Chapter 27 #2
Katrina steps between us like she’s passing through, and whispers, “You’re too pretty to be from a small town.”
I don’t know what that means, so I won’t address it directly. What would I say anyway to a backhanded compliment? Turning away from her, I lift on my toes to see if I can find Daniel. We haven’t been apart long, but he’s managed to leave me in a pit of vipers. “If you’ll excuse me.”
I’m not far enough to miss Lori snark, “She’s not that pretty.”
So much for a good time. I walk around the pool, searching for Daniel. He’s tall enough not to miss, but I still can’t seem to find him.
My spirits lift when I see him across the lawn talking to a man and his wife.
I’m guessing the owners by how so many flock around them.
She’s the epitome of old money and the consummate host in her silk charmeuse dress that has her standing out in this red, white, and blue crowd.
Champagne in one hand with her attention on Daniel while still managing to keep an eye on the party. I head in his direction.
He catches me approaching out of the corner of his eye and smiles.
Even in a crowded party, he manages to make me feel like the only one he sees and that matters.
Holding his arm out, he brings me in for a soft landing against his side, kissing my temple and giving a quick introduction before they continue their conversation.
The woman takes me by the wrist and leads me to the bar. “Hockey talk,” she starts like we’re sharing secrets. “Sometimes I zone out.”
“I’m still learning so much, so it’s interesting.”
She smiles, patting my wrist. “Give it a few years. My husband never even played, and look at him surrounded by his idols and favorite players.”
“Silby,” a high-pitched squeal startles me from behind. “I didn’t know if you’d make it.”
I shift so they can talk without me being in the middle. They come together, digging right into stories I have no idea about. I get a glass of champagne and wander to the edge of the ocean. I sip but then look around for Daniel. This is too pretty to admire alone.
He’s not where I left him fifteen minutes prior, and I don’t see him with any other group.
I walk to the house, needing to use the bathroom.
My head is swiveling as I do one last search for my man with no luck.
When I enter the house, groups of people are scattered around the living room, and there’s a short line for the bathroom.
I wait for a while, still keeping my eyes peeled just in case I spot Daniel.
I leave the bathroom, looking both ways to see how I exit this hallway when a familiar voice drifts to reach my ears. I listen again and then follow the sound around the corner. The tense tones of the two men tell me I’m not supposed to be here. I can’t say anything, or I’ll be interrupting.
Daniel says, “You let that retirement story run and run it did. Rampant. Every sportscaster was talking about it.” I come to a standstill, so my shoes don’t make any noise on the marble floors. “Every paper. Page Six, of all fucking things. I thought we were closer than that, Coach.”
“I’m not in marketing or PR, Sutton. I had no idea until I read it online. Like you.”
“The difference is you didn’t care—”
“I care. I’ve put twelve years into this team. Ten into you. I called to give you the only heads-up I was given.” The silence has me wondering if I should slip away before I’m discovered or if he’d want me in there. Daniel can fight his own battles, but would he want the support?
His Coach finally says, “I think you have some years left in this sport. It doesn’t sound like you want to be a part of the evolution of the league.”
“I want to play hockey,” Daniel says. His voice is almost small, unlike his stature. Or ego, for that matter.
“Then you know what you need to do. The program will soften the image and—”
“I give up Summer and get to keep my spot on the team. Oh, and we can’t forget doing time—”
My hand flies to the nearest wall, hoping I can stabilize myself before I fall.
Give me up? My stomach convulses. I’m a detriment to his career now?
The walls start to cave in as my head spins.
I run, rushing through a group in the living room blocking the exit.
“I’m sorry,” I plead when I spill a lady’s drink.
I turn back, focused on the door. Just get out of here, Summer.
I throw my arms out for balance as I run down the front steps and land on the driveway.
Looking both ways, I groan, “Now what?”
