Page 51 of When Alec Met Evie
We finally makeit back to Harvest Hollow just after dinner on Sunday night. I’m anxious to see Evie, tired of my teammates and even more tired of being on a bus, so I don’t linger at the Summit.
I’m halfway across the parking lot to my truck when my phone buzzes with a text.
Evie
I have no idea if you’ll be hungry when you get home, but I made soup and there’s plenty left over.
My pace quickens but then a second text pops up, and my enthusiasm wanes the slightest bit.
Evie
There’s enough for Theo and Carter too, if you want to let them know.
I look over my shoulder at the twins, who are only a few paces behind me. We all rode to the Summit together when we left town, so they’re riding home with me too. I turn and look over my shoulder. “Evie says there’s food at the house. She made soup.”
They both grin, their expressions identical in a way that still gives me pause. “Home cooking from the missus,” Carter says. “Sign me up.”
Theo only grunts, but after the bracing conversation I had with him before our last game, when I pinned him against the boards during warmups and made it clear it was time for him to check his attitude, I don’t expect much more.
I didn’t like getting in his face like I did, but he kept trying to pick a fight with Dominic, who, for all the trouble he gave us his first season on the team, has really stepped up this year. He made a perfectly reasonable suggestion to Theo about how to improve his passing accuracy, and Theo practically lost it.
Carter clearly got a double share of impulse control, leaving his twin with barely any at all.
Except, I’m not entirely sure that’s what’s happening.
Theo talks a big game. He’s got enough swagger for the whole team, and he frequently pushes around his teammates, like he’s justtryingto make them respond. That’s what he was doing with Dominic. But it seems less like a lack of impulse control and more like intentional antagonizing. Carter is a good bouncer, and he’s talked more than a few guys down after Theo has annoyed them.
But how long will he be able to keep that up?
Eventually, people will tire of Carter protecting Theo as much as they tire of Theo’s antics in the first place.
I just wish I could figure out what Theo was thinking. Why he seems so determined to sabotage the start of what could be a very impressive career. I’ve always felt some sense ofresponsibility as captain to make sure everyone is doing okay, but lately, with these younger players coming in—and now, living with me—it feels like the stakes are higher somehow, and I really don’t want to let them down.
If I can’t be a hundred percent on the ice, I can at least get this part right. But how?
As soon as we pull into my garage, I force myself to move slowly, intentionally, as I pull my bag out of the back of my truck and wait for the twins to do the same. I don’t want to look overeager, even though I absolutely feel that way.
But then we step inside and hear music, and I can’t keep myself from hurrying.
It’s nothing like the Taylor Swift Evie blasted in the kitchen while she was making cinnamon rolls. It sounds like a violin, and it’s crisp and bright enough that I know it isn’t a recording. It has to be Evie.
I drop my bag by the garage door and follow the sound of her playing.
I find her standing beside the piano, her violin lifted to her chin, fingers flying over the strings as she plays a melody that feels familiar even though I can’t quite place the song. Juno is sitting in her bouncy seat beside her mom, eyes wide, feet kicking. She looks enamored with her mother, and I completely understand the feeling.
Evie is incredible.
She sounds amazing, confident and sure, but more than that, shelooksamazing. Like she’s doing something she was born to do. Her face is relaxed, her eyes filled with a peace I’ve never seen in her expression before.
Evie smiles when she sees me come in, but she doesn’t stop playing, her eyes closing as she moves with the music.
“Dude, is that Maroon 5?” Carter says from behind me. “‘Memories?’ I love that song.”
The second Carter names it, I recognize it as well.
Theo leans forward the slightest bit as he listens. “I think I’m falling in love with your woman,” he says under his breath.
I shoot him a warning look because one, as far as he knows, Evie and I are only friends. And two, I have no clue if Evie can hear him, and my goal is to take thingsslowwith Evie. I don’t need his idiot mouth messing that up.
