Chapter 3 – Knox
three
Knox
I pull up to the mediation appointment and park my SUV far away from the door.
Not wanting to be close and taking the chance of Josephine parking next to me.
I get out and put my phone in my back pocket, running my hands through my hair as I walk to the door and pull it open, the cold air hitting me right away.
I bypass the security at the desk, who nods at me, before walking to the elevator and, of course, I see Josephine standing there.
She looks over at me and a smile fills her face.
I see she’s changed from the skirt she had on before.
She’s more formal now, with a black skirt that goes to her knees and a black silk tank top tucked in. “Knox,” she says with a smile.
“I’m going to take the stairs.” I turn around, not bothering to look back when she calls my name again.
I would rather gouge my eyeballs with a branding iron than get in the elevator with her.
This is the second mediation appointment and even with the first one, when we walked out, I opted to take the stairs instead of getting in the elevator with her.
I push open the door to the stairs and start taking them two at a time, all the way to the eighth floor.
Pulling the door open, I step out at the same time she gets off the elevator. “Was that really necessary?” she huffs as she glares at me.
“Um, yeah, pretty much.” I walk past her to the receptionist who is just watching us, pretending not to notice the tension. I’m sure she’s seen her share of drama over the years. “Hi, we,” I motion over my shoulder at Josephine, “have an appointment at one.”
“Follow me, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor.” She pushes away from the desk and turns to walk away from us.
I follow her down the hallway to the end, where we were last time.
The door is open and I step in, taking in the large conference table, three chairs on one side and three chairs on the other.
I walk to the last chair and pull it out and see Josephine come to the chair beside me.
I wait for her to sit down before walking around to the other side of the table and pull out a chair that isn’t facing her.
“Seriously?” she snaps at me.
“I don’t know what part you don’t understand, or how many times I can say this to you for it to finally sink in.” I put my hands on my stomach. “I don’t want to be anywhere near you.” I look around the room at the white walls and think I’d rather watch paint dry than be in this room with her.
“You can’t avoid me forever,” she states, trying to get me to talk to her. So instead, I look out of the window. “You’re acting like a child.”
I exhale deeply and then put my head back and close my eyes, I only open them when I hear someone walk in.
“Sorry for the wait.” The same mediator from last time comes in, a folder in his hand.
He looks at us sitting across from each other and he stands there, not wanting to take sides, so he pulls a chair away from my side and sits at the head of the table.
“Okay.” He opens the folder. “So we were going to come back to some things you are both looking for before going to the lawyer with your demands.” He looks up at me.
“What did you come with?” he asks me first.
“Like I said in the last meeting, she can have the house and everything in it.” I look at him, not her.
“It’s paid for, so there is no mortgage on it, but she has to maintain it from here on out.
” My legs start to move up and down. “We share the kids fifty-fifty.” He nods his head.
“And we go about figuring out how much in alimony I need to pay her. We had a prenup, so I don’t even know why we are here, to be honest. She needs to get a job. ”
He writes something down on his paper and then turns to Josephine. “I don’t want a divorce,” she declares. “I think we can work through our issues.”
I snort out a little laugh before I turn my head to the side and my eyebrows raise.
“Personally, I think she’s only saying this because my sister and her husband, who she cheated on me with, decided to stay together after this mess.
I’m getting a divorce, even if I have to drag her to court to do it,” I tell the guy. “That isn’t even up for discussion.”
“Have you two thought about counseling?” he asks softly. “These things sometimes get resolved in that.”
“I want an open marriage,” Josephine says. I swear I feel like those cartoons that sit on the floor and rock side to side while getting dizzy and steam comes out of their ears.
“Then I suggest, when you find your next husband, you bring that up with him before getting married.” I look at her now.
“I made a mistake.” Her voice goes higher.
“For three years? A mistake is a one-time thing. You fucked up my whole family with this.” I shake my head.
“Are we really going to do this again? It’s getting a bit ridiculous.
” I look at the man. “But we are here, so I might as well repeat myself just so you are clear on my stance. I’m not interested in going to counseling.