The fresh air feels good in my lungs as my hurried breaths rush in and out of my mouth. I start the way we came. Although I know it’s a long walk to a neighbor’s house, but I have crappy cell service and no other choice. I walk through the open gates and almost run into Lindy smoking a cigarette.
She hides it reflexively behind her back, but then breathes an audible sigh of relief. “I’m so glad it’s only you.”
“Yeah, only me.”
“What are you doing out here?”
Holding my phone, I say, “Spotty cell service.”
“Ah.”
“You?”
She takes another long drag and laughs. “I don’t smoke much anymore, but those women are toxic.”
“Katrina and Lori?”
“Mm-hmm.” She hides the cigarette again when a car pulls onto the driveway and heads through the gates.
“They’re driving me to drink and smoke to take the edge off.
” Shifting closer, she says, “Word of advice. Steer clear. If you can’t do that, ignore anything they say.
I need a shower after I spend time with them.
” Lindy looks at me again like she sees something she missed before. “Why aren’t you with Maverick?”
I give up Summer. Tears don’t threaten. The pain is already transforming into anger. I could feed off that anger to get me home, which is hours too far from where I am now. “It’s complicated.”
She takes one more long drag and then offers it to me. “Thanks. I don’t smoke.”
“You’re too nice. I can tell. Dating a hockey player will ruin you if you’re not careful.
Cheating on the road, dealing with the puck bunnies always trying to steal your man.
And one day, you’ll wake up caring about who goes first in the buffet line out of the WAGS at the arena.
” Dropping the cigarette, she squashes it with the toe of her cute shoes.
“As someone who rides the line as a pro hockey player’s girlfriend and having my own damn life in the city, I love giving unsolicited advice because I can tell you’re a good person.
Talk to Maverick. It’s rarely ‘complicated’ if you can talk to each other.
” She passes, starting the hike back to the house but doesn’t get too far when she says, “Maybe I’ll see you around, Summer. ”
I’m left with nothing to say again. My thoughts are muddied from the toxicity of the hierarchy of women, that there even is one, and Daniel sacrificing me without a second thought. I start walking. If nothing else, I’ll get to clear my head. Hopefully.
Why would they even ask that of him?
Is Daniel not allowed a life after all he’s done for them?
Was I embarrassing, and the Coach is protecting his star player?
I don’t know. I sigh, wondering if I acted too rash and should go back to talk to him like Lindy said. Stopping, I look down at the phone, hoping the map can give me an idea of how far I am from . . . from anything.
The sound of a car pulls my gaze into the distance. Vintage black sports car and that dang license plate on the front: HATTRICK.
Daniel slows down and then pulls up in front of me with the top down. Sunglasses, perfect flow to his hair, handsome as ever. Some of the anger begins to null just being close to him again.
“Need a ride?”
“No.” I look back at the direction I was heading. “I think there’s a . . . um. Something up here where I can get a ride back to the bed-and-breakfast.”
He shifts into Park and slips off his seat belt before climbing out, so suave like a movie star. So annoying.
Coming around the front, he gets close but leaves me some room to vent if I need to. Lifting the sunglasses to the top of his head, he shoves his hands in his pockets and leans on the passenger door in front of me. “Why are you leaving me, Sunshine?”
Cutting right to the chase.
I think this is what Lindy meant by communicating. This would be my turn. “I overheard you and the coach talking.”
“And needed fresh air?” I kind of hate that he already knows this about me. I also love it to pieces. “I understand why you’re upset. I’m upset, but I’m also not ready to give up the sport.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “No. You’ll just give me up instead.” The words summon him to stand, and the confusion wrinkling the corners of his eyes has me rolling mine. “You didn’t even have to think about it. You just gave me up like I’m bad for your health and you need a lifestyle change.”
“What?” Stepping closer, he reaches for me. “What are you talking about, Summer?” I step out of his reach, keeping my arms securely fastened over me like chain-link armor. “Bad for my health? You’re the best thing to happen to me in years. I’m not giving you up.”
