Page 77 of Coast to Coast

“Does Tom know? More specifically, does he know that you know jackshit about hockey?”

“Shit!” Crew repeated, and Patty cringed. “Shit! Shit! Jackshit!”

“Of course!” She burst out, “I’ve been so good in front of him.” The crowd around us laughed, and Crew started performing.

I waited for Crew to stop swearing and refocus on the ice before responding, “We haven’t talked much about hockeyoutside the schedule, the demands on his life, and its impact on Crew. We met when I showed up for an interview as Crew’s nanny; his hockey career has nothing to do with why I’m with him.”

I wasn’t sure if my answer was what she wanted to hear, but it was truthful. Did I understand hockey was important to Tom? Hell yes. But I knew him as Tom, Crew’s father. Tom, my boss,eek, he was still my boss.Tom, a man who was becoming a friend and a partner, was the person I looked forward to seeing at the end of the day. And Tom, the person who made me feel like I was leaving half of my heart in Colorado every time I boarded a plane back to Logan.

“I came here to size you up,” Patty admitted, her eyes connecting with mine briefly before darting back to the ice. “Since we learned about Crew, Tom has had two priorities: hockey and his son. There has been no room for his personal needs, and he’s got great friends, but he’s so lonely when Crew goes home. And now he has you, and you leave with Crew.”

“I didn’t plan this. And when I go back to Boston, I’m a bit lost myself.” Admitting this was strange. I had always been independent, even when I was with Zander. We never lived together and hadn’t ever talked about moving in. That probably should have been a sign that things weren’t moving in the direction I had thought.

“Kelsey is too hands-on to have a nanny. I mean, they need you for travel, but I can’t imagine that she has you working very hard when you’re there.”

This wasn’t the first time this had come up. It was feeling more and more pointless for me to be in Boston. Outside of being Crew’s flight companion, I had no role in Boston.

“No. I feel a bit like a college student on break while I’m there,” I said. I had helped put Crew to bed one night so Sam and Kelsey could have a date night, but otherwise, I lived in theirhouse but had no responsibilities. Getting to housework before Kelsey did it for herself was a challenge.

“Do you think you’ll continue to stay in Boston when he’s here at home?” Patty searched my face for a response before shaking her head and saying, “Never mind. It’s not my business. I don’t like him being alone so much.”

I turned my attention back to the game, absorbing what she’d said while feeling like I owed her some answer.

“This is really new for us. We haven’t talked about it yet, nor have we talked about what it means for the future. Sam and Kelsey don’t know about the change in our relationship, and I don’t think we are ready for them to know.”

At the end of the first period, which Patty explained was one of three, the Blizzards were up two goals to nothing. She’d explained that Tom was not one of the top scorers on the team as a defenseman, but he scored more than other players in his position. Crew had dragged me back into the family room, running around with the other kids and eating more junk food.

Mariana had given me a heads-up that the WAGs didn’t typically show up wearing jerseys and that, tonight, everyone would be dressed up to go out after the game. After seeing Tim in his game-day suit, I upped my game. But that meant I had to work hard to avoid Crew’s sticky hands.

After the game ended, Patty took Crew while I joined Mariana, Gwen, and Bridget to wait for the guys to shower and change. Not knowing if Tom would see my text message, I took a chance and sent him a copy of the photo I’d taken of his pre-game stretching routine with him on the ice in frog pose.

Me: You give this show out for free and I haven’t even seen you like this?

Tom: Jealous?

Me: No, turned on.

Tom:

Me: Just wait until later…

Tom: Fuck yeah!

“Have you seen Mila?” Mariana asked, looking around and taking a head count of our group. We had confirmed Mariana and Alex, Vasil and Bridget, Andre and Mila, Vasil and Bridget, Charlie and Gwen, and Jonah and Britney would be the couples joining us tonight. Damon was joining reluctantly, but only because Cooper Rice and Jackson Gregory would be there, and he wouldn’t be the only non-couple in our group.

“I’m here!” She said as I made my way over to her, hugging her. I’d spent the game heavily distracted by Crew and focused on Patty, so I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk.

“Hey, I haven’t caught up with you since we got back in town. How did the kids do in their new school?” I asked. Their kids, Julian and Anna, had been terrified of starting in their new schools when I last saw them on the day of the cookout.

“Oh, the first-day jitters were for nothing; they loved it. We’ve had several of their friends over already. Did I hear that you and Crew are headed back to Boston tomorrow?” She asked, her expressive eyebrows arched, and I could see she was more than confused about our arrangement.

“Yes, we are,” I said, unable to keep the tinge of sadness from my voice. Yes, the guys were headed on the road, but the women would all be local. They were close, and they were each other’s family. “The next time we’ll see Tom will be in Vancouver. We’re traveling there to stay with his mother.”

Gwen and Mariana had overheard, and while Mariana knew the full details of our arrangement, I could tell she wondered ifanything had changed recently. She noticed my discomfort and rushed to save me. As far as anyone there knew, I only wrote songs and performed music for about 32,000 TikTok followers, and it didn’t make sense that I couldn’t do that from Colorado instead of Boston. After Kayleigh’s abrupt departure, it seemed as though they were ready for me to disappear, too.

We chatted as we all met the guys outside the locker room. And yes, the mood was bright. The Blizzards had won the game, and the changes this year looked to have only strengthened the team.

Oh man, when I found Tom in the crowd, our eyes locked for a second, and then I watched as his gaze crawled its way up and down my body, only to end in a wicked grin as he hooked his finger and gestured for me to go to him. Yup, if he’d looked at me that way and demanded I crawl to him, I would have. The shock from seeing him in his suit for the first time had not worn off, and while I still preferred the grey sweatpants and no shirt look that he rocked at home, the man cleaned up nice.

---