I’m not interested in a reconciliation. I’m not interested in anything that has to do with her besides co-parenting our children in the easiest way possible.
If it has nothing to do with the children, I don’t want to talk to her, see her, or be in the same room as her.
” I look at her. “It’s over and you did this, not me. ” I point at her. “You.”
“I was wrong,” she says and pretends to sniffle. “We had a great marriage.”
I look at the guy, who looks like he wants to be anywhere but in here.
“Is there anything else you need from me?” He looks down at his papers and avoids looking at each of us as he shakes his head.
“Great, so this was fun. And a waste of money, but it is what it is. I’m assuming now my lawyer can contact hers? ” He nods his head. “Have a great day.”
I walk out of the room and head to the elevators and then decide to just take the stairs.
I get into the truck and the first thing I do is reach for my phone to call my father back, but I stop myself.
When I get home, I’m hit with the stillness of the house.
My new routine after the kids go back with Josephine is going through their rooms, making sure they didn’t leave any food or drinks in them that could get smelly in a week.
Last time, Vincent left chocolate milk in his bathroom and the odor was insane the week after, that, along with the chunky clump was disgusting.
The next morning I get up when the alarm rings and head to the bathroom, brushing my teeth before grabbing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.
I snatch up a baseball hat before going out to the SUV and heading into the rink.
I get there at the same time as a couple other guys.
It’s our first real day back, and we should all be catching up and reconnecting as a team after the break.
As we sit and my teammates talk about their summer plans and what they did, the big elephant in the room is me, of course, or at least it feels like that.
I had all these plans for the summer, and they were all shot to shit.
Of course, the team knows about us getting divorced since I reached out to a couple of the guys to tell them I was staying in town.
“You look like you spent the summer in the gym,” Lane, another forward on the team, observes when he walks in, and I get up to shake his hand and pull him in for a hug. “Definitely different than last year.” The back of his hand hits my stomach.
“Yeah.” I almost say, “I lost about one hundred and fifteen pounds of dead weight.” But instead I nod. “Definitely a different summer.”
“Sorry, man,” he says softly, “I heard.”
“Happens.” I try to avoid looking at him and hearing the pity in his voice.
“I’m going to go and get something to eat before getting on the ice.
” I look around for Kirby or Jaxon and I’m not surprised they aren’t here.
They have their women at home, so why come and eat breakfast here?
I grab an omelet before going to lace up for practice, and Kirby and Jaxon are here when I get back.
We spend about four hours on the ice, going through some drills. Otherwise, it was us getting our feet wet with some of the newer guys. A couple of rookies are on the ice, along with a couple of new guys who were acquired during the summer trades.
I skate off the ice and head to the locker room, sweat pouring off my head as I push my helmet higher. “You going tonight?” Jaxon asks when I step into the room.
“Where?” I ask him, taking off my gloves and tossing them to the equipment manager, who catches one and then looks to catch the second one.
“The coaches are having a welcome back get-together tonight,” Kirby says, sitting down with his bottle of water in between his legs.
“No,” I shake my head, “I’m definitely not doing that.”
“Yes, you are.” Jaxon chuckles. “If we have to go”—he points to him and Kirby—“then you have no choice but to come.” I’m about to say something. “And before you blame it on you having the kids, we know you’re lying.” He points at me. “You had them last week.”
“Can I just say I don’t want to go and leave it at that?”
“No,” Jaxson clips. “Buckle up, big guy, we are going out tonight. You are going to have to leave your Hallmark movies for one night.”
I laugh at him. “For your information, some of those movies are great.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” He shakes his head. I step into the shower and when I’m about to leave, he calls my name, “Knox.” I look up at the ceiling. “Tonight at seven.” I look over my shoulder. “Want me to pick you up?”
“I think I’m good,” I reply and they both look at me. “Fine, I’ll meet you guys there; send me the address.”
I get home and the quietness of the house gets under my skin. I hate it. Every other week, I open the door to silence, it’s the worst. Coming home and having no one here is torture. I grill myself a steak and head upstairs after I clean up and put everything away.
