“Good morning!”
It was so good to hear her voice, especially after the exhausting trip to Charlotte. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“Connor, it’s eleven o’clock. That would be ridiculous if you did.” She paused. “I’ve been up for a good ten minutes.”
He laughed. “I’m glad I didn’t call you when I first wanted to, then.”
“When was that?”
“The moment I woke up.” It was a confession he was surprised he said out loud, given the amount of time they’d been dating so far. But things with Katie were just different from anything he’d experienced before. “But since you were still working when I called you on the drive home last night, I figured I better wait. Did you finish?”
“I did.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “I got the footage from the hay ride— which was the last of it— sent to the Glaciers, and I got the video for tonight’s Allred family party finished at about four a.m.”
“Congratulations! You didn’t drool on the keyboard, accidentally edit in your snoring as the soundtrack, or leave a trail of Z’s in the captions, right?”
“Nope,” she said rather proudly. “I had enough caffeine in me up until the end. Of course, I can now hear colors and see sounds, so there’s that.”
“Then I will make sure to only wear the most melodious shades when I see you today.” He reached an intersection and pressed the button for the crosswalk. “I am just heading to my car right now, then I’ve got to stop back at my hotel to grab a bag with the few clothing items I have until my package from Laura shows up.” If he’d known it would take so long to ship during the holiday season and with weather delays, he would’ve just had her pack him a suitcase to take home with him last night.
“Has it already started snowing?”
The light for the crosswalk turned green, and as he started walking, he looked up at the snow that had been lazily falling from the sky when he’d first gone into that store but was now falling with a bit more enthusiasm. “Yep. It’s not too crazy yet, but I want to get up the mountain before the roads get bad.”
He was most of the way across the sidewalk when he noticed a family that was walking toward the crosswalk. Two kids— a boy and a girl who were both teenagers— and a mom who was holding hands with a dad.Hisdad. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you when I get close.” He hung up the phone and put it in his pocket just as he reached the other side where his dad had stopped in his tracks, as surprised to see Connor as Connor was to see him.
It had been ten years since Connor had last seen him, and all the pain of his dad not only moving out but deciding that he didn’t need them anymore hit him fresh.
“Connor,” he said, letting go of the woman’s hand and taking a step toward him. “It’s good to see you. I heard you were traded to the Glaciers.”
Connor hadn’t known where his dad was living for years. But he knew that Connor was back in Denver? So many questions filled his mind. More than he could take in, making the momentfeel overwhelming enough that he couldn’t even manage to say anything.
“I, uh, got remarried about a year ago.”
Connor’s eyes flicked to the woman and then to who he presumed were her kids. A boy and a girl, just like he had the first time around with Connor and Laura. Somehow, this felt like an even bigger betrayal.
“I’ve wanted to tell you.”
“Tell me what? That you found a family to replace us?”
“No, that’s— ”
“I’m sorry,” Connor said. “I’ve got somewhere I need to be before the roads get bad.” Then he turned away from them and hurried toward his car, not even pausing long enough to see the expression on his dad’s face. Whatever it was, it was more than he could handle right now.
Why did he have to get traded toDenver, of all places?
He felt the buzz of a text and pulled his phone from his pocket. It was a text from his agent.
I caught the game last night. You played well. Sorry, you weren’t able to pull a win out of it. That was rough, buddy. Just let me know when you’re ready for me to submit that trade request. It could cause strife between you and the GM, especially since they just worked so hard to get you, but it’s also good to give them a heads-up that you want to leave so they can keep an eye out for a beneficial trade. But it’d probably be best if you kept it from your teammates. If you don’t end up getting traded until the end of the season, you don’t want it causing ripples before then.
Connor didn’t respond to the text. He just turned his phone off, shoved it into his pocket, and kept on walking.
fifteen
KATIE
Katie stoodbeside her mom in their big kitchen, cutting up apples for the pies while her mom rolled out the pie crusts. Three of her sisters had arrived with their families, so the place was already filled with a lot of action, a lot of noise, a lot of delicious scents, and enough Christmas decorations that everything felt exactly like Christmas Eve.
A couple of her nieces were folding the red napkins that went with the Christmas place settings into origami shapes based on some “YouTube research” they’d done, while all the littler cousins were either playing with a car set just under the big Christmas tree or piling on top of a couple of her brothers-in-law.
