Page 91 of Hitting the Goal Line
“If I get the beat the shit out of Bradford one more time, I will gladly take the suspension and one night in a jail cell.” Christian leans over and places a kiss against her temple.
“Of course, you would.” Eliana answers, rolling her eyes at him.
The conversation goes back to the All-Star game and when Chloe comes out with a fuzzy Emma in her arms, the conversation turns to us taking a shot at soothing her when she starts crying and screaming at the top of her lungs.
It turns out that Logan is a damn baby whisperer, because the second that the little girl is in his arms, she calms down and the tears stop completely. Emma even smiles up at the broody asshole, that looks like he’s never handled a kid in his life and is about to burst into tears himself.
“Damn, you want to move in?” Liam throws out as he looks at our teammate with his little girl.
“No,” Logan says, his eyes going wide as if he thinks that Liam is actually being serious.
For the next few minutes, Christian, Liam, and I all throw jabs at Logan about how he can be scary as shit on the ice but the second he has a baby in his arms, he becomes a huge as teddy bear. Well, at least with Emma. Chloe even takes a picture of the two of them and sends it to him.
No doubt in my mind, that little girl is going to have him wrapped around her little hand in no time. She might even make him smile every once in a while.
After being in Logan’s arms for an about fifteen minutes, Emma ends up falling asleep. Which we all take as a cue to head out, not only to let the baby sleep but also let her parents rest a little bit.
We all say goodbye and head out.
As we make our way down to street level, Christian suggests we go grab a drink before heading to our respected places, butas I’m about to accept his offer, my phone goes off with a text message notification, distracting me.
As Logan, Christian and Eliana talk about where to go, I pull out my phone and check my messages.
Sophia:What time are you going to be home?
I lookat her message for a quick second before I type out a reply.
Me:I’m just leaving Liam’s and was thinking about going to get a drink with Chris and Logan. So later?
Sophia:Oh, okay.
What doesshe mean by ‘oh, okay’? And why is she asking me what time I’m going to be home?
If I thought I barely saw Sophia before Christmas, that was nothing compared to how things are now. Since Christmas Day, she hasn’t spent more than two hours at our place at least not with me there. It’s as if she is avoiding me. She’s not there when I leave and she’s not there when I come back. And don’t even get me started on my texts messages and phone calls to her. I don’t hear from her for days.
So her asking me when I’m going to be home is raising all types of flags that I’m not sure that I want to ignore.
Me:I’ll be home in twenty minutes.
I respondand she quickly sends a heart emoji that just confuses me even more.
“I’ll take a raincheck on the drink,” I say to my friends, pocketing my phone.
“Why? What’s up?” Christian asks, his eyebrows bunching up in the process.
“I don’t know. Soph, just texted, asking what time I was going to be home. So I want to check out what it’s about,” I tell him.
Out of all of my friends, family and teammates, Christian is probably the only one that knows a bit more than others. Not because I’ve told him anything but because he has put the context clues together. I might have also told him a time or two, how much I hate Sophia’s boyfriend.
“Alright. We’ll text you where we end up, just in case you feel like joining us later,” he tells me and the other nod in agreement.
With a quick goodbye, I head to the nearest train station and make my way over to my apartment.
The whole way home, I can’t stop thinking about what could be going on with Sophia. Did she and the douchebag have a fight? Did they break up? So many scenarios move through my head, but not a single one is what I see when I walk into the apartment.
All the lights are turned off, expect the lamps on the end tables next to the couch. Apart from the lamps, the living room is being lighted up by the TV that is above our mantel. I look over at the kitchen counter and see it overflowing with pizza, candy, popcorn, and beer. And as I walk deeper into the living room, I see the mountains of pillows and blankets in between the couches.
What did I just walk in to?
