Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ian spent the rest of his day rocking and holding one little one after another.
When Tori wasn’t sniffling, Peter was.
JP was quiet as a mouse, deep in his phone. He would sit with Peter or Tori if they wanted, but he was distracted. Something was clearly up.
Finally, both the kids were asleep together on the sofa, and he leaned over, touching JP’s arm. “Love? You okay?”
JP startled and looked up at him. “Huh? Oh, I’m fine. Relieved Tori’s okay.”
“Yeah, that was terrifying. She was swinging from one bar to another, and she just hit the ground.” He’d never seen anything so horrifying, never done something so difficult as just picking her up and bringing the kids home.
“She’s fearless.” JP shook his head. “And it makes me proud, and yeah, it’s also kind of terrifying.”
“Yeah. Good thing I’m used to it, hmm?” Ian knew something was wrong, but he didn’t know what. “Are you okay, love?”
“Yeah. I got a call from my agent today.”
His heart stopped beating. Just totally stopped.
What was going to happen? Was JP going back? Was JP mad? What were they going to do? He didn’t want to do this without JP anymore. They were falling in love again.
They were in love again.
“Oh?” He went for super casual.
JP sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “They want me to go coach.”
Okay. Okay, that wasn’t great, but it wasn’t evil. It made him a little queasy, in fact. “All right. What do you want?”
“For them to fucking pay out my contract.” JP growled the words out. “I told Derek to negotiate for as much as he can get me without the coaching.”
“Okay. Okay.” He shifted closer, holding JP’s gaze. “Do you want to coach?”
“I don’t know… I never thought about it before, but it would be a way to stay in the game, you know?”
He nodded, his heart just heavy. Still, he knew what he had to do. What he should have done last time. “If that’s what you want, then you’ll have to tell them we’re coming with you. The babies and I deserve to have you when you’re home.”
He hated it — hated the idea of uprooting the twins and starting over — but he hated the idea of losing JP again even more.
But JP shook his head. “I’m not coaching in Florida. If I do coach it’ll be with a team closer to home. Like a lot closer. That’s why I told Derek to get me the best payout deal he can. If they’ll only pay me half of what’s left on my contract, I’ll take it. There’s teams here.”
Ian stared, then he swayed, actually close to passing out.
Oh.
Oh, thank God.
“I’ve got savings in my Florida account, and I can get a pretty penny for the condo there, too.
And even if they’ll only pay out one year, we can make that work because the house is paid for, and I know you’ve got education funds for the twins.
And Derek’s pretty sure he can get me at least two years instead of just the one, but he’s going to try for all three.
And I just…” JP shrugged and then met his gaze.
“You and the twins have a life here, and I want to be with all three of you.”
Ian was going to throw up. “I’d go with you, though. I want you to know that. It was a mistake. We need you.”
JP reached for his hands, taking them and holding onto them. “Thank you, Chou. That means a lot. It really does.”
“I love you. They need you. We all need you.”
“I love you too, Chou. And I want a life with you guys.” JP reached out and stroked his cheek. “I can’t believe I left you here.”
“I wish I could sit on your lap. I need a hug.” He felt like his soul had been stretched too thin today, like he—
His phone rang. His folks.
He’d texted to say Tori had been hurt.
“Mom and Dad. Yay.” He answered. “Hey, Mom.”
“Oh, baby. Is our baby girl okay? Are you okay?”
“We’re all okay.”
“We’re bringing soup and toys and puzzles and—”
“Wait. What? You’re in town?”
They lived three hours away.
“Our grandbaby is hurt!”
JP was watching him, and one eyebrow went up.
“All right, but the guest room isn’t—”
“We’ve got a hotel, silly. You have your hands full. We’re coming to help, not aggravate.”
That was so sweet of them. And he knew they were just concerned and full of help and love. It was just that things with JP seemed to be at a crossroads, a good one, but still.
“I promised Tori she could have pizza tonight. I hope that works.”
“Of course it does. Do you guys need anything while we’re on the way?”
“Ice cream. She’s getting all she asks for at the moment, and she’s asking for it like every two minutes.”
“Okay. And her fathers?”
Ian smiled at JP. “You want anything, love?”
“I’ve got everything I need, Chou.”
“We’re good, Mom. I’ll see you when you get here.” He hung up and stared at JP. “Wow.”
“I take it they’re on their way?”
He rolled his eyes. “They have a hotel.”
They’d driven three hours — three — to get to them. His parents were so used to rescuing him.
“Well, at least there’s that. Are they pissed at me? For leaving you behind I mean.”
He shrugged. “I think they are mad at both of us for putting ourselves over the kids and over each other.”
God knew he’d heard it a lot.
“Huh.” JP reached out and took his hand again, squeezed it. “It’s nice they’re coming to help, right?”
“It is. We haven’t seen them since Easter, right before you came home.”
“Did they visit a lot? While I was gone?”
“At least once a quarter, yeah. More when the babies were tiny, then less and less.” He sighed softly and shook his head. “At first Mom was here a ton.”
JP bowed his head. “I’m sorry.”
“For what? Loving hockey more than anything else? That’s…your life.” His was the kids. It was what it was.
Even when it was his teaching career, his focus had been the kids.
“Not anymore.” JP gave him a warm smile. “Although I probably still love the game more than I should.”
“You have a daughter who’s following in your footsteps. She’ll need someone who understands.” Because God knew he didn’t. Not really.
JP grinned. “I do understand. I get her at a fundamental level.”
There was a knock at the door, and then it opened, Mike calling out softly. “It’s just me.”
