Page 48 of Play to Win

“Down to the water.You know you want to.”

“You have to go to work.”

“Yeah.But I can take a few minutes to walk on the beach.”

She toes off her Chucks and she’s gone, out the patio doors and running across the sand, her skirt billowing around her, hair flying in the gentle wind.I laugh as I lock the door and follow her, leaving my sandals on my patio.

Her joy fills me with a soft warmth, her laughter floating back to me on the breeze as she reaches the water and comes to a halt.She doesn’t move when a wave washes over her feet, foaming around her ankles.

“Look!I’m in the ocean!”She holds her arms out and turns her face up to the sun.

“Yeah.”I grin.“Pretty awesome, huh?”

“I love it!”Another wave splashes higher, and she squeals and dances out of the water.“It’s cold, though!”

I grew up in Canada where my dad played hockey in Montreal until I was about six.Then he bought into a major junior team in Drummondville, Quebec, so we moved there.I played hockey in Moncton, New Brunswick, got drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins and I played there after a couple of seasons in Wilkes-Barre.Grandpa and Chelsea have lived here a long time though, and I’ve visited them so many times I guess I’ve come to take the sun and the palm trees and the ocean for granted.Seeing Lacey’s enjoyment of her first time at the ocean fills me with pleasure.I feel like making her happy and seeing her smile is gratifying.Contagious.

11

LACEY

“My life doesn’t suck.”

I say it out loud to myself, after I’m back at the condo and Théo has left for his office.

This may not be something I ever expected, but I’m lying here on a beautiful patio where I’ve been sunbathing in my bikini, looking out at the Pacific Ocean with the sun on my bare skin.I can pretend I have no problems—no bookies chasing me, no brother who’s in debt trying to pimp me out, no negative bank balance, and no unemployment.

It’s been so long since I had this feeling ...just being able to relax and not worry about bills and debts and other people.

I could get a job here.Iwilldo that.I at least can make some money so Théo doesn’t have to buy my clothes.

I don’t have a car, and this city is the kind of place you need a car, I think.But I’ll figure that out.I’ll figure it all out and then ...and then ...I’ll be fine.

The ocean shifts and sparkles in the distance.Sailboats bob across the water.Thin white clouds streak the bright sky, and the voices of some guys playing volleyball down the beach carry to me on the fresh breeze.

My life doesn’t suck.

The water mesmerizes me.It’s so huge and endless, the waves constant.I feel like I could sit and stare at it forever and maybe the solutions to all my problems would come to me.

Ha.

I can live in this moment, though.I’ve been doing that for so long, because worrying about my mom and Chris and what was going to happen and how we’d get out of debt was too much to bear, so I’m pretty good at it.

My thoughts turn to Théo.I’ve slept with him the last two nights, but “sleeping with him” is not a euphemism for sex.Dammit.

I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to have sex with a man I just met the way I do with Théo.I haven’t had a lot of men in my life.I had a boyfriend in high school, and I went out with a few guys after graduation, but my mom got sick when I was about twenty-one and my life was consumed by working three jobs at times to pay her medical bills, looking after her, and keeping Chris out of trouble.

There’s something about Théo ...he’s aman.That probably sounds weird; he’s twenty-eight, only four years older than me, not exactly ancient, but he has such a mature air about him, something solid and honest and real.He not only has a job, it’s animportantjob.He has his life figured out and knows what he wants and where he’s going, whereas I have no clue.

Maybe it’s time for me to do that.To figure out what I want from life and go after it.

Théo said he’d be home around six, so I decide I’ll have dinner ready for him, like a good wife.I’m afraid I’m probably going to be a terrible wife, but it seems like the least I can do for him after all he’s done for me.And yeah, he’s getting something out of this too, but right now it feels a little lopsided.

I’m in the kitchen snooping through cupboards when I hear the front door open.I turn with a big smile, expecting Théo early.“Hiiiii!”

A woman stands inside the door.

I freeze.

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