“Whoa, I never expected that. This is all for show. You need help and I’m a helpful guy. No ulterior motives, I promise.”
I actually believed him. But then again, I’d believed Roger was a nice guy until he wasn’t, so my track record wasn’t the best lately, especially when it came to goalies.
“Fine, but we need to set actual parameters.” Was I really agreeing to this?
“Sure. What are you thinking? Maybe we could do this in person? You said you had a client coming in soon. What do you do, exactly?”
He’d now asked me about my job three times. He actually listened. That was...refreshing.
“I’m a child and family therapist at a local clinic.”
“Oh, wow. I bet you’re really helping so many kids. Hey, maybe we could do some outreach with the team? I love hanging out with kids.”
“Gabe. Focus.” My tone was slightly frustrated, but dammit, why did he have to be so sweet? Was it even genuine?
“Sorry, getting ahead of myself. Okay, so we could grab coffee or something? We’re in Vegas tomorrow, but I’ll be back tomorrow night since it’s such a quick flight, so I could do Friday. It would be like our first date. Maybe snap a pic for Insta, start a paper trail of our lurrrrve.”
I groaned.
“Sorry. Too much?”
“Okay. Coffee. Parameters.” I glanced at my schedule again. “I can do Friday afternoon at two. Does that work?”
“Sure. I don’t have practice or a game that day.”
“Sugar on Top?”
“Anna’s place?” he asked.
“You know her?”
“She’s dating Santa. The man hates sugar and ended up with a baker.” He chuckled. “Cracks me up every time I think about it.”
“Gabe.” This guy was all over the place. Goalies should have better focus.
“Yes. Two at Sugar on Top on Friday works great. I’ll be there.”
“Wonderful.” I could hear the slight snark in my tone.
“Dani, it’ll be fine. We’ll figure everything out, and Jenzy will be out of your life for good. Okay, I’ll let you get to work. Hope you have a good and successful day.”
“Uh, thanks. You too.” I stared at the phone as he ended the call.
What the fuck had I just agreed to? But I couldn’t think about it because Gloria was pinging me to let me know that Ryder and his mom Claire had just arrived.
I stood up, smoothing out my shirt as I walked toward the door.
“Hi, guys. Ryder, you ready?”
“Yup.” The teenager sounded like he couldn’t be bothered. I knew he’d warm up as soon as the door closed between him and his mother.
As we settled into our respective seats, I set my notebook aside and let Ryder talk. This was where my focus had to be every day. Helping kids and their families.
As stressful as my job was, I truly loved it, even when I hated it.
TUCKS
I drummed my fingers on the table at Sugar on Top that Friday afternoon. Dani had texted that she was running five minutes late, so I’d already grabbed her a few of my favorite treats, having told Anna that I was just meeting someone here. The fewer people who knew what was up, the better. If it all worked out, I’d probably end up cluing Dom and Micah in since they were there for my altercation with Jenzy and I’d already given them a few details. To anyone else who asked since the altercation, I’d just said Jenzy was running his mouth and it was nothing.
