Chapter 11
CHLOE
I’ve attended many hockey games throughout my life, including important ones like playoff-clinching matches and conference finals. While each has been nerve-wracking for different reasons, none has ever felt like this.
I walk on unsteady legs down the stairs, paying attention to the letters on the rows as I go.
“L, K, I, H,” I murmur before turning into the row labeled G and shimmying down the aisle until I reach the tenth seat in.
I stare out at the ice, taking it all in.
This is my first time seeing Callum play in this rink, and I try to blink away tears as I think about all the games I’ve missed while gone.
I used to sit in the stands every night, cheering loudly, sometimes even yelling at the refs when they made a shit call. But I haven’t been there for him nearly as much as I’d have liked since I took that internship that changed everything.
Music pumps through the speakers, and I grin up at the Jumbotron as the cameras pan to a little kid dancing with a stuffed snake in their hands.
Their toothless smile grows before they suddenly get shy and hide behind their parent.
The camera pans to another person holding a sign that reads SEATTLE SERPENTS FOREVER, and I grin.
I missed seeing people come together like this for one common goal—to see their team win.
I remember the last game I was at, just before I left.
I’ll be the first to admit it was an awful one.
We were in our third year in Chicago, the guys were already on an eight-game skid, just past the short Christmas break.
Things were not looking good, and their hopes of getting a playoff spot were slim.
I have no doubt it played a huge factor in Callum being traded to Seattle.
Tonight, though…it already feels different than that. The team hasn’t even taken the ice for warmups, and the crowd is already electric. I’m sure it has to do with the franchise-record-breaking season they’re having.
Or maybe it’s because I’m still buzzing from our kiss last night.
I still can’t believe it happened, so much so that I didn’t even bother telling Talia about it.
What’s the point if I can’t be sure it wasn’t all a dream?
I touch my lips for the thousandth time since Callum last touched me, and I swear I can still feel him pressed against them.
Okay, so it did happen. I know it did. But it still feels like an out-of-body experience, almost like our first kiss all those years ago now.
Even though it’s shaken me to my core and left me even more confused than I already was, I think I needed it to happen.
I needed to know if there was still something between us other than memories, and it’s safe to say that is absolutely the case.
Kissing Callum again…having his hands on me…it was euphoric. There’s no other way to describe it. Sitting up on his counter, his lips on mine, his fingers grazing the hem of my sweater…it was everything I’ve been missing for the last three years.
I maintain that time away was what I needed then, but I can no longer deny just how badly I needed my husband, too.
It turns out Callum is just as integral a part of me as he was when we said “I do.” I meant what I said to him, that I’m not ready to give up on us.
It’s the first time I’ve said the words out loud, but it doesn’t make them any less true.
The job with Seattle Daily might have been what brought me here, but I’m staying for him. I’m staying for me. For us.
“I’m just saying, they’d be fools not to play him tonight. He’s a beast against Calgary, and they need the points to take first place in the Pacific.”
I look over just in time to see a beautiful dark-haired woman come to a stop two seats down.
Behind her is another girl with dark hair who looks almost identical to her.
They’re followed by two other women, each looking equally as shocked as the first one, who stares down at me with her mouth agape.
“I’m sorry. Am I in your seat?” I ask, even though I checked the number on my app at least four times before sitting.
She shakes her head. “Yes. I mean, no, not technically. You’re…”
“Is that her?” the lone blonde asks, poking her head around the others, trying to get a look at…well, me.
“Vanessa!” the one who looks like the girl directly in front of me chides. “That’s it—no more date nights. You’re starting to sound too much like my boyfriend.”
“I can’t believe you’re admitting he’s your boyfriend in public. I would never.” The girl dressed like she’s going to a cocktail party instead of a hockey game tosses her hair over her shoulder, earning a pinch from the lookalike who just yelled at the blonde.
“I’m sorry,” I say, “but do I need to move?”
“What?” The woman in front blinks a few times. “No, sorry. And forgive me, I should have introduced myself. I’m Auden, Reed Hutchinson’s wife.” She smiles. “Well, technically not yet, but I will be soon.”
Hutchinson. The captain of the Seattle Serpents. Whenever Callum got traded to a new team, I used to memorize the rosters. I never wanted to come off as a hockey wife who had no idea what was happening in her partner’s life. That didn’t change when I left.
“No, you aren’t seeing double. Yes, we are twins,” the one who looks like Auden says. “I’m Rory.”
“Are you married to one of the players, too?”
“Um, no.” She laughs. “But I am dating one. Lucas Lawson.”
When I first left for London, Callum and I kept in touch.
Sometimes we’d talk for whatever five minutes either of us could spare, but there were a lot of days when we went without speaking at all.
At first, I missed him. How could I not?
But then the not talking got easier, especially the more time I spent away.
I was having some big feelings, and I couldn’t hide them if he was there prying all the time.
Even still, I remember him mentioning a Lucas Lawson.
“He’s annoying, Clover. Likely the most annoying person on the planet.”
“You say that about everyone.”
“I don’t say it about you.” A long pause. “Anyway, I’m telling you, I’m not sure I’ll last a whole year with the guy.”
“Just give him a chance. Maybe he’ll grow on you.”
“Oh, how I doubt that.”
I never really got the chance to find out if it happened, but I assume that if they know who I am, Callum must know Lucas better than he did back then.
“Hi,” I say, sounding like a total dork. “It’s nice to meet you.”
The woman dressed up and wearing sky-high heels that would kill my ankles waves. “I’m Lilah. I’m here for goalie stretches.” She smiles. “And I guess the goalie, too.”
“Vanessa,” the blonde says. “I’m with the old guy.”
“You weren’t calling him old earlier when you wouldn’t stop talking about how he went down on—” Lilah’s words are cut off as Vanessa puts her hand over her mouth.
Auden chuckles at her friends, then turns back to me. “I’m sorry. You can ignore them.” She sits down, and I follow her lead for some reason. Maybe it’s because even though she looks about the same age, she seems lightyears older than me. Wiser, that’s for certain. “You’re Chloe, aren’t you?”
This must be the other wives and girlfriends.
Callum failed to mention I’d be sitting among them, and I really wish he had.
My experiences with WAGs over the years haven’t always been positive.
Some of it was my fault, but it didn’t change the truth—I never felt like I belonged, no matter how much I tried.
Many of the women had kids they were wrangling—something I was never interested in—or were busy posting on social media and cultivating brand deals.
I wasn’t anything like that. I was the girl who worked in a lab analyzing blood samples and hating every minute of it. And my parents hated it just as much as I did.
“You could do so much more with your degree, Chloe. Your father and I did. It feels like a waste of four years.”
I wanted to remind my mother that it was actually nearly a six-year program after taking time off when Callum’s hockey career turned professional, but I didn’t think it would be beneficial for me. So I said nothing and kept plugging away in the lab.
Callum told me repeatedly that I didn’t need to work—he was making good money at that point—but I couldn’t imagine sitting around doing nothing all day. I wanted more, and that feeling is exactly what led us to where we are now.
“I’m sorry,” Auden says, pulling me back to the arena.
“I didn’t mean to scare you and sound like a total stalker, it’s just…
” She slides a piece of hair behind her ear, the bedazzled Serpents jersey catching one of the lights and shining brightly.
“Well, I could say it’s because we’ve heard a lot about you, but that’s not really the case.
We didn’t find out you even existed until New Year’s Eve.
Keller isn’t exactly forthcoming with information, but I’m sure you know that already. ”
She laughs lightly, and so do I, even though I have no firsthand experience with that. He’s never been guarded with me. He was always an open book, and it’s one of the things I’ve always loved about him. It’s why seeing him now is so hard because he is guarded, and I don’t know how to handle it.
“It’s nice to meet you all.” I send a wave to the other girls, and they all grin—well, minus Rory. “Did you need me to move?”
“What? No!” Auden almost looks offended that I suggested it. “You belong here with us.”
Except I don’t.
“Come on, let’s sit. We have so much catching up to do,” she says, like we’re old friends.
We aren’t, but we settle into our seats anyway.
Lilah pulls a pack of Oreos out of her purse, then shakes them my way. “Want one?”
I smile and nod, instantly thinking about how Talia would love her. “They sell Oreos here?”
“Oh, no. I snuck these in. Have you seen the prices here? They’re outrageous!”
She’s not wrong there.