“Did Mom call you?”
“Yeah. I figured I’d come to help.” Michael was a good brother, no question. “How is Tori?”
“Finally sleeping. They both are.” JP answered for him. “Are your folks going to be happy with just pizza?”
“Yeah. If they’re not, they shouldn’t just show up unannounced.” Mike winked at JP, rolled his eyes. “They just can’t bear the thought of Tori being hurt, and they’ve been threatening to visit for weeks anyway.”
“Threatening?” JP chuckled. “Interesting turn of phrase.”
“He only says that because Mom wants to see his place, and he’s a slob,” Ian teased.
“Busy. I’m busy,” Mike corrected, eyes lit up.
“Not so busy you can’t come help me with my physio every day.”
“Brother, I will never be that busy.” Michael reached over and clapped JP on the arm.
“Thanks, man. You’ve been invaluable, seriously.”
The doorbell rang, and JP winced.
“I hope they don’t wake the kids.”
“They need to wake up so they sleep tonight.” Ian stood and went to the door, opening it and letting in the whirlwind that was his parents — food and toys and wine and presents. It was nuts.
Tori started crying from the living room where she’d fallen asleep, and JP hobbled his way over to them while he took bags from his parents.
“Oh, is that my grandbaby?”
Michael eased Mom down, encouraging her to lower her voice. “She’s hurting a little.”
“Well then, she needs me.”
“JP’s got her, Mom. Give him a few minutes to get some Tylenol into her and soothe her a little, and then I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you and Dad.”
She glanced at him, and Ian nodded. “She’s a Dad’s girl. Go hold Peter and give him some attention. He was incredibly patient at the ER.”
“Oh, poor love.” Mom immediately called for him and headed toward the living room. “Petey! Sweetie, come see grandma.”
“Gramma?” Peter ran for her, ready to have attention that was all his. “Sister gotted hurt! Her falled!”
“I know, sweet boy. I hear you were very brave and very good at the hospital.”
Peter nodded. “I sat with Daddy and was the best boy, Gram. Hold me?”
Michael, Dad, and Ian all grinned at each other. She was such a sucker.
She lifted him up and hugged him tight. “My lovely, sweet boy. You are the best boy.”
“You think Tori’s ready to see us now?” His father asked.
“Come and say hi to JP, so she can decide.” Ian wasn’t going to let them not be good to his husband.
They followed him to the living room where JP was sitting next to Tori on the couch, rubbing her back.
Mom was sitting in the recliner, holding Peter, and Dad nodded to JP. “Good to see you, man. Welcome home. We missed you.”
“Thanks, Steven.” JP stood and shook the man’s hand, but of course Dad pulled him into a hug.
JP took a deep breath, then hugged Dad back, holding on tight. “Thank you.”
“Do you mind if I take your seat?” Dad asked JP.
“No, I bet Tori would love some comfort from her grandfather.”
Tori crawled up into his lap as soon as he sat. “Pop-pop. I breaked my arm. I have a crass.”
“A cast, sweetie. Show it to me?”
JP moved to sit in the free armchair, sighing softly as he sat. He’d put that leg through its paces today.
Do you need a pill
he texted over. He could be stealthy.
JP looked over at him, smiling before answering.
Im ‘k. Soonish?
whatever u need
Ian loved the big bastard, so much.
That smile deepened, the look in JP’s eyes warm.
Mike elbowed him in the ribs. “Stop making googly eyes.”
“I’m allowed to make googly eyes if I want to.” He stuck his tongue out at his brother.
Mike rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out back.
“Are the two of you also four?” Mom demanded.
“I’m older. I want to be six.” Ian had to tease. Had to.
She laughed. “Fine. But then I expect you to be the responsible one.” Mom gave him a wink.
“Always.” He grinned over, rolled his eyes. “It’s good to see you. How have you been?”
“Missing all of you. Why did we move to Port Hope again?”
“To retire on the water,” Dad reminded her.
“Oh, right.”
They all chuckled, Mom and Dad rocking the babies, letting him and JP —and Mike — relax.
At least for a second, because the doorbell rang, and he hopped up, finding Ally there with bags full of food. “I heard our girl was hurt.”
“Thank you for coming.” He wrapped her in a tight hug. “Let’s get this in the kitchen, and then you can go into the zoo and see for yourself that she’s okay.”
“Mom and Dad?” she whispered.
“And Michael.”
“Fuc—I mean, fun!”
He chuckled. “Exactly.” He took one of the bags from her and started unloading. “Wow, there’s enough food here for days.”
“Well, that’s my love language, and you have company.”
“Ally, is that you?” Mom called, and Ally grinned.
“It is. I brought food.”
He rolled his eyes but nodded toward the living room. “Go on, I’ll put away the rest of the food.” And get his husband that pill.
He made a tray of cheese and fruit, grabbed JP a drink and a pill, and some baby Tylenol for his Tori. Maybe he would take some for his head, too.
When he got back to the living room, Tori was now sitting in Grandma’s lap, Ally sitting close, chatting with his mom while his dad read to Peter. Mike and JP were arguing about what exactly the Ottawa Lightning needed to make it to the Cup next year.
Maybe that meant he could sit and just be Zen for a second.
JP wasn’t going back.
He said he wasn’t going back.
God, he said they wouldn’t have to go.
Ian was going to get to stay here in the home he loved, the only home that the twins had ever known. And he was going to get to stay here with JP.
He didn’t believe it, but God, he wanted to.
He leaned his head back, listening to his family and friends talk. He just needed two shakes.