“Yeah, looks good!” he announced with a grin. “Let’s go find someone who’ll sell them to us. I’ve got the measurements so they can do the math for how many we need.” And I had to give it to Sam, that was good foresight. “Pat told me to,” he admitted when I pointed it out.
Laughing, I shook my head. Well, we still had the measurements, that was what mattered. It didn’t take us long to find someone who worked there who was more than happy to take our order for the tiles. They’d order the right amount and have them delivered in a few days. Our job here was done.
“Well, your job is done,” Sam pointed out as we headed back to his car. “I have to put all the tiles up.”
Reaching out, I gave his arm a sympathetic squeeze. As soon as I felt all that rippling muscle through his shirt, I snatched my hand back, face flushing once again. The picture of Sam, bare-chested and probably post-workout flashed through my mind, which only brought my temperature up even higher.
Before Sam could say anything, or notice my discomfort, I interrupted. “Pat’s not going to do it with you?” I asked. “I thought he invited you here to help, not to do it all for him.”
“He will help,” Sam assured me. “But he’s got work, hasn’t he? So a lot of it is going to fall on me. Which is fine. It’s... it’s nice to have him trust me with this, you know? The house where he and Charlotte will spend the rest of their lives! It’s pretty cool,” he shrugged.
Getting back in the car, Sam shot me a smile. “Drop you off at home?” he asked, since he’d picked me up from work.
Glancing at my watch, I frowned. It was later than I’d expected it to be. Apparently, time could fly when you were having fun. Even when you were having fun tile shopping with an ex!
“Actually, could you drop me off at Kate’s?” I asked, feeling apologetic. It wasn’t as if it was that much further out of Sam’s way - and if I went home first, I was definitely going to be late. Mom would never let me hear the end of that.
Sam didn’t look troubled, he just nodded and asked me for the address. He’d always been a good guy, I wasn’t surprised that he’d agreed to take me.
“At least Ethan will be there. Hey, maybe if I text him now he can meet us out front. You can tell him yourself how you’ll drop in on the hockey team!” Ethan would love that. And he did deserve to be the first to know.
From the smile on Sam’s face, the idea must have appealed to him, too. It made my stomach swoop. Seeing Sam interact with kids was something I’d daydreamed about - before we broke up.
Now I just needed to remember that it didn’t mean anything.
Chapter Nine
Sam
When Helena and I had been dating, seeing her family was never my favorite thing. It wasn’t because they disliked me or thought me beneath her. Maybe it should have been, but that had never bothered me. Helena loved me; that was what mattered. Her parents had always felt I wasn’t academic enough and they weren’t wrong. Hockey came before academics for me; Helena knew that.
She’d helped me a lot. If it wasn’t for Helena, my dreams of hockey might have been squashed by my lack of academic success. So yeah, I got why her family hadn’t liked me. But that wasn’t the reason I hadn’t wanted to see them.
Helena had always hated how they treated me. Seeing her upset about it was what had truly hurt. My family wasn’t like that. My mom adored Helena from the moment she met her. Dad and Pat had always treated Helena as a family member.
Back when we were teenagers, there were days when Helena’s own family didn’t feel as close to her as mine had. That had been hard for me. Helena was such an amazing person, had been back then and I had no doubt was now, too. Her family not appreciating it had always annoyed me.
I had no idea how they felt when we broke up. Glad, I imagined. Which sucked, because our break up had been hard on both of us. Thinking that Helena’s family wasn’t there to support her, maybe even pointing out that they’d told her I wasn’t worthy all along? That sucked, too.
But as we pulled up to Kate’s house, I put all those thoughts aside. It wouldn’t do to dwell on what sort of people Helena’s parents had been. In ten years, I had changed a lot. Maybe it would be fair to give them the benefit of doubt, too.
Turning the engine off, I didn’t rush to get out of the car. Instead, I turned to give Helena a small smile. “Got your battle face on, Helena?” I teased. It was something she used to ask me before games.
Her giggle was all the reward I wanted. It was deeper than I remembered. It made me realize that Helena’s voice was, too. She sounded like an adult now, like a woman. Part of me wanted to make her giggle again, watch her throw her head back and laugh at something I’d said.
“I’m not sure my battle face is as good as yours was,” she answered, her cheeks going slightly pink. “I was hoping Ethan would meet us out here, but -” She shrugged. I remembered what it was like to be a kid, how easy it was to get distracted from what felt like ‘boring grown-up stuff’.
She paused, tapping her fingers
