Page 125 of My Best Bet

My nose flared with an angry breath. “Thank you. I try to be.” I moved quickly, not even bothering to dry my blades before shoving them in my bag. I needed to get out of there before I punched his smug face.

I was almost out of the room before he spoke again.

“Just so you know, I’m not going anywhere. Chicago is my new home. If you don’t like it,” his nose scrunched, “you should probably leave.”

The room felt like it was spinning around me as I replayed his words. “Did you just tell me to leave?”

“No,” he laughed again. “I said if you didn’t like me being here, maybe it’d be better for you to take a step away.” His eyebrows popped up. “I would if I were you.”

I was rendered speechless. What could I even say to that? He didn’t specifically threaten me, did he?

“Why are you here? Why are you doing this?”

He shrugged. “Why not? I didn’t get my happy ending, why should you? And,” he laughed, “I’m being paid pretty damn well to be here.”

40.Colt - Come Get Me

Sometimes I hated hockey, and this was definitely one of those times.

I thought I was sick of road trips last season, but this season I was completely done. My team was leaving at 6am tomorrow morning for Florida, but walking away from Mer and Lucy felt all sorts of wrong. For some reason, I just had this deep feeling in my gut telling me to stay.

Mer offered to watch Lucy this weekend, but when I proposed the idea to my mom on the phone, she went quiet.

“But that’s my time with Lucy,” she said softly, hurt in her voice.

Fuck.I leaned against the kitchen counter and closed my eyes.

“Alright. Yeah, she’ll go to your house,” I said.

Lucy looked at me with storm clouds in her eyes. She stomped her foot and shoved at my legs, shocking me, and then promptly burst into tears. Before I could say anything, she bolted up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door with such force that Mer jumped and dropped a plate in the kitchen sink.

My jaw angled to the side. “That’s it, she can’t just–”

“No, c’mere,” Mer intercepted me from walking upstairs and smoothed a hand down my chest. “It’s okay, everything’s fine,” she said soothingly. “How about I talk to her?”

I rubbed my forehead, trying to calm my frustration. “You’d do that?”

“Yeah.” She pressed a kiss to my jaw before heading upstairs.

After a couple minutes, I made my way up to the hallway to listen in on what they were saying.

Mer reasoned with Lucy, telling her that my mom was just missing her and wanted to spend time with her.

“But I don't want to go. I want to stay here. You can stay here with me,” she countered in a small voice.

“The weekend will go by quickly and then we’ll all be back here together again, okay? And I'm sure your dad will give you your own phone for the weekend so you can call him whenever you want, okay?”

“Can I call you, too?”

“Of course you can.”

“Can I call Piper?”

She laughed and the tension in my chest eased. “I’m sure she’d love that, honey.”

I laid my forehead against the wall, feeling immensely grateful for her coming into our lives.

That night, Mer and I laid in bed silently, just wrapped up in each other, and I never wanted morning to come.

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