Page 57 of Hot Puck
With the new gym I can start training sooner than later. I hadn’t planned on it taking as long as it has to set up, but now that it is, I’ll be taking advantage of any free time I have around caring for the girls.
“He signed it!”
The shout from behind makes me jolt upright and I spin around. Gem is standing in the doorway waving a big wad of papers. It doesn’t take a genius to know what they are.
“You’re divorced?” I say as I push to my feet.
“Yes. Finally.” She lowers the bundle and fans through the pages. “I think the threat of taking away all the money did it.”
I haven’t been privy to the negotiations with her ex, but I have overheard enough to know she drew a line and forced him to it. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
She stops moving, her eyes zipping up to meet mine. “Why would you ask that?”
“It cost you a lot of money and property to get his signature.”
“Not as much as it would have if he hadn’t been a prick and tried to squeeze me for more. It took a while, but he finally worked out I wasn’t fucking around when it came to reducing his payout by five million every day he didn’t sign.”
I don’t like seeing the effect her ex has on her. It makes me want to hunt him down and remind him how to be a gentleman. I might not get into fights during a game—my position leaves me out of ninety-nine percent of them—but I know how to throw a punch.
To take our minds off the man and put it squarely on the happy part of her relationship with him, I say, “Dinner will be a celebration then.”
“One between you and me, right?”
“Of course. But aren’t you going to tell Oakley, Blake, and Cami?”
I’ve only met Oakley so far, and only because I had a meeting with my agent and the Rogues’ owner when I signed my deal the second day we were in Baton Rouge.
“No. Not yet. I’ll probably mention it next week at our monthly cocktail hour.”
“Cocktail hour?”
“Once a month we get together like we used to before we started Rogue sportswear.”
“A business meeting with alcohol?”
“No. A best friends get together. For a few hours we try not to talk about work at all.” She shrugs. “Sometimes we don’t have a choice, but most of the time we stick to the rule of no shop talk.”
“I assume Oakley and Blake leave their husbands at home.”
“Yes. Their kids too. Although baby Drew came for the first few months of his life.”
“How old is he again?” I think he’s around the same age as Candace but I’m not sure.
“Um…eight months?”
I laugh. “Is that a question.”
“Kind of. He was born at the end of last year…so no, he’s seven months?”
I can’t hold in a second laugh. “Let’s leave it as a couple of months older than Candace for now.”
“Oh. I never even thought. They’re almost the same age.”
“Where are you taking us for dinner?” Cass interrupts us, stopping beside us, dripping water all over the ground.
“Where’s your towel?”
“I’ll get it in a second. So?” She ignores me and looks at Gem.
