Page 107 of On the Line
“I know you think that, but I’m calling bullshit. You’ve been loving him, Lexie. For the better part of two years. Hell, since you met him. I understand if you want to keep running scared. You know how hard I fought falling for Brent. But at the end of the day…he’s the love of my life. I can’t picture living without him, and I’m willing to bet you feel the same about Mitch. That’s why you’ve been miserable since he left.
“So you decide here and now, Lex. You keep running, or you stop and let him catch you.”
“I don’t know how.”
“Having a legitimate, meaningful conversation with him without either one of you ambushing the other would be a good place to start, in my opinion.”
“I’m just not ready to forgive him yet, Berk,” she said, burying her face in her hands. When she spoke again, her voice was muffled. “It’s been so long, and yeah I played a part in the breakup. Hell, I instigated the breakup. But he didn’t even try to fight for me, didn’t try to say goodbye.” She whipped her head up as the tears started flowing. “He wouldn’t even see me when I went to Ann Arbor,” she choked out.
Berkley scooted closer and wrapped her arms around Lexie, much in the same way Lexie had done for her the night she and Brent broke up. “I know it’s not easy, giving your heart to someone. But other than the shitty way he left Detroit, there’s nothing about Mitch that tells me he wouldn’t take care of it. That he wouldn’t protect you with everything he has. And I think you know that.”
Lexie could only nod, slanting sideways so she could rest her head on Berkley’s lap.
The thing was, shedidknow that. From the moment she met him, that first night when he stuck around after their hookup was interrupted to take care of Berkley, Lexie had known Mitch was one of the good ones. The best one. And somehow, someway, that man had fallen in love with her, and still loved her despite the time and distance, plus the baggage she carried.
“He hurt me so badly, Berk. I haven’t always been open about my childhood, but being abandoned like that? It’s a trigger for me. And he knows that. I’ve told him all about my parents, and about that Christmas they left me alone, and all the other times they’d deposit me in some rented McMansion while they went off making money and ignoring me. I just…being left like that? By someone who promised to love me and never hurt me? It sucked.”
“You pushed him away first,” Berkley said quietly.
Lexie choked on a laugh. Leave it to Berkley to call her out when she was baring her soul.
It’s what made her the best friend Lexie had ever had.
“I know that,” Lexie replied, resigned.
“Look, I know nothing is going to change overnight,” Berkley said. “But…give him a chance. I can tell he’s serious about this, and he deeply regrets the way he left. Do you think Brent would’ve let him back into his life so easily if he thought Mitch would do it again? No, he wouldn’t. It’s not going to be easy. But just…try.”
Lexie had never believed in soulmates, and made her feelings on the subject of love abundantly clear to anyone who would listen. But Mitch made her want those things. And more than that, he made her believe in those things, and believe that she could have them.
With him.
Even after a year apart, and all the casual hookups and nights she spent trying to drink his memory away, she still missed him in that bone-deep way, like half of her had up and walked away.
Finally, she sat up and wiped her tears with the sleeves of her sweater.
“I can try.”
TheWarriorswereaboutto play their biggest game of the twenty-first century, and Mitch was watching from the bench.
Over the course of the last few months during the Warriors playoff run, he’d gotten used to being on the sidelines. It still stung, but generally speaking, he was happy to be around the game that had been his entire life for so long.
Nights like tonight, when it was game six of the Final, and the Warriors were one win away from bringing the Stanley Cup back to Detroit, Mitch would give anything to be suiting up with the guys.
The Warriors had a three games to two series lead over the Colorado Chargers, and each of the first five games had been a low-scoring affair. Thankfully, Brandon Roberts had been standing on his head, stopping shots that lesser goalies would’ve missed, but unfortunately, the Chargers’ goalie had also been a brick wall.
“Score early, score often,” Coach said once the team was dressed, each player seated at their stall.
Mitch and the Warriors waited for him to continue, to make some grand, Herb Brooks-worthy pregame speech.
Instead, Coach turned on his heel and walked down the tunnel.
“Uhh…alright boys,” Jordan Dawson, the Warriors captain, said awkwardly, standing and strapping his helmet on. “Let’s go to work.”
There was no fanfare as the group of men made their way from the locker room and down that long red carpet in the direction of the ice. The closer they got, the louder the crowd noise became. And when Jordan skated onto the ice, the rest of the team following swiftly behind him, it rose to a crescendo.
There was nothing like the atmosphere of a hockey game, especially at the professional level, and it was difficult to explain without having experienced it firsthand. The earthquaking roar of the fans when a goal was scored, the collective gasps, boos, and yells of outrage for big hits, missed opportunities, penalties, and fights.
And during the playoffs?Allof those emotions were drastically heightened.
