“Yeah, but you’re an adult now.” Grinning, Jaime lifted his mug. “Adults drink coffee.”
Eyeing a plate of baked goods, Declan dropped into a chair. “What’re those?”
“Muffins.” Jaime said it like it was obvious. “Scones.”
“Since when do you eat shit like that?”
“I don’t know.” He laughed. “I was being a nice fuckin’ host.” He shoved the plate toward Declan. “Just be polite and eat it.”
“I don’t eat that shit.” He gave a big, phony smile. “But thank you.”
“Asshole.” Jaime just shook his head. “So, last night didn’t go like I’d pictured.”
Guess we’re diving right into it. “It’s a complicated situation.”
“I think I wanted too much too soon.”
Yep. “And it’s not going to work like that.”
“No, I know. But if Booker and Cole walk away from this opportunity…” He sat back in his chair, running a finger along the rim of his mug. “Then, it’s over. They’re gone for good.”
“Nah. Cole bought a place here.”
“He did?” Jaime looked hopeful.
He nodded. “Plus, his dad still lives here. He’ll be back.”
“Booker won’t.”
“Not likely, no. He doesn’t have family here, and he’s got pretty bad associations with—”
“Us. Yeah, I know. And that’s on me. I apologized. Obviously, that’s not enough, but I don’t know what else to do.”
“We’ve got a month before anyone has to decide.”
“Yeah, but if they’re not here, then I can’t try and convince them. I wanted them to meet the team. I wanted…” He leaned forward. “I wanted us to be friends again.”
“Ah, man. I’ll be your friend.”
Jaime laughed, tossing a balled-up napkin at him. “Fucker.”
“Look, I get what you’re saying. You think they’ll go back to their lives and forget about this opportunity. And they might. But I can only speak for myself when I say there’s a lot more going on than the Renegades. Kurt didn’t tell any of us he was dying. We’re all floored that he’s gone. And the idea that he wanted to bring us back together, through the team he bought for us…no one’s going to forget about it. I think we all need time to wrap our heads around what happened.”
“That’s fair. I guess I just can’t see us getting anywhere unless we’re all in the same room, talking it out.” His friend watched him like he was waiting for an answer. A solution that would fix everything.
And Declan couldn’t do that. “Look, last night you apologized. There’s no better start than that.”
“And now what?”
“Take a trip to New York, meet Booker for dinner. Keep the conversation going.” He tapped the table. “Just…don’t have an agenda. Go because you want to catch up, not because you want him to forgive you.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I feel like such an asshole, starting out with a trip down memory lane.”
Especially when Booker’s last memory of them was a ride to the ER.
Jaime glanced up at him. “What about you? Are you going to do this with me?”
He knew he should. It didn’t make sense to turn down an opportunity like this, but he liked coaching. “Did you know I asked Kurt to let me start the training center? After Sam died?”
“No. He never said anything.”
“He shot me down. ‘Why would I do that when you’ve never finished anything in your life?’”
“Harsh.”
“Yeah, it was. But I never finished college, I never played in the NHL, and now I’ve been an assistant for seven years. If I stick with it, I can be a head coach. I don’t want to walk away before I get my shot.”
“I get it, but we’re talking about owning a team.”
“Yeah, I hear you. That’s why it’s a tough decision.”
“You know I’m coaching Mountain West, right?”
Declan nodded.
“Some of the Renegades run clinics for me in the summer, and I want you to come meet them.”
“I can do that.”
“Cool.” Jaime grew thoughtful. “I’ll tell you what. I’ve worked with a lot of teams now, and it’s only driven it home, that what we had was special.”
Declan understood that. “Kurt liked to say he’d never seen players so in sync as we were, and it’s because we grew up doing wild shit together. We’d built not only trust, but a way to communicate without words. We could anticipate what each other was going to do.” He tipped his chair back onto two legs. “I miss you guys, and I want to do this with you, but I don’t want to give up coaching.”
“I’ll figure it out. I will. I’m going to make this happen.”
“You can’t push them. They have to get there on their own.”
“No, I know. I’ll talk to Booker privately. Cole, too. And I’ll make a trip to New York. That’s a good idea. After we finish eating these delicious fucking muffins, I’ll walk over to Harrison’s office and see what he can do to keep the door open longer than a month. It’s all legalese anyway. He can word it however we like.”
“You’ll be a fat cat billionaire by the time I’m ready to own a team. By then, you won’t want to want to give up your share.”
Jaime’s expression faltered. “I’ve had money for a while now. I’ve done the big vacations and fancy cars. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun. But it’s not enough. There’s something missing, you know?”
“Nope. I’ve never had money. Probably never will.” He thought about Phinny out there all alone, visiting shops, looking at price tags she couldn’t afford. “Listen, I’ve got to get back to the ranch.”
“Not until you tell me about the codicil and Kurt’s hot daughter.”
“Oh. Yeah.” Declan picked up a muffin and examined it. Underneath the cinnamon crumble top, he thought he saw peaches and pecans. “Kurt’s pitted us against each other in a cage fight over his ranch.”
“What?” He laughed. “Why would he do that?”
“In one month, she and I go head-to-head in a trivia contest. Whoever gets the most answers right, wins the ranch.”
“That place is worth millions.”
A hell of a lot more than that, but Declan just nodded. “In the meantime, we have to live and work on it for the month.”
“Damn. I don’t know what he was thinking.”
“I’m pretty sure he just needed backup in case his daughter wanted to sell it. For whatever reason, he chose me.”
“It’s not for ‘whatever reason.’” Jaime chuckled. “It’s because you two always had a special relationship—”
“He felt sorry for me.”
Jaime cocked his head, looking surprised and confused.
“I was the orphan, raised by Sam.”
Jaime sat back in his chair. “I can say with absolute certainty no one thought of you like that. You were a total fucking badass. Even as a kid, you were bigger than everybody else. You didn’t say much, but when you did, everyone listened. And even with your size, you were better at hockey than all of us combined. Speed, agility, strength…everyone was in awe of you.”