She cocked her head. “That’s a nice offer, but I’m not sure who I’d go with.”
“Maybe Jessica?”
She smiled. “Jess doesn’t go to a lot of games. But thanks, I enjoyed talking to her. I think we’re going to meet up again.”
Excellent. I wanted her to be comfortable with the women who hung around with my teammates. I was a little annoyed at Cooper pulling Callie away before she’d had a chance to talk to Katie, but tonight had been a big night for them, with the public outing. If that had been me and Katie, I wouldn’t have felt like sharing her attention with anyone either. Next time.
“The offer stands. Just let me know.”
“Thanks. I had a surprisingly nice time tonight.”
“Surprisingly?” I was a little offended, but at least she did have a nice time. I just wished she liked it enough to go again, because hockey was the biggest part of my life.
“I haven’t watched a game in years.” Since high school, maybe? “And I wasn’t sure what it would be like, meeting your teammates.”
“They’re nice guys.” Mostly.
“I’m glad you have them, Josh. You need friends, and they seem like good ones.”
“You too.”
She frowned. “Me too?”
“You’re a friend too.” A smile crossed her face, and I had to consciously stop myself from leaning over to kiss it.
“Yeah, I’m a friend too.”
Then she did open the door and head into her building. I watched until the elevator doors closed behind her.
We were friends. And that kiss showed we had chemistry.
How did I earn enough trust back that she’d combine those two, so we’d be together again?
Katie
Josh dropped me off and didn’t say anything more about the kiss. I was grateful, because I was thrown by it. The condo was quiet when I let myself inside, since Madeline was on the road. No distractions for my thoughts.
What the hell had come over me? Jealousy? Possessiveness? Dog in the manger-ness?
I needed to work this out, so I sent a quick text to Nora. With the time difference, she was probably asleep, but just in case…
My phone rang. “Nora? You’re awake?”
“The joy of being pregnant again. Leg cramps. Every time I lie down in bed they start up, and I don’t want to keep Arlo awake. What’s up, sis?”
Not a rousing vote for pregnancy. I dropped into a chair and tried to pin down what exactly was bothering me, and came up with “Josh.”
“Josh? Hockey player Josh? Ex-boyfriend Josh?”
“Yep.”
“Ah. He plays in Toronto now. Did you run into him?”
I gave her an edited update, not mentioning exactly how I ran into him. “He brought over some donairs and said he wanted to be friends. He apologized for how things happened in high school. And he told me Mom and Dad convinced him that breaking up with me was the right thing to do.”
Nora gasped. “They did? What? Give me a moment. Stupid cramps.” I heard sounds of her moving around. “Okay. I’m trying to remember what was happening then. That was around the time I told them I was pregnant, wasn’t it. I’m sorry, I didn’t have a lot of bandwidth to help you then. You went to Grandma’s, right?”
And after Josh had broken up with me, I hadn’t been helping her either. “Yeah. They suggested it, since I refused to go back to school. But now…well, now I’m wondering if they just wanted to make sure we didn’t get back together.”
