Page 108 of Center Ice
“You’re here?”
“Yes. And it’s freaking cold out here, so unlock the door, please.” I don’t think he’s going to refuse to let me in, but I play up the fact that I’m waiting in the cold, just in case.
“Hold on.” I hear his footfalls as he walks through his otherwise silent condo, and then there’s a buzz, followed by a click, and I push the ornate wood and glass door open. I’ve never been so glad to walk up four flights of stairs as I am now, because by the time I reach his door, I’m already warm again.
He’s standing in his doorway when I approach the top landing, and he’s in nothing but a towel.
“Do you have any idea how confused and embarrassed and frustrated I am right now? Drew, what the hell is going on?” I put my hand on his chest and push him back into his entryway, shutting the door behind me. I can tell he wants to talk to me, or he wouldn’t have let me in so easily, but he also clearly doesn’t know what to say. “Talk to me.”
He folds his arms across his chest and leans back against the wall. “I’m just under a lot of pressure and trying to deal with it all. I’ve never had to consider anyone’s feeling but my own before, and I fucked up at the game a few days ago, and I just feel like everything is imploding around me. I can’t drag you both into that with me. I might just…need some space for a bit.”
My stomach drops, and then anger flares through me. But I think about Lauren’s words. He can’t fight for us right now, but maybe what he needs to see more than anything is that I’m willing to.
“Hell no! You don't get to promise me forever—the marriage, the family, the house, everything—and then start to pull away because things are stressful.We don’t do that to each other.”
He won’t even look me in the eye as he just stares down at the floor.
“Drew, there are going to be hard times in our life and in our relationship, but we have to deal with them, and get through them, together.”
He looks up at me then. His eyes are so full of anguish that it has me worried. “And what if we can’t?”
“Why wouldn’t we be able to?”
His nostrils flare, and then he says, “I’m being traded.”
I stumble back a step into the wooden door behind me, but I’m glad to have it there because it might be all that’s holding me up at this point. “What?”
“It’s not definite, but it looks likely.”
“Where?”
“Las Vegas.”
How is this possible? He’s only been back for a couple of months. “But you’re having a great season. You’re on the first line. You’re staying out of the penalty box like AJ told you to. You got a goddamn hat trick in the last home game. Why would they trade you?”
“We need another goalie, and Vegas needs another center.”
That’s an odd trade, but it must make sense or AJ wouldn’t be pursuing it. She doesn’t seem like the kind of person to make any decision that isn’t incredibly well thought out.
“When will you know for sure?” I ask, swallowing roughly.
“I don’t know. A lot of times you don’t even find out about this stuff until the day the trade happens. In this case, Jameson had a bit of a heads up and told me.”
“When?”
His throat bobs, and there’s nothing but guilt in his eyes.
“When, Drew?”
He tightens the towel around his waist as it starts to slip, then admits, “When I was in Tampa.”
“You’ve known forthree daysand you’re just telling me now, and only because I followed you home and demanded an explanation?” Now I understand why Jameson was yelling at him. He must have assumed Drew had already told me. “Why didn’t you tell me when you found out?”
“Because I don’t know what to say, okay!” Drew’s voice cracks and his eyes fill with tears, and it’s fucking heartbreaking to see him like this. “It’s like someone handed me every amazing thing I could have ever wanted in life and now it’s all being ripped away!”
“What’s being ripped away?”
“You and Graham!”
