Page 111 of Here We Go Again

“Maybe a little. Not like these guys.”

“It’s all talk,” I say. “Neither one of them is very good.”

“I heard that,” Sebastian says, pointing a finger at me, but there’s no fight in it. He’s clearly unwilling to abandon his argument with Watson.

“How are you settling in?” I ask Blake, and he shrugs.

“It’s all right. I was up in North Carolina with family until last night, so I haven’t done much. I think I’m in your building. Someone said something about it being Carter’s old place?”

“Oh, for real? That’s awesome. You’re right across the hall from me.” I sidestep out of the way to avoid Poppy as she tears through the kitchen. Blake eyes our captain’s daughter, and I catch a faint trace of a smile on his lips.

“She reminds me of my nieces,” he says.

“Nathan’s kids?” I ask, and he nods.

“How’s he doing? I loved playing with him. A freaking beast of a defender.”

“He’s enjoying his retirement,” Blake says. “Doing great. Expecting a third baby in a few months.”

“He’s got two girls already, right?”

“This one’s a girl too.”

“I bet he loves that.”

“The oldest plays hockey,” Blake says. “She’s lightning fast. Outskating all the boys her age.” He pulls out his phone and opens a video of his niece. I only have to watch for a handful of seconds to pick out which one is Nathan’s daughter—the one skater faster than all the others, a long brown ponytail flying out from under her helmet. She races across the ice with the puck, then pulls up short, cuts around another player, and scores on a goalie twice her size.

“Dude. She’s incredible,” I say, and Blake smiles. A real one this time—maybe the first real smile I’ve seen on him since he got here. “At least you’re closer now.”

“Yeah, there’s that,” Blake says, but his tone has already regained a measure of the gloom it had before.

“Tell him I said hello the next time you talk to him,” I say. “And look. I know it has to feel like you just had the rug pulled out from under you, but as soon as we get through this first week of camp, let’s hang out. I’ll take you to some of my favorite spots in Atlanta. I promise it’s a great place to live. And the team, man. It’s an awesome group. Like brothers.”

“To you,” he says. “But I left my brothers in New York.”

I think of the conversation I had with Shawn, how adamant I was that I not be traded. I’d probably be just like Blake if I were expected to play somewhere else. We all know it’s the job. But that doesn’t mean we have to like it.

“I feel you. Just give us a chance.” I grip his shoulder. “This weekend, all right?”

He nods. “All right. Yeah.”

I move back into the kitchen and finish another slice of pizza, then scan the room, looking for Becca. She’s no longer on the floor with the girls. Maybe she went outside? I’m about to head that way to look for her when she steps into the kitchen from the hall, phone in her hand. Her eyes are wide, her expression the sort of happy stunned you see when someone has just gotten really good news.

“Hey,” I say, moving closer. “You look like you just got off the phone with Santa Claus.”

She chuckles. “Not quite. But close.”

“Really?”

“It was Dr. Novac.”

“Okay, I don’t know who that is. But I’m guessing it’s someone important?”

Becca nods. “She’s a surgeon at the hospital. But she also sits on the physician advisory board at Tremont School of Nursing and acts as a preceptor for nurse practitioner students.” She lets out a little laugh. “We worked together on Friday, and we talked about the program just briefly, but then she had to leave, so she offered to call me and give me more details.”

“That sounds promising,” I say. “What did you learn?”

“That the hospital has tuition reimbursement for employees furthering their education. And they have a program designed specifically nurses who are still working while they’re in school. I thought I was going to have to be a full-time student, and it will definitely take longer if I go part-time and keep working. But the tuition reimbursement means I can start the program a lot sooner than I thought, so it won’t matter if it takes longer to finish. I can legit be enrolled as early as January; I just have to get my application in by the first of October.” She lets out a disbelieving laugh, shaking her head as she looks up at me. “She even offered to write me a letter of recommendation.”