“And I do like the Glaciers. It’s a great team. Good teammates, a coach who knows how to push us, supportive management, and an incredible fan base. I’m just not sure if I can play my best here. There are too many things I keep running into that take me back to that person I hated being.”
He let out a long breath, stopped pacing, and looked up at Katie. “But I don’t know— what do you think?”
He had been so focused on trying to put all that was swirling around in his head into words that he hadn’t even noticed what his words were doing to her. And right now, she had an incredible amount of pain on her face. Slowly and carefully, she said, “I think that if you’re so unhappy here, you should put in the trade request.”
Taking two steps toward her, he knelt down just in front of her knees. “Katie, listen. You know this isn’t about you at all, right?”
“Yeah, I get that it’s not about me. I didn’t before this conversation, but I do now.” She stood. “Listen, it’s late, and it’s probably still snowing, so I should really go.”
He hadn’t even been thinking about the snow. He pulled out his phone to check the weather and road conditions as he followed her out of the room. All of the lights in the house were off except for the one nearest the front door, so her parents must’ve already gone to bed. Which wasn’t surprising, given the time.
“The snow plows are no longer keeping up,” he said as they reached the living room, still scanning info on his phone. “It says that emergency vehicles can’t get to people who are stuck, and they recommend not driving.”
She was still putting on her coat, though. The feelings of comfort and bliss that had surrounded them as they’d looked through the photo album were gone, replaced by an uneasy tenseness.
“You should stay,” he said. “You can sleep in your old bed— I can sleep on that giant sectional couch in the family room.”
She finished zipping up her coat and turned to him. “Connor, my parents offered you a place to stay. Not only if there was any ‘room at the inn.’ You have a reserved room. I do not.”
He stepped closer to her. “I really don’t mind.”
Instead of closing the gap between them even more, as he had hoped, she turned and grabbed one of her boots and put it on. “Connor, I’m not staying.”
He wanted her to stay because he wanted to know that things between them were okay. But even more than that, he wanted her to be okay. And going out into the snowstorm wasn’t the best way to do that. He walked over to the window and moved the curtains to look out. While they’d been talking and Katie had been telling him stories about her childhood, the amount of snow on the ground had doubled. It always amazed him how the skies could dump so much snow and do it without making a sound.
He turned to face her. “Would you like me to drive you home?” He grinned, trying to lighten the mood enough that she would take him up on his offer. “I have chains on my tires now.”
“I don’t need my hand held. I’ve been driving on snow-covered roads since I was sixteen. I am not inexperienced.”
They sometimes got snow in Charlotte, but it was rare and never more than just an inch or two, so she definitely had him beat in experience. He’d spent a couple of winters living in Mountain Springs, though, so he knew how bad the roads could get. He motioned toward the window. “But that’s a lot of snow. There’s probably close to a foot of fresh stuff on the roads. How about you at least take my car?”
She just gave him a look before tugging on one of her gloves.
He held up his hands. “I know, I know. You’ve got this.”
“I do,” she said firmly and got out her keys.
He knew enough about Katie to know that trying to convince her even further would only backfire. “Will you at least text me when you get home to let me know you made it safely?”
She nodded and said, “I will,” which at least lightened the heaviness of his heart just a bit. She turned to leave but then turned back. “And Connor?”
“Yeah?”
“Merry Christmas,” she said, then took a couple of steps toward him and gave him a kiss on the cheek before turning and walking out of the house. He couldn’t help but feel like his heart was leaving with her.
seventeen
KATIE
Katie’s headwas a jumbled mess as she walked out of her parents’ house, leaving Connor behind. She got a text from her dad a couple of hours ago saying that they were going to bed, but if much more snow fell and she wanted help shoveling the driveway so she could get her car out, to just call or knock on their bedroom door. Or to feel free to not deal with the snow at all and just stay the night.
She didn’t knock or call. But when she got outside, she saw that her dad had already shoveled around her car and all the driveway behind it. Several more inches had fallen since he had. She got into her car to find a plate of food with a note from her mom taped to it.
Leftovers! Your car is at least as cold as the fridge, so I figured I’d bring them out so you didn’t forget them.
Maybe she should start wearing a pin to family things that saidJust because I’m the youngest doesn’t mean I’m still a kid. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as a little voice in her head said, “Your parents would do those things for any of their kids.” She ran her hands over her face, then pulled out of the driveway and started heading toward home. She was just upset because of what happened with Connor.
Why did she have to fall so fully for a guy who had one foot back in Charlotte and the other foot looking for a place away from Denver to land? It had only been eight days since he’d run into her at that department store, yet she already knew him so much better than she’d known any one of her past boyfriends. She already loved him more than any past boyfriend. How much more would she have a month from now, a year from now, if given the chance?
