There were countless reasons Sarah hated sleeping in the house she grew up in, and one of them was standing in the doorway of her room. She could feel her mother’s eyes on her even though the woman hadn’t said a word acknowledging her presence. Sarah had been focused on getting chapters written now that words were finally flowing from her fingertips, but she’d started feeling the heat burrowing into her from the glare five minutes before she bothered speaking.
“It’s impolite to stare.”
Sarah looked up from her incomplete thought to figure out what had drawn her mother upstairs for the visit. It had been a while since Sarah had surfaced for air, but that happened when she got on a roll. She supposed her parents had never witnessed the phenomenon since she hadn’t gotten serious about her stories until college. Back then, she’d barely got any sleep as she wrote out scenes and then scrapped them, only to rewrite them again.
“I’d say it’s also impolite to move back home for a month without giving us an explanation as to why you’re here and how long we’re supposed to expect you to stay. You stay up here almost all day, and most nights you disappear until well after midnight. Not to mention the days you’ve just disappeared. What are we supposed to think about that?”
It had seemed like a good idea to not let her parents worry about what was going on with Aaron. Reid was right to insist she stayed anywhere other than her apartment, but she didn’t want to burden him with watching after her. Plus, she wanted to prove to him even without constant supervision from him, she wasn’t running back to Aaron’s arms. She’d told her parents she needed a change of location to try to concentrate on her work and, surprisingly, she’d found that to be exactly how she was using her time.
It was crazy how fast the month had gone by. With no word at all from Aaron, Sarah was long past thinking Trevor was just imagining things. When she’d first heard his warnings, she’d been worried because deep down she did think Aaron was capable of snapping, but he’d clearly moved on. She’d tried to tell Reid it was fine for her to move back to her apartment, but he was being protective and didn’t want to chance anything.
Their relationship had slowed from the frantic start. A little distance tended to make that a necessity. If Sarah wanted things to move faster, all she had to do was move in with Reid, an option he had offered more than once. Instead, they were trying to play normal boyfriend and girlfriend, if normal was something that could be defined.
“I’d recommend thinking that I have an interesting love life,” Sarah said as a joke to answer her mother’s request for an explanation.
Lynne laughed at her daughter. She’d known about Sarah and Aaron breaking up, but she didn’t know Sarah had met someone new. Sarah had left out the parts about Aaron cheating on her when she explained why she wasn’t still at his place. She didn’t figure that detail was particularly important, especially since neither of her parents had pushed for a reason.
“If it’s so interesting, what are you doing hiding here?”
“Trying to make sure I don’t screw it up. Do you want to come with me tonight?”
Sarah looked down at her computer and saw that she had about an hour before she needed to be ready to go to a game. She’d lost track of time and was going to need to hurry, especially if her mom agreed to come.
“You want me to go on a date with you and your boyfriend?”
Lynne crossed her arms across her chest and her green eyes looked at Sarah doubtfully. Sarah’s general characteristics all came from her mother. Lynne was a few inches shorter than her and had started dying her hair to battle some gray hairs, but overall they looked a lot alike.
“It’s not really a date. I mean, we usually grab something to eat and head over to his place for a little bit, but there’s a few hours where I’m just sitting around watching him.”
Sarah was purposefully vague to see what kind of response she got. When she’d asked for the company, she hadn’t considered the fact that Reid set her up with a ticket to the suite, but it was a singular ticket. If her mom tagged along, she was going to need to get a pair of tickets for down in the stands. It was way too late to call Reid and ask him to make arrangements since he was probably already getting in game mode.
“Is he in theater or something?”
There was a distaste to her voice that would have echoed in Sarah’s if the concept of spending a night watching a play was on the table. Sarah thought about leading her on so she’d be surprised when they got to the arena, but decided it was best if her mother didn’t go into meeting Reid thinking it was going to be torture.
“Reid’s a hockey player. About half of the nights that I disappear I’m sitting with thousands of other people cheering him on, otherwise we’re on more traditional dates.”
“A hockey player?” Lynne sounded completely confused. “Like one that makes money doing it, or is it just some recreational league?”
“Definitely the former. The days I’ve disappeared were away games. So far they’ve been pretty close, but next month there’s a California trip and I’ll be gone for a whole week.”
Sarah was starting to get used to the frequent flights. There hadn’t been a question of whether she’d follow along like she had to Florida. Since Trevor’s claims hadn’t scared Reid off as far as the relationship went, he was afraid to leave the city without Sarah, readily admitting the fact.
On her side of things, Sarah wouldn’t lie and say she wasn’t looking over her shoulder everywhere she went. As the weeks passed, she’d been doing it less frequently, but she still felt like eyes were on her anytime she left the house, even when she looked around and found no one there.
