“I know.”
“Give it three hours and she's going to be asking for her cell and looking at rankings and ratings and making predictions for the playoffs.”
When Eddie snorted, warmth bloomed in my chest. I grinned over at him. “And you know, two or three weeks at my place means she's going to be absolutely in her element and lapping up every moment of her recovery.”
“What? But we c—”
The shake of my head cut him off. “Just think how happy she'll be recovering at my house. No school.” The leap of my heart as I waited for his response was as ridiculous as it was dangerous.
A few weeks in a shared space was my idea of bliss. Obviously, the reason wasn't ideal, but if it made me an asshole that I was happy about it, I'd wear a pin with pride.
“You sure?”
My nod was immediate. “Of course. You know you guys are always welcome.”
“What about your schedule?”
I mentally went over my next few weeks. “I’ve got five days before our first playoff game. It’s at home. All the rest after the first round depends on if we win—”
“You’ll win.”
My heart flipped at the steel in his voice. Fuck, I hoped we did, but we were playing the second seeded team, so who the hell really knew what would happen?
“Well, when we do play away, it won’t be for long before I’ll be home again for two or three days. You being at the house for me to come home to? Hell yes! There's not a lot of hardship in that. It’ll make up for you guys not being able to watch in person.”
And I meant every word. Eddie's gaze roamed my face, his attention drifting between my eyes. Whatever he saw seemed to make him relax.
“Okay, yeah. Thanks.”
“It’s more than okay.”
I led him away to the private waiting room, still gripping his hand. From the way he squeezed and didn't let go for pretty much the whole two hours of waiting, I was more than happy to pretend this was normal, and that both Eddie and Lottie were mine to take care of.
The problem was, after two or three weeks, how would I let them go?
CHAPTER7
EDDIE
“I don’t know when.It’ll all depend on her recovery.”
“It all seems so convenient that it happened while you were in Minnesota so you can cozy on up to Pearce.”
My skin flashed hot, anger thick and fast as it clawed up my throat. “You think my daughter being in agony and needing fucking emergency surgery is convenient?”
“No, of course not.” Wayne’s tone turned placating. “But it’s only appendicitis, right?”
I couldn’t take anymore. Not from this asshole. It would be a shitty thing to do to break things off on the phone, right? But I was oh so tempted. “I have to go. Lottie’s napping and will be waking up soon.”
“I have to go too. I’m due at Lionel’s party in a couple of hours.”
Of course he fucking was. “Uh-huh.” It was all I could manage before ending the call. Pulling my phone away from my ear, I shot daggers at the thing, wishing Wayne and I had been face-to-face so I could do what I should have done a long time ago.
“That sounded like it went well.”
I jumped at Pearce’s voice. Leaning against the doorframe of Lottie’s hospital room, he looked every bit as pissed off as I did. I’d ventured out into the corridor once Lottie had settled into a nap after another dose of painkillers, to give Wayne a call and let him know what was happening. We’d been due to go the Lionel’s party together tonight, which clearly wasn’t happening for me. Not that I wasn’t relieved. Lionel, one of Wayne’s friends who I knew he hooked up with, was a certifiable asshole.
“You young guys,” I started, “you’re all okay with calling things off via phone, right?”
