Chapter 29
NASH
Our first loss of the preseason.
It’s not a big deal, really. Coach didn’t play our top guys too hard, since the regular season is just around the corner. Taking it easy and giving up a preseason game is standard operating procedure. Still, it always stings a little to lose.
I hear a burst of laughter from the hotel room next to me as I drop onto the bed. That’s Hayden’s room.
One of our third-line rookies, Kevin Haaland, took the loss hard because he got a lot of ice time today and wasn’t at his best. He got the puck stolen from him a couple of times, and got deked to give up a goal.
Hayden made it his mission to cheer the kid up, joking around with him in the locker room and inviting him to his hotel room to play a video game on the system that Hayden brought along.
Hayden’s class clown energy might be exhausting sometimes, but I’ve seen him channel that to cheer up people who are in a bad mood and make them laugh, so it’s hard to hold it against him.
I’ll just have to console myself with that thought when I’m trying to fall asleep and they’re still laughing with the video game turned up way too loud. I could go next door and ask them to turn it down, but I’m trying to be less of a crotchety old man lately.
After Bridgett and I broke up, I’ve felt haggard and worn out well beyond my years. But since I’ve started spending time with Piper, who’s the same age as me but so energetic and full of life, I’m starting to feel sort of … renewed.
I look at my phone. It’s eleven at night.
I wonder if Piper is still up.
My stomach flips when a text message from her pops up on my phone, just as that thought passes through my head.
PIPER
Nash … what is THIS?
When I see the picture she sends, embarrassment swims in my chest, my cheeks turning warm even though we’re hundreds of miles away.
It’s a coffee mug standing on my kitchen counter. The mug she gave me as a welcome present the first week we lived next to each other in college.
I kept it all these years. Every time I moved and went through the process of deciding what to take with me and what to throw out or give away, I never had the heart to part with that damn mug.
ME
Looks like a coffee mug
PIPER
You really kept it? I thought you hated it, lol
Regret tugs inside me. I remember that day, the day after I moved into the off-campus rowhouse I rented the ground-floor one-bedroom apartment of.
Piper and her roommates rented the entire house next door, which was the end-unit.
It was both of our first times living in our own place, out of the dorms.
She knocked on my door one day, looking so fucking cute and bubbly. She had a tiny, wrapped box in her hand, and she told me it was a moving-in present. She laughed, saying she wanted to do it to commemorate having her first neighbor while living independently.
Caught off guard, without even saying anything and with a blank expression on my face, I opened it to find a coffee mug with the words I Need My Pucking Coffee written on it. She knew I was on the team.
If possible, I was even more of a socially graceless jerk than I am now, and with a flat expression, I just looked at it and grunted to her, “Uh, okay.”
Ugh. I cringe at the memory. I wish I could go back in time and kick my own ass.
She stood there, sunny smile still on her gorgeous face, waiting for me to say something else, to do something to show my appreciation other than pin her with my dull glare and my lips as flat as the horizon of a Texas desert.
Until her bright expression faltered for a moment and she said, “Well, I’m right next door if you ever need something,” trying to be neighborly and polite while I stood there like a stone.
I didn’t give her a single sign of appreciation, but I still drank my coffee from that mug just about every morning that semester.
No wonder I’ve been on her shit list ever since. I was such a dick back then. It didn’t help that the next time I spoke with her, I was telling her to keep the volume down when she threw a party on that Friday night.
ME
No, I liked it. It’s a good mug
PIPER
Maybe that’s why you were such a jerk back then
PIPER
You had a crush on me but didn’t know how to process it since you’re an emotionally stunted athlete who spent too much time in all-male locker rooms
PIPER
But you treasured the first thing I ever gave you
My stomach clenches. Something about my wife’s little joke hits too close to home.
ME
No one could accuse you of having an inactive imagination
PIPER
It’s so cute that you still have it
ME
It’s just a mug
PIPER
Suuuuuurrree
Texting with my wife late at night after an away game … it’s a nice feeling. Cozy.
I’m hit with the urge to start a FaceTime call with her, but I think that might be a line it would be wiser not to blur. Disappointment pinches me as I decide to yield to my better judgment.
PIPER
Do you normally hear noises outside the house? At night?
I sit up, concern winding through me.
ME
What kind of noises?
I’m starting to wish I didn’t let Piper talk me into watching that true crime documentary with her the other night. Immediately, the worst possibilities rush into my mind, even though the noises Piper’s hearing could easily be the wind or some animal rustling around.
PIPER
I dunno, kinda sounds like something’s moving around outside the house … maybe I’m being paranoid
ME
Are the doors locked?
PIPER
Now who’s being paranoid?
ME
Piper …
PIPER
Why did I imagine you saying that in that growly voice of yours lol
ME
Are they?
PIPER
Yes
ME
Do you still hear something outside?
PIPER
Actually, it sounds like it’s at the door now …
A fist of worry clenches in my chest.
PIPER
I’m going to go outside to check
My eyelids fly open, and my eyes practically touch the screen the way they bulge at her message.
ME
WHAT
ME
Piper, with the stuff you watch, you know that should be the last thing you should do
I wait for her to respond … and wait … and wait. Concern claws at my gut.
ME
IS everything okay?
ME
Piper, answer
A picture comes through from her end—and panic jolts through me.
It’s not a normal picture. It’s nothing but the floor of the living room, with the open door just at the edge of the frame. The picture is blurry, like it was taken and sent by accident while the phone fell to the ground.
Instantly, I’m on my feet, rushing to the door. I have no idea what I’m planning on doing. I just know my body immediately entered fight mode and needs to do something.
Until my phone buzzes again in my hand.
PIPER
Whoops, sorry. SHE made me drop the phone
The panic washes away when she sends me a new picture: a selfie of her next to Cheesecake.
A strange, warm feeling twirls around my heart as I look at the picture of my fake wife smiling next to the capybara I’ve grown strangely fond of.
I didn’t want a pet. I sure as shit didn’t want a relationship. And, yeah, Cheesecake isn’t really my pet. And Piper isn’t really my wife, no matter what the laws of Texas say.
But even though I never intended for either of those things to be in my life, the idea of that demanding animal never wandering to my house and demanding my attention or the idea of never hearing Piper’s footsteps on my floor or her giggles bounce off my walls while she’s reading one of her books …
I don’t like either thought. Especially the last one.
PIPER
lol, she left already
PIPER
I gave her one scratch behind the ear and she turned around and walked away
I chuckle entirely too hard at that scenario.
ME
Cheesecake is a woman who knows what she wants and takes it
PIPER
She’s an icon
ME
Hahaha
PIPER
Oh my gosh. Did you just laugh through text message?
PIPER
I’m taking a screenshot of this
ME
Is that really necessary?
PIPER
Seeing Nash Miller type out laughter? Yes, it’s necessary. Not screenshotting this would be like not taking a picture of Bigfoot if you saw him during a hike
ME
Am I THAT much of a grump?
PIPER
Hmmm
PIPER
Well, ask me a month ago, and I would’ve said yes
PIPER
But lately … not *SO* much
PIPER
Must be your lovely wife’s influence
I want to respond that I think she’s right, but that would be toeing another line we should stay away from.
Our conversation tapers off, but I can’t get that damn picture of Piper and Cheesecake together out of my head.
As a matter of fact, it’s the last image I see on the back of my eyelids before I fall asleep.