“Yes, but you see her a lot more than I do, so I was justcurious.”
“Well, unless there’s something she’s not telling me, she seems fine.” She exchanged glances withTrent.
“What?” Iasked.
“She’s been talking about a job offer in Australia she’s starting toconsider.”
“But she already has a job in San Francisco.” That she was returning to soon. She’d even hired the nanny lastweek.
Kelsey bit her lip. I was definitely missing somethinghere.
“Tell me,” I said, a little more forcibly than I should have, if the don’t-shoot-the-messenger look Trent threw me was anything to go by. “Look, I don’t want to see her leave. I love her and I love ourdaughter.”
“I know, but you’re not around anymore and things won’t get better if you land a contract back in Canada or with another team. Doesn’t Holly at least deserve to fall in love with a man who will be there for her and Lily? Doesn’t she deserve a man who wants to spend the rest of his life with her because he can’t imagine being with anyone else? He can’t imagine a life without her.” She reached for Trent’s hand and threaded her fingers withhis.
“So I’m supposed to give up my hockey career forher?”
“No, but why do you want to marryher?”
“She told youthat?”
Kelsey’s confused frown returned. “You didn’t suggest you two should getmarried?”
“Yes, but she shot medown.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes as if I was a complete and utter moron—and maybe I was. “How did you propose toher?”
“Well…” The conversations Holly and I’d had leaked into my dumbass brain. Not once had I actually proposed to Holly. Even though I had told her I loved her, I had still made it sound like a business arrangement between us. I had made it sound like the only reason I wanted to marry her was to keep her from being deported if she ever lost her job and to keep from losing mydaughter.
And so she could join me if I was offered a contractelsewhere.
“You didn’t, did you?” Kelsey’s tone was sympathetic more than anything else—and further confirmed that I was anidiot.
I sank back in my chair and shook my head. “No, Ididn’t.”
Not once had I considered telling Holly exactly how much I loved her and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Not once had I let her know what was really in my heart. So in the end, no matter how much I’d try to do otherwise, I had been like my oldman.
Shit.
“If it counts for anything,” Kelsey said, “she really does love you, and I don’t think she wants to go back to Australia. She just wants to do what’s best forLily.”
Kelsey said something else but I didn’t hear her. I was too busy figuring out how to show Holly how much I loved her and wanted to marry her because ofthat.
I was too busy figuring out how to propose toher.
37
Holly
There’san age-old debate as to whether God is a man or a woman. Now, if I actually believed in God, I would completely go with the mantheory.
Why?
Because a woman—or at least one who had attempted juggling a diaper bag, baby, stroller with infant car seat attached, suitcase, and everything else she needed while traveling—would have ensured woman-kind sprouted an extra arm or two whenever she gave birth oradopted.
Although an extra friend or two also worked well in apinch.
As I pushed Lily’s stroller toward the luggage carousel at LaGuardia Airport, Kelsey rushed over and hugged me. She then peered down at Lily, who had fallen asleep the moment I put her in her infant car seat after walking off theplane.
