Page 7 of Just One Season
“See you around, Kellie,” Savannah whispers, which makes it worse. As does her shortening my name like the boys do, like we’re teammates or close friends.
Paul holds the door to the rink open for her and locks his eyes back onto me. It’s not a nice look. It’s cold. Calculating.
Somehow, I’ve gotten myself into trouble before the season’s even started.
But I can’t get traded.
Not with Ava’s doctors all in Denver. We’ve built a life here as a co-parenting family unit over the past five years.
I need to fix this. Convince Paul that I’m not interested in his wife.
But how?
CHAPTER 3
Taco Tuesday (on a Thursday)
LUCY
Thursday, September 12
“So you’re fully a dog person now, huh?” My brother leans against the frame to his apartment door, his too-long red curls twisting on his forehead as he casually watches me struggle to control this wiggly dog.
“No. Zeus!” I’m reconsidering the name—maybe hecanwield a thunderbolt of destruction—and clip the leash onto his collar. “Ha! Got you.”
Zeus twists around and licks my hand aggressively.
“Who are you and what have you done with my sister?” Atticus shakes his head and half-chuckles. “I thought it was a joke when you told me you were showing up with that dog. I thought you hated him.”
“Gross.” I stand and wipe the back of my hand on my jeans. “I hate what this dog stands for. Not the dog.”
Ron’s impulsivity and untrustworthiness. But that impulsivity made my ex so much fun. He’d do things like drag me around D.C. on a hunt for the best Chinese food, or the best bagel, or the quirkiest coffee shop. He was passionate abouteverything—soccer and his home state of New York and his parents, who were lovely. Are still lovely, I suppose.
But no matter how much he claimed to have loved me, it wasn’t enough.
And he got promoted after we’d been dating for six months. Coincidence?
Hadhe ever loved me, or was he just using me to get ahead?
After it was over, I still had to face him every day at work. I didn’t last long.
“What happened to, what was his name before, Elmo? Edgar?” Atticus nods his chin at Zeus.
“Oscar, Atticus, it was Oscar. And neither of us liked that name.” As soon as I brought Zeus home from Ron’s apartment, I renamed him. Oscar wasn’t a great name, but it was better than Max.
Atticus smirks and holds the front door to his luxury townhouse open for me, locking it after I emerge into the sunny day.
The sky is seamlessly blue, the temperature a perfect seventy degrees, and the leaves are starting to change along the tree-lined sidewalk of my brother’s street a few blocks from downtown Fort Collins.
“Is it always like this here?” I breathe deeply. It’s hard not to like this place when it insists on being so gorgeous every single day.
“Sunny and beautiful? Yes. I’ve been telling you to come visit since I got transferred. Fort Collins is perfect.”
One of the upsides of coming here was the chance to hang out with my brother. It’s been a decade since we spent more than a holiday at Mom’s together or talked on a few scattered phone calls a year.
“Mmmm.” We’ll see if it’s perfect. Sunny, beautiful, majestic mountains in the distance. Crisp, cool fall air in the morning, warming to delightful late summer weather by the afternoon. Never humid.
Okay, it’s definitelybetter than D.C.
