Page 31 of Pucking Fate

Maya doesn’t fucking trust me not to screw around on her, even though my nights are spent either here with her or alone in my hotel room looking at photos of my son’s life from the outside.

Since I know there’s nothing I can say to change her opinion, I turn around and leave.

It’s frustrating as hell, but I’m not going to give up. It’ll take time, more than a single summer together, but I’m never giving up on her, on us, again.

13

Maya

“Ijust talked to Preston,” Christian says without preamble when he shows up at the house the next morning.

“Okay?”

There’s a new tension between us after our fight last night. Our argument? I’m not sure what it was exactly. Christian wants to tell Finley he’s his father, and he said he wanted more, that he wants to be with me.

But I’m not ready to take either of those steps, especially the first, which makes the second impossible.

Oh my god. Did Christian call Preston aboutusbecause I haven’t mentioned to Preston that we were fooling around!

“Everything’s all set for Finley’s birthday party,” he finally explains.

“Oh, okay,” I sigh in relief, glad he’s not dragging my overprotective brother into this already confusing situation. “Preston was able to rent the Warhawks arena?”

“He was, but even with his pull, they still asked for a small fee.”

“A small fee?” I have a feeling that the pro hockey boys and I have different definitions of small when it comes to money. “How much?”

“Five grand.”

“Five thousand dollars?” I exclaim.

“I’ll take care of it,” Christian says since, just as I expected, five thousand dollars is like fifty bucks to him.

“Are you sure? Finley doesn’t even know we were going to have it there. We could just have it in the backyard…”

“We’re having his party at the arena,” he replies sternly. “This is the first year I’m going to get to celebrate my son’s birthday with him. Finley will go nuts to get out on the ice with his friends, and I want to help. If you need like plates or decorations or whatever, I want to pay for those things too.”

“You don’t have to do that, Christian…”

“It’s the least I can do after missing his first four birthdays,” he snaps.

“That-that wasn’t entirely my fault.”

He stares at me like he wants to argue that it was up to me to tell him he had a son and not him to guess.

“I’m sorry,” I tell him honestly.

Taking a deep breath, he says, “It’s…fine, water under the ice,” and even flashes me a half-smile. “So, what do you say? Will you let me pay for this one?”

“I don’t need your money.”

“I think you meant that you don’twantmy money. But you do need it, Maya. What’s the difference in accepting Preston’s help but not mine?”

“I…I don’t know. Let me just have time to think about it.”

“The clock is ticking. Let me make the arrangements to secure the arena for us. Let’s go with what we both know isFinley’s first choice. We’ll give him a birthday party he’ll never forget, including a few surprise guests…”

Oh, I love and hate the way he’s usingwelike we’re a team now. Still, I’m hesitant to let him help with the planning or financially.

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