Chapter 24

Josie

I step into my house and immediately lock my eyes on Reed. I missed him today while he was off gallivanting in New York with Marek to stop a wedding.

“Hey, you,” I say in a tone that comes out all sugary sweet because I’m happy to see him. “Thought you’d be waiting for me naked in bed.”

I walk in and shut the door behind me. Reed sits up on the couch and scrubs his hands over his face, and damn…he looks really tired. He just flew in a few hours ago, and I had been finishing my shift at the hospital. He’d sent me a simple text saying he was back and he’d tell me all about the trip when I got home.

“Sorry,” he says in a gruff voice that definitely sounds fatigued. “Guess I lost track of time.”

I think I might hear a tiny bit of anger in his voice, but I can’t be sure, and besides, I know he was only mildly annoyed at me for suggesting the trip with Marek. He even told me at dinner last night that it was definitely best that Marek confront this situation head on.

Reed leans back against the cushions and kicks his feet up on the coffee table as I walk toward him. His eyes follow me but he doesn’t open up his arms to me like I would expect him to. It makes me feel off balance as he just quietly watches me.

I try to brush off the weird feeling and sit on the opposite end of the couch, folding my legs up under me. “So, tell me everything that happened. Did Marek stop the wedding?”

“Yeah, the wedding got stopped,” Reed says as he rolls his head on the cushion to look at me. The disgust in his voice has me frowning at him.

“That doesn’t sound good,” I say hesitantly.

“Apparently Marek has a daughter he knew nothing about and discovered this little gem of information during the whole stopping-the-wedding process.”

“What?” I exclaim in surprise as I sit up ramrod straight.

“He confronted Gracen privately, and then this little girl walked into the room, and you could tell at a glance she was Marek’s. A big fight ensued. Then Gracen’s fiancé came in and another fight ensued over whether Gracen was going to get married. Marek basically ended the fight by telling her if she didn’t get Lilly—that would be his daughter—and leave with him right then, that he would use all of his money to take Lilly away from her and she’d never see her again.”

“Oh no,” I say in dismay, feeling complete empathy for both Marek and Gracen in this situation. “Surely he didn’t mean it.”

“Oh, he meant it,” Reed says as he sits up and turns to face me. “He gave her no choice. And she apparently wasn’t willing to see if it was a bluff.”

“So she came back with him?” I ask as my gaze swings around Reed’s living room, as if I expect them all to pop out from behind a chair or something.

“No,” he says tiredly. “Marek stayed back to get Gracen and Lilly packed up. He’s going to drive them down in Gracen’s car.”

“So she’s just up and leaving her life there? With only a day to do it in?” I’m completely bewildered over Marek’s behavior. He’s so carefree, funny, and kind. He seems like sort of a dick now, to be honest.

“Apparently,” Reed says, and the disgust I hear in his voice is clearer. I don’t think he agrees with the way Marek is handling it either. “No clue what he intends to do with them once he gets here.”

“Does Lilly even know that Marek is her father?” I ask, and then think to ask something else. “How old is she?”

Reed shrugs. “I guess around three. Gracen had found out she was pregnant literally the day that Marek broke things off with her. She didn’t tell him because he didn’t want the responsibility of a relationship, or something like that. I don’t know. It’s all so convoluted and I don’t think anything good is going to come of this.”

There’s no doubt Reed is really bothered with this and a flush of guilt sweeps through me because I set all of this in motion. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have meddled and pushed Marek to go there.”

Reed’s chin jerks inward and his eyebrows shoot up before he shakes his head at me. “This isn’t your fault, Josie.”

“If I would have stayed out of it, you probably could have talked him into ignoring it,” I point out.

“And Marek would have never known he had a daughter,” Reed counters, and I know he’s right. His voice goes soft when he adds, “But this is going to be hard for him. He’s not used to having that responsibility. He’s going to have to build a relationship with his daughter, and he’s missed out on three years of figuring out how to be a dad. Going right into the hockey season, and having a rocky relationship with Gracen, this could be disastrous.”

“This is a big year for you guys,” I murmur as I think about all they are facing as defending two-time Cup champions. The pressure is immense this year, especially since their team is still pretty much intact and expectations are they will do it again.