“You’re dating a professional hockey player. How long has this been going on?”
“A month, so it’s still really new, but at the same time, it feels like it’s been years. There’s something about Reid that,” Sarah paused as she tried to think of how to finish that sentence.
From the very beginning she’d felt the connection, and it had only grown stronger as time went on. There was part of it that scared her, especially how the need to be around Reid consumed her. The decision to not move in with him when he asked was mainly not to burden him, but there was a part of Sarah that wanted to see how long she’d make it before she begged him to let her move in.
“He makes me want to be me, when it feels like everyone else wants to make me who they want me to be. It’s kind of hard to explain, but he sees my flaws and celebrates them instead of trying to fix them.”
The only thing he tried to get Sarah to change was her self-doubt. He made it clear that he wanted her to feel comfortable in her skin. Sarah believed it was that trait that made it so easy to open up and talk to him. When pretty much everyone in her life had always been trying to shape her and make her feel like she wasn’t good enough, Reid told her that she was already perfection.
Just thinking about it brought a smile to her face. She knew she was in love with the man, and it scared her. For months she’d hemmed and hawed over whether her relationship with Aaron was going anywhere, and when she didn’t come to a real conclusion, she’d just started going with the flow. As far as Reid was concerned, there was no doubt where she wanted things to go. The only question was how she could convey that information without scaring him away.
“And he’s a professional hockey player?”
Lynne didn’t seem to be able to get over that fact. Sarah’s parents had always wanted what was best for her, which meant like everyone else, they had pushed her outside of her comfort zones. They didn’t give off the feeling that she couldn’t do something, like the Mays and Aarons in her life had, but they didn’t let her just be her.
“He is, and he’s a pretty good one if his stats are telling the story. Do you want to come tonight? If you do, I need to get tickets bought and get ready. I like to be there early.”
Bringing up early reminded Sarah that with her suite ticket, they let her in some special doors, but general admission probably wouldn’t get her through the doors that opened early. If her mom was coming with her, Sarah really didn’t want to sit with the wives and girlfriends in the suite, even if her and Kellie were inseparable at the games. Getting another suite pass was too much to ask, but Sarah thought Reid might be able to do something about getting them in early.
“And you’ve been with him a month?”
The conversation wasn’t progressing at the speed Sarah needed it. She could see by her eyes that her mother was doing the math. Since Sarah hadn’t mentioned the break-up with Aaron until after it was completely official, there was a little overlap in the relationships.
“Were you cheating on Aaron?”
Sarah couldn’t help laughing. Taking her eyes off her mom for a second, she reached over and closed her laptop. She’d been hunched over it for hours and she needed to get up to stretch. Leaving Lynne in suspense for a few moments, she stood and moved her neck from side to side and rolled her shoulders. Reid liked to give her massages, and she was in desperate need of one. Sadly, it’d be hours before he could work it into his schedule.
“Aaron and I were broken up before Reid and I got together. We actually got together because I was looking for someone to fill in for Aaron at June’s wedding.”
“But you didn’t go to the wedding.”
Lynne had. She’d gone on for almost an hour about how beautiful the winter wedding had been. Apparently, everyone had asked where Sarah was, turning the attention away from the bride and groom at times. Sarah imagined it had driven both June and May insane, which didn’t bother her one bit. The break from May to think about things had remained intact, and Sarah didn’t miss her best friend. She thought that said a lot about their relationship.
“No, we ended up sitting it out because Aaron was supposed to be there to propose to me.”
Sarah looked back at her mom just in time to see her face go totally blank. The statement basically served as a nuclear bomb in her brain it seemed. While she tried to work out any follow-up questions, Sarah walked over to the lone dresser in the room and started looking through her clothes.
When she’d made the temporary move back home, she hadn’t thought it would last very long, so she’d dumped the suitcase she packed into the three-drawer dresser. At some point, she should’ve started hanging things up, especially after doing laundry, but she kept putting the clothes in the dresser in hopes she’d be able to one day dump the drawers back in her bag and head back to her place.
“You broke up with Aaron because he wanted to get married?”
An odd sounding scoff escaped Sarah’s lips as she grabbed an Aces t-shirt. The wives and girlfriends didn’t wear team apparel, for whatever reason, so Sarah hadn’t either. If she was going to sit in the stands, she figured it was best to blend in with the screaming fans around her.
“I broke up with Aaron because he was cheating on me.”
Sarah had hoped that information would never reach her parents, but she couldn’t let her mom think Aaron was some angel. She had adored Aaron, and had multiple times asked Sarah when she thought they’d get married. Sarah hoped that same adoration would pass on to Reid.
“You just said he was going to propose. Why would he do that if he was cheating on you?”
