Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 80045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“You really don't want me to say anything,” he says, his voice a whisper between us.
I shake my head. “I don't want you to make any rash decisions because of what I’ve said. I want you to do what you've been doing, which is think on it. I just wanted you to have the entire truth while you did it.”
I skate backward, stepping up through the exit, glancing over my shoulder to look at him one last time. “Good luck at your meeting,” I say, then glance down before meeting his eyes again. “You're weaker on that left leg. You need to do more lunges to work on it.” I hurry and turn around, wanting to leave before I can say anything else, like beg him to tell me what he’s thinking.
His laughter is real and raw and echoes behind me as I leave him standing there on the ice, my heart in his hands.
CHAPTER 18
LAWSON
The owner of the Seattle Sharks is having dinner and drinks with me at one of the local restaurants, and has spent the last twenty minutes doing nothing but complimenting my skills and painting me a picture of how amazing I would look with the Seattle Sharks logo on my back.
It’s a dream come true, for sure. Something I’d visualized over and over in my teenage years when I dreamed of being drafted into the NHL. Hell, not seven months ago when the draft happened, I'd been picturing the Seattle call. I’d always seen myself in their colors, until I hadn't.
I love you.
Blakely's words, her reasoning, and her throwing her whole heart on the line keep replaying through my head. If she’d let me speak, I would’ve told her I felt the same way. I would’ve told her that all she had to do was ask and I would blow off this meeting.
But she didn’t ask me to blow off this meeting. She told me she would come with me, which meant more to me than she probably even realized.
All of my relationships, if you can call them that, in the past had been purely a means to an end, because my first love had always been the NHL.
But not Blakely.
She showed me a love that was greater than the love I had for myself and for my career and for my dreams. She did nothing to hinder them but did everything to expand them. I would be a fool if I didn't know that being with her leveled me up in a way that never would’ve happened before, and from the way she told it, I offered her the same thing.
After we finish our steaks, him sipping on his red wine and me sipping on my soda water, he finally asks me the ten-million-dollar question.
“What do you think? Can you see yourself in Seattle?”
“I can see myself in Seattle,” I answer. The picture had already played out in my mind. Blakely and I would be able to start fresh in a new city, with a new team. She’d have an adjustment, earning the respect of the Sharks, but we’d be there as a unit. I’d be playing for my favorite team, and we’d both be making a wonderful living to put toward the future together.
Something sinks in my chest, an almost nostalgic sort of weight that has me shaking my head.
“Oh no,” he says. “I've seen that face before. You're about to say but aren't you?”
“But,” I say almost laughing at myself at what’s about to come out of my mouth. “Bangor is my new home. The Badgers are my new family. And as of right now, I'm just not ready to leave them.”
“You’re starting to look like a winning team,” he says. “But winning a few games doesn't mean you'll make it to the Cup.”
“I’m humbly aware of that,” I say, thinking about my team. “But we've just found a groove together, and I'm not naive enough to think that trades aren't going to happen, but for now, this is where I belong.”
I belonged with my team, belonged with Blakely, and I never thought I would say that.
“I respect that,” he says. “If you ever start to think differently, don't hesitate to reach out.”
We spend the rest of dinner talking about how much I love the Sharks and how I'm really going to hate beating them when we face off against them in a month. He's a good sport about it, laughing and covering the check before we part ways.
And instead of taking the road that will take me home, I head straight to Blakely’s place even though it's past ten and she's probably already curled up in bed.
She answers my text within seconds, opening her door with a hopeful look on her face as she stares up at me.
Her long blonde hair is a little bit messy, her PJ’s clinging to her supple body in a way that has my blood heating. This feels a lot like deja vu, from the last time I was here, but now I know everything.