Page 67 of The Body Checker

“To make it look better to the courts.”

He gives a slow whistle. “Man, you’ve taken one too many hits to the head.”

I toy with my stick and think about that. Everyone knew how I felt about Quinn? How she felt about me? My parents were…matchmaking? “Wait, you think Quinn loves me?”

He laughs. “Yeah, she fucking does.”

I skate backward, then push off the boards, my heart crashing against my chest. “She gave the ring back.”

“Why do you suppose she did that?” Zander arches a brow.

“Because she doesn’t want a family.”

“Yeah, definitely one too many hits to the head,” he says. “Look, you know my sister as well as I do. She’s afraid, Jonah. She’s afraid that one day you’ll decide you love hockey more than her, and abandon her. We all have our own demons, pal.”

“Fuck, Zander.” I rub the back of my neck. I worked my ass off to get where I am today. It’s all I ever wanted—but I’ve grown up a lot in the last couple months, and my priorities shifted, big time. I love Quinn, want to have a family with her. But how can I get her to believe me, show her that she’s the most important thing in the world to me? That I’m not going to abandon her—ever.

I glance at Zander as an idea grows, takes shape in my mind.

“There you go,” Zander says like he can read my thoughts. He skates off, and I catch sight of Coach again, who’s glaring at me. I skate toward him with single-minded determination, about to do something the Body Checker wouldn’t have dreamed of doing a couple months ago.

Here goes nothing.

18

Quinn

I wave the last child off and shut the door. I lean against it and look around the daycare. Thanks to my brother and his best friend, the man I’m in love with, soon enough I’ll have my own place, set my own schedule. I’m currently having the space I recently leased renovated, to get it up to code, and in a month or so my dream of running my own place will come true, and I can have Daisy with me every day.

So if my one and only dream is about to be realized, why the hell am I so miserable?

“Hey, want to go out and get a drink?” Tina asks. For the last couple weeks she’s been close to my side, trying to help me move on, put the whole pretend marriage behind me.

I look at the clock. “Sure, why not,” I say. What else am I going to do on a Friday night? Go home and cry myself to sleep? Daisy is in good hands, and I’ll see her later, so I may as well go out.

“Maybe we can find you a man,” she says and nudges me playfully.

Ugh. Truthfully, how can I ever be with another man after Jonah? The things we did, the way he made me feel. Maybe I should have just come right out and told him I wanted forever. I was too much of a chicken shit, which is so unlike me. But it was better to let him go now, than him walking away later.

“Want to talk about it?” Tina asks when I don’t make a move to go.

“Not really.”

“If you love him, you need to tell him.”

“Yeah but—”

She holds her hand up. “No buts, Quinn. From everything you told me, Daisy changed that man, and I’m guessing he’s as broken up about all of this as you are.”

“He never wanted a family, Tina.”

She grins at me. “What’s that saying. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.”

“Yeah, but…” I pause to think about that. I swore up and down that I didn’t want a family of my own. But that all changed when I started playing house with Jonah. My mind rewinds to the way he protected Daisy, the way he protected me from Shari. What was that he once said, I protect those I care about.

“Come to think of it, he said he could want a family if the right woman came along,” I say.

“Don’t you think you’re that right woman?”

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