Page 88 of When Alec Met Evie
“Just embrace it,” Carter says. “The team isn’t giving up your nickname. Just be the apple guy.”
Theo rolls his eyes. “I can’t be theappleguy. I’m a defenseman. I’m supposed to be tough.”
“I’m tough, and I like apples,” I say dryly, and Carter chuckles.
It’s only been a few weeks since Theo and I had our reckoning, but our relationship is already improving. He’s still dealing with some anger issues, mostly on the ice, but hehasn’t been out drinking again, and he hasn’t missed a therapy appointment yet.
It helps that I’ve done my level best to keep him busy enough that he doesn’t have a choice. When we’re traveling with the team, he’s my roommate. When we’re in Harvest Hollow, he’s either at my house with his brother, or he’s out with me. The other guys are stepping up too. On the way home from our last away game, Nathan had a long conversation with Theo, likely about losing his own dad. And Dominic, who’s an explosive skater, has been working with both twins in the weight room, sharing the workouts he created to increase his power on lateral starts.
It’s clear the team is rallying around them as much as they can. There are still no guarantees. Theo has to keep putting in the work. But it’s at least easier to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s also been nice seeing his relationship with his brother improve. Only incrementally—it takes a long time to break habits. But it’s been enough to notice, and I know Carter has noticed too.
We’re back at the Summit for a home game tonight, our last one before Thanksgiving, and for the first time, Evie and Juno are coming to watch. Megan and my parents are also on their way into town—we’re all spending the holiday together at my place—so this is the perfect game for Evie to attend, since there will be plenty of people she trusts to help with Juno.
Evie’s ex-husband, Devon, willalsobe at my house for Thanksgiving, but I’m choosing to ignore how uncomfortable this makes me. Mostly because Evie doesn’t need to worry about my feelings when she already has so much on her mind. She just needs my support. My steadiness. My trust that Devon’s presence doesn’t have anything to do withmyrelationship with Evie.
He’s coming for Juno, and that’s a good thing.
Doesn’t mean I like it. Doesn’t mean I don’treallywant to punch the guy. But I’m willing to pretend I don’t for Evie’s sake.
Just for the record, though. If we’re talking hours logged in Juno’s company, I’ve got the man beat by a mile. And I don’t plan on that changing any time soon.
I stand and reach for my suit coat draped over the back of my chair. “Are you guys riding with me to the Summit?”
“Nah,” Carter says. “Our bones aren’t nearly as rickety as yours. We don’t need the extra warmup time, so we’ll drive over in a bit.”
I ignore the jab because Carter isn’t wrong. I spend at least thirty extra minutes before every game applying heat and stretching with one of the trainers just to make sure I’m as loose as possible before hitting the ice.
I nod and grab my keys from the counter. “Sounds good. See you over there.”
As soon as I’m in my truck, I return a missed call from my mom, learning that their plane has landed in Asheville and they’re working on picking up their rental car, then I call Evie.
She answers on the first ring. “Hi.”
“Hey. How’s it going?”
She breathes out a sound that makes my blood heat. “Mmm. I just took an amazingly long nap, and I’m still in bed, so I would say it’s going pretty well.”
I’m momentarily distracted by the imagery her words bring to mind. Evie in her bed, lounging on her pillows, her dark hair falling onto her shoulders. I almost ask her for a picture. We’ve seen less of each other the past few weeks—we had four away games in a row, which kept us on the road for almost ten days—and I’m hungry for the sight of her. But I’ll see her tonight, and then we’ll have three uninterrupted days together.
Well. Uninterrupted by hockey. I’m sure Juno will stick to her regular schedule.
Evie yawns. “Juno woke up super early, which was super annoying,” she says, “but then she tired herself out rolling in circles around the living room. So when she napped, I napped.”
“Sounds like a good strategy. Did she really roll in circles?”
“Like she was circumnavigating the globe,” Evie says. “She rolls up and a little to the left every time, so it takes about nine rolls to get back to where she started.”
I chuckle at Evie’s description. One thing I did not expect when we started dating was how much Juno would change. Every day she’s doing something different. Reaching some new milestone.
I’d never even really thought about babies having milestones before Juno. Now, I have a chart of them saved on my phone.
“I swear, she’s going to start sitting up on her own any day now, and I’m not even a little ready for it,” Evie says. “What’s up with you? How are you?”
“On my way to the Summit.”
“Have you heard from your family yet?”
