12. Excuse Me
EXCUSE ME
Oliver
“You got this, Rowan?” I called out to my brother as I chucked my gloves in the passenger seat of my pick-up truck.
“Yeah! Just text Aspen for me so she doesn’t worry.”
“Got it.” Pulling out my phone, I shot off a quick text to my sister-in-law, letting her know that I didn’t need her to take Hudson to practice today.
Somehow, Rowan and I had managed to finish everything that needed to be done with an hour to spare—enough time for me to change my clothes and get him to his skate practice.
Hudson was halfway through his spring camp.
The 10U age bracket was packed with kids this spring, eager for tryouts at the end of summer.
But Hudson was just excited to finally be playing with a team.
It was probably over-kill doing this much before the season started, but I didn’t want to risk him not being one hundred percent prepared.
So we’d signed up for a ten-week spring camp, a ten-week summer camp, and then the skills and drills practice with his actual coach before the official try-outs.
Was it a lot for a ten-year-old? Sure.
But Carragans did nothing half-assed.
Plus, watching Hudson become an overjoyed version of himself about something wasn’t a moment I was willing to not take full advantage of.
Sliding on a clean pair of jeans, a white T-shirt, and trading out my work boots for a pair of my old casual cowboy boots, I made my way back downstairs.
“You ready, bud?” I asked as I found Hudson putting his stuff together in his bag and filling his water bottle.
He looked up, an excited smile on his face as he nodded. “Sure am!”
I snatched up his backpack, tossing it over my shoulder and heading for the door.
“Let’s roll,” I began, but stopped short as I swung the door open to reveal a wide-eyed Ivy Tinsley—her hand stopped mid-air as she took a step back and her eyes darted between Hudson and me.
“Um, hi,” she began. “I’m?—”
“Ivy!” Hudson interrupted, dashing around me to wrap his arms around her thin waist—why did it appear as if she were losing weight? And why did that thought bother me on such a visceral level. “What are you doing here?”
She hugged him back, a soft smile on her face.
“Well, your aunt Aspen got held up in class and asked me to drive you to practice, but I’m guessing she didn’t see the text canceling those plans yet.
” Her eyes bounced up to mine before she looked away and back to my son.
“But I’ll get out of the way. I’m glad your dad is able to take you. ”
Hudson glanced back at me, a pleading look in his eyes that he loved to use against me whenever possible. “Oh come on, Dad, can Ivy come too? I want you both to see how much I’ve learned.”
“I don’t want to intrude,” Ivy began.
“I’m sure she has other things to do,” I mumbled at the same time.
“Oh please, Ivy, please come,” Hudson pleaded.
Her eyes rose to meet mine once more, and the image of her in my clothes hit my mind all at once.
It was a goddamn dream, Oliver.
“If it’s okay with your dad, I’d love to come.”
I let out a grunt and a nodded as I squeezed past her towards my truck, careful to keep away so not even a graze against the woman would happen. The last thing I needed was to feel any part of her—not even a damn fingertip at this point would work in my favor.
“You can sit up front with Dad,” Hudson stated from behind me.
Tossing his bag in the backseat, I left the door open for him and tried not to watch her hips sway as she walked around the front of my truck towards the passenger side. She wasn’t walking like that for me. That was how she always walked.
And how would I know that? Because I’m a damn lunatic.
If my mother was here, she’d tan my damn hide for not opening the door for a lady, but even that felt like too much for me at the moment.
Every time she was close, all that came to mind was her curled up against my chest, drunk, muttering and whispering things I shouldn’t have ever heard out of Ivy Tinsley’s mouth.
Especially not directed at me.
No one had ever called me anything like that in that situation, but her muttering that damn word haunted my dreams most nights resulting in me waking up painfully eager.
She climbed into the truck quietly and glanced back at Hudson while he buckled himself in.
Turning the key, the truck rumbled to life, filling the otherwise silent space.
I let out a slow breath through my nose.
It was only a twenty-five-minute drive. Basically nothing in the grand scheme of things.
“Everyone ready?” I grumbled.
“Let’s go, Dad!” Hudson hollered, and Ivy just nodded, her hands in her lap.
My gaze raked over her: jean shorts, sneakers, and an off-the-shoulder white sweater that was pushed up her arms. Her blonde hair was down, framing her face, and I could picture her on her knees, hands still folded in her lap like?—
“Dad? Are you ready?” Hudson’s question stopped me mid-thought, and I cleared my throat.
“Yeah, absolutely,” I shot back as I slid the truck in drive and did my best to breathe.
Breathing, it turned out, wasn’t the best idea.
Why? Because the woman sitting next to me smelled like sin.
I had no idea what perfume she had on, but it was one created specifically to drive me insane.
I’d resorted to cracking my window, because at least a blast of cool spring air would calm my raging thoughts.
Ten minutes. That was how long it took before she finally turned slightly in the passenger seat and looked back at my son. Her eyes hadn’t landed on me once, and I would know because as hard as I’d tried, mine had landed on her easily a dozen times now.
“So, Sunny, what’ve you been learning?”
Hudson started bouncing in his seat, the excitement as clear as the sky above us.
“We’ve been working on trying different positions on the team and skating with different kids in formations so we can see who we work with best and also working with different people to identify their strengths and weaknesses!”
Her entire face lit up the longer he talked, and I found I couldn’t stop the half smile from hitting my face either. Hudson’s excitement was contagious—it always had been. But truly, so was hers.
“So you’re having fun?” she asked with a smile.
“So much fun! Coach Beck said I have real potential, and Uncle Rowan said he thinks I’m already better than Dad was at my age.” My eyes flicked to the rearview mirror to see the sassy smirk across his face. Shaking my head, I looked back to the road.
“I have very little doubt about that. I heard Dad skated like a caveman, and the only time he made noise was when someone came near him.”
“Excuse me?” I grumbled, my eyes glancing towards her. “Who told you that?”
It wasn’t that she was far off; I was brutal on the ice. But that was beside the point.
She shrugged. “You’ll never get me to tell.”
Hudson chose that moment to fall into a fit of giggles, as if he too were in on this joke between them.
“But anyway, I can’t wait to watch!” She leaned forward and turned the radio on, nineties rock playing through the truck. She didn’t change it, though. She just sat back in the seat, and her eyes focused out of the passenger window.
I wanted desperately to ask what was going through her mind, but I feared that was the last thing I should ask right now. So I didn’t, and as Matchbox Twenty played through the speakers, I did my utmost to listen to the music instead of the soft hum of her voice as she sang along.