Page 4 of The Fake Husband Play
I couldn’t find a two-bedroom apartment in a reasonably safe neighborhood in my budget, and I wanted Mimi to have her own space. I want her to have all the “normal kid” things I can give her.
She deserves that after everything she’s been through.
She also deserves good, dependable healthcare, but that’s not the world we live in right now.
Sinking onto the corn chip scented cushions, I scan the termination email again, clicking on the link to learn more about COBRA coverage, extending benefits, and what forms I need to fill out. An intimidatingly dense page of text pops up, written in even more intimidating legal-ese, sending a wave of anxiety prickling across my skin.
I’m not stupid—I was making straight A’s in high school before I dropped out to have Mimi and get my GED—but navigating bureaucracy isn’t my strong suit. Not even close. And, as usual, I’m exhausted.
Still, no matter how tired I am, I should start reading, figure out our options, and make a plan that doesn’t involve hiding in the bathroom, gushing about hockey players I’ll never meet.
Instead, I click over to my podcast webpage, grinning as I see the string of comments already waiting for me.
I might not have a ton of subscribers, but the ones I do have are rabid, and as prone to insomnia as I am.
LuvvyPuckLovie23: OMG THANK YOU! Just found the clip of Grammercy and the French does NOT disappoint. My panties might never be the same…
PuckYeah91: Okay, but seriously, imagine being the woman who gets to wake up next to the Engagin’ Cajun every morning . How is he so hot when he’s barely 5’8’’?
PuckBunny666: Are you high? He’s six feet tall! It says so right in his stats.
GravesIsMyBae: I was just going to post that. He’s six feet tall, at LEAST. I ran into him at the grocery store in Portland before he left for New Orleans, and he made me feel tiny. TINY, I tell you. (And horny. God, that man. I need him to get traded back to Portland. My Badgers are NOT the same without him.)
HockeyMomNJ: Trevor is an asshole. Grammercy is husband material. If I weren’t already married, you better believe I’d be moving to New Orleans to stalk that man full time. Luvvy, you have to live the dream for all of us! Track that man down and make him take you out on the town. You’re the kind of sexy, smart, take-no-bullshit kind of woman a man like that needs. You’d be perfect together!
I click out of the comments, heat flooding my cheeks.
If only they knew their sassy, straight-shooting host is a broke single mom who’s barely dated at all since her daughter was born. A homebody who spends her Friday nights researching hockey stats and watching games she was too busy to catch live instead of putting her dating advice to the test.
But maybe that’s okay.
Maybe we’re all dreamers on the internet.
Maybe it’s okay to fantasize about men like Grammercy Graves from the safety of my bathtub studio. Maybe it’s enough to imagine what it would feel like to have a good man talking French to me in the dark.
Someday, I’ll have enough time and money to catch my breath and start looking for something real.
But until then…
Closing my laptop—tomorrow, scary COBRA paperwork—I tiptoe back to check on Mimi one more time.
She’s up at the top of her bed now, practically upside down, with her unicorn under her bottom. Fighting a laugh, I gently guide my wild-sleeping girl into a more comfortable position. Love for her is my North Star, the way it has been since the day the nurse laid her in my arms.
Everything will be all right, baby,I think as I kiss her forehead—a lie I pray won’t stay a lie for long.
Chapter
Two
GRAMMERCY GERMAINE GRAVES
A six-figure deal toplay hockey in the city I never wanted to leave,andmy face plastered on billboards all over the highway?
How the hell is this my life?
I have no idea, but here I am, back in NOLA, playing hockey, and feeling no pain.
The sound of skates hitting fresh ice echoes through the Crescent Center, where “NEW ORLEANS VOODOO” is newly painted across the boards. It’s starting to feel real now. Training camp is almost over, and our first game is just around the corner.
