Page 111 of Dancing in the Rain

He’d been a pretty damn good goal scorer, though. It still made his gut ache that he’d never broken goal-scoring records or won the awards everyone had expected him to. The last few seasons his points had been lower because of his fucking knee and being out for surgeries, but when he’d played his best…he’d been one of the best.

Yeah. He had. And Jack had reminded him of that, too. He needed to regain his confidence, remember that he had a lot to offer. He just had to figure out exactly what that was and who he was going to offer it to.

Chapter 24

Over the next week Drew worked hard on figuring things out. Taking control of his life.

He and Peyton spent afternoons together when they could, making sure her headboard was repaired satisfactorily (and they thoroughly tested it), but also talking about all kinds of things. They were both busy, though—Peyton trying to manage her clients and their crises and take care of all the things on her moving spreadsheet, which he fucking hated hearing about, and him spending long hours working on his plan, laying out a step-by-step process for scoring goals, recording Bryson and another hockey player on his iPad, showing them what he was talking about, teaching them his strategies. After another session on the ice, Bryson had scored three goals in his next game. Drew was eager to try his process out with someone else.

“It’s coaching, but it’s very specific and technical,” he said to Jack and Melody in a meeting at their office one day. “I don’t know if the Blackhawks would be interested in it.”

“It is pretty niche,” Jack agreed. “But I actually think you have something here.”

“You don’t know if they’re interested unless you ask them,” Melody pointed out.

Drew grimaced. “True.” Everyone had told him people weren’t going to come knocking on his door and he got that. He was going to have to man up and get out there.

But that was a good thing. He’d be taking control.

“You need a plan,” Jack said. “Let’s get to work.”

So he dropped by the United Center and sought out Step, who agreed to sit down with him to watch his video and have a look at his step-by-step plan for scoring goals.

Step called in Coach Gregson to watch and listen, too. They asked a bunch of questions and seemed interested.

“You know you’re still a valued member of the club,” Step said, clapping a hand on his shoulder as they walked out of his office. “This team has a long history of moving former players into the front office or hockey operations. We want to work with you.”

So he left that meeting feeling pretty good.

—

Drew had asked if he could pick Chloe up Thursday after school and take her out to theWorld of Wizardsmovie that was opening that day. Peyton knew Chloe’d been excited about this movie for months, so she’d agreed. She had no interest in seeing it, so it was great that Drew would take her.

When Drew arrived home with Chloe at five o’clock, she was surprised to see them that early.

“Did you not get in?” she asked, thinking maybe there’d been big lines for the opening.

“We went to the early show.” Chloe unwrapped a scarf from around her neck.

Peyton frowned. “Early show? How early?”

“One-thirty.”

Her eyebrows flew up. “One-thirty! What about school?”

Chloe slid Drew a sly glance. “Drew said I could skip school for the afternoon because this kind of movie doesn’t come out very often. I’ve been waiting so long for it!”

Peyton gaped at Drew. “You took her out of school? To see a movie?”

He nodded, the corners of his mouth lifted in a small smile. “Yeah, and it wasgreat. Wasn’t it, kiddo?”

Chloe nodded enthusiastically. “It really was! Then we went to Red Lobster. I gotta go tell my friends about the movie. They were so jealous!”

Peyton crossed her arms and gave Drew a long look. “She’s still not completely caught up from the time she missed when Sara died. What on earth were you thinking?”

His smile faded. “I was thinking it would be a fun treat for her.”

“Fun! She had school! You can’t take her out of school to go to a movie, for God’s sake!”

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