She looks away. “I…um…I don’t know where they are.”
“You’re lying,” I state, confident that I’m right by the way she’s refusing to look at me.
I tuck two fingers under her jaw andforce her to look at me.
She does so shyly through her lashes. I swear, it makes my heart skip a beat.
I am so in love with this woman.
“They’re under my bed,” she whispers.
“Can I see them?” I repeat.
She sighs. “Do you really have to?”
“Only if you’re willing to show me. I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
Slipping from her stool, she steps right into me, her arms wrapping around my neck.
“I’ll show you if you promise not to mock me endlessly.” I smirk. “You need to remember I was a teenage girl with the world’s biggest crush.”
I shake my head. “Why didn’t I find you sooner?” I muse.
“Because then you wouldn’t be the man you are now, and you wouldn’t have Sutton.”
My hands freeze on her back, halting their descent to her ass. The thought of a life without my daughter is horrifying. “So you’re an everything-happens-for-a-reason kind of girl then?”
“Sometimes,” she admits. “Other times, I think life is just shit beyond belief for no reason at all.”
“Yeah,” I muse. “Can’t really argue with that.”
Ducking down, I brush my lips against hers as my fingers twist in the hair at the nape of her neck.
I kiss her until I fear I’m going to make her forget about these scrapbooks.
She’s panting and her lips are swollen when I pull back.
“Seriously?” she giggles, seeing what I want in my eyes.
“Yep.”
Taking my hand, she steps away from my legs before pulling me toward her bedroom.
She drops to her knees and opens a hidden drawer beneath her bed, pulling out a box.
She places it on the bed and knocks the top off.
Inside are two bulging scrapbooks, and soon, I discover that Casey has recorded more about my hockey career than even my mother has.
It’s impressive.
“This is?—”
“Crazy and embarrassing?” she asks quietly as I flip through the pages.
“No, Casey. It’s amazing. Sutton is going to love all of this. Thank you,” I say before looking up at her through glassy eyes. “Thank you so much.”
77
