Page 20 of Offside for Christmas
"I was..." She swallowed. "I was in the neighborhood."
"You were in the neighborhood of the pub at 8 AM on a Tuesday?"
"I could have been."
"Ellie." Sophie set down her mug and leaned forward, expression shifting from amused to gentle. "You like him."
"I don't even know him."
"But you want to. That's why you're so annoyed."
Ellie's chest tightened. "I'm not doing this again."
"He's not Marcus—"
"Don't." Ellie cut her off before Sophie could say the name. "Just... don't."
Sophie was quiet for a moment, then tried a different approach. "What if it's different this time?"
"It won't be." Ellie stared into her coffee. "He's already counting down the days until he can leave. Six weeks. He's made it pretty clear Evergreen Cove is just a stop on the way to somewhere better."
"That doesn't mean—"
"It means exactly what it always means with guys like him." The bitterness crept into her voice before she could stop it. "Hockey players with their eyes on the NHL don't stick around. They don't choose small towns. They don't choose..." She stopped herself.
They don't choose me.
Sophie reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "You can't protect yourself from everything, El."
"I can try."
The words hung in the air between them, and Sophie's expression softened with understanding and something that looked a lot like pity.
"Babe." Sophie reached across the table and took her hand. "It's okay to want something for yourself. Even if it's complicated. Even if it scares you."
"I don't want him," Ellie said, pulling her hand back. "He's leaving. Why would I set myself up for that?"
"A lot can happen in six weeks."
"Not to me." Ellie finished her muffin and wiped her hands on a napkin with more force than necessary. "My life is here. It's stable. Simple. Predictable."
"Boring?"
The word landed like a slap.
"Fulfilling," Ellie corrected, but it came out defensive.
Sophie just looked at her with those knowing eyes, the ones that had seen Ellie at her lowest point after Marcus, the ones that knew exactly what she was running from.
"If you say so," Sophie said gently.
Ellie spent the rest of the day trying to focus on work—updating patient files, ordering new equipment, reorganizing the supply closet for the third time this month—but her mind kept drifting back to Cole's apartment.
To the way he'd looked when he admitted he never unpacked because he'd been traded so many times.
To the pain in his voice when he talked about losing everything.
To that brief, unguarded moment where she'd seen past the anger and the sarcasm to something raw and real underneath.
