Page 100 of What If I Knew You

“Yeah. I want to be on their team when I grow up.”

I lift my brows in surprise. “Ooh. Well, that’s a big goal. What position do you want to play?”

“I want to be a Winger. Or maybe Center.”

“I think you’ll be great at whatever position you choose.” I smile at the kid and lean down so I’m a little closer to him. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Yeah.”

“It just so happens that I know a few of the Anaheim Stars players.”

One much more than the others.

Connor’s eyes grow huge. “You do?”

“Mhmm. And I can’t wait to tell them that I met you and that you’re going to be on their team one day so they better keep working their butts off because when you’re big and strong, you’re going to come along and blow them all off the ice.”

Connor laughs as I’m paged to the nurse’s station.

“Oh, that’s me. If you guys will excuse me, the doctor should only be another minute or two.”

Connor’s mother thanks me again and then I hustle out to the nurse’s desk to see where I’m needed.

“They need you in Oncology,” Brenda, one of the charge nurses, tells me when I check in.

“What?” My brows pinch together. “What for?”

“No idea.” She shrugs. “They just called down and asked for you specifically.”

“Huh. Okay. I’ll head up. Thanks.”

Not knowing anyone on the cancer wing, I scurry up a few floors and am buzzed through a few locked doors just before I run into a beaming Layken.

“Lake? What the hell? Did you page me?”

She nods her head excitedly and loops her arm through mine. “Yes and I’m sorry if I interrupted anything but I thought you might want to see this.”

She walks me down a hallway toward the end of the wing.

“See what?”

“Last room on the left.”

We stop outside a large room that is primarily used for gatherings or meetings between certain patients and family members or friends, but today, is filled with smiling children, three Anaheim Stars hockey players, and one very loved team mascot. There’s a small net on one end of the room and several different colored plush balls for each of the kids piled on the opposite side. Lumin helps one of the kids from her seat and hands the young girl her very special light-up hockey stick. The one she carries on the ice at all Anaheim home games. She helps the girl line up her plush ball and use the stick to shoot it across the floor where none other than Bodhi Roche stands by to watch as each ball enters the net.

I watch with an elated smile on my face as Bodhi raises his hands and announces to the room, “She shoots! She scooooores! High fives for Chelsea!”

Layken leans over and murmurs in my ear, “I just thought you might want to see your guy in action. He’s really great with the kids.”

“I didn’t even know they were coming today. Bodhi didn’t mention it.”

“They met with me about the Children’s Art Auction next month and even helped some of the kids with some artwork earlier. Bodhi was already in for helping out, but he asked the others to join in too and they all said yes. The whole team is coming this year, and every year after if Bodhi has anything to say about it, but these guys were available today so after we met in my office they agreed to stop by and say hi to the kids.”

“Bodhi did all this?”

“Mhmm.” I glance at Layken and notice she’s giving me a happy side-eye. “He’s a pretty good guy and I’m going to have to approve of whatever relationship you two have got going on because I can’t find a reason not to.”

“Yeah,” I sigh as I watch him through the window. “He is a pretty good guy.”

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