Page 117 of One Last Shot

My eyes rake over her, trying to determine her meaning. She’s wearing a black formfitting dress that hits at her knee. She’s got black heels with those red soles that I know matter to lots of women. She’s sexy and sophisticated and looks like she came straight here from a business meeting. Meanwhile, my hockey uniform is practically stiff with dried sweat and my beard is damp.

“What does ‘yes’ mean in this context?” I let my eyes drift back to her face.

“It means I accept that the likeliest reason for your utterly piss-poor performance”—she shakes her head—“is that I left you last weekend after we’d committed to moving forward in this relationship.”

A scoff bubbles up out of the back of my throat. “And now what? You think showing up at my game and yelling at me about my performance is somehow going to make things better?”

“No, I came to apologize. I’m sorry I left like I did last weekend. I needed time and space to think. I’m ...” She stumbles with her words and glances around the conference room like more options for what to say will appear in front of her. “I’m used to being alone, making decisions at my own pace, without having to think about how they affect others.”

I get that. I really do. She’s essentially been on her own since she went to boarding school at sixteen. She’s avoided serious relationships. She doesn’t have any family. She doesn’t do commitments unless they’re of the work-related variety. But that can’t be my life because I have Stella to think about.

I reach over to prop my stick up in the corner, then lean back against the wall. “ I can’t be with someone who’s going to run the moment things get hard. Yes, I kept something huge from you, and I should have come clean much earlier. I own that, and I know it will take time to rebuild that trust. But you didn’t even give me a chance you explain. You just left.” Obviously loving her was too big of a risk. I should have listened to my own advice from the beginning—for Stella’s sake, and for mine too.

“I’d like to point out thatyouleft like I did, andyoudidn’t come back for fourteen years. I just needed a few days to think, to work things out. I didn’t wait fourteen years.”

“For fuck’s sake, Petra. The two situations arenotthe same. We were children back then. We weren’t adults who’d just decided to commit to making amarriagework. There wasn’t a child involved. How do you think Stella took it when I had to explain to her that you left? And then when Avery came to get your bags and Stella began to understand that you weren’t coming back?”

Her lower lip trembles. “But Iwascoming back.”

“Well, how the hell was I supposed to know that?” My voice is so loud the shades shake in response, or maybe that’s from the way the air shifts as my hands fly up in a sweeping gesture. “I am not a mind reader. You disappeared. And now, what? You just want me to pretend like that didn’t happen? That you didn’t break Stella’s heart? That you didn’t break mine?” As if it wasn’t humiliating enough to have just admitted she broke my heart, my voice has to go and crack on the wordmine. Now there’s a lump in my throat, but with some effort I swallow it down.

She doesn’t back down when I start yelling at her. Instead, she takes a step closer to me, so I step away, sliding along the wall toward the back of the very small room. “I was in Laguna Beach tonight when I saw the game on the TV at a restaurant as I was leaving,” she says, her voice low, and soft, and husky as she takes another step toward me.

I just stare at her, then raise my eyebrows in question, because what the hell does this have to do with what we’re talking about?

“I was in Laguna Beach because that’s where the president of the studio lives,” she says. She won’t stop making eye contact and I don’t like the way it breaks down this armor I’ve erected around my heart, so I look down at my skates instead. “I met him there for dinner because we needed to talk about the show. He let me know it was being picked up for a second season, and I let him know the only way I would sign on for Season 2 is if we can move the show to New York.”

My head snaps up, my eyes meeting hers. “Are you serious?”

“Yes,” she says, and takes another step toward me, crowding me into the corner. She reaches up and runs her fingers along my cheek. “So tell Jameson to stop talking to LA and go back out there and make sure New York signs you for a few more years.”

She takes another step toward me and I’m fully backed into the corner. There’s a table against the wall to my left, and she’s advancing on me from the right. She steps up so close we’re breathing the same air. Her scent is heavy and heady and literally all I want to do is take her in my arms, but I can’t. I can’t let her hurt me, or more importantly, Stella, again.

“I don’t know how to get over you acting like a child and running away the minute things got hard. Thingsarehard, Petra.Lifeis hard. You can’t go running away every time you’re scared or hurt. That’s not how relationships work.”

“Show me how theydowork, then,” she says. “Show me how to be the person you need me to be, and I’ll do the same. We’ll figure it out together.”

That armor falls away, even as I will myself to be strong—to not be taken downagainby this woman. She’s owned my heart since I was a teenager, though. There is no point in resisting.

Instead, I drop my head down and rest my forehead on the crown of hers. “Petra, we’re married. If we’re going to make this work, we’re going to make good on that commitment we didn’t know we’d made so long ago. I can’t do ‘we’ll figure it out.’” My voice is barely above a whisper, but I keep my words firm. “I need you to be all in ... or I’m out.”

She lifts her head so I have to pull mine up as well, and she tilts hers back so she’s looking up at me. She locks her eyes on mine and cups my jaw in her hands.

“I’m in. All in. And we have a kid to think about now too, so we’re going to have to be mature adults and talk about our problems when they come up. We need to set a good example for Stella. I know that, and I can handle it. I’m ready for this.” She pauses. “But first, you have to go out there and kick some ass and remind New York why they’ve kept you around for the past eight years. Okay?”

“No,” I tell her. “First, I have to dothis.”I lean down and take her mouth with mine, gently sucking on her lower lip until she opens for me. The kiss is relatively chaste, then I wrap her in my arms and hold her to me. I have to get back to work, but I’m not ready to let her go yet.

“Sasha,” she murmurs against my chest.

“Yeah, love?”

“You stink.”

My chest rumbles with laughter. I’m sure I do. I pull back and as I slide my hands down her shoulders, my finger catches in her bra strap. It’s lavender lace.

“You wore sexy undergarments to go to your meeting?”

“Do you think I have any other kind?” she purrs with that sexy-as-fuck voice of hers. “I’m looking forward to showing them to you after you win your game tonight.”

---