Page 12 of Canadian Boyfriend

She looked at me like I was a few sprinkles short of a sundae. This wasn’t working out the way I’d hoped. I leaned forward, contemplating going with the truth. Why not?

“Look, Olivia is struggling. More than you see—she loves your class, so she’s nice to you. I’m struggling, too. I’m racked with guilt about going back to work. I’m racked with guilt over how much I’m leaning on Lauren. Basically, I’m racked with guilt, period. If you can’t do it, or don’t want to, that’s fine. I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but I can easily afford to lend you a car. Or you can use your own—I didn’t realize when I hatched this plan that you were going to be buying one. And you can name your price.”

“My price for what?”

“Well, obviously, I’d be paying you.”

She looked at me for a long time, and I could not read her expression. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“Did you go to college?”

Thatwasrandom. And possibly a little insulting? Was she trying to say I wasn’t smart enough for her? I was well aware of my shortcomings. If I hadn’t made it in the NHL, I would probably be pouring coffee at Tim Hortons with my dad.

“Did you play hockey in college, I mean,” she clarified. “NCAA hockey?”

“No. I didn’t go to college. I played in the WHL.” She looked confused, so I added, “Western Hockey League—a junior league in Canada.”

“You wouldn’t do both?”

“‘Both’ meaning go to college and play in the WHL?” She nodded. Wow, shereallydidn’t know hockey. I continued to appreciate that fact, even as I was confused by this line ofquestioning. “No. The NCAA considers the WHL a pro league, so if you play in it, you’re ineligible to play NCAA hockey at US schools.”

It occurred to me that maybe Aurora’s questions weren’t laden with hidden meaning. She didn’t know me, not really, and I was asking her to take responsibility for my kid. Maybe this was her way of doing a background check. I had done a version of the same, via Google and Gretchen Miller. If that was what Aurora was doing, I was, uncharacteristically, happy to talk about myself. “I played major junior hockey in Canada—that’s hockey for guys aged sixteen to twenty. I moved to a town in northern Manitoba for it. They put you up with local families, kind of like being an exchange student, and you play hockey and finish high school at the same time.”

She was looking at me intently, like she was trying to solve a math problem. “So you didn’t play normal high school hockey?”

OK, she was definitely checking me out, which actually reflected well on her as a babysitter. I relaxed. “For my original high school at home? I did for one year, but not after I started in the WHL. After that I spent a few years in the AHL—that’s the American Hockey League, which is the development league for the NHL. I played in Chicago, which is where I met Ivan, Lauren’s husband.” Also where I’d met Sarah. I paused, eyeing Aurora. Did she want more? “When I got called up, we moved to Raleigh. From there I went to Tampa. I was traded here five years ago, which I was happy about, as the South is not for me.”

“OK,” Aurora said decisively. “I’ll do it. But I don’t want you to pay me. I’ll take the loaner car in lieu of payment.”

“I can’t not pay you.”

“Here’s the thing. I recently got dumped.”

I sat back, surprised, though I didn’t know why. People got dumped. It was a thing that happened. It was just hard to imagine it happening to Aurora. But I liked the plainspoken way she said it.I got dumpedinstead ofI went through a breakupor something vague.

“So I’m paying more rent than I have been historically—he left, but I’m still in the apartment. Then my piece-of-crap car died.”

“I’m sorry about the breakup,” I said, because it was what I was supposed to say.

“It’s OK.” She cocked her head and looked into space, like she was surprised by the revelation. “It’s really OK.”

“Yeah?” I pressed, though I had no idea why. It was none of my business.

“I have a history of bending myself to please other people, and sometimes, when you stop doing that, it’s an unexpected relief.” She shook her head while I was absorbing that simple yet deep observation and said, “My point is, this stretch without a car has been a big pain. I can walk to my other job, but getting to and from the studio has sucked.”

Other job. I hadn’t known about that.

“I’m also trying to pay off a bunch of student debt,” she went on. “So what do you say you lend me a car and I get to use it all the time, not just for taking Olivia home on Tuesdays? Then I don’t have to get a car loan. That’s worth more to me than whatever you’d pay me.”

I started to say that by all means she should use the car whenever she wanted. I had assumed as much and had planned to pay her on top of that. But something held me back. Aurora didn’t care that I was a hockey player. She had two jobs and student debt. I put all these things together to paint a pictureof a woman who needed to feel like she was entering into a fair arrangement. Her saving my bacon was worth any amount of money to me, but just because I could afford to throw a lot of cash at her didn’t mean she wanted me to. I understood having pride. I respected it.

I stuck my hand out, intending to revisit the issue of payment later but content to start our arrangement on Aurora’s terms. “Deal.”

We shook on it, and I noticed, as I had before when I’d been helping her up from the floor at Miss Miller’s, that the skin on her hands was freakishly soft. Which was followed immediately by my noticing that noticing such a thing was inappropriate. Anyway, we weren’t done yet. “I’m going to have to tell you some stuff about Olivia’s and my… situation.” I eyed the arcade area.

“I admit I have wondered about the different last names.” She winced. “But not in, like, a gross way.”

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