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Andie had always been my champion. I lifted my wine glass to her. “Thanks, Mom.”
“It’s true. What’s his issue?”
“No, I don’t think he really has one. He just thought maybe not being out in the field made more sense since I’ve got Katie to think about.”
“So completely not the call of the high school hottie you haven’t seen in a decade.” She shook her head in disgust. I thought about the way he’d celebrated the promotion, but it hadn’t felt like anything but happiness on my behalf by then.
“True, but I don’t think that’s really an issue. Plus, I’m not in the field now.” I finished the salad and put the chicken in the oven to bake. “Back deck?”
She nodded, glancing once more at our daughters with their adorable heads together on the pillows in front of the movie.
As we stepped outside, my gaze went automatically to the half-finished fence between my house and Sly’s parents’ place. And to the stairs leading to the apartment over the garage.
“Uh huh.” Andie followed my gaze. “Okay, now. Spill it. What happened?”
We sat and I took a deep breath, trying to push down the giddiness that threatened to turn my voice into a high-pitched, high-school shadow. “He took me to a team barbecue at the goalie’s house.”
“You met Stepheno Mizzoni?”
I gave her a skeptical wide-eyed stare. “You’re a hockey fan suddenly? I mean, I met the whole team. Or a lot of them.”
She gave a non-committal wave of her hand. “I wouldn’t call myself a fan, exactly. Just...I like to watch now and then. Especially Mizzoni. And it’s fun to say I went to high school with Sly Remington.”
“You’ve literally never mentioned this.”
“Because Sly has always been kind of a loaded subject.” She took a sip of her wine, her big dark eyes watching me warily as if I might explode or burst into tears. When I calmly sipped my wine, she went on. “So tell me everything about Saturday.”
I put down my glass and leaned forward, trying to collect my feelings into a bundle that I could easily sort through. “It was good.” That was a completely inadequate beginning. Before Andie could protest, which her mouth dropped open to do, I went on. “We left the party right after dinner and went back to his place.”
“To hang out with his parents?”
I shook my head slowly, giving her my best just-you-wait look, and pointed to the garage apartment.
She followed my gesture. “He lives up there?”
“He had the whole place cleaned up and furnished.”
“Bet it’s nice with the hockey money to spend.” She wiggled her eyebrows and I was glad there was enough distance between my deck and the garage that Sly couldn’t hear us whispering if his windows were open.
“I mean...they were the softest sheets I’ve ever rolled around in.”
“Shut up!” Andie literally leapt out of her chair and then sat back down and lowered her voice. “You rolled around in his sheets? Was he like, in the bathroom or something?”
I shook my head slowly, grinning. “He was right there.”
“You mean you had—” The girls chose that inopportune moment to appear on the back patio. Andie cleared her throat and leaned back in her chair. “You played Yahtzee with Sly Remington?” This was delivered in a stage whisper that immediately attracted the attention of two curious little girls.
“What is Yahtzee?” Stella asked, her dark eyes on her mother’s face.
“Are you talking about Siiiilllllvessssster?” Katie pretty much yelled this.
I glanced at Sly’s open window in time to see his face appear as the shades were pushed aside. My heart flitted around in my chest, and a second later, my phone dinged with a text.
Sly: Talking about me?
So much for the thought that he couldn’t hear us. I could feel the blush climb my cheeks.
Me: Katie is.
