Chapter 9 #2
The universe sure did have an interesting sense of humor, making Gracie Knight my kid’s teacher.
Knowing that I was going to interact with her for the next ten months, that I now had a built-in excuse to see her, probably shouldn’t make me as happy as it did.
I had plenty of shit to focus on right now—the new team, trying to get Josie through the move.
Mooning after my daughter’s teacher probably wasn’t the best use of my limited brain space.
But when I had ever been able to resist Gracie Knight?
I had been playing with fire the other night, asking her to show us around the school.
But the fact was, I wanted to spend more time with her.
I always wanted to spend more time with her.
And watching how she interacted with my daughter, hearing the two of them gush about books like they were long lost friends—that did things to me, too.
When Grace moved the sleeve of her shirt to show Josie her tattoo, my brain had shut down completely.
Just the reveal of that tiny swath of smooth, perfect skin and I was a goner.
I probably shouldn’t have mentioned ice skating.
But fuck, when her eyes darkened like that, I knew she was thinking about our kiss.
It was probably pathetic that after so many years, I could still remember every single detail of that day.
Kissing Grace had felt right in a way nothing else ever had.
And I really, really wanted to do it again.
“You have something going on with her?” Karlsson asked as Grace and her friends followed Andy over to the GM’s table. I watched as he introduced her to Olsen and a few of the suits, her cheery smile as she shook hands the opposite of her twin’s signature flat expression.
“Earth to O’Conner,” Jay said, snapping his finger by my face, and I finally tore my gaze away from Grace and Andrew to see that everyone at the table was staring at me. Great.
“I just knew her a long time ago,” I mumbled, gathering up my trash. If I stayed in this room, I wasn’t going to be able to stop from staring at her, and I didn’t need the rookies to see what a pussy I was when it came to our owner’s sister. So I stood up, empty plate in hand, and said my goodbyes.
Unfortunately, Jay followed right behind me.
“Man,” he said. “I’ve never seen you all moony-eyed over a woman before.”
That struck me as really sad, since Jay had been best man at my wedding. But then, it hadn’t really been much of a secret that Chloe and I didn’t have a fairytale relationship. We’d found our she was pregnant senior year and gotten married two months after graduating.
Our relationship hadn’t always been bad—at least at the beginning, I really did believe that I loved her.
Or maybe I just really wanted to. We both had parents whose relationships were the real deal, and that’s what I saw for my own life—a long-lasting marriage and a house filled with love and laughter.
But it didn’t take very long for me to realize that Chloe and I were not at all on the same page.
Apparently, in her mind, a happy marriage included sleeping with whoever else she wanted and running up huge bills on my credit cards.
“I’m not moony-eyed,” I told Jay as we made our way down the hallway toward the player lot. “Just haven’t seen her in a while.”
“Dude, you just practically bit Enzo’s head off for saying she’s hot—”
“He shouldn’t talk about her that way.”
“Why not?” Jay pressed. “He wasn’t being overly crude. And she’s available, right?”
I clenched my hands at my side, wanting to punch him, maybe, and tell him that she most definitely was not available. But I knew he was trying to goad me into that exact reaction. “She’s the boss’s twin sister,” I snapped instead. “And he’s very protective of her.”
We exited the building, waving goodbye to Jed at the door before Jay continued. “So you’re going to stay away from her too, right?”
I stopped just outside the exit, leaning against the brick exterior wall, and shut my eyes to block out the bright sun directly overhead. We were quiet for a moment before I cleared my throat. “She’s Josie’s teacher.”
“Holy shit,” Jay said, sounding gleeful. “Your old crush, the sister of your arch-nemesis, is now your daughter’s teacher? This is better than a soap opera.”
I opened one eye to study him. “You watch a lot of soap operas, buddy?”
He shrugged. “What can I say—I love the drama.”
I laughed. “You’re ridiculous, you know that, right?”
“I’m not the one drooling over some chick in a room full of my teammates.”
I groaned. “I can’t help it, man. She’s always had this effect on me. You’d think after twelve years it wouldn’t hit me so hard.”
“What’s the real story with you two?” he asked, joining me in leaning against the wall. “You weren’t exactly forthcoming the other night. Do you just know her through Knight?”
I shook my head. “I mean, yeah, that’s where I saw her first. She used to come to all of our games.
” I smiled to myself, thinking about Gracie sitting up in the stands.
