Chapter 6
My favorite thing about Austin had always been the food scene.
Andrew and I started exploring local restaurants as soon as we relocated here to Austin.
I had been somewhat unsure about the move in the early days.
I knew no one in Texas besides my brother and a few of his long-term employees.
Austin seemed a world away from the state of Minnesota.
I didn’t care for the heat, had a hard time navigating what felt to me like a huge city, and sometimes struggled to understand some of the thickest accents of the teachers at my new school.
I had always been shy and introverted, and moving to a new city full of strangers made me feel anxious and awkward—and that made it really hard to make friends.
Even as busy as he was with the expanding business, Andrew made sure to get out and explore the city with me as often as possible.
We made it our mission to find the best restaurants that we could, and Austin made that easy.
As someone who deeply loved food—and had the hips and ass to prove it—it was the abundance of really good restaurants that made me fall in love with my adopted city.
But Austin didn’t truly start to feel like home until I met my girls.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite sexy little school teacher,” Peyton called out when she spotted me a bit down the block from the restaurant. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Since you’re the one who arranged this dinner, I doubt you’re really surprised.”
She reached me and kissed my cheek, before holding her arm out to loop with mine. “Let’s get inside. I’m fucking starving.”
Peyton Baxter had been my very first true friend in Texas.
I’d been here for about six months when I met Peyton in a spin class.
We’d bonded over our deep hatred of the perky class leader— who never seemed to sweat or stop smiling, no matter how grueling the workout— right away, then cemented our friendship over years of martinis, gossip, and hounding the clearance racks for deals.
Her son, Elliot, was ten, and one of my favorite people in the world.
He’d been the cutest little boy when I first met him six years ago, all chubby and pink cheeked with the same white blond hair of his mother.
His coloring had darkened up a little bit as he got older, making him look more like his father, at least according to Peyton.
None of us had ever met him—including Elliot himself.
Peyton had only been seventeen when she unexpectedly got pregnant, still in high school.
The guy had taken off pretty quickly after they found out, leaving her on her own.
Peyton had made it work though, with lots of help from her mom.
Somehow, she juggled teen motherhood, work, and night classes to eventually finish her degree.
She’s probably the strongest woman I know.
We’d brought Rosa Garcia into the fold about a year later when she walked by our table at the Bouldin Creek Cafe one busy Saturday morning.
Peyton stopped her to compliment her cheetah print slingback sandals—because my bestie was the kind of person who had no trouble stopping complete strangers for a chat—which got them into a discussion about a trunk show coming into town the following weekend.
Just like that, Peyton invited her to sit with us and that was that—we’d been a trio ever since.
Six years after following my brother here, I couldn’t really imagine living anywhere else. I felt like I had roots in Austin that I’d never had back in Minnesota. Somewhere along the way, the city had become home.
And now, apparently, it was going to become home for Liam O’Conner as well.
Rosa was waiting for us at our table. “You’re lucky I didn’t order without you,” she said as we took our seats. “I was swamped today. I shoved a granola bar into my mouth a couple hours ago and that’s all I’ve had.”
I made a face at her. Rosa was an executive assistant to a major real estate developer, and she was constantly up to her ears with all the nonsense he deemed essential.
I had never met someone more swamped at work, with the notable exception of my brother.
She stayed late more often than not and lately it seemed like she was skipping her lunches on a daily basis.
Rosa was already a tiny wisp of a girl and I worried that if this crap continued, she was going to fade away completely.
Though not quite as short as me, my friend was much more delicate, with her dainty bone structure and her minuscule waist. I was only overcome with jealousy over her petite figure about eighty percent of the time.
I envied her gorgeous brown waves and insanely long eyelashes the other twenty percent.
“Why haven’t you applied to work at Knight Corp yet?” I asked her, for about the millionth time. “Andrew would love to have someone with your skills and experience in the office.”
She frowned. “Why would I want to leave my job?”
“Because your boss runs you ragged?” Peyton suggested.
Rosa waved her hands dismissively. “I like to stay busy. Besides, I’m good at what I do.”
