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Walking in the backdoor to the kitchen, the smell of basil hit me. She had something going, maybe pesto. I called out a hello as I went to peek inside the pots on the stove.

“Kyle. Thanks so much for coming by. I know it’s out of your way, but I wanted to get this stuff delivered tomorrow to be photographed for the online catalog.”

I inhaled from one of the pots before I turned. It was pesto, one of my favorite things. “Of course.” I reached for a spoon, but she slapped away my hand—just like I knew she would.

“Nope. You know better than that.” I dropped the spoon back in its holder on the stovetop. I glanced at her with sad eyes. “You are welcome to stay for dinner though if you want.”

I smiled and embraced her petite frame. “Hi, Mom. And I’d love to.”

I took off my coat and hung it on one of the hooks where our coats had always gone.

As always, Mom looked wonderful. Her black hair, streaked with gray that she loved, was pulled back in a pony tail as was her preferred style. Her brown eyes carried so much joyful energy—so much so that anytime I was in a bad mood she could lift me right out of it with just a look. She’d been home long enough to not only get things cooking but to change out of her dressy work clothes and into jeans and an Arsenal sweatshirt. I don’t think anyone had more Arsenal clothing than she did.

“That’s everything on the table. They sent some great stuff as usual. Kennedy’s jerseys are going to go for a lot, I think.”

She’d set a silver sharpie out, ready for me to get to work. Two sticks, some pucks, and two pairs of gloves waited for me.

“I wish I would be here for the auction to support it even more.”

Mom volunteered with a grief counseling organization for nearly twenty years now. They’d helped her when Dad died, and now she worked with others. I made sure to get her anything she needed for fundraisers—whether it was my stuff or other players.

“You’ve had your share of auctions recently. How was it with that young man? He was quite good-looking from the pictures Bobby shared.”

Bobby hadn’t mentioned sharing any auction stuff with Mom.

“He sent me the link from Hockey Allies site since you didn’t.” She threw me a smirk. “I saw the picture on the team Instagram, and you raised a nice amount of money too.”

I’d forgotten about David’s pictures. “It went pretty good. I think I’m going to ask him out next week. We kind of clicked, so I thought I’d see if he’d want to go out again.”

Might as well just put that out there in case Bobby said anything. I could count on him to keep my reservations quiet but not necessarily the date itself.

“That’s good; you need to get out more.” She busied herself chopping some vegetables she’d pulled from the fridge. “And now that Bobby’s all settled, we need to get you married off too.”

“Mom! Married off? Really?”

“What? Aren’t I allowed to hope for that?”

She was totally pulling my chain, and I loved it. I just shook my head and started signing things, pretending like she wasn’t still looking at me with her patented I know best grin.

TWELVE

AUSTIN

“SOUNDS like coming back Sunday night was the right choice.” Tamara looked pleased as we sat at the conference table in my office. We munched on our favorite club sandwiches from the deli across the street. A dinner meeting to top off the day.

“The weekend was great. The All-Star stuff was cool. And Kyle…” I took an extra breath as I remembered our time. “Dinner was good, but going skating with him was the best.” I thought twice before I spoke again but decided to go for it. “I think I might want to see him again.”

Her eyes bugged out, and I think she nearly spit soda as she covered her mouth. “Talk about burying the headline. You couldn’t have said that earlier today? That’s major. I can’t remember the last time you’ve come close to saying anything like that.”

I picked that moment to take a giant bite of sandwich.

I’ve been afraid to talk about it on the off chance I would jinx the entire idea. I hadn’t been this excited about even the potential of a date in a very long time.

“We had bigger things to deal with this morning,” I finally said. “You have no idea—actually, maybe you do—how difficult this is for me to consider. The news that Chevy, our longest and biggest client, now has a former employee running development at our rival makes me want to shelf any idea of having a date. Not to mention tomorrow’s presentation…” I sighed.

Tamara put her sandwich down and fixed me with her look of resolve, which she usually pulled out when I was overthinking. “With Chevy, we haven’t done anything wrong. I’ve got lunch tomorrow with some of our key contacts to get a true read on if we need to worry about Carlos in his new position. We’ve had no issues being in their vehicles, and we’ve always innovated beyond their expectations. And you said yourself, the team is more than ready for tomorrow based on what you reviewed on the plane last night.”

I nodded. I knew all of this. I obsessed anyway. You could never prepare enough. The team didn’t need to over prepare, that was a burden I tried to keep for myself whenever possible.