Page 113 of Center Ice
Three months ago, I couldn’t have even envisioned a world where Drew’s family and mine not only knew each other, but genuinely liked to spend time together. I couldn’t have imagined all the love that constantly surrounds us now. It’s the most perfectly unexpected gift, and I will be forever grateful.
“I do too,” Drew says, dipping his head to run his nose along my jaw. “I just didn’t realize that with you and Graham living here, and me always wanting to get you naked, there are going to be endless opportunities to practice my self-restraint. I don’twant to traumatize my kid.” He lets out a deep rumble of a laugh that’s barely audible.
“Pretty sure that you having the opportunity to practice self-restraint, both on and off the ice, is a good thing. And while Graham will get our days, you will have all my nights,” I assure him.
“Away games are going to be even harder now that I know what I’m missing at home,” Drew says. It’s not the first time he’s mentioned this, as the team has another week-long road trip coming up in a few days.
“We’ll manage,” I tell him. “Like we always do.”
“Can’t wait for you to see what I picked out for this trip,” he says with a grin. Every single time he’s away for more than a night or two, a new black diamond-patterned box arrives for me. At least it gives us both something to look forward to while he’s gone.
“We need to get back to our friends.”
Glancing at the stairs, he says, “Okay,” then opens the door to the hallway, and when we exit, Colt glances over from where he stands at the island and smirks at us.
“Colt totally thinks we were just getting it on in the stairwell,” I say to Drew as he exits behind me.
“Whatever. Let him think so,” Drew says, then puts his hands on my hips, pulling me back against him as he dips his head toward my ear. “Because even though it didn’t happen yet, I fully plan on fucking you on those stairs one of these days.”
“Sounds…uncomfortable,” I tease as I walk away toward the kitchen.
DREW
“What do you think of your new room?” Audrey asks Graham as I slip through the door from the hallway to his bedroom. His hair is still wet from his shower, and we’ve already gone through all the pre-bedtime rituals: brushing his teeth, picking out his pajamas, reading stories.
“It’s bigger than my old room,” he says as he climbs into his bed and settles himself, sitting up against his pillows.
“Sure is,” she says. I’m trying to figure out how she’s feeling about putting him to bed in a new house. She seems worried, but Graham seems totally fine. I don’t know how the kid isn’t exhausted.
After our friends and family left this afternoon, Audrey wanted a little time to get Graham’s room ready—she said she was fine living amongst boxes for a bit, but wanted to make sure everything in Graham’s room was unpacked so he’d feel right at home. I’d taken him over to the Esplanade—the park that runs along the Charles River in the Back Bay—and we’d thrown the football around, chased the ducks, walked all the way to the new park they just built, and then raced each other back.I’mexhausted just from keeping up with him.
“This room’s really quiet, though,” he says. “Dad, can you turn on the crickets?”
My throat tightens as the realization washes over me that he just called me Dad for the first time. He’s referred to me as his dad when talking to other people before, but he’s never addressed me that way. My eyes meet Audrey’s, and she appears to be having the same thought.
“Sure.” My voice comes out about an octave higher than usual. I turn to the dresser and hit the button for the white noise machine. It glows with a pale blue light, and the nighttime sound of crickets fills the air. “Is that better?”
“Yeah,” he says, moving his pillow so it’s flat on his bed, then laying down. “Can I have one more story?”
“Sure,” Audrey says, “but just one.”
“Will you stay too?” Graham asks me.
“Of course.” I take a seat on the end of his bed, facing Audrey where she sits next to him so he can see the book as she reads to him. And as I watch them, I’m overcome with the exact same feeling I had in our kitchen earlier today. Gratitude. Complete and utter gratitude.
This could have gone so many other ways. If I hadn’t been traded. Or if Audrey hadn’t let me back into her life. Or if Graham hadn’t adapted to the idea of us as a family. There are so many other ways this all could have gone. And I’m so fucking grateful that we’re here now, together—the family I always wanted eventually, and didn’t even know I already had.
When we say goodnight to Graham, Audrey grabs the baby monitor off his dresser. She didn’t use one anymore at their old house, but their bedrooms were right next to each other. Now that we’re going to be sleeping down the hall, with a bedroom and bathroom between our room and his, I understand why she wants one. And it’s a good thing she has it, because I’m about to pull her out of our condo entirely.
In the hallway, I nod my chin toward the door to the stairwell we hid in for a moment of quiet. “Earlier today, when I pulled you in there, I really did want to show you something.”
“Does it involve sex on those stairs?” She gives me a little wink. “Because my back is sore from all the unpacking, and I really don’t think my body can handle that right now.”
“No, actually, that wasn’t on the agenda.”
She follows me up the stairs, and when I hit the lights and open the door to the roof deck, we step out to the amazing view.
Below us, the now bare branches of the trees along the grassy expanse of the Esplanade stretch along the muddy Charles River, so dark at night that it’s perfectly black. On the other shore, the white dome of MIT’s most prominent building is litup, and the lights of the other Cambridge buildings make them glow.
