Page 41 of Just One Season
“That’s a good idea.”
“Oh!” I bump into Kellen, who I’m clearly walking too close to. My face bounces off his back. He spins around. “I’m okay.” I hold my hands up.
“Glad to hear it.” Kellen’s mouth quirks as he turns back to the not-trail.
My feet are starting to hurt. Kellen was right. New boots were probably not the best idea, and I definitely have blisters forming at the back of my heels and maybe on my little toes.
I distract myself by staring at Kellen’s backside in his hiking pants, which are loose except for how they tuck right against his butt. The form-fitting gray t-shirt he’s wearing probably cost hundreds to look that casual and good on him. His biceps bulge out of the sleeves, and his shoulder and neck muscles shift as he walks andgood lord I need to get a grip.
“We’ve talked a lot about Atticus… do you have siblings?”
“An older sister.” Kellen glances over his shoulder. “She doesn’t live around here, although I do have a house waiting for her next door.”
“You just, have a house ready for your sister?” Lordy. Hockey players.
“Yeah.” He shrugs. “It’s furnished and everything for when she comes to visit. Ava’s mom is on the other side of me. We’re a good family unit.”
My chest warms. A man who co-parents with his daughter’s mother well enough to live next door, plus saving a house for his sister? It’s a parade of green flags.
“Do you also have a house foryour parents?”
“No,” Kellen says shortly. “My dad passed away when I was a baby.”
“Shoot, I’m sorry.” And here I am complaining about my father. I’m the worst.
“It’s alright.” Kellen turns his mouth down. “My mom remarried when I was thirteen and Kara was sixteen. I didn’t think he was a great guy, but Mom seemed happy-ish. When I hit high school, he was overly interested in my hockey career, without being a real hockey fan. He kept talking about becoming a manager or an agent. But he knew nothing about hockey, and I already had a mentor helping advise us.”
Sounds like this isn’t going anywhere good. I stay quiet as Kellen takes a noisy breath and lets it out loudly.
“Once I got to college, Mom convinced me to trust my stepfather to manage some of my sponsorships. It wasn’t a lot of money. A local business. A clothing brand deal. A few other small ones. But when I eventually asked him about the money, he got real cagey. I figured out he’d spent it all on booze and drugs. He claimed it was payment for his management services.” Kellen scoffed.
“That’s awful.”
“The worst part is that my mother took his side. I haven’t talked to her in over a decade.”
“Oh my gosh.” My stomach drops. My father is an asshole, but at least he didn’t steal from me. And I’m lucky to have such a great mom in my life. I don’t know what I’d do without her support and love.
Kellen shrugs and glances over at me. “It’s old news. But it’s because of my family that I need to stay in Fort Collins. Playing for the Blizzard. I’ve hopefully got a few more good years of hockey, but I don’t want to live somewhere else, and I don’t want to move them.”
“I can understand that.”
Bear pulls ahead to get to a pile of leaves, and Kellen turns his eyes to me as he extends the leash and stops walking.
“Ava’s had serious health issues. We want to keep her near her doctors in Denver.”
“Oh.” I’m not sure what to say, but there’s a tightness in my chest thinking of his daughter being sick. I cross my arms tightly.
“There are pretty intensive follow ups, and if anything else goes wrong, we want to be here.”
I nod, a lump lodged in my throat, and follow his lead when he resumes walking. That’s a lot for one person to take. His father gone, his mother not supportive, and Ava with a troubled health history. No wonder he’s protective. We resume walking and step back onto the main trail a minute later, passing through the woods in silence until we reach a clearing and a large, still, beautiful lake.
“Wow,” I say. I can feel Kellen’s eyes on the side of my face. “Gorgeous.”
“I know the perfect spot, come on.” Kellen looks back at me and nods his head, so I follow him and Bear. He leads us a minute past the clearing through a thicket of trees to a sandy shore.
“Ahh, perfect.” I sink down on a low boulder and untie my boots. “I need to get these off.”
“You might regret that when you have to put them back on.” Kellen watches me make bad choices.
