Page 17 of Pipe Dreams
He leaped out of the seat and into the aisle.
Without another glance at him Lauren exited the row and darted forward, into the bathroom at the front of the plane. It was—thank the sweet heavens—unoccupied. The moment the door clicked close, the tears came like a fountain. She yanked a paper towel from the holder and pressed it forcefully to her mouth.
Alone at last, Lauren clung one-handed to the grab bar and cried absolutely silently in the charter jet’s bathroom.
SIX
“Beak—what the fuck, man? It’s only an hour flight,” Patrick O’Doul complained. “Sit still already.”
Mike dragged his eyes off the bathroom door at the front of the jet and sat back. He tipped his head back and sighed. “I don’t know if Lauren is okay.”
“Yeah? I’m sure hanging around the team is hard for her. It would have to be.”
“Not necessarily,” Mike argued. “If she found a great guy and had a happy life, it wouldn’t be hard at all. It’s been two years, right? By now I should just be some hockey punk she used to date.”
O’Doul made a little grunt of half-assed agreement. “Maybe. But can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“It’s been two years, as you point out. When you look at Lauren, do you see just some girl you used to date?”
“No! No way. She’s...”She’s still the woman I love. “Oh, fuck.”
“Yeah, exactly.” And—damn him—O’Doul sounded a little smug, too.
“But, Jesus. I am really not worth the heartache.”
O’Doul chuckled. “You’re not my type, so it’s kinda hard for me to say.”
“She’s still so angry,” Mike admitted. “Maybe when she’s not trapped on a jet with me, it’s easier for her.” That had to be true, right? For two years he’d assumed that she was in a better place than he was—that his sacrifice had been something she could grow to accept.
But the look on her face when he sat down beside her was pure devastation. “I fucked up with her,” he admitted. “Big time.”
“Today?”
He shook his head. Today was just a ripple effect.
“So you’re saying you fucked up two years ago, and you’re just figuring that out now? And I thoughtIwas dumb.”
Mike snorted. “You are, but I’m dumber. I thought we would all be okay, you know? I did what I had to do, but I handled it badly. I knew she’d be mad at me, and I couldn’t stand to disappoint her. So I sort of went quiet at the end.”
O’Doul gave him a sidelong glance. “You shut her out?”
“Yeah.”
“Women hate that.”
“Thanks for the update, captain, seeing as you’re an expert these days.”
O’Doul grinned. “I never broke anyone’s heart.”
“Uh-huh.” It was true, but only because Ari was the first person he’d ever dated. And that relationship was about a month old. O’Doul would learn how fricking complicated it could all become.
“So why’d you do it?” the captain asked.
“Why did I shut her out? Panic, my man. Sheer and total.” He closed his eyes and let himself remember the most painful time in his life. “It was two or three months after Kattenberger bought the team. Lauren and I were planning tomove into the city together. The lease was coming up on my rental house, and Nate was moving the team to Brooklyn. Then Shelly got her diagnosis in February. It didn’t seem like a big deal at first. Hell, I assumed she had manufactured a little extra drama around the whole thing.”
He still remembered getting that phone call. He was in his car after practice, waiting outside the clubhouse office for Lauren to get off work. “I have something to tell you,” his ex had said.
