Page 26 of Coast to Coast

“You two sizzled the other night. I’d be more concerned that you two end up in bed together, and then one of you needs to sneak off down the hall before the little boy catches you. And what if he rats you out?”

“You think a toddler could keep a secret?” I asked.

“Fuck no!” Juno said with a laugh. “You’ll need to hide from him just as much as you do from Sam and Kelsey.”

“Aw, June, he’s calling me Kiwi,” I said, sharing the nickname Crew had accidentally created.

“Girl, you’re in trouble already. If I warned you not to get attached, would you listen?” she asked.

“With the little guy? That’s too late. He’s the cutest damn thing. You should have seen the fit he threw after I tried to put him in a diaper.”

“Fuck my life. Cal, I have to pretend I’m interested in this mom stuff with half of my friends. Now I’m going to have you talking to me about potty training and little kid shit that I don’t want in my life for at least ten years. Promise me that if I sit through these playground stories, you will reward me with hockey boy sexy time stories.”

“Ummm, didn’t we already agree that sexy time with my boss was a bad idea?” I asked.

“No, you tried to make that case. But I say fuck it. Worst case, you move back to Boston and live in my spare bedroom.”

“Great. Nice way to pull through with a plan B. But the more I prepare for the move, the more excited I am about the job. You know how close I’ll be to skiing?” I asked. Juno, PJ, and I had grown up skiing, and while we loved the conditions in the Northeast, the West was at a whole different level.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rub it in. I won’t have vacation time until March.” Juno was still new in her career and had used all of her vacation time allowance to be her best friend’s maid of honor. I joked about Maddy’s bridezilla expectations, but the wedding was over the top. She had given Juno a list of weekend trips for the bachelorette party, significantly adding to their astronomical budget and paid time off requests.

“Well, Utah has skiing continue right through the end of spring. I think I saw an away game out there at some point.”

“Okay. I take it back. Don’t you dare fuck that man and fuck this up. I want to come to Utah and go skiing with you.”

“Nice. I’m so glad that you’re watching out for me. But for real, I gotta go to bed. I’m exhausted and need to organize a major move in the next few weeks.”

“Okay. Love you,” Juno said as we ended our call.

“Love you, too.”

TOM

The flight back to Colorado was a bit lonely. Kelsey and Sam had brought me to the airport so Crew could say goodbye. She would follow up with Calliope and Crew early next week. Monica had arranged for movers to bring Callie’s belongings out between now and then, but I wanted to be there to greet the truck.

It’s a good thing I went for the three-bedroom townhouse instead of the two-bedroom one. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have a place for Callie and probably would have had to sell a place Crew had started taking to as his home. It’s bad enough he had to get used to my place in Boston as a temporary place to live. My mother had tried to assure me that the place could change as long as the people in his life remained consistent, but we already put him through enough instability.

I unlocked the front door and dropped my bags just inside the townhouse. I had a small patio out back, but the development had plenty of communal open space, including a pool, gym, and playground. The first time I’d met some of the guys in the gym for a workout, we accumulated a bit of a watch party, but eventually, the other residents learned to respect ourspace. We usually worked out in team facilities anyway. It was just nice to work out at your own home base occasionally.

I had been able to get on the ice over the summer, but not nearly as much as I wanted to, fuck it was great to be back. I had barely closed the door when I heard three telltale bangs on the front door. Bendik. He never used the doorbell; he said it always made him panic anytime it rang, and he never wanted to make someone else feel uncomfortable.

“Come in,” I shouted while dropping my keys on the kitchen island and inspecting the refrigerator to see what had been stocked for me ahead of time. Monica always did a little extra, likely because Sam and Kelsey paid her so goddamn much that she gave me a break.

The massive change in my life and standard of living, once I signed professionally and became linked to Sam Drummond through my son, had been a lot to handle. Kelsey had initially tried to refuse child support for Crew, claiming that she didn’t need it. Meeting my son when he was four months old, after only hours of knowing that he potentially existed, was the first parental decision I made from the gut. I couldn’t understand how men could leave their kids behind or not take care of them.

“Man, how’d you get stocked up so quickly?” Bendik said, helping himself to a beer in my fridge.

“Monica,” I said, by way of explanation.

“Mariana took the kids to the store to get some groceries. Don’t tell her you have someone do this for you. She’ll want to spend half my salary to hire your girl.”

“Yeah, why don’t you try to figure out a custody arrangement between a pro baseball player and an NHL player? Then you can tell me I don’t need all the help I can get.”

“Speaking of help, tell me more about the nanny.”

“Can’t call her that in front of the guys.”

“Yeah, yeah. What’s her story? Does she have social media? Let me look her up.”

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