Page 19 of One Good Puck
“But you pay for electricity and utilities every month. And property taxes.”
The corner of his mouth hooks up in an easy half-smile. “Yeah, but I don’t need you to help me pay for any of that, okay?”
Emma starts singing her favorite song to herself while she skips to one of the other guest rooms. A second later, she pops out.
“Mom, can I see the bedrooms downstairs?”
“Sure, honey.”
She runs downstairs, still singing. Gavin chuckles. “She’s so funny.”
I smile. “She makes me laugh every day.”
Gavin rests his hands in his trouser pockets and glances at me. “It’s really no problem for you to live here, Abby. You’d be doing me a favor. The season is about to start, and I’ll be gone a lot, traveling with the team. I usually hire someone to check on the house while I’m away, but if you and Emma move in, I wouldn’t have to do that. And even when I’m here for home games during the season, I’m not home till late most nights of the week. You’d have the place to yourselves a lot of the time. It would give me a lot of peace of mind if you and Emma were here holding the fort down.”
I’m quiet as I think about all that he’s said.
“Mom!” Emma hollers from downstairs.
“Yeah, honey?”
“I like the bedroom down here the most. The one with the bathroom next to it.”
Gavin starts to smile.
“Okay, honey.”
“Can I please have that one?”
Gavin chuckles.
“We’ll talk about it later,” I say.
He looks at me. “Looks like Emma’s on board. That just leaves you to convince.”
I can tell he’s teasing me in a good-natured way, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m taking advantage of him.
“This is so generous of you to offer, Gavin. Really, really generous. It just feels like I’m taking advantage since I wouldn’t be paying you anything.”
“You wouldn’t be taking advantage of me at all. Youneed a place to live. I have the extra room. Plus, you’d be helping me out when I’m gone. It’s that simple.”
The more I think about it, the more comfortable I feel about accepting his offer.
I look at him. “Okay. We’ll move in with you.”
A warm smile pulls at his lips. “Great.”
Chapter 9
Gavin
Ipump my legs harder as I hit the last half-mile of my morning jog, right as the sun starts to rise.
My lungs are on fire with how hard I’m breathing, but I love it. These pre-dawn runs before a busy workday are what give me energy.
When I was younger, you couldn’t have paid me to wake up before 5 a.m. to jog for an hour. Yeah, I’d get up early for practice and morning skate, but it was never this early. Now I’m a sucker for a pre-dawn workout.
With autumn just around the corner, I’m even more eager to go for a run. This might be the last warm morning before the cold weather rolls in, which means I’ll have to hit the treadmill or head to the arena early for a workout. I’m fine doing both of those, but there’s nothing like sweating it out in the fresh air.
