Chapter 21—Wolfe
One brief text from Aspen in the last twelve hours. Three fucking words: All is well.
What the hell did that even mean? His nearly-niece was most likely suffering from a broken heart and ‘all is well?’
What the actual fuck.
Because Wolfe wasn’t the most patient man—hell, he wasn’t patient, period—he went to the bakery that morning to get to the bottom of this Mia and Matt situation, only to find Aspen’s shop closed.
He then stomped up the stairs to Aspen’s apartment, not giving one good goddamn that he’d shown up unexpectedly. Unfortunately, his door pounding went unanswered.
It wasn’t until a nosy neighbor living near Aspen opened her door and demanded he stop the battering. She said Aspen and a cute, young girl left earlier in the morning with duffle bags over their shoulders and squishy mats in their arms.
They went to yoga.
Fucking great.
Wolfe checked his Tag Heuer watch and knew he had to hustle up to the rink for the weight workout with his teammates.
Again, Wolfe’s questions remained unanswered as both Dante and Matt failed to show for the workout.
And surprise, calls to both dickheads went to voicemail.
He finished his workout in record time, showered and jumped in his car to break down the goddamn door of Dante’s condo so he could get some answers.
His phone dinged indicating a text.
Aspen.
“Jesus. Finally.”
Wolfe swiped the notification to read her text.
Aspen: Mia’s settled. I’m in the area. Can I come by your place for an update?
Wolfe thought about all of the things he wanted to reply starting with ‘About damn time’ to ‘It’s bullshit being left in the dark.’
He instead settled for K.
The universal texting symbol for I’m pissed.
Petulant for sure, but all he wanted to do was help.
And there was no one around to fucking help at the moment.
Wolfe didn’t like to feel helpless. He also didn’t like to feel out of control, like diving under the water over and over again in search of his sister while his friends ran to get help. Utterly helpless.
Not the same thing. This situation had nothing to do with Elle.
Wolfe parked his Jag SUV in the driveway, spotting Mia sitting on a wooden bench seat outside his front door. Looking like she belonged there. Belonged there with him.
He could say he was all kinds of mad at the situation and at the people in it for not updating him or even being around to check in, but seeing Aspen on his porch, sitting as regally as the stone lions that flanked the steps washed his anger clean away.
His copper-haired beauty looked exhausted but sexy as hell.
He wanted to focus on her form-fitting stretchy pants paired with a scoop neck tee that offered a sweet peek at the crest of her perfect tits, but it was the downward pull of her eyelids showing just how tired she was that made Wolfe want to carry her inside and keep her in his bed for days.
“Doing okay there, BB?”
Once on the porch and standing in front of her, Wolfe held his arms open wide and Aspen walked right into him. She wrapped her own arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his chest.
“Yeah, it was a long night,” she confessed. “Mia didn’t get to sleep until about four and she woke up at six and wanted to go to yoga.”
“So you went to yoga even though you were exhausted,” Wolfe guessed.
“Yeah, and I didn’t even open the bakery today. It was worth it to be there for Mia, but...”
Wolfe knew the impact on her bottom line to close the bakery even for an hour, let alone a full day.
He made a mental note to tell his teammates to get their asses to her shop to buy a shit ton of her baked goods. On the down low, of course.
“You’re a good friend.”
“To Mia maybe, but you...” Aspen peered up and into his gaze, her vivid green eyes dimmed most likely due to her tiredness. “I’m sorry I practically sprinted out your door. I’m so sorry I didn’t call or text you with more information last night, Connor.”
She certainly didn’t need any more pressure on her and, quite frankly, all Wolfe wanted to do was take care of her. There would be time for their talk later.
“C’mon in,” he said with gruffness in his voice as he tried to understand the weird feelings bouncing around inside him. Genuine care. Understanding. Love. All words that remained locked inside his brain.
Love? Slow your roll, dickhead. One must have a heart to be capable of love, Wolfe silently admonished himself, as he slid his hand to her lower back to usher Aspen into his house.
“It was a wild night,” Mia continued. “Turns out Dante walked into the condo just as Mia and Matt were headed to his bedroom in somewhat of a compromising position. When Dante confronted them, Matt didn’t say anything at first, but then agreed with Dante’s edict that they couldn’t be together.
