“Don’t,” Gabby muttered too. “Don’t say a thing.”
She headed off toward the kitchen, leaving me in my entryway, the house near silent except for the sound of my fridge opening.
Not exactly the way I’d planned to spend the day after we won the Stanley Cup.
“You sure know how to set the world on fire.”
Alix’s chuckle was heartier than my responding one. “Yeah. That was the plan.”
“Damn. How’d that happen?”
It hit me then, how many times we’d have to tell the story. How old it was already getting and barely half a day had gone by.
Less than an hour after the shitty departure from Gabby’s family, Garrett returned with her suitcases. I’d stayed far enough back to give them privacy, close enough to step in in case he decided to pull a Rachel and leave with a shitty comment. Fortunately, he didn’t.
I’d hauled her bags upstairs to the guest room overlooking the pool, two doors away from mine while Gabby had herself a glass of wine. Then she disappeared into the room, barely looking at me, sipping her wine and muttering how she was going to unpack. It was strange, knowing I was going to be living with another woman after being married for so long, and on the flip side, I liked it.
Maybe it was the fact I was the youngest of a family of six, but I’d spent so little time alone growing up, then roommates in college, the quietness ate at me.
A few minutes later, when I’d gone to pick up the phone to begin returning some of the thousand phone calls, my jaw had dropped and I’d forgotten the English language when Gabby reappeared.
Wrapped in a beach towel she must have found in my hall closet, her figure was completely hidden behind it, but the two straps at her shoulders told me she’d thrown on a swimsuit. With her glass of wine in one hand, her phone in another, her cheeks turned a hot pink when she nodded toward my backyard. “Do you mind if I get in the hot tub?”
“It’s your house now, for the time being,” I’d told her, somehow managing to shove my tongue back in my mouth and remembering I did know words. “You can do whatever you want. Any time. And I mean that.”
She’d thanked me, padded outside on bare feet and before I could watch the towel fall from her, revealing all that smooth, olive skin, I’d put my back to her, only to get Alix’s laughter ringing in my ear.
“Long story neither of us remember that much but don’t go repeating that because that’s not the story we’ll be spinning later.”
“No shit?” He choked on his laugh. “Lemme guess, you talked to Miles?”
My agent had been my first call.
“More like he talked at me, but pretty much. We have to sit down, spin this as some love at first sight bullshit basically. And now, all the wives are invited to the parade on Thursday. You’re welcome by the way.”
“Geez. Way to fuck over us single guys. Now we gotta stand there looking all happy and shit with that cup in our hands while you huddle up with your women. I’m so damn disappointed.”
“Fuck off.”
There was a reason he was my best friend. His faded Swiss accent and dry humor pretty much ensured everything and anything he said came across making him sound like an asshole.
“So, you going to fill me in on the true version or not?”
“Someday over beers, but mostly I wanted to return your call. Today’s been a shit show and we’ve already had to face down our families. Frankly, I want to grab a bottle of whiskey and get plastered.”
As the thought hit me, my eyes trailed to the hot tub. Where Gabby was. Practically naked. Drinking.
Seemed like she had a similar idea to me.
“Is this good? You know…”
“I don’t even fucking know, man.” I ran a hand through my hair and scraped it down my beard as I sighed. Out the back door, I could barely glimpse Gabby’s hair piled on her head. The hot tub was mostly hidden from view from my spot in the kitchen, and while I could take three steps to see her, I stayed where I was.
She was tempting enough fully clothed or dressed in my pajamas. I wasn’t sure what self-control I’d have if I caught a glimpse of her in a bikini. Enough thoughts were conjuring at the mere idea of her being a vision in scraps of fabric. The reality could prove too tempting.
“What do you mean you don’t know? I mean, Dominick… hell, even Max I could see.”
No shit. Max was the life of the party, recently broken up with a puck bunny no one but he liked and even then I doubted he found her all that enjoyable when they were both clothed. Hell, even our center Kane, also recently divorced, scored more tail than I had since mine.
Sighing, I dragged my gaze off the windows, the view of Gabby tipping the wineglass to her lips. “It might sound insane but there’s something about her… I barely know her, and you’re right. This isn’t me. On the other hand, I thought Lenora was my one and only forever, so why would I have done this had I not felt something for her?”
“You are not usually a man who runs by the seat of his pants. That is for sure.”
“It’s fly.” I laughed, unable to help it. Alix had been in the United States for over a decade but he still butchered random sayings. “Fly by the seat of your pants.”
“That does not make any sense. You do not fly in pants.”
“That’s not the point,” I said, still laughing. “But I hear you. I don’t do spontaneous.”
Outside the glimpse of ring shopping I had earlier, I hadn’t been able to remember much more other than hazy flickers of her giggling, smiling, eyes glistening with happiness as she threw her head back and laughed. I wouldn’t have married a woman solely because she laughed prettily. Marriage meant too much for me to base it on something so frivolous. There had to be something we hadn’t put together yet.
“Listen, I’m sorry to cut this short. I’ll explain it all someday soon, but for now, just keep this between us. Okay?”
“I have your back. Always, brother.”
“Thanks, man.”
As I hung up, I decided the rest of the voicemails from my team could wait.
We might have made a mistake, but I was exhausted from repeating that all day. More exhausted from thinking about it. We might not know why, but surely there had to be a reason.
We needed time to figure out if whatever connection we felt last night was real, something long lasting. The only way to do that was to spend time together.
Which meant I was getting half-naked in the hot tub and joining Gabby.
Really, not the worst way to spend a day with my wife.
9
Gabby
How embarrassing. Absolutely humiliating. Not surprising, considering it was my mom and it didn’t matter what I did, it was usually the wrong thing. Go to college and get a degree. I chose cosmetology school. Find a stable guy. The guy who will set your heart on fire but keep your feet on the ground. I dated those and lost everyone, not through most faults of my own but I figured Mom would think that once she found out what Kurt did to me. Were you there for him enough? As if his inability to keep it in his pants during the workday and wait until he got home was my fault.