Page 29 of Never In My Wildest Dreams

“Oh, I love that so much. Where did you get this from?”

“It’s from all the sports therapists I’ve worked with.”

“What sport did you play?”

“Hockey. If you’re on the NHL track, sports therapists are part of the program. You have to get your head in the right place. It’s every bit as much a mind game as it is a physical one.”

“You said youusedto be an athlete.”

“Yeah.” He didn’t love telling this story. “I got drafted in my senior year of high school.”

“Oh. That’s amazing. How long did you play?”

“Not a single day. The night before I was heading for training camp, I got an injury that took me out of my sport permanently.”

“Are you serious?” Her features squeezed in horror. “That’s awful.”

“Yeah. So, I’ve been where you are. I trained for one thing in my life. Nothing else. And when it fell apart, I had to reinvent myself.”

“What did you do?”

He smiled. “I swerved.”

“It couldn’t have been that easy.”

“No, it wasn’t. But I was determined.” For several reasons. One, he was built that way. But two, he wanted to prove something to his former friends. He was not going to fail. He wasn’t going to be some loser while they played in the NHL. As it turned out, Cole was one of the best forwards of all time, Declan coached the Renegades, and Jaime was their goalie. “I knew, with my training and experience, I could do a lot of things. I could be a sports therapist or a trainer.”

“Or a coach.”

“Exactly. I just had to figure out which path to take. And that developed over a lot of years.”

“See how the universe works? Of all the people whose cabins I could’ve broken into, it happened to be yours. I know it sucks for you that I’m crashing your getaway, but you’ve given me hope. You’re absolutely right. There are a million things in my industry I could do.”

She probably didn’t realize how transparent her emotions were, but her lack of enthusiasm told him what she thought of the other jobs. “You didn’t ask me if I like what I’m doing now. If I miss hockey and drown my sorrows in vodka every night after I get home from work.”

“Oh, I saw you in that sweater, Slick. You’re not drowning your sorrows in anything but the gym.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, okay. But the answer is that I like what I do. The skills I needed to become a good hockey player transferred into my career. The dedication and self-discipline, the thinking on my feet… And it turns out I’m happier with intellectual challenges than I am with physical. My point is to keep your mind open to possibilities, stay positive, and screen out other people’s expectations. Because at the end of the day, you’re the one who has to live your life, and you might as well do it happy and fulfilled.”

“If you’re not a therapist, it’s time for a career change.” She set her breakfast down and reached for him.

He shifted his plate away, wrapping his free arm around her. She buried her face in his neck and whispered, “Thank you for talking to me. I needed someone’s voice other than my own.”

A prickly heat spread through him. “You’re welcome.” This show of affection seemed unwarranted.

“Why do you smell so good?” She lifted her head, putting their noses a breath apart.

“I don’t. I haven’t showered in twenty-four hours.”

When she released him, her eyes were glistening.

“Look, I don’t know what those assholes did to you but don’t let them keep you from living the life you want. Here’s another thing we have in common. After my accident, my friends disappeared. We’d been together since kindergarten, and not one of them showed up at the hospital or called to find out how I was. In some ways, that was harder than losing my dream of playing hockey.”

“Are you serious? That’s disgusting.”

He nodded. “But I used that betrayal. Part of what drove me to excel was the need to show them up. And I did.”

They’d reached out over the years, but he hadn’t taken any of their calls. Fuck them for only making the effort when he was in a position to help them. Most recently, Jaime had the brass balls to show up at his apartment—right when he needed an agent.

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