Page 14 of The New Guy
The panic I saw on his face earlier was not my imagination. We need to talk. And soon.
* * *
When I arrive home that evening, laden with groceries, I eye his apartment door. I just stand there for a second, keys jingling in my hand, trying to talk myself into knocking. He’s probably at the stadium, though. It wouldn’t even work.
That’s when my daughter throws open our apartment door. “Daddy! I thought you were never coming home.”
I wince, even though she didn’t mean it literally. Because that is something that already happened once in my daughter’s life.
One day Eddie left for work and never came home.
“How’s school?” I juggle one grocery bag so I can hug her.
“It stinks.” She throws her arms around my waist. “I hate being the new girl. But guess what? There’s a Scholastic Book Fair tomorrow. I need money.”
“What else is new?” I tease, giving her ponytail a tug with my only free finger.
But she takes the question literally. “Well, did you know we liveright next doorto a hockey player?” She looks up at me, eyes like saucers. “I saw him! His jacket says NEWGATE on the back! Reggie and I googled him!”
Oh boy. I nudge Jordyn into the apartment, just in case he’s home and listening.
“—He’s a defenseman! Did you meet him? And the rest of the players yet?”
“Some of them,” I say weakly. “I didn’t memorize all their names yet.”
Reggie smirks at me as I deposit the grocery bags on our kitchen table.
“We’re going to watch the game on TV,” Jordyn announces. “It starts at seven.”
“Yeah, okay,” is my automatic response, because that sounds like a good time. But then I remember it’s a school night, and I’m supposed to be a responsible parent. “You can watch until your bedtime.”
She wrinkles up her cute little nose. “Can we go to a game in the stadium? Do you get free tickets?”
“I’m not sure how that’s going to work.” Technically I could watch any game from the press box. But I don’t think they allow children. “After I settle in, I’ll ask around.”
“Hockey players are cool,” she says gleefully. “Do you think Hudson Newgate will give me his autograph?”
“Uh…” I honestly don’t know how to get her off the topic of Hudson Newgate. It’s bad enough that he’s living rent free in my own head.
“Let your dad get to know the people first,” Reggie says. “Before he starts asking for favors.”
“Okay,” she says. “Maybe he’ll teach me how to play hockey! And Daddy can invite him over for dinner.”
Reggie laughs. “Wouldn’t that be fun?”
I hold back a groan and start unloading the groceries. This kitchen is decent for a New York apartment, but I’m not used to it yet. My mind is chaos, and so are my cabinets.
Uprooting your life is hard.
As if I weren’t busy enough, my phone begins to trill from my pocket. “That must be Grandma,” Jordyn says. “Everyone else texts.”
Reggie and I laugh because it’s true. And when I check my phone, I see that my daughter is right. So now I have a moral quandary. On the one hand, it’s not good parenting if Jordyn sees me blowing off Eddie’s mother.
But, Lord, I do not want to talk to that woman after a long day. She’s never liked anything about me. Not my job, which she saw as inferior to her son’s. Not my attitude, which she finds frivolous. She always saw me as Eddie’s boy toy, and when he asked me to marry him, she was legit shocked.
The phone stops ringing, giving me an out. “I’ll call her back after I get dinner going.”
“Put me to work,” Reggie says. “I’ll help.”
