I woke up several hours later, feeling like I hadn’t slept at all. The midmorning sunlight streamed into the room through the gap in the curtains. I glanced at the alarmclock.
Shit, it was already nine minutes afterten.
Not surprisingly, Holly wasn’t next to me in bed. Nor were she and Lily in the other room. But there was a note on the kitchencounter:
Lily and I have gone for a walk to explore this fine city. Be backsoon.
LoveHolly.
I sent her a text.Where areyou?
She replied a minute later.Teaching Lily the fine art of shopping in a foreigncountry:)
Tell me where you are and I’ll joinyou.
She texted me and we agreed to meet at a cafe near her location. I arrived a few minutes before they did and was already seated when they entered. Holly spotted me and walked over to my table, Lily happy in her frontcarrier.
I stood up and kissed Holly briefly, then kissed Lily’s head. “How’s my baby girldoing?”
Lily gurgled and cooed and drooled heranswer.
I helped Holly remove her from the carrier, then sat back in my seat with my daughter in myarms.
“What can I get for you to drink?” the college-age waitress asked as Holly and I were studying our menus. Then she looked at me and her eyes went wide. “Don’t you play for the Canadiens? My boyfriend and I are huge fans. We go to all the games. Well, we did until you made the playoffs. The tickets are tooexpensive.”
I’d never heard anyone talk that fast before. If there was a world record for it, she probably heldit.
Or was in training forit.
Lily cooed at the waitress andgiggled.
The girl smiled at her. “Ooh, aren’t you just the cutest little thing. Is this your daughter?” She looked between Holly andme.
“Yes, she is,” I told her, and smiled at Holly, proud at what she and I had accomplished together—even if Lily had beenunexpected.
“You guys look adorabletogether.”
We thanked her, and she took our order andleft.
“See—shethinks we’re great together,” I pointed out toHolly.
Holly chuckled. “She said welookgreat together, not that we are greattogether.”
“So you don’t think we’re great together?” I said it in a playful tone, but that wasn’t the emotion churning in the pit of mygut.
“Sure Ido.”
“But not enough for younotto consider Drew’s offer?” My tone wasn’t so playful thistime.
“How did you…? Right, the phone call from mymum.”
“So it’strue?”
What do professional hockey players do before they play against their opponent? They watch the team analysis video. They study the goalie’s and the players’ weaknesses and strengths. They never hit the ice without some sort of team strategy inmind.
They never hit the iceblind.
Yet here I was, asking if something was true when I had no idea what Drew was offeringher.
