Page 64 of Wyatt

York sighed. “I don’t know.”

Wyatt did. “He lives with his father, doesn’t he? And he won’t let him leave.” It was a guess, but if Wyatt had a son like Mikka, he wouldn’t let him out of his sight.

York blinked. “No. He lives—it’s an orphanage.”

“An orphanage. Is his father dead?”

“I don’t think so. At least… Not. Yet.”

“So, let me get this straight. She lives in Moscow, and her kid lives in the middle of Siberia?”

York raised his eyebrows, touched his nose again.

Huh.

“So, she was just going to say goodbye to him? Leave him…here? While she went…where?”

York lifted a shoulder.

But yeah, it fit.

Because that was Coco. Leaving people behind without a word. Except, “But now, she has him. Where are you going?”

“She thinks he might be sick, so she’s bringing him to a doctor friend in Khabarovsk. If she needs to, she’ll take him to America.”

Right. “What kind of sick?”

“Leukemia.”

“Oh, geez. Her mother died of leukemia.” He leaned his head back against the seat, closed his eyes.

“Don’t—”

“Stop.”

“That was a pretty good crack.”

He opened his eyes. “I play hockey for a living. Goalie. I know what it feels like to take a shot to the head.”

York offered a tiny smile. “RJ says you’re good. You play for a professional team?”

“The Minnesota Blue Ox. Three years, the last two as their starter. Except, now that I’ve jumped the train…yeah, I’m not sure what’s going to happen.”

“Jumped the train? What’s that short for?”

“No. I really jumped the train. In some town called Spassk. The team was on their way to Vladivostok to do some meet and greet and I just couldn’t get it out of my head that Coco was in trouble. It was the way, well, the way we left it. I begged her to leave the country with me. And she said she couldn’t. And now I know why.”

York looked away.

“I wish she’d trusted me enough to tell me,” he said quietly. “We were together in Moscow and…she took off. And I never knew why.” He looked at the door. “It was because of Mikka. I wonder if the guy ever knew—”

“Oh my gosh, you are such an idiot!”

Wyatt recoiled. York was rubbing his forehead, shaking his head. “This is so not my business, but geez, man, you are so freakin’ blind.”

“Hey. Listen. I know this is hard for her. It’s not a picnic for me either. I love her—she’s my, mysoul mate. Or I thought so, and I show up here thinking she’s been missing me for the last two years—and frankly, that isn’t my fault because she is on the hockey forum for the Blue Ox all the time, and we chat and she never once,not oncementioned her son. Or having another boyfriend—or what, did she marry him?”

He paused, stared at York who was simply deadpanning him, a sort of disgusted look on his face. “What if she married him? Is she divorced? What if she was married to him when we…when we—” He shot a look at York who now looked a little horrified.

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