CHAPTER ELEVEN
SIA
Three months after Ward left Hansen in my townhouse with me and didn’t return, our divorce papers arrived.
The one thing I thought we were past. What I feared for so long finally happened.
What was the saying about making sure your future arrived the more you worried about it?
I no longer had the bandwidth to fight. Every tear I had to cry decorated the floor around those papers. My signature sat next to his jagged name.
It was done.
All I had to do was drop them into the courthouse. But right now, that would have to wait. Because apparently, Hallie and her avocado toast therapy took precedence over my needs for the day.
And her therapy was needed because of my husband who had once again been the asshole.
Actually, if he was anyone else, I would have made sure he didn’t have a job right now.
“Don't let Ward terrorize you like that,” I instructed her, keeping my mask firmly in place. Two more hours. That's all I had left for the day. Then I could walk down to the court house. Five blocks up, three across. Everything was numbers. No point driving, I’d never get a park. “Then he’ll be in a better mood tomorrow. I promise.”
And I’d be absent, hungover and nursing the most broken heart in the history of hearts.
“What?” Hallie’s eyes got big. “Are you going to—”
“I’m not sacking him.”
Three months was all it took. Less than that by far, and Ward took the Chimeras to yet another victory.
I missed that, too. I was home with Hansen, sleeping off drugs, nursing my aches and wishing I’d understood just what the only man who ever mattered to me actually meant when he promised me you’ll never be alone.
I thought he meant him. That he would be with me, and never leave. I hoped too much.
Fucking liar.
“No, I mean he’ll be happier tomorrow,” I corrected both Hallie and myself gently.
Hallie stuffed extra avocado smeared toast into her mouth and swallowed. “So you’ll have a talk with him, then?” she said brightly.
“What?” My mouth hung open. I glanced covertly at the pile of divorce papers on the cover of my desk, hidden by a swapsies contact with another club. “Uh, no,” I said firmly. I’ll send—” I thought back to my new intern’s name.
“Lena,” Hallie supplied helpfully.
“Yes. I’ll send Lena. The girl we adopted from Hallsworth with when we swapped players and picked up Fallingsford. Faithfury? Forthscyth!” Isa died triumphantly as Hallie's brow dipped deeper and deeper.
“Wolfford,” Hallie corrected me. “Are the drugs not doing so great?”
“I ran out,” I muttered. “And Hansen is going through kitty adolescence.”
“I can come around and do some training?” she offered. “But seriously, don’t send Lena. Ward will eat her. For breakfast.”
I closed my eyes. “Fuck.”
“I know.”
“He’ll eat me, too.”
“But he’s nicer to you.”
“You think?” I cracked one eye lid, and sighed. “Alright. I’ll…do it after lunch.” That would give me time to get to the courthouse and back. Then I could give him the good news, and…
“He has a press conference after lunch. Do you really want him biting the heads off the media in his mood?” Hallie smiled at me a touch too brightly.
I forced a smile. “Tell me that eating one of those avocados will be fortifying. Later.” I stood up from my desk and my side twinged. “Note: buy meds on the way back.”
“I’ll get one of the boys to grab them when they do lunch run. Someone will be getting coffee for someone, surely.”
“They are not my personal slaves, Hallie. They’re hockey players. They don’t do coffee runs or get meds for other people.”
Hallie huffed at me. “A decade here married to a Chimera and you still don’t get it, do you.”
I looked up at her, my hands on my contracts. “Get what?”
“What this club is about. What makes it different.”
I stared at her blankly. “The greenery is bad for you.”
“Seriously, Sia. Being a Chimera is the sum of many parts. That’s why the club works. They aren’t assholes all the time. They aren’t on the ice all the time. And they sure as hell aren’t arrogant fucks who think you possess inhuman strength when you and Ward are fighting.”
I bit my lip. “I love the commitment you have to this place.” Especially when mine is waning. Oh, God. I’m going to leave.
I would. I knew it. I’d hand in those papers, call Mickey, and walk right out those doors for the last time.
I was done.
I will not cry. I will not cry.
Enough tears had been shed in this office and most of them had been mine.
