex.” He opens the door to the refrigerator and hands me a tumbler. “He’s here to do yoga with Sadie and Sophia. I figured we could get a workout in, and you could tell me what’s going on with you and Avery.”
I take the tumbler from him and bounce it between my hands. “There’s nothing going on with us.” The words rush out of my mouth. Does he know we’re married? No, he can’t. How would he?
Niko gives me a weird look. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why do you sound so paranoid right now? I thought that’s why you were here—to fill me in on getting her back? None of us knew you even had her in the first place, dude.”
Right.
“Sorry, man. Those walking violations in there just freaked me the fuck out.”
We make our way into the basement, walking past the yoga studio that was recently added down here, and open the door to the home gym I’ve used a hundred times before. I follow him toward the wall of cubbies and put my stuff away.
“Since we have a game tomorrow, we should probably keep it light. Want to do a short workout on the bikes?” Niko asks.
“Sure.”
We climb onto the stationery bikes, and after a few minutes of silence, I decide it’s time to finally speak my truth.
“Avery and I were high school sweethearts.” Niko doesn’t say anything, but he turns his head, giving me his full attention. “We were young and in love, I’m sure you’ve heard a million stories like this before. But I really thought she was it for me.”
I don’t tell him that I still think that, but knowing Niko, he probably already knows.
“What happened?”
Taking a deep breath, I sit up on the bike and cross my arms over my chest. “I’m a year older than her.
We were both the best players on our teams. Colleges from all over were recruiting both of us.
” Sitting up, Niko nods, urging me to go on.
“She told me it was her dream to play for Wisconsin. That’s where she’s from.
And she wanted to go on to play professionally and be the best there ever was. ”
Niko’s legs slow on his bike and then finally come to a full stop. “I don’t understand.”
I don’t stop pedaling. I need to do something with all these emotions flooding through me, so I pick up the pace and finish my story.
“When she told me where she wanted to play in college, I had already accepted my full-ride scholarship.”
Understanding dawns on Niko’s face. “You went to Boston University.”
“Yeah. And when Avery found out, she told me she’d come there too so we could be together.”
Niko’s face scrunches as he tries to figure something out. “Why couldn’t you have just done long distance?”
I laugh and point at him.
“Says the man who almost let Sadie walk out of his life and go to Denver.”
Niko glares at me. He wasn’t at his best at that time, but luckily he pulled his head out of his ass. Too bad I can’t say the same for myself.
“I was young? I don’t know. I just couldn’t do that to her, man. Anytime I brought it up, she was so adamant it would never work. With our crazy schedules, we’d never see each other. She was dead set on following me to Boston.”
“So you broke up with her.”
I nod. My legs are flying on the bike now. The memory of Avery’s devastated face has been permanently carved in my brain, it haunts me to this day. Niko leans over, turning up the tension on the bike so high, I have no choice but to stop pedaling.
“But you were drafted by Green Bay. Why didn’t you try to make it work after that?”
I look up at the ceiling, trying to remember what was going through my head at the draft when I heard Green Bay call my name.
“I thought about it. God, did I think about it. But Avery moved on. We still saw each other from time to time because we both stayed in touch with our high school teammates who were all friends. You know how that is. That bond lasts a lifetime. And anytime I saw her, she was so…happy. She had boyfriends in college and then was drafted by Minnesota. I guess I could’ve tried but I didn’t want to disrupt the life she had made for herself.
That’s why I let her go, so she could make that life for herself. ”
Finally, I turn toward my best friend. His eyes are soft and he’s looking at me the way he looks at Sophia after she just got done crying.
“Don’t look at me like that, man. I’m fine.”
He climbs off the bike and walks to the shelf in the corner, tossing me a towel.
“If you’re so fine, why are you here?”
Wiping the sweat off my forehead, I climb off the bike and join him on the mats to stretch. I reach over to my left leg and rest my head on my knee. After I count to twenty, I look up at him.
“She’s here now. She’s divorced. And I’m helping her out with some health stuff.”
Niko quirks a brow. “What kind of health stuff? Is she okay?”
I know I can’t tell him we got married for my insurance, so I give him a half-truth. “She’s all right. Or, she will be. Her roommate is a sports agent so her hours and travel are even crazier than ours. So, I’m just helping her out by taking her to appointments and stuff.”
Niko doesn’t look convinced. He calls me on my bullshit all the time, so before he can, I continue.
“I want her back, man. I didn’t think I’d ever have this chance, but now that she’s here… God, I crave her in a way that makes me almost sick, knowing she’s not mine.”
The corner of Niko’s lip tilts upward, and I toss my towel in his face. He grabs it and sets it aside.
“You need to woo her.”
I nearly choke on the protein shake Niko gave me when I got here. “What the fuck does that mean?” I swipe my hand across my chin, cleaning up the drink I just spewed.
Niko stands and offers me his hand. I let him help me up and then he grasps my shoulder before giving me a devilish look. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
“I don’t want to see you flirt with Sadie. I’m good.”
He laughs and turns the lights off in the gym. I follow him, ready to make my exit so I don’t have to witness any PDA, when he turns into his theatre room. I take a seat in one of the leather recliners and throw my hands up.
“What the hell are we doing?’
He grabs a movie from his collection and slides it in before sitting in the seat next to me. Remote in hand, he turns on the projector, and looks at me with a weird ass smile on his face.
“You need to know how to treat a woman. I know you don’t have much practice.”
I slug him in the shoulder. “Fuck off.”
He rubs his shoulder, then points at the screen that now displays a pretty blonde woman leaning up against a handsome guy in a suit. I know fuck all about celebrities, so when I turn to him confused, he laughs.
“You, my friend, need Matthew McConaughey.”