I met Peyton’s eye and I knew she was thinking the same thing I was.
We had both long suspected that Rosa had a thing for her boss, and that was why she bent over backwards trying to please him.
We’d brought it up once over margaritas, thinking the tequila might help loosen her tongue if she wanted to talk about it.
Instead, she’d laughed for a solid three minutes as if it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. I still wasn’t entirely convinced.
The waitress appeared at our table, dropping off sweaty glasses of ice water that we all reached for immediately. It had been another scorcher that day. By this time of year, I was always completely ready for cooler winter months to arrive.
Since we all had the menu memorized, we placed our order right away. As soon as the waitress left, Peyton turned to me. “So, are we ever going to talk about it?”
“Talk about what?”
“Your bonkers reaction to the hot hockey player the other night.”
“I didn’t have a bonkers reaction—”
“You basically sprinted out of the bar,” she argued. “Besides, don’t you think it’s a little weird that you didn’t mention to us that you knew one of the players on your brother’s team?”
I knew she was going to bring this up eventually. Peyton knew me way too well to hide my reaction from her. And I had acted weird that night. Seeing Liam O’Conner again had sent me into a panic and I couldn’t even say exactly why.
“I didn’t mention him because there was nothing to say. He went to our high school and played hockey with Andy. I tutored him—”
“You tutored that fine specimen of a man and you never told me?” She sounded scandalized.
“It was more than ten years ago,” I said. “Seriously, it was no big deal. I just wasn’t expecting to see him. That’s why I acted weird.”
“I don’t buy it. You want to know why? Because he was acting weird too.”
That made me fumble my glass, splashing icy water onto my hand. “He was?”
Rosa nodded vigorously. “He definitely was. He was staring at you like he’d just seen a ghost or something.”
Peyton waggled her eyebrows. “A ghost he wouldn’t mind seeing naked.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I’m so sure.”
“I know what I saw, Grace. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of you.”
I swallowed, hoping my face didn’t look as warm as it suddenly felt. “He was probably just caught off guard. We haven’t seen each other in so long.”
Rosa studied me for a long moment. “There’s something else there,” she said. “You’re not telling us something.”
I sighed. I couldn’t hide anything from these two.
“I had a huge crush on him, okay? Like, the doodle his name in my notebook kind of crush. But again, it was twelve years ago. I haven’t seen him once in all that time.” I may have obsessively followed his career, but they didn’t need to know that. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he has a kid.”
And by pretty sure I meant I could remember exactly where I’d been when I learned the news.
“Is he married?”
“Divorced a few years ago.”
Peyton pointed at me. “I knew it! You’ve totally cyber-stalked this guy, haven’t you?”
I felt my face start to burn. “I may have looked him up once or twice.” Once or twice every few months. “He’s a really good player, his name comes up in hockey news all the time.”
“Mmmhmm,” Rosa said, clearly not buying it. “Did Andy know about this crush?”
“Oh, Andy knew all right,” I muttered. There were a lot of reasons my brother hadn’t liked Liam in those days, but what had happened just before prom was right at the top of the list.
I blew out a breath. The best way to show them that it wasn’t a big deal was to just tell them about those years in high school.
“Andy and Liam played hockey together when they were kids. Like, really young.” I scrunched up my forehead, thinking back.
“I can’t think of what it’s called, the age group before peewee hockey.
I think they were seven or eight when they started?
” I waved my hands dismissively. “It doesn’t matter.
The point is, from the time they were little, the two of them never liked each other.
They were both super competitive. Most of the teams they played on, they were the two best players, so there was a rivalry there, all the way through college. And Andrew…”
I shook my head, thinking about my brother.
“Andy had a chip on his shoulder. He admits it. It was hard for him—we never had any money and hockey is an expensive sport. The only reason he was ever able to play is because he got hooked up with some charitable foundation that handed out scholarships and equipment for low-income kids. Andy hated that.”
“It’s so hard to picture,” Rosa murmured. “I mean, I’ve been to your brother’s house. He’s like, obscene levels of rich.”