“The biggest,” Reed says with a wan smile. “It’s been almost thirty years since there’s been a three-peat Cup champion.”

“But they have you,” I say with a bright smile as I tilt my head at him. “So it’s practically damn guaranteed.”

All of the stress that seemed to be emanating from Reed vanishes and he laughs. Grabbing my hand, he pulls me across the couch as he lies down and I come to rest on top of him. His hands go to my ass and he presses me into his pelvis and, well, hello there.

Reed is definitely excited to see me.

My eyes drop to his mouth because all I can think about is kissing him right now. But his words stop me short when he says, “It’s going to be a really trying season, Josie. The pressure will be intense and travel is hard on relationships. You need to know that.”

I frown at him as I push myself up, resting my forearms on his abdomen so I can look down at him. “That’s an odd thing to say out of the blue like that.”

“What? That the season is going to be stressful?”

I shake my head. “No. That it will be hard on relationships. It sounds like a dire warning. Or a self-fulfilling prophecy. Or even some type of setup for you to lead into a deeper conversation.”

Because Reed has never gotten this serious on me before, I actually kind of expect him to laugh it off and tell me that’s not really what he meant. But instead his expression turns somber and he stares at me intently. “I can’t devote the same time to you during the season.”

I push up on him further and now I’m getting angry. “And I never once expected you to or even asked you to.”

My anger isn’t returned. His voice is soft and sympathetic, as if he’s apologizing in advance for something. “I know you didn’t. I didn’t say that. It’s just that we’ve had a great summer and it’s been very carefree.”

“So by definition and the pessimistic sound of your voice, the fall is going to be awful. Is that what you’re trying to say?”

He shakes his head, his eyes turning tender A hand comes up and strokes my hair. “No, Josie. I’m just saying it’s going to be different. And I want both of us to acknowledge that and be prepared for it.”

I stare at him a moment, my eyes searching his frantically for some hidden meaning. I feel like he’s trying to say something but just won’t say it. This goes nowhere fast, as Reed just holds my gaze, his expression so neutral I can’t tell what he’s really thinking.

Finally, he smiles while wrapping his hand around the back of my neck. “Are you hungry?”

I give a tiny shake of my head. “I ate something at the hospital.”

“Well, let’s get you to bed. I know you’re exhausted, and so am I after all of this shit with Marek today.”

“Actually,” I say as I push all the way off his body and come to stand by the couch. “I’m a little wired from my shift and need to unwind. I’ll just work on a puzzle for a bit until I get tired.”

Reed rolls off the couch, straightens, and then pulls me into his arms. This feels good, yet I still feel unsettled. I feel marginally better when he frames my face with his hands and presses his lips to my forehead. He looks down at me and smiles. “All right. Don’t stay up too late.”

“Promise,” I say, and then he kisses me on my mouth. Soft and brief, and it invites nothing further from me.

Reed turns toward my stairs and I move to my kitchen table. I’m just pulling out the chair to work on an awesome puzzle of the Manhattan skyline when Reed says, “You know what?”

I look over my shoulder at him. “What?”

“If you’re going to stay up awhile, I think I’m just going to head over to my place. You’ve got to be up early tomorrow, and if you don’t mind, I’m going to be a bit lazy tomorrow and sleep in.”

Sounds legitimate on its face. In fact, just before I’d walked in the door tonight I wouldn’t have thought twice about him wanting to stay at his place so he could sleep in and I wouldn’t wake him up.

But something is off.

I know it.

By the look on Reed’s face right now, I know he knows I know it.

Clearing my throat, I put on a forced smile that I hope is deceptive enough and say, “Yeah…sure. I totally get it. You don’t have much of your summer left and you should take what opportunities you can to get some sleep.”

“Okay,” he says with obvious relief. “Cool. I’ll see you tomorrow after you get off work. Maybe we can just stay in and chill out.”

“Pizza and beer it is,” I say with a brightness I don’t feel.

“Awesome,” Reed says and then shoots me a wink. “See you tomorrow.”

It’s a good five minutes after he leaves that I realize I’m still staring at the door, and I really have no clue what just happened.