“It’s complicated, but trust me that there wasn’t any doubt he was seeing someone else. I know you liked him, but things just didn’t work out. I’m with Reid now, and if you’re up for it, I’d like you to meet him.”
“But Aaron loved you. I heard him say it almost every time I saw you two together. Why would he cheat on you?”
For someone who had been happily married for almost thirty years, it didn’t surprise Sarah to hear her mom have trouble processing the news. The question of why things went down how they had was exactly why Sarah didn’t want to share the reason behind the breakup. It was better if Lynne just thought things had fizzled out.
“I’m not Aaron, Mom. I can’t answer why he did something. I can just react to it, and that’s what I did. Now, are you coming tonight or not? Reid is an amazing guy. He makes me happy and I think it’s time that you met him.”
The idea of introducing Reid to her parents terrified Sarah. When it came down to her future, it didn’t matter whether they approved of him or not. It would be nice if they did, otherwise holidays would be a little stressful, but her relationship was something outside forces didn’t have a say in.
“I think we need to talk about this whole Aaron thing later, but you’ve got me curious about Reid. He’s actually on the main team and not a sub or something?”
“There’s nothing to talk about as far as Aaron is concerned. Focus on Reid, because that’s who my future is with.”
Sarah worried that saying the words out loud would somehow curse the directive, but she wanted to make sure Lynne was focused on the right stuff when she and Reid met. Sarah absolutely did not want to deal with a comparison chart of the two guys, which seemed like something her mom would do.
“And have you two talked about this future? I’m not sure you should be getting your hopes up only a month into a relationship. It took you months to agree to move in with Aaron.”
Not wanting to growl at her mother for again saying her ex’s name, Sarah relocated to her small walk-in closet to start getting changed. Lynne had been warned when she was planning on leaving, so if she wasn’t wearing what she ultimately wanted to wear to the game, it was her own problem.
“We’re not exactly staying in separate hotel rooms when we’re traveling, Mom, and I have stayed over in his apartment before, so it’s not like cohabitation hasn’t happened.” Sarah rolled her eyes as she took off her shirt and put the team tee over her head. “I imagine the only way he’ll let me move back to my place is if he’s moving in.”
Sarah didn’t realize her wording wasn’t the best until her mom’s voice made her jump. She’d closed the closet door, but Lynne had pushed it open and stared at her daughter.
“Excuse me? What do you mean letting you move back to your place?”
Sarah turned her back, hopping on one foot as she tried to get into a pair of jeans. She would’ve loved to wear the sweats she’d been hanging around the house in, but they weren’t exactly wear-out-in-public material.
“Sorry, that came out wrong. He’s not forcing me to be here. I just think that when I’m ready to leave, he’ll probably be moving into my apartment with me.”
Technically, it wasn’t a lie. Reid wasn’t forcing her to do anything and he had offered up his apartment as an alternative. He had mentioned that if she wasn’t staying somewhere other than her apartment that it was likely his stats were going to plummet. So, basically it would’ve been her fault for his career tanking, which she wasn’t about to let happen.
Lynne looked at her skeptically as Sarah straightened up and glanced her way. Her eyes were narrowed like she expected Sarah to take back the words, or work herself into a bigger pit.
“You guys have only dated around a month and you’re already to that spot in your relationship? Why are you just now mentioning him? Something feels really fishy here.”
Sarah ignored the comments and grabbed a pair of boots. Her clothes hadn’t made it in the closet, but the six pairs of shoes she’d brought along sat out of the way on the closet floor. Pushing past her mother, Sarah made her way over to the bed and sat down on the pale pink comforter, which had to be twenty years old, and put on her socks and boots.
“You do understand that not replying isn’t helping make this less suspicious, right? All of a sudden you’ve gone from living with a guy who adored you to talking about moving in with someone you just met. You’re leaving something major out.”
“Aaron was cheating on me, Mom. I already told you that so he most certainly did not adore me. I’m with Reid now, and if you want to meet him, I’m leaving for the arena right now.”
She still had plenty of time, but Sarah wanted to have a chance to text Reid and ask about getting both of them in early, and she was done digging into her relationships. She understood why people would think she was giving up a good thing as far as Aaron went, but that was only because they didn’t know what the relationship was really like. There was no way to explain it and she was done as far as the subject went.
“What about your father? Aren’t you going to ask him if he wants to meet your new boyfriend?”
Sarah fell back on the bed and groaned. She didn’t know if she could make it through the hours of both parents surrounding her and asking questions. What had started as her just trying to finally let them in on what was going on in her life was turning into a nightmare.
“Go tell him to be ready in five. I’m ordering the tickets and texting Reid to see if he can get you guys in early.”