“You said it, Daniel,” I shout, my temper flaring flames through my chest. Does he think I’m stupid? Taking a breath, I lower my voice. “I heard you. I heard you tell him. “I give up Summer and keep my spot on the team.” I heard you.”
His head drops back on his neck, and he scrubs a hand over his face and chuckles.
That laugh is salt in my broken heart’s wound. “There’s no point talking to you.” I start walking, my anger too much to keep from blowing if I stay put. I fist my hand around my phone, each step getting me closer to losing my shit.
Dang it. He even has me cussing now.
The road is too smooth and fancy to give a girl a warning of when a car approaches, so when the front of his car hits my periphery, I say, “Don’t follow me.”
“I’m not. I’m next to you.”
“Well, don’t drive next to me either.”
“Fine,” he states like his patience has worn off. He has some nerve turning this around on me.
He drives ahead and then angles right to cut off my path. Hopping out of the car again, he comes to stand in front of it. Wide stance. Arms crossed. I don’t have to be that close to know his jaw is ticking.
I stop where I am, leaving a good fifteen feet between us. “What are you doing?”
Daniel smirks.
Breathing through the insult of that cocky jerk’s smirk, I try not to stoop to his level.
And fail. “You listen to me, Daniel Stanley Sutton.” I rush forward, pointer finger leading the charge.
“I didn’t have to let you into my life. I was doing just fine without you bringing this weird hierarchy of women in this sports league to my front door. ”
Not fazed, the wall of his torso is staying put even when I poke him. Hard.
“You’re right. You didn’t have to let me into your life.
You lost me on the women chart, but I don’t regret staying with you when the bathroom broke or showing you off at that party we went to.
I love the time we’ve spent under the stars and listening to the birds sing at sunrise.
I don’t want that to end. I don’t want us to end.
You misheard what I said.” He grumbles, “Shit. You didn’t mishear.
You misunderstood. I have to give up summer, not you, Summer. ”
“Wait . . .” My mind spins through the conversation I heard, my chest deflating when I realize he could have meant something else. It’s in the realm of possibilities, yet I jumped to conclusions without giving him a chance. Without communicating . . . I like Lindy. I could see us being friends.
He says, “The summer months, the rest of July and the week I had booked in August. They want me to get back to skating and bond with the new guys. They want me to run a mentoring program. Sort like an easy out for them to find talent by making me scout them out.”
That he was still trying to honor the rental schedule, as if he were still staying at the cottage, was sweet.
My chest inflates like a balloon full of hope for our future together, knowing he would be with me if he could.
“A mentoring program?” My heart flutters to life again. “I actually love that for you.”
Taking one tentative step and then another, he takes hold of my upper arms. “I kind of do, too. I think it will be a good way for me to do something outside of playing.”
“You bring so much to the game, your experience. Your drive. Your three times voted People’s “Sexiest Man Alive.” I crack a smile, breathing so much easier now.
“I’m sure that will go over real well with the new guys.
” He chuckles. “But Summer, I need you to know that I wouldn’t have given you up.
Not even for hockey. July and August . .
.” He shrugs. “Okay. I don’t love giving up those months I’d get to spend with you, or with Roman this summer at the Cove, but I think it’s best if I do this training program. ”
Relief washes through me, wondering if I’ve just been waiting for a shoe to drop, and when it did, I fell with it the first chance I got.
If this is the worst of it, we can overcome it.
I need to trust him, and myself, but more so, I need to hold onto the trust we’ve built together.
I push into his arms, embracing this man with my whole heart. “You’re leaving Mountain Laurel Cove.”
“Yes. But I’m not leaving you.”
I look up. “Technically, you are.” Smirking, I can’t contain it. “Sooner than I hoped. But this is life, and we’ll face it together.”
“We’re a few hours apart. I’ll do everything I can to make this work. Do you want that, too?”
I know the answer, feeling it in my soul. “I do.”