Perfect for a Team Sex non-romantic like her.
She laughed out loud and danced down the float. Maybe it was the influence of Toni’s weird shots, or maybe it was the relief of making a decision. She wasn’t ready to go back to LA and that was the end of that.
Even if she took Darius out of the equation, she wasn’t ready. Emma needed her. As much as her feisty grandmother didn’t want to admit it, she couldn’t handle the entire harvest by herself, even with her helpers. Summer was almost here and Kate didn’t want to miss a minute of it.
She pulled out her phone to communicate her decision to her law firm before she could spend any more time agonizing about it.
Chapter Thirty-One
“This is a hockey stick. That’s a puck. The net’s thataway. You hit the puck with the stick into the net, no matter who tries to stop you, and that’s all you need to know about hockey.” Darius handed the stick to Dylan. The boy was gingerly testing the ice with the new hockey skates Darius had bought for him.
They’d finally made it to the Lost Harbor ice rink for Dylan’s first hockey lesson. Darius had started to suspect that his son was avoiding the rink, but how could that be possible? What could be more fun than hockey?
“You skipped the part where I get good at skating,” Dylan grumbled.
“I’m surprised your mom didn’t teach you. She and I used to skate at a rink in El Paso. She was great on skates. She used to dream about being a figure skater.”
“I didn’t know that.” Dylan slipped and clutched at the boards. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. Take your time. Get your skates under you, as they say. I’m gonna go say hi to some folks.”
Dylan nodded, his attention on the patch of ice right before him. Darius struck out across the rink to join Nate and Zander and a few others from the amateur team.
Maybe he was rushing it with this hockey thing, but he was just so eager to find a surefire way to bond with the kid.
“How’s it going, Dad?” Nate asked as Darius swirled to a stop next to them.
“Not too bad.” He glanced back at Dylan and winced as the boy wobbled again. “Skating might not be our thing. But we’re getting on okay. I want to get him into school, but it’s too late for this year. I need to line up a summer tutor so he can catch up.”
Zander paused in the midst of wrapping tape around his wrist. “So he’s staying on through the summer?”
“Maybe. I’m working it out with his stepfather back in Texas. Buck’s glad to have Dylan off his hands, at least for now.”
“And he wants to stay? He doesn’t miss his friends?” Nate asked.
Darius didn’t know the answer to that. Should he? Why didn’t Dylan talk about that stuff? “He doesn’t say much about what he wants. Zander, you know about boys. How can I get him to talk to me?”
Zander was raising his two younger brothers. Now that he’d gotten engaged to Gretel Morrison, he had help; but for years he’d been on his own.
Zander mulled that over as he tugged on his gloves. “You could bring him up to our place sometime. We just set up a basketball net. Sometimes things slip out.”
Darius smiled gratefully at the younger man. Zander was an ex-Marine and still had that posture that screamed military. He had a lot of respect for what the guy had done, leaving his career and taking on the care of his brothers. “We’ll do that. I’ll talk to Dylan about it. You guys are right, he could use some friends.”
Nate tap-tapped his stick on the ice in one of his warmup exercises. “I know S.G. likes him. A lot. I believe it’s a first-crush kind of situation.”
“No doubt. I don’t ask about that.”
Nate gestured for him to take a position a few yards away, and they began passing the puck back and forth. “Darius, I gotta warn you about something. I’ve overheard some talk at the firehouse. A few of the volunteers aren’t happy about…well, about Dylan.”
“What do you mean?” Darius slapped the puck back to Nate, who had to scramble backwards to stop it.
“They feel like he’s getting off easy with just community service. He admits that he set all those fires. We were lucky no one got hurt.”
Darius’ stomach clenched with tension. He didn’t give a crap about people’s opinions about himself. But when it came to Dylan—that was different.
“He’s a minor. He’s doing community service and restitution. Hasn’t missed a day. What do they think should happen?”
“I’m just letting you know that I’ve heard some whispering. That’s it. Don’t jump down my throat.”
Darius shook off his anger. Nate was right. He shouldn’t shoot the messenger here.
A crash from the other side of the rink made them all turn around. Dylan was sprawled face down on the ice as a younger boy skated away from him. Darius recognized him as the son of one of the volunteer firefighters. That kid was an ace hockey player who played on the peewee team. He was too skilled to have tripped Dylan by accident.
“Hey!” Darius skated across the ice toward Dylan and crouched next to him. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” He planted his hands on the ice and pushed himself up. Darius took his hands and gently turned them palms up. They were scraped and bloodied. “Whose genius idea was it to ride on top of a pair of knife blades?”
Darius helped him to his feet. “Did that boy trip you? What happened?”
Dylan refused to answer, which Darius took as a “yes.”
“I’ll talk to his father. That’s not okay.”
“No!” Dylan shook Darius’ hand off his shoulder. “Don’t. It’s a scrape. It’s no big deal. I just need to get these stupid-ass skates off my feet.”
He managed to skate toward the gate well enough, and stomped off the ice.
Darius planted his hands on his hips and circled the ice to cool himself down. Maybe it was an accident. Maybe the kid hadn’t intended to trip anyone.
But he had to face facts. Even before Nate had mentioned the “whispers,” he’d noticed something was off. There was a coolness in the way the crew treated him. Nothing blatant, nothing disobedient. Nothing that would require disciplinary action. But noticeable.
Maya had warned him the town might take a while to forgive Dylan. But how could he just stand by and watch his son get shunned?
He mentioned the problem to Kate while they were snuggled in each other’s arms that night.
Things had been a little strange between him and Kate since she’d dropped her bombshell about her old law firm wanting her back. He hadn’t pushed her about it.
He didn’t want her to leave, but how could he ask her to stay? Please, Kate, I wish you’d stick around for the great sex and the fucking confusing new parenthood scene. Sounds fun, right? Even more fun than being a hotshot lawyer with a fancy car?Yeah, thought so.
Instead of some bullshit like that, he’d decided to wait and see what she decided. If he had to deal with her leaving, he would. But he wasn’t going to do that until he absolutely had to.
In the meantime, he kept sneaking upstairs every chance he got.
“Kate, you still awake?”