“I’ll talk to him. Tell Solace thank you,” I muttered, keeping my head down.
“What for?” Hallie sounded surprised.
I shrugged. “He’ll know.”
***
The puck slid flawlessly side to side in front of Ward as he skated along the blue line.
That stupid blue line. How long had it been since I watched him play?
Or train. Or even just skate? Usually I came out to the ice to see everyone else train, but never ward.
And yet, he still had a grace and style that belied everyone else on the team, even though he had maybe ten, fifteen years on every single one of them.
Hell, he had ten years on me.
I sucked in a deep breath and delivered the message I came here to do. “Please stop picking on your staff.”
Okay, good. Job done. Great chat. Now I could go.
I put my head down, turned around and headed back toward the door.
The constant swish swish tap tap that hadn’t stopped since I walked into the Chimera’s arena…
Stopped
Crap.
I inhaled a breath of ozone and coldness that wasn’t like anywhere else except for an empty ice rink.
Empty, except for one man.
“I’d ask what your problem is, but I already know that.”
Shit, he was a whole lot closer than I expected. Faster, too.
“Damnit, Ward,” I muttered, pivoting around. I tossed my hair over my shoulder and ruined the whole show with a wince I couldn’t suppress.
His grumpy facade twitched.
Fuck. You.
At least we’d discovered ground zero. He wasn't the asshole he pretended to be and my bring-it-on facade was full of shit.
Excellent.
I threw a sharp smile on my face. “You’ve ratcheted it up a notch.”
His face fell back into place. If I hadn’t seen that twitch, I would have thought him as formidable as ever. “I have a fresh player to train.”
I snorted. “He’s a Hallsworthy veteran, Ward. Not some green camper you picked off the side of the road.”
He looked affronted. “I never bring in strays.”
I coughed into my hand. “Hansen.” It turned out my kitten was a rescue. Husband dearest had a soft heart. I knew little detail. We both elected to ignore it.
“The cat is different.” He paused. “How is he?”
“Cute. Taking over the house.” You left me, goddam you. I swallowed hard. “Thank you.”
“For the fluff ball?” He watched me warily.
“For making sure I’m safe when I’m alone.”
“That’s what the cat is for.” The muscles around his face barely moved. Not an admission.
But I knew.
“Kitten,” I corrected, swallowing hard over the ache in my throat. I love you. Stay. My mouth dried and nothing I wanted to say actually came out. He wouldn’t have answered me anyway. “Hallie is a great help. Lay off her, would you? She cried in my office.”
He frowned. “Over what? I’ll never hurt Solace’s girl. Or my assistant.”
Or me?
Wait. Had Hallie said why Ward was such an asshole? He excelled at the sport, and I took it for granted he turned the hate factor up just for me this week. Now, I couldn't think of anything she had said to incriminate him at all.
“I don’t know.” I stared at him, willing him to answer me. “She didn’t say.”
“Right.” Ward’s brows knitted. “And she cried?” His eyes met mine, steady. Unflinching.
I licked my lips, noting the way his gaze tracked the movement. “Yes.”
“Mmm.” He made a non comital noise, and watched me.
Pure sass sat on the tip of my tongue, but a huge part of me was too tired to belt it out with him.
Far too tired. All I wanted was to collapse into one of the seats, curl up, and watch him skate again.
Listen to the soft swish swish of his blades across the ice while the players had some down time after the season was over for a scant two weeks while the rest of the club caught up on admin.
But he’d deny me even that.
I wouldn’t dare consider begging for a hug.
“What are you still doing here, Sia,” Ward asked in a low voice.
Low and soft and sexy. The complete opposite of assholic.
All the pennies dropped on an over stressed, under caffeinated brain. My brain as I caught up with the hockey program far too slowly.
“Ward. Do you have a press conference shortly?”
He gestured to his hockey clothes. “Do I look like I’m dressed for press?”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry I bothered you.”
“Don’t be.” He collected his stick. “Watch the floor. It’s slippery near the door.”
I let out a shuddering breath. “Thanks.”
I waited a beat, but he turned away from me and headed toward the ice.
He had a job to do, and so did I.