“What do you mean compromising position?” Wolfe’s gaze narrowed. He knew things were brewing between the two kids, but even Wolfe didn’t know how he would react seeing Matt and Mia in the act.
“Down-boy,” Aspen admonished. “They weren’t having sex if that’s what you’re asking... yet.”
“I knew something was up between them when I saw the rookie lurking about the kid-camp headquarters,” Wolfe shook his head in disgust. “I told him to make sure he had his shit in order.”
“Obviously, things weren’t in order based on last night’s confrontation,” Aspen said around a yawn.
Wolfe had a hard time focusing on anything other than the t-shirt that rode up her belly when she stretched her arms over her head.
“Rest,” Wolfe silently patted himself on the back for remaining standing after gently pushing her against the couch in his living room and not following her down to repeat some of their numerous Wheel of Fortune make-out sessions and more. “You want some coffee?”
Another yawn escaped Aspen as she drew her knees up to her chest. “That would be great.”
“Be right back,” Wolfe called over his shoulder to retreat to the kitchen to brew her a mug. “Cappuccino or latte?”
“Fancy. I’ll take a latte.”
“Done,” Wolfe called out and began grabbing the items to make her a cup of liquid energy.
He’d figure out this mess between his teammates and the beautiful imp causing the disturbance in the Force. And that had nothing to do with a fake sci-fi saga and everything to do with winning the Cup in less than a year.
He and his Crush teammates were one game away from hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup to reach the pinnacle of the ultimate success in their profession, only to come up short.
Wolfe could still recall the dagger of disappointment that sliced through his gut at the loss, and the commitment of the team to dedicate themselves to total victory in the coming year.
Puppy love between Mia the bambina and the rookie and the overprotective-dad response of Dante wasn’t going to derail their mission.
Wolfe had no doubt he would fix it, even if it meant bashing his captain and the young gun who was clearly thinking more with his little head versus the one filled with that massive Harvard-educated brain.
All of his work to address those issues ebbed at the thought of his boss baker a room away. Wolfe frowned at the feeling of loss in the pit of his stomach in the last several hours not having her around or in his bed.
Based on her departing comment about where they stood lingered with him as well. Plenty of time for that. Wolfe wanted to focus on helping his boss baker find the sleep she gave up aiding a friend.
Wolfe finished pouring the steamed milk over Aspen’s espresso and headed back to the living room. He’d be surprised if she was still awake considering how tired she seemed.
He had visions of scooping her off the couch and taking her to his bed where he’d let her sleep for a few hours before kissing her awake and pressing forward with satisfying their base needs.
Wolfe screeched to an abrupt halt upon seeing Aspen standing at the table holding his sister’s pictures. She even had some snack cakes in her hand which he’d placed on the table hidden in the corner of the room.
“Shit!” Coffee splashed against his hand from the filled cup, burning the top of his hand.
The pain was nothing compared to the anguish ripping through his body at the sight of Aspen holding Elle’s framed picture.
Millions of thoughts seemed to go through his mind at the same time.
What am I going to tell her? How do I handle this?
But the only thing that came out of his mouth was, “What are you doing?”
Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion and at fast speeds all at once, leaving his world off kilter. Wolfe needed to get in control. Right fucking now. His emotions were spiraling. Even his voice sounded completely foreign to him.
“She’s beautiful,” Aspen whispered and slid a finger down the frame’s glass covering his sister’s smiling face. “Who is she?”
He set the coffee cup on an end table and moved toward Aspen so slowly he might as well have been attempting to navigate quicksand. Actually, he wished it was quicksand so he’d be gobbled up, never to be seen again. He was thankful that she didn’t seem to notice his distress.
“My, uh, sister,” he cleared his throat surprised as hell at the words coming from his mouth. “She... died. She’s dead.”
“Oh, Connor,” Aspen gently placed the picture back on the small table filled with a package of gem-sized donuts and other sweets. “What’s her name?”
Wolfe opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.
He tried again and failed. He looked more like a fish gasping for oxygen on the rocky banks of a river as opposed to one of the NHL’s toughest defensemen.
This time, Aspen noticed his distress and closed the gap between them. She tugged his rigid frame against hers and held him tightly without saying another word.
Wolfe responded in-kind by wrapping his own arms around her thin frame. Their roles completely reversed from a few minutes ago on the porch.