She’d always complained about how cold the rink was, so she’d sit there all bundled up in two sweaters, a couple scarfs, and her purple woolen hat.
It clashed spectacularly with her red hair, but it always made me happy to look up in the stands and see her, nose usually buried in a book.
“She was my math tutor,” I told Jay. “Three years of high school.” I didn’t technically need a tutor my senior year.
I’d moved on to statistics at that point, which for some reason came a lot easier to me than algebra and geometry had—maybe because there was a lot of statistics in sports.
But I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell Gracie that.
Tutoring was the only way she’d see me as worthy of her time.
“I see,” Jay said, grinning. “You had a crush on the hot brainy girl. Let me guess—librarian fantasy?”
I snorted. I hadn’t limited myself to librarian fantasies with Gracie—I’d fantasized about her in pretty much every dirty way my horny teenage mind could come up with.
“She was way too good for me,” I told Jay. “She was in all these clubs, the smartest girl in the school. One of those sweet girls, you know? Nice to everyone. The whole school loved her. And I was just the dumb jock she got paid to help out.”
It hadn’t always felt that way, though. There were a few times over those three years when I’d actually convinced myself that the gorgeous redhead with the big green eyes might actually like me.
It took me four years to work up the courage to kiss her, and when I had, I thought maybe I was finally going to get the girl.
But all of that had ended when she cancelled our plans for prom.
I hadn’t wanted to go at all after that, but my buddies convinced me sitting at home would be a shitty way to close out our senior year.
I’d ended up at a table with Chloe, sneaking a flask under the table until I was drunk enough not to care that she had the wrong color hair and eyes.
“Well,” Jay said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “You’re still a dumb jock, but at least now you make decent money. Maybe she’ll give you a shot.”
I scoffed. “You do realize her twin brother is one of the richest men on the planet, right? You think she’s going to be impressed by a professional athlete’s salary?”
“Oh, right,” he said. “Forgot about that.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t really matter. I have enough on my plate right now with the move and the team and getting Josie settled.”
He grinned. “You trying to convince me, or yourself?”
I groaned, running my hands over my face, and Jay laughed.
“You know what I think? You should forget about the boss’s sister for now and the two of us will go out and find you some good old-fashioned, uncomplicated fun.” I opened my mouth to argue and he held up a hand. “You never hook-up, man. It’s been years since the divorce and you live like a monk.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
He clapped my shoulder. “I just want to see you happy.”
“Bullshit. You want me to go out with you so that you have a decent chance of getting laid.”
Jay scoffed. “I owe it to the fine women of this city to get out there and start spreading the love. They’ve been deprived of all this for too long.” He struck an exaggerated bodybuilder pose at the same time as a couple guys left the building.
“That’s just pathetic, man,” Enzo called as he passed.
“Shut the fuck up, rookie!” Jay shouted back. He turned to me as we pushed off from the wall to trek across the lot. “You know, that nickname isn’t really going to work on this team, is it?”
“Yeah. You call rookie and ten guys are gonna look up.”
We reached my SUV—I’d ended up with a midnight blue Range Rover, which Josie had refused to help pick out—and Jay slapped me on the back. “I still think you need a good hook-up. Unless you’re planning to give it a shot—with the redhead, I mean.”
“Grace,” I said automatically, and he smirked.
“Yeah, with Grace. You never know—maybe she was more into you back then than you thought.”
“It was twelve years ago, Jay. It really doesn’t matter if she was into me or not.”
Even if it still felt like it mattered.
“Well, maybe she’ll be into you now, then. You look a hell of a lot better than you did at eighteen.”
I patted his cheek roughly. “Aw, thanks, babe.”
He snorted, pushing my hand off so he could start walking backwards to his car. “Forget the girl. You don’t need complicated right now.” I bit back my annoyance. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t already told myself. Life was way too messy right now. So why did I want to argue when I heard Jay say it?
Because it’s Gracie Knight, I told myself. I was always going to want there to be a chance with her.
“Friday night,” he continued. “I’ll be your wingman.”
“I think I’ll pass. You would scare any woman away.”
“You sound jealous,” he called. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell your redhead how lacking you are in confidence.”
“Fuck off, Jay!”
“See you around, buddy!”
I was still laughing as I climbed into my car. This new team might be on shaky ground, but I was damn glad to be in the same city as my old friend. Even if he was annoying as hell sometimes.