by Kat Mizera
“Merlin?”
“The bird.”
“So, you’ll do it?”
“Sure.” It might kill him, but saying no truly wasn’t an option.
“Great. We’ve been racking our brains trying to make this work for everyone, especially Sara, because she’s been freaking out about everything.”
“Tell her not to worry.” Aaron spoke with more conviction than he felt. He had a feeling Sara was going to balk at the idea of staying with him, but if she opted not to, it wasn’t going to be because he wasn’t willing to try. Hell, maybe this would be the perfect way to get their friendship back on track. What could go wrong?
He almost laughed at the absurdity of it all.
8
Dani came by every day she was in the hospital and Sara had never been more grateful for her friendship. The doctor was releasing her today, and she was anxious for her friend to arrive. Though the hospital staff had taken good care of her, she was tired of being woken up every few hours, the terrible food, and nothing to do. Not that there would be much to do with her in a cast and on crutches, but at least she’d have her stuff and Dani for company. At least part of the time.
“Hey.” Dani came in looking tired.
“Hey, girl. You look exhausted. Everything okay?”
“It’s been hard getting settled at Hailey’s. Niko wants his old room, he doesn’t like Amy, he misses you…I was up with him four times last night.”
“I’m sorry. But at least I’ll be there now and—”
“About that.” Dani sank into the chair next to the bed. “There’s no room for you. Not in a way you’d be comfortable. All the bedrooms are taken, and you’re in no condition to share that little bed with Niko.”
“I can’t stay at Gage and Laurel’s because of the stairs,” Sara protested mildly. “But I’ll be fine on the couch at Hailey’s.”
Dani shook her head. “Aaron offered his place.”
Sara’s mouth fell open and she gaped at her friend. “That’s bullshit and you know it. Who guilted him into it?”
“No one. I swear. We just needed to put you somewhere comfortable and that was the most reasonable place. His building has an elevator, he has an empty guest room, and he lives alone. Everyone else has kids, stairs, and other obstacles.”
“Dani, this is going to be a disaster,” Sara whispered. “You know how I feel about him and what happened.”
“Yes, but you said you guys made up, and honestly, it’ll probably only be for six or eight weeks. Once we get the big stuff done—the foundation, the plumbing, and the gas lines—we can move back in while they finish the cosmetic stuff.”
“I can’t believe he agreed to it.”
“What he did the night you guys had sex was weird, and it hurt you, but at the end of the day, he probably just got cold feet. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about you. Maybe it was so good he didn’t know what to do afterward. Maybe he’s one of those guys who doesn’t know how to treat a good woman since, you know, he usually has terrible taste in women. And maybe it was his messed-up, man-brain way of looking out for you.”
Sara made a face. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“And maybe this is your chance to get close to him again and see what there is to see.”
“And get my heart broken all over again.”
“If you’re leaving in a year, what’s the difference?”
“If you look at it that way, then what’s the point of doing anything with anyone? I’m leaving regardless, so even if we get close again, or even start dating, it’s not going anywhere.”
“You don’t know that. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Look at Sergei and me.”
“You and Sergei were in love and became a family. Aaron and I aren’t anywhere near that. I need to go away to school, he has to be here…”
“Does any of this sound familiar? Not just Sergei and me, but look at Kane and Hailey.”
“Hailey gave up her dreams of being a lawyer,” Sara said. “And I’m not willing to do that.”
“She didn’t give them up—they’re just on hold. She got pregnant and they have babies. That part is totally different. She still plans to go back in a few years.”
Sara looked away. “I’ll go to Aaron’s because it doesn’t look like I have a choice, but this has disaster written all over it.”
“It will be with that attitude.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand better than you think because I lived it. There are no guarantees in life and certainly not with love. If it’s right, if it’s meant to be, he’ll come around and you’ll work it out. If he doesn’t, then it honestly wasn’t meant to be and why would you want to be with the wrong man?”
“I hope you’re right about that.”
“I am.” Dani grinned. “Anyway, I dropped most of your things at his place this morning and—”
“What if I’d said no?” Sara interrupted, frowning. “Were you that sure I was going to agree?”
“Well, yeah. It’s really the best solution for all of us and I was prepared to talk some sense into you.”
Sara chuckled. “Fine.”
“So, I dropped off your stuff and Aaron put it all in the guest room.”
“Wasn’t he at training camp?”
“I stopped by before he left. I had to go in to work, too, and I’ll go back after I get you settled, but they were having meetings and stuff today, so it wasn’t important for me to be there.”
“Have they found a head coach?”
Dani rolled her eyes. “Get this. After the playoffs last year, when Laurel announced her pregnancy and said she wasn’t coming back, they offered the job to her assistant coach, Marshall Cade. A few weeks before the season started, his wife found out she had breast cancer so he said he couldn’t take the job. Apparently, he’s driving his wife crazy and she told him to go back to work. He called Gage, they sorted things out, and he’ll be starting tomorrow.”
“What happens to Laurel?”
“She’ll stay through training camp. She might stay on as an assistant until she gives birth, just to keep some continuity on the coaching staff. Otherwise, all the coaches will be new and management is worried they’ll lose last season’s momentum.”
“Makes sense.”
Dani glanced down at her phone. “Ugh. I’m ovulating.”
Sara narrowed her eyes slightly. “What?”
“What do you mean, what? You know we’re trying to get pregnant.”
“And you have an app that tells you you’re ovulating?”
“Yeah. But with the house and training camp and everything… I think we’re going to miss this window.”
“It’s been like ten minutes since you started trying… Why are you already checking ovulation and shit?”
“We’ve been trying for months,” Dani whispered.
“Sounds like that’s your problem right there,” Sara said gently. “Maybe you should stop worrying about it and just let it happen.”
“That’s how we started but now it’s been four months and…nothing.”
“It’s only four months. If it had been two years, I’d be a little worried, but four months is nothing. Relax, girlfriend.”
“He wants another baby so bad and we wanted to time it so it would come in the summer so it wouldn’t impact work, and now…” Her voice trailed off.
“It’s September…which means a June baby. You have plenty of time.”
“But we don’t want the baby to come right before next season—we want the baby to come in June, July at the latest.”
“That’s not usually how it works, girlfriend. And if you’re putting this much pressure on yourself already, you’re going to psych yourself out.”
“I know I’m being silly. It just never occurred to me something might be wrong. You know, with me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Sara protested. “What did the doctor say?”
“To go forth and pro
create, I’m healthy as a horse.”
“So, do that and stop worrying. And enough with the ovulation stuff.”
Dani flushed. “We’re already watching dates on the calendar and everything.”
“That right there will suck the fun out of getting pregnant. Just have fun and enjoy your husband.”
“Oh, believe me, I do.” Dani grinned. “Probably too much.”
“No such thing.”
“I guess I feel like I’m letting him down.”
“Has he said that?”
“No, of course not. He would never.”
“Then relax. Enjoy. Focus on hockey and the little boy you do have.”
“I know.” Dani nodded just as Dr. Sullivan came in.
“You ready to get out of here?” he asked Sara.
“Hell yes.”
“Well, I can make that happen. I’ve signed your release papers and someone should be in to check you out.”
“Awesome.”
“Take it easy, okay? Don’t overdo it. That bone needs time to heal.”
“I’ll be good, I promise.”
“If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call.”
“Thank you, Dr. Sullivan. I really appreciate it.”
“Absolutely. And call me Troy.”
Dani helped Sara get settled at Aaron’s apartment, giving Sara the extra set of keys he’d given her and making sure she was comfortable. She had to go back to work, though, so Sara spent a little time with Merlin. He seemed happy and already adjusted to living with Aaron, which surprised her. Macaws usually took a while to warm up to a new owner, but Merlin seemed to be thriving. It amused her that the big bird had taken to Aaron so easily, especially since he had no experience with birds of any kind, much less a large, intelligent one like Merlin.
She thought about cooking dinner, but since she didn’t know what time Aaron was coming home, and wasn’t very stable on her crutches yet anyway, she dozed off on the couch with Merlin perched on the chair beside her.
The next thing she knew, Aaron was gently shaking her shoulder.
“Hey. Wake up, sleepyhead.”
“Hi.” She sat up awkwardly. “I guess I fell asleep.”
“Sleep is good when you’re healing. You just had surgery a few days ago.”
“Oh, geez, Merlin is sitting here. Did he shit all over the floor?”
Aaron glanced around. “Nope. I don’t see any.”
“Oh, thank god. It’s a bitch to get out once it dries.”
“No worries.” He sank onto the couch beside her. “So, welcome.”
“Thanks.” She glanced at him. “I’m sorry if you were coerced into this.”
“I wasn’t coerced. You know I’d do anything for you.”
“No, I kinda don’t.”
“We talked about this, didn’t we?” he asked softly.
“Yeah, but I’d just gotten out of surgery and you were being really nice. You don’t have to do this if it’s going to be all weird between us.”
“We’re friends and before that night, the best of friends. We were together all the time and I think we told each other almost everything. Maybe not every personal detail, but we talked. I think we can get back to that place if we allow ourselves to. You know?”
“We can’t pretend what happened didn’t happen,” she said softly. “At least, I can’t. Especially not if you want to get back to a place where we trust and talk to each other. I think that’s what hurt me the most—that you wouldn’t really talk to me. We can go back to being besties, but we can’t ignore the elephant in the room.”
“I don’t want to ignore it,” he said slowly. “I just want to make sure we can get past it.”
“I threw myself at you,” she blurted out. “And now I can’t help but think you’ve lumped me in with all your other one-nighters.”
He stared at her in surprise. “What? Oh hell, Sara, is that what you think? I guess you kinda threw yourself at me, but I was just as responsible. We’re allowed to enjoy casual sex with someone we’re attracted to. There’s no label involved in that, especially not something negative, for either of us.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” He reached over and hugged her.
She took a moment to breathe him in and enjoy a rare moment of intimacy. It was clear he didn’t want anything more with her, so she would bury her feelings as deep as possible until she left Anchorage. Hopefully, with Aaron none the wiser.
9
With training camp in full swing now, especially after losing a couple of days and getting a new coach, Aaron didn’t have time to breathe the rest of that week. He left early and got home late. Sara had been in some pain so he’d told her not to cook and they’d ordered food every night, but that was getting old. As careful as he was about what he ate, takeout wasn’t good for him, so he was going to have to talk to her about what she wanted to eat. He didn’t mind cooking and did it quite a bit when he wasn’t on the road, but training camp was a different thing and the earthquake had the team scrambling to make up for lost time.
“Hey.” Sara was on the couch and she looked…weird. He was pretty sure she hadn’t changed clothes in a couple of days and it didn’t look like she’d showered or anything either. There was an open bag of potato chips next to her and a bottle of vodka. He had no idea where either came from, because he would never buy that kind of junk food and he didn’t like vodka.
“How was your day?” he asked slowly, watching her.
“Great.” She lifted the bottle and grinned. “I’m drunk again. But don’t worry, I won’t attack you.”
“Thought didn’t cross my mind.”
“My leg hurts.”
“Did you take anything for the pain?”
She gave him a dour look. “Dude, I’m drinking. You can’t mix pain pills with alcohol.”
He gently pried the vodka bottle away from her. “Where did you get this?”
“I asked Amy to do a liquor store run for me.”
“I see.” He picked up some abandoned candy wrappers and aluminum foil and threw them away. “Have you eaten anything substantial? This looks like all junk.”
“Meh.” She rested her head on the back of the couch. “Too lazy. And my leg hurts like hell.”
“So you opted for vodka instead of your pain meds?”
“The pain meds just make me loopy; they don’t actually do anything for the pain. So then I’m woozy but it still hurts. Lose-lose. At least vodka makes me happy.”
“You don’t look happy.”
“Oh, shut up.” She scowled at him.
“Why don’t you go take a shower and freshen up? You’ll feel better. And I’ll make us something to eat.”
She snorted. “How, exactly, do you propose I take a shower? I have a cast and can’t get it wet.”
“They said you were supposed to wrap it up or something.” He paused. “Right?”
She shrugged. “Don’t remember. And I can’t do it by myself. It’s okay. I’d rather sleep anyway.”
“Hang on. I have an idea.” He went into the kitchen and found a garbage bag. Then he dug around in his pantry for duct tape.
When he went back into the living room, Sara had the vodka bottle again.
“Would you cut it out?” he demanded. “You need a shower.”
“Not getting naked in front of you,” she said firmly. “It makes you weird.”
He ignored her and held out a hand. “Come on. Either you get up and follow me or I’ll carry you.”
She sighed heavily, as if he were demanding she run a marathon or something. “Fine.” She took his hand and then grabbed her crutches, hobbling to the guest bathroom.
He looked around. “This bathroom is too small. Let’s go into the master bath.”
“It’s so faaaarrrr…” she whined, leaning against the wall.
She was drunk and leaning to one side, so Aaron stuck the garbage bag in his back pocket and put the duct tape around his wrist. Then he lifted her i
n his arms and carried her through his room and into the master bath. The shower was huge, one of the few things he liked about this apartment, and he figured it would be easier for her to shower in it.
“Okay, let’s get your sweats off.”
She arched a brow. “Seriously?”
“Are you wearing underwear?”
“Duh.”
“Then you’ll be wearing as much or more than you wear at the pool or beach. Take your damn pants off.”
“Can’t.” She slumped onto the toilet.
“Jesus Christ.” He made sure she was sitting up and then slid her pants down. They were a thin, lightweight cotton and capris-length, which he assumed was because of the cast. The cast went from just below her knee to her foot, so it wasn’t huge, but it was big enough. He’d have to make sure he closed off the top tightly so no water got in. He put her leg in the garbage bag and got her to stand up.
“Hold on to the cabinet,” he told her, unrolling some of the tape and wrapping it tightly around her knee, above the cast.
“Ow,” she muttered.
“Sorry. You’ll have to be quick because I don’t want to cut off your circulation or anything, but we can’t get the cast wet or we’ll have to go in and get a new one.”
“Ugh.”
“It’s not pretty, but it should be effective. I’ll turn on the water for you and while it’s getting warm, I’ll go get your shampoo and stuff. You need shampoo and conditioner, right?”
“Uh-huh.” She sank back down on the closed toilet seat.
“O-kay.” He eyed her warily. “Try not to fall? I’ll be right back.” He ran into her bathroom and grabbed what he thought she’d need and rushed back, worried she might pass out. She was still sitting on the toilet, singing “Singing in the Rain” under her breath.
“You’re a fan of musicals?” he asked.
“I’m singing…in the rain!”
He wanted to laugh but didn’t dare. “Come on, Ginger Rogers, let’s get in the shower.”
“I’m still dressed,” she said.
“I know. And I’m going to undress you, so you’re going to have to get over it.”
“What if I say no?”
“Then I’ll take the bag off your leg and put you to bed. But those are your only choices and tomorrow you’ll wish you’d showered.”
