Page 214 of Waiting Game

Which, of course, is why he didn’t want to let it go. You spend a lifetime bringing a collection together, it kills something in you to break it apart.

Just not when you’re three-quarters of a mil in debt and know you’ll be dumping that inheritance on a woman who loved you…

“Cole?”

“Uh-huh.” I nose through a few signed balls. One’s in a glass case, but most are plunked on the desk.

“You know I’m grateful, right?”

“For?” I flick through a picture album with signed photos from some of the greats.

“Helping with the hockey memorabilia.”

Hearing her proximity, I shoot her a grin. “I saved those fuckers’ asses many a time. The least they can do is sign a helmet for me.”

“Still… That side of the bar would be empty if it weren’t for you. Fourteen grand doesn’t buy you much of the new gear and, because ofyou, the walls are full. I wouldn’t have been able to do that without you, so thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. I enjoy doing it.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure.”

“Hey, Gracie’s starting to think I have kleptomania. It’s worth it for that alone. I’m pretty sure she’s building up to asking me if I need a session with Liam’s shrink.”

“Only you’d think that was a good time. You’re a strange man, Cole Korhonen.”

I wink at her. “Yourstrange man.”

She stills. Sucks in a breath. Shoots me a tiny smile that makes every-fucking-thing I’m doing—my disloyalty to Gracie, lying to Liam, living a strange half-life that’s shrouded in untruths, shattering a trust that’s decades in the making once Mia and I come out in public—worthwhile.

There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for that smile.

Then, she makes it so much better by whispering dazedly, “Mystrange man,” then scuttling back to the bar.

I know she thinks I didn’t see her smile but I totally did.

I also know she’s aware that I’m not going to take her gratitude.

I’m doing this for both of us.

I need Chuck’s to work as much as she does because Mia and charity don’t go together like a horse and carriage. She’s gottenused to me bringing this stuff back but only because she thinks it’s ‘free’ to me.

If she thought I was paying for anything, she’d lose her shit, and because I’m not an idiot, I make sure that what I get old friends and teammates to sign is their current grody gear.

What she doesn’t know is that she needs to buy shares in Febreze because that shitstinks.

I don’t even realize how much time has passed when I make it to the bottom of the pile on the desk. There, I discover a baseball card album that has me humming happily.

I used to collect trading cards. I stopped but the boxes are still in my apartment. Only the best ones are in cases displayed on shelves, interspersed with the trophies and crap I’ve won over the years.

Settling in the recliner that I know Chuck used to sleep in, I rock back, admitting to myself and no one else that my calf is twinging.

As I flip through the pages, Mia yells, “I’m sorry I’m taking so long. I had to clean the baseboards. Give me another ten?”

“Yeah, sure,” I shout, quietly content with what I’m doing as I flip through Chuck’s collection.

A quick flip and it reveals a full book. My inner child is gleeful at the prospect of finding treasure amid the mass, and that’s when I realize this isn’t Chuck’s.

At least, not her uncle.

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