Chapter 41
Forty-One
Storm
“What are we going to do when the season starts?” Poppy asks as she sorts receipts behind the register.
Her tone is even, but there’s a trace of something in her expression.
Worry?
“About what, Poppyseed?” I ask, setting the mop aside and moving over to the bar.
I want to see her eyes.
But she keeps them on the receipts.
“I just…I’ve never dated a professional hockey player before.” She nibbles at her bottom lip. “But I do know that you won’t be able to play and keep mopping floors.”
“Actually,” I say, “for home games, by the time I do media, cool down, and drive back to town, I’ll probably make it just in time to put my mopping skills to use.”
Her lips twitch, those green eyes dancing as they come to mine.
“Though, I hope we can find a way for you guys to come to some of the games,” I tell her softly. “It’d be nice to have my family in the stands.”
Her face gentles. “I’d like that too.”
Then she goes back to sorting through the receipts.
But I don’t do back to mopping, not just yet.
Something’s bothering her.
“And the away games?” she asks.
“I’m not sure I understand, baby.”
A shake of her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she says brusquely. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out.” She gathers up the cash and disappears into Sully’s office.
I wait for her to come back, meeting her at the mouth of the hall. “Talk to me, baby.”
“Ignore me,” she mutters. “I’m being stupid.”
“Did something happen today?”
“No.” But she sighs before I can call her on her bullshit. “Yes.” Another sigh. “Paige said something that bothered me.”
“Who’s Paige?”
For some reason, that has Poppy smiling, the tension bleeding out of her.
“Paige is…well, Paige. She’s beautiful and successful and smart and…
a bully who apparently wants to hitch herself to a hockey player too.
And she made it clear she’s not picky about looks, just the size of her wallet.
” Her nose wrinkles and she pulls out the much-abused hundred-dollar bill we keep passing back and forth, pressing it into my hand. “I don’t need your money, Storm.”
My chest convulses, hurt rippling through me. “Baby—”
“I survived on my own for a long time. I’m capable of taking care of Holly.”
“I know.”
She exhales. “But I’ve let you carry the financial burden since you showed up in town and I need you to understand that I know that’s not fair and I’ll do better.”
My brows drag together and I find that my patience has finally given way. “What the fuck are you talking about, Pop?”
“I’ll make sure to pull my weight from now on,” she says. “We can split groceries or take turns and I’ll buy dinner—”
I wind my hand into her hair, tilt her head back, and kiss her.
Only when my lungs are screaming do I say, “I have eighteen-million dollars in my account, baby. I’m not worried about groceries or buying you and Holly a scoop of ice cream.”
She pulls out of my hold, and even though I don’t like that, I don’t drag her back against me.
Mostly because I don’t like what she says next, “Well, I do!”
“Why?” I grit out.
“Because I need to be self-sufficient. I need to be independent!”
“We’re supposed to be a team, baby. Supposed to be doing it together, and not to be a dick, but you’ll never be able to match me financially. But I don’t give a fuck about that,” I add when her eyes cloud, “because you’ll be contributing to our family in other ways.”
For some reason, that makes her eyes cloud further. “What,” she mutters, “with blowjobs?”
That shocks the shit out of me, so much so that I laugh.
Which is precisely the wrong thing to do in this moment.
She stomps away from me and over to the mop bucket, whipping it out and dragging it across the floor in tense, angry movements.
“Pop,” I begin.
“I’m not giving up Sully’s.”
That has me rocking back on my heels. “I’d never ask you to.”
“Except that you don’t like me working here.”
My temper is riding a razor’s edge, but I tamp it down and do my best to listen with an open mind…and to be just as open back. “I don’t love you working late, Pop, but I know how important this place is to you. I would never take that away.”
“What about the apartment?” she asks.
“What about it?”
“You’re building a house. You’re going to want to live there.”
“I don’t give a fuck where I live,” I say baldly. “So long as I’m with you and Holly.”
She stills, the mop leaving a glistening streak on the floorboards. I take it from her and shove it into the bucket.
“But you and Rain are working so hard on it,” she whispers.
“Nothing,” I say. “Nothing is more important than you and Holly.”
Her green eyes lock onto mine.
Then she surprises the shit out of me by bursting into tears.
I catch her in my arms, pressing her face to my chest, stroking my hand up and down her back as she cries. The sobs are painful, loud, filled with worry and hurt, sadness and grief…and fear. Beneath it all is fear, I realize when she wails, “But…what…if…you…get…traded?”
“Oh, baby,” I murmur. “There is nothing that could keep me away from you and Holly—not hockey, not the ghost of a man who hurt me, not even a town full of judgmental old crones.”
“G-Gertie loves you,” she whispers.
“And the rest of the Cocktail Cacklers?” I ask, using her name for the old biddies because I know it’ll make her smile.
And it works.
For a second, anyway.
Then she groans and buries her face in my chest again. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Um, acting insane?” she says, the words muffled.
“You’re not insane, baby. Life has moved fast and it’s not like the last years have been a breeze for you.”
She falls quiet again, but I don’t push.
And eventually, she gives me the missing piece. “Everyone I’ve ever loved has left me,” she whispers and the words are like a blow to the temple. “My mom and dad. You. Sully. If you leave again, I—” Her lungs hitch again.
I hold her close.
Because she needs it.
But also because I don’t know what to say.
This wound…there’s nothing that will heal it, nothing that will make it go away.
Nothing except time.
And maybe some of the inner workings of my job. “I wasn’t even sure I still wanted to play hockey after the last couple of seasons.” I dry her tears. “I hated it, hated who I was out there. But you and Holly made me see I could have something different. I won’t give that up, won’t give you up.”
“Trades happen all the time, Storm. You can’t control—”
“Actually, I can,” I say softly. “The new contract I just signed has a clause specifying what teams I can be traded to.”
“It does?”
I nod. “And they’re all in this time zone, baby. All within commuting distance to you and Holly. Maybe it wouldn’t be ideal, but I can promise you that we’d make it work.”
“How do you know?” she whispers.
“Because we know what we lost.” I brush my lips over her cheeks, kissing away the salty trails on her cheeks. “Because we’ll fight for what’s important—fight for the people we love.”
Her lungs hitch again. “You love me?”
I nod.
“You don’t think it’s all too fast?”
I touch her jaw, tease, “You’re the one who said it first.”
Her mouth drops open and I have to kiss those tempting lips. I do it for a long time, our tongues tangling, our breathing short and staccato when I finally pull back. “But, yes, Poppyseed. I’ve loved you from your first smile, from our first kiss, from that tiny red bikini—”
She snorts.
“And I’ll love you until the moment this”—I take her hand, press her palm to my chest over my heart—“stops beating.”
“I love you too, Storm.” Her eyes close, another glittering tear escaping. But I know it’s not because she’s sad, not any longer when she smiles says, “But I really don’t love that light fixture for the dining room.”
I laugh, vow to heal the wound that began with the loss of her parents, grew when I left town, and expanded even more so when Sully died.
Then I cup her face in my hands and say, “If you want to live in the apartment, I’ll move my shit in tomorrow.
The only thing I won’t accept is not having you in my life so I can show you and Holly how much I love you both every single day. ”
She sniffs, settles her forehead on my shoulder.
And we stand there for a long moment.
At least until she says, “But what would we tell Holly about the pool?”
More laughter in my chest, in the air. “We could offer a rooftop hot tub?”
Her smile is so damned beautiful, but her words are even more so. Because they show how devastatingly gorgeous her soul is.
“No,” she says. “When it’s ready, we should move into your place.” When I start to protest she shushes me. “We have a job to do there.”
“What’s that?”
“To make good memories.”
“Baby,” I rasp.
A brush of her lips over mine. “And Cassie needs a place to stay too. Things are tough for her right now, and I think Sully would love the idea of the apartment going to someone who needs it. Plus, with how busy the bar has been, it’d be nice to hire some extra help and then make her assistant manager.
If she closes a few nights during the week Holly and I could come to some games. ”
My heart rolls over in my chest. “God, I love you.”
Her eyes go glassy but her tone is light when she says, “That’s because I’m lovable.”
“Yes, you are.” I draw her close. “You know we have a job to do here too.”
“Oh yeah?” Her brows fly up. “What’s that?”
I scoop her up into my arms, carry her over to the bar. “Seeing how fast I can make you come.”
A grin. “I like a man who likes a challenge.”
Spinning her, I plant her hands on the wooden top, trace my tongue over the shell of her ear. “Who says it’s a challenge, baby?”
She shudders and arches back, tempting me with that gorgeous ass.
I trail my hands down her sides, slipping them beneath her tee and bra and molding her flesh in my palms.
“Storm,” she moans, but I’m focused on the challenge, dipping my hand down, flicking open the button on her jeans, and dragging down the zipper.