Flaming asshole.
My teammates called. Eve even stopped by, threatening me with an intervention, but I didn’t need an intervention.
I needed a hug.
And not by them.
By him.
I wondered if he knew he was a good hugger.
The best hugger.
And he probably needed one too. That was the worst part. Remembering that look in his eye. Knowing his penchant for punishing himself with no one there to remind him just how worthy he was of love and having someone who cared for him the way he cared for others.
“Maybe decaf ain’t so bad after all,” Milton said, taking a sip of his second cup that morning.
“What decaf?” I asked as I shot Gerald a look over my shoulder, catching him in the act of slipping his hand toward Milton’s bacon. “Yours is coming. Be good.”
“I’m a little disappointed in you, young lady. You’re slipping. I’ve already taken one piece,” Gerald grumbled.
“Don’t be thinking I don’t know what you’ve been doing back there, Maisy Jane. I let you get away with it because you put up with an old curmudgeon like me,” Milton said.
I rounded the counter and put my arms around both of them. “I love old curmudgeons like you.”
Milton patted my hand and tipped his head against mine. “I hate seeing you sad like this, sweetheart. He’s going to come back, you know.”
But it wasn’t just that, it was also the way he left. My last moments with him in an arena six hundred miles from home.
There were things I would have said. Feelings I would have reassured him of.
I would have told him I love him.
No hints, no alluding to it. Just three simple words.
And I would have had some sort of goodbye, that last hug to sustain me while he figured his shit out.
“You know what you need? You need to go get a sniff of Lilith and Jordan’s new baby. He’ll cheer you up,” Milton said.
I raised my head and stared down at him. “You’ve seen him?”
“Sure have,” he said, gesturing with his cup. “Lilith was bragging on you and how you helped her through having him. I’m kind of surprised you haven’t seen him yet since you were there when he came into this crazy world.”
I did do that. So, I had rights, right