Chapter 19
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
Enzo
I’m looking for my phone charger when I see it.
Axel’s laptop is open on the kitchen counter, screen still bright. He must have stepped away mid-search. I wouldn’t normally look, but the page is right there, and the words hit me before I can glance away.
Seaport Studio Apartment. 700 sq ft. Available immediately.
My stomach drops.
I stare at the listing. The photos show a small, clean space—kitchenette, bathroom, a window facing the city. It’s nice. It’s exactly the kind of place you’d put someone you wanted nearby but not too nearby.
My first thought is the obvious one—he’s moving me out. But I’ve been wrong before. Patricia needs her own space. That’s probably all this is.
Right.
My hands shake anyway.
I try to remember what Axel was saying about loyalty. But maybe he doesn’t like arguing at 3 AM with someone he doesn’t really like.
I hurry away from the laptop like it burned me. My heart is doing something painful in my chest.
Of course. Of course this was always the plan. Axel is Luca’s father. He has legal rights. He has the space, the charm. I’m just the uncle. The sad, grieving uncle who sleeps on his couch and can’t even keep a toddler from having nightmares.
I knew this was temporary. I knew it.
The door to Axel’s bedroom opens, and he comes out, toweling his hair, wearing sweatpants and nothing else. Water droplets trail down his chest. I look at the ceiling.
“Hey, have you seen my—” He stops. “Enzo? You okay?”
“Fine.” My voice comes out wrong.
He frowns. “You don’t look fine.”
“I’m tired,” I say. “I’m going to check on Luca.”
I’m halfway to Luca’s room when his voice stops me.
“Enz. Wait.”
I turn around reluctantly.
He’s holding up his laptop. “Did you see this?”
“Uh… Yeah, I did.”
He grins wide. “It’s right in this building. Isn’t that great?”
I nod slowly. “Yeah. That’s good. I-I can buy it.”
He frowns. “I can get it.”
“You’re not buying me an apartment, Axel.”
“You?” For a moment he looks confused, then a smile breaks over his face. “You don’t want to leave.”
I step back. My stomach tenses.
He can tell?
He approaches me, still smiling. His expression is soft. “Enz…”
I swallow hard.
He wants me to leave.
“I appreciate everything you’ve done,” I say. “And you’re right. That’s a good find. I can buy my own apartment though. I’m, uh, sorry that I didn’t think to look for one before. I would still like to see as much of Luca as possible. I know you don’t want someone on your couch indefinitely.”
I’m rambling. I need to stop.
“Enzo,” Axel says slowly. “That apartment isn’t for you.”
I freeze.
“It’s for Patricia.” His eyes are all tenderness, and my heartbeat escalates.
He’s not sending me away.
He’s not.
I want to speak, and I try to open my mouth, but the only thing on my mind is that Axel wants me here.
Even though there’s an apartment I could be in instead.
Relief breaks over me.
“Or whoever comes after her,” Axel continues. “She deserves her own space—a real home, not a guest room. She needs her own kitchen, her own bathroom. And we should be able to, uh, converse without wondering if she’s overhearing.”
I go rigid. Did Patricia overhear our heated conversation last night?
“This is a good thing,” Axel promises.
The floor tilts beneath me.
“I...” I don’t know what to say.
“I want you here,” Axel says. “We’re Luca’s family. And…”
He hesitates.
I wonder what he was going to say.
“We’re teammates,” he says.
I nod. “Blizzards.”
“That’s right. And Cannons before that. But you’re the only man on the Blizzards team I want to live with. I don’t want to get rid of you. I want this to work.”
“Oh,” I manage.
“You’re not temporary, Enzo. Okay? You’re Luca’s family. You’re...”
He stops.
“I’m what?” The question comes out barely above a whisper.
“You’re important,” he says finally. “To Luca. To this whole... situation. I don’t want to do this without you.”
“Okay,” I say. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed.”
“No, you shouldn’t have.” But his voice has softened. “Talk to me next time. Don’t just... spiral.”
“I don’t spiral.”
“You absolutely spiral. You can see danger on the ice like no one else. But life isn’t ice hockey, Enzo. People aren’t opposing teams who want to ram you into the boards. People are generally nice.”
I want to argue. I don’t have evidence to support the argument.
“You live here now,” Axel says. “I’m going to buy that apartment. It’s right in this building. It will probably take a few weeks to close.”
“O-okay.”
He nudges my shoulder. “Come on. I’ll make you some tea. The chamomile stuff.”
“You bought chamomile tea?”
“It’s supposed to help you sleep, and you need sleep, Enz. I’m worried about you.”
“I’m fine.”
He nods, and for some reason, it feels more like a vow than an agreement.
I follow him to the kitchen, and I don’t say what I’m thinking, which is: I’m in love with you.
Instead I sit at the counter and watch him fill the kettle. He moves easily, removing a mug from the cabinet, and finding a tea bag.
He glances at me, and his expression softens.
Finally, he sets the hot tea in front of me. Steam curls from it, and it smells faintly of honey.
“You sweetened it?”
“Uh-huh.” He winks and sits down beside me. “Now tell me again how you were so sad and so worried when you thought I wanted you to move out.”
My face heats. “Shut up.”
“You were devastated. In agony.”
“I wasn’t—” I shove him. He catches my wrist, grinning, and then somehow, we’re both on the floor, and his laughter fills the apartment, and I’m laughing too, helpless in his arms.