I slip on a pair of black boxers when I step out of the shower and head to the walk-in closet off my bathroom.
I dry the water from my hair before I grab a pair of black jeans.
Tossing the wet towel on the floor, I slip a white polo off the hanger and then put it on.
I run my hands through my hair, annoyed I agreed to this, before grabbing a pair of socks and a white pair of sneakers.
I spend five minutes in the bathroom playing with my hair, putting on my silver Rolex, and spraying on my cologne before switching off the light and heading out.
I make sure the light on top of the stove is on before I get into my black G-Wagon and back out of the garage.
I put the address to the upscale bar into the GPS, and in fifteen minutes I’m pulling up to the restaurant.
Grabbing my phone, I tuck it into the back pocket of my jeans as I sigh.
The music coming from inside is loud, and I silently cringe as I get closer and closer.
The last time I went to a bar was a month ago.
A couple of the guys went out to watch a baseball game, and I went with them.
Ended up going home with a waitress, just for the hell of it, and then hating myself every second after.
It was my fourth hookup since Josephine cheated on me.
It’s safe to say I’m not a one-night stand kind of guy.
I mean, I’m not looking for a relationship either, but I’m definitely done with hooking up just to hook up.
I pull open the door and see the sign at the front that says, “closed for a private event.” I take a couple of steps in, coming face-to-face with Lane, who gives me a chin up. I walk over to his wife, Isabel, kissing her cheek. “Nice to see you,” I tell her, and she smiles at me.
A couple more steps in and I come face-to-face with the young star we drafted this year.
“Hey,” I greet him as he looks around like a deer caught in the headlights. “You good?”
“Yeah,” he says, “it’s just—”
“Yeah, it’s a lot,” I tell him. “You let me know if you need anything.” I slap him on the shoulder, and he nods before walking to the side and going to hang with a couple of the other rookies.
I look around to see if Kirby or Jaxon are here yet, and when I can’t see either of them, I head to the bar to grab a bottle of water.
I put my hands on the bar and look over to see the bartender filling a drink.
He holds up his hand to tell me one minute and I nod at the same time a girl comes up beside me.
Her brown hair is down and wavy, she looks over at me and a smile fills her face.
I inwardly groan out when she says, “Hi,” turning to face me.
I can’t help but be drawn to her blue eyes that are so crystal clear, it’s mesmerizing, I immediately need to shut this down.
“I’m—” She’s about to introduce herself.
“Listen,” I hold up my hand. “You’re wasting your time trying to do whatever it is you are trying to do. I’m not interested in anyone sucking my dick tonight.” I exhale and ignore the way her face seems to go white.
“Okay.” She looks around. “Thanks for letting me know,” she mumbles and walks away. “Asshole,” is the last thing I hear from her, and I don’t bother looking where she is going because the bartender comes over.
I order a bottle of water, and he reaches down and hands me a cold one.
I’m taking a sip when I spot Jaxon and Kirby sitting at a table in the corner.
I walk over to them, pulling out the empty chair beside Jaxon.
“Hey,” I say, sitting down and then looking over at Ariella, who smiles at me.
“How are you?” I ask her. The two of them have had me over for dinner once a week since the shit went down with Josephine.
“I’m good.” She smiles. “It’s good to get out of the house.” They have a one-year-old son named Jagger, who looks exactly like his father.
I then turn to face Kirby, who has his arm around his fiancée’s chair. “Hey.” I give Lexi a chin up. She and Ariella are best friends, and they are usually there when I get invited to dinner. “How is everybody?”
“Good,” Kirby replies and then looks at Lexi, who holds up her hand and calls to someone who is behind me.
“Kylie!” she shouts, and I am about to turn my head when I see Kirby stand up and smile, and then it feels like the chair is pulled out from under me. The woman who was at the bar not two minutes ago is now standing in front of him.
“Hey.” He gives her a hug and then looks at me. “Knox, meet my sister,” he says, and I feel like I’m being kicked in the stomach, “Kylie.” I am so screwed.