“That sounds nice.”
“He’s a great dad. He loves all our kids fiercely. I got so lucky when I met him at that bar seven years ago.”
“Only seven years?” I asked. “Seems like you’ve been together much longer.”
“Well, second marriage for me, and he was almost thirty-five when we met, so we felt like we needed to play catch-up with babies and marriage and all that.”
“I’m only twenty-seven, so I’m in no rush, but honestly, I don’t think Remy’s in a rush for something serious either. And he’s thirty-five.”
“You never know,” she said. “Toli was ready to settle down, but he said he waited to meet the right woman. It could very well be the same for Remy.”
“I don’t know. He’s leaving for Florida right after Christmas and I’m staying here, so I don’t think we have much potential for a future together and after dating for two whole weeks, I’m not comfortable bringing it up.”
“That makes sense.”
“He’s brought up doing a long-distance thing for a while, and that’s good for me.” I paused. “What about you? Do you want to move to Fort Lauderdale?”
She sighed. “It’s so hard. Toli’s only been retired a little over a year but he’s antsy, restless, and working part-time as a scout for the Sidewinders isn’t cutting it for him. I know he wants this job, but it means a lot of extra work for me. In Vegas, I have a huge support system. In Florida, I’ll have no one. And it’s different when you’re the coach’s wife. As a player’s wife, it was easy. The WAGs all stick together.”
“WAGs?”
“Wives and girlfriends.”
“Oh.”
“As the coach’s wife, I have to be a little more aloof, a little distant, because it could get complicated for him. He’s also fairly young to be a head coach. So the assistant coaches’ wives are much older than me, and none of them have young kids. I mean, AJ is only two.”
“I understand. So are you going to decline the offer?”
She met my gaze. “You’re saying Remy is going to offer him the job today?”
I nodded since it wasn’t a secret. “Yes.”
“He says he won’t take it if I don’t want him to, but I know how badly he wants this, so it boils down to compromise and sacrifice. Raina isn’t happy about the prospect, but the littles won’t know any better. The hardest part for Toli, I think, is being away from Anton.”
“Anton plays for the Sidewinders, right?”
Tessa nodded. “Yes, but I think if Remy offers Toli the job, we’re going to take it because even though it’ll be harder for me, I love him enough to want him to be happy.”
“I hope he appreciates you,” I said softly.
“Oh, he does. He’s…” Her voice trailed off and she smiled. “Honestly, he’s the absolute love of my life, the greatest man I know. He’ll do anything for me. Including give up this job. But I don’t want that for him.”
“I hope someone loves me like that someday,” I said after a moment.
“You may have already found him.”
I didn’t dare say that I hoped so out loud because I didn’t want to jinx anything.
Was Remy love-of-my-life-soulmate material?
Chapter Seventeen
Remy
* * *
“Tell me all the negatives,” I told Toli after we’d talked. “Give me a chance to change your mind.”
“It’s not my mind that needs changing,” he said quietly. “My wife has been through a lot and by moving, I go back to not being home much and ultimately taking away her support system. I don’t know if I can do that to her after what happened with our youngest son’s birth.”
I cocked my head. “Dare I ask?”
“I was on a road trip when she went into labor. She’d been having some weird complications and asked me not to go, but her OB said everything was okay, so I went. She collapsed, started to hemorrhage, and had to have an emergency hysterectomy. Meanwhile, I’m stuck in Chicago in a blizzard, and didn’t get home until the following day. My buddy from the team, Zakk Cloutier, was home with an injury, and he’s the one who found her and got her to the hospital. So even though we’re done having kids, I don’t know how I feel about putting her in the position where something might happen and she’ll be alone.”
“She’ll never be alone,” I said firmly. “I’m not going on the road with you guys, so I’ll be around. All she has to do is call. And I mean that.”
“I appreciate that.” Toli leaned back in his chair. “What it boils down to is, the one thing I’ve learned about marriage is that it has to be a two-way street, and so far, it’s been her making all the big sacrifices for me. Unless she’s on board, I can’t give you an answer. Believe me, I want this so bad I can taste it, but at some point, I have to do what’s right for my family. I missed most of Anton’s childhood because of hockey, and this time around, I want to be a hands-on dad. But the pull to be in the hockey world is strong as fuck.”
I chuckled. “Believe me, I’ve been retired five years and I still miss it. Every fucking day.”
“Well, if you have any ideas on how to convince Tessa this is a good thing for our family, I’m all ears.”
“The hockey lifestyle isn’t easy,” I said. “That’s partly why I stayed single while I was playing. But if you want the job, I’ll bend over backwards to make the deal attractive to Tessa. Just tell me what will motivate her.”
“I don’t know.” Toli’s eyes were shrouded as he looked down. “She’s not motivated by money, and you can’t sign all of her friends’ husbands.”
“Maybe not all of them, but if you give me some names, I can make at least one of them happen.”
“You drive a hell of a bargain, Mr. Knight.”
“I go after the things I want, and right now, what I want is you as the head coach of my hockey team.”
“Then you’ll need to pick up either Zakk Cloutier or Karl Martensson.”
I grimaced. “Jesus. Martensson’s one of the best goalies in the world—you think the Sidewinders will let him go?”
Toli shrugged. “That, my friend, is not my job.”
“Let’s see what I can do.”
* * *
We met up with the ladies about an hour later and it looked like they’d become fast friends. They were chatting about something Tessa had bought and only stopped long enough to say hello.
“I’m starving,” Tessa announced. “All that shopping made me hungry.”
“I’m hungry too,” Noelle agreed, opening the menu.
I’d chosen a high-end steakhouse, both because it was expected in a meeting like this and also because I wanted to spoil Noelle. She normally resisted going to the nicer restaurants, and I suspected it had to do with her not having the right clothes to wear, but regardless, we were here tonight. It wasn’t an overly fancy place, but the steaks were some of the best on the west coast and it was one of my favorite restaurants in Vancouver.