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“It’s just one of my many positive attributes.”
“Of course.”
“Oh, hey, I was also calling to tell you the good news.”
I pause by the elevator that takes me up to the higher floor, pressing the button. “What good news?”
“Ian is back.”
I hover outside the doors of the elevator for several seconds after they open, only remembering myself when they start to shut again, and I realize I’m standing there without having gotten inside. I shake off the mountain of memories that just crashed down on me, clamoring onto the elevator and quickly hitting the correct floor.
“Oh? Is that right?”
More crunching. Fucking Doritos. “Ya. Heesh stayn wiff me.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, you goblin,” I grunt. “Why is he back? Is he coming back to the team?”
“That’s the plan,” he says when his mouth is free of chips. “We’re getting up there, you know? Retirement isn’t too far off. He wants to finish out his career here at home. Thank God. He’s been up there in the frozen wasteland for way too long.”
“Calgary is hardly a frozen wasteland.”
“Eh. I assume everything above the border is snowed in.”
“That’s wildly inaccurate. You literally play there sometimes.”
“Yeah, and it’s always cold as fuck.”
“Back up. Ian is staying with you? So he’s there? Right now?”
“Nah, he’s flying in tonight. We have to be at the training center tomorrow.” He scoffs. “Well, he has to be there. I’ll be on the sidelines playing cheerleader with this stupid sling.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what you get for trying to do an axel while drunk.”
“Sanchez dared me!”
“And yet it’s Baker in the sling.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbles. “Anyway, I figured we should all hang out soon. He’s probably gonna feel weird being back, after the divorce and all, and I just thought that we—”
Jack’s voice fades in the background, the reminder of Ian’s marriage and then divorce all those years ago still making my chest twinge even after all this time. I’ve always reasoned that it’s perfectly normal to feel something when your first crush and star of all your teenage fantasies marries and moves on—but I’ve never quite pinned down how to feel about everything that came after his marriage fell apart. Especially since he packed up and left right after to stow away in Canada for the following six years, something that even now I can’t really figure out. I mean, sure, I know what the headlines said. I know that he supposedly left to keep the team out of the media circus that he found himself in, but I still don’t know how his parents could just allow one of their top players, and more importantly, their son—to uproot his entire life instead of showing him support. I mean, they own the damned team, and his father had always been so proud to have his son playing for his team; it’s all he ever talked about when he popped up in the news.
So how could he let him go?
“Dee? Hello? Delilah! You listening?”
“Hm? Oh yeah. Sure. Hanging out. We can do that. I’ll have to see how things go today. I might be busy if they hear me out about brainstorming for new ideas on how to bump up the numbers.”
“Well, pencil us in. I’m sure Ian has missed you. It’s been forever since we’ve all been together.”
I’m sure Ian has missed you.
It’s incredibly stupid what that one sentence can do to my heart. As if I’m sixteen again and not twenty-eight with over a decade between me and my pathetic pining. I hate the way a part of me perks up, as if I haven’t purposefully avoided all things Ian since he left, for the sole reason of knowing he probably wouldn’t miss me all that much, since I was never more than Jack’s little sister in his eyes.
“We’ll see,” I manage, since I can’t bring myself to commit any more than that. I have enough going on without throwing Ian Chase into the mix. I don’t think I could tackle that even if my plate were entirely empty.
“Fine. Tell me how it goes, yeah? Don’t be afraid to flash that orphan card. It really does—”
“K, thanks. Call you later.”
