Chapter 3 #2
“I take it you two know each other?” The grandmother darts her eyes between us, gathering Aiden’s new gear in the bag.
“We, uh, met in college, actually,” I provide, since Stella doesn’t. I don’t recall ever meeting her parents. She never talked bout them.
“Hm. Interesting. I’ll be outside waiting. I need to smoke.”
“You met my mom in college?” Aiden giggles after his grandmother leaves.
Stella inhales a shaky breath. “Oh my God.”
“Small world,” I manage.
This is worse than a nightmare. Because the part of me that never got over her is lighting the fuck up inside. She’s here. After almost nine years of nothing, she’s standing a few feet away, and my heart is doing backflips.
Then the part that remembers the breakup, the silence, the way she cut me out without a second thought—that part wants to skate away and never look back.
“I should—” Stella gestures vaguely toward Aiden. “We should go.”
Some of my teammates hit the ice, stretching and getting ready for practice. I could join them, but my skates are frozen in place.
Aiden’s face crumples. “Can we stay and watch practice? Please?”
“Sweetie, I’m sure E—Mr. Eli has things to do.”
“But-but…” He turns to me, desperate. “Can I come back?”
I should say no. But when I look down at Aiden’s hopeful face and ig round eyes, and then at Stella’s panicked one—and then at her ringless left finger—I hear myself say, “Yeah, buddy. How about next week?”
Stella’s eyes flash—anger? Fear? I can’t read her anymore like I used to.
“In fact, there’s uh…” Think fast, idiot. “A-another part of this program. Yeah. Where we teach the kids to skate and basic hockey drills. You know, it gives them a proper introduction to the sport. All expenses paid. We um… meet twice a week.”
“Mom, please? Can I?” Aiden begs.
She chews her cheek.“ I don’t know, sweetie. It’s quite a drive from Boulder, and you know my schedule with classes is tough to manage as it is.”
Classes? Boulder?
For some reason, I can’t let her get away.
“Well, good news. I have a location closer to Boulder, too.” I hope Renae will not have my head on a platter for piling more work on her.
A list forms in my head of everything I’d need her to do to move my new nonprofit operation to Boulder by next week, just so I can see these two again.
“I’ll send you some information and the application,” I offer.
“Okay. We’ll think about it and look at the schedules,” Stella clips with a flatline smile.
“Yay. Can you come to my birthday party, Mr. Eli?” Aiden blurts, oblivious to the tension crackling between us. Stella gasps.
“Aiden.” Her voice cuts sharply.
“It’s at Christmas, but Mom says we might have a party at a rink and you could come and—”
“Aiden. That’s enough. We need to go.” She won’t look at me. I watch her get him bundled up against the cold outside, being this whole motherly person I never knew. We’re strangers now… when there was once a time my tongue had mapped out her entire body.
“What do you say to Mr. Eli for all this gear he gave you today?” She stands, grabbing the gear bag, which is almost bigger than her, still not looking at me.
“Thank you for everything,” he cries out, and waves as they head toward the exit. “Bye, Mr. Eli! I hope I see you again.”
“I hope so, too.” I return the wave. At the door, Stella takes a final unreadable glance back at me before they slip out.
The place feels empty now that they’ve gone. Or is it the daze I’m in as I step on the ice? The Zamboni machine operator quickly maneuvers around me so as not to hit me.
“Fuck, man. Are you okay?” Sean skates up to me.
“Fine. I just realized I knew that mother.”
“The sexy redhead?”
“Don’t even get any ideas about her,” I growl.
He backs off with hands in the air. “Off-limits. Got it.”
Eight years ago, Stella broke my heart. A week after that, I saw her back with her ex-boyfriend, a footballer no less, sitting in his lap at the college cafeteria feeding him fries like we had never happened.
So I moved on too. Or tried to. Dated around my rookie year in the league, and gained a playboy reputation. But I never forgot her. Even while married to my ex-wife, Stella was still there, taking up space in the background like a unsolved mystery.
Now she’s back in my life, with a kid who loves hockey as much as I do, looking at me like I’m someone she wants to avoid at all costs?
Whatever hits me, I turn around, skate off and run through the tunnel, only making it in time to watch from the doorway as Stella loads Aiden into a beat-up Chevy that looks like it’s held together with duct tape and prayers. Aiden’s talking a mile a minute. She looks exhausted.
A fierce and protective vibe rises in my chest. Clearly things haven’t turned out well for Stella after all this time. I immediately dig my phone out and scan the roster for their names.
“Stella and Aiden Branch?” Shit. She ended up marrying Jerrod Branch, that asshole football player from college?
I dial Renae.
“Sir? How’d it go?” She picks up on the first ring with her usual military precision, always punctual and there for me when I need her.
“These names on the roster… find out everything you can about Aiden Branch, more specifically about his mom, Stella,” I bark into the phone like a maniac.
“That’s fucking creepy, sir. If she’s hot, why not just ask her on a date?”
“I already dated her during my senior year of college.”
“Ohhh. And now you want her again?”
“Something like that. And find the nearest skating rink to Boulder when I can rent some ice time twice a week.” My mind races.
“Make all the arrangements for a free hockey class from now until Christmas, and offer it to all the participants and other kids in the Boulder area, too, but especially Stella and Aiden. I don’t care about anyone else as long as they are there. ”
She sighs. “Why are you doing this, sir?”
I hesitate for a moment. “Do you believe in second chances with the one who got away?”
“Yes. But I don’t believe in third chances. If you do anything monumentally stupid and this blows up in your face—”
“It won’t, because you’ve got my back, right?” I spend a minute sweating it out, waiting for her response. I went through two personal assistants before I found Renae and I wasn’t about to do anything to piss her off.
“Of course, sir. I’m on it.” She hangs up, and I know that by this time tomorrow she’ll have taken care of everything as I asked.
I watch Stella’s clunker leave the parking lot, the engine almost dying, and then disappear into traffic.
That can’t be safe. I text Renae to also buy a car in Boulder for me to use, too, nothing flashy, but family-type and sensible, maybe a mini-van.
I snort; I’ll probably end up giving it to Stella if all goes well.
But what if things don’t? What the actual fuck am I doing, jumping through hoops hoping for another chance with her? Stella turned me down once before, her excuse being our paths weren’t headed in the same direction. Well, it appears all roads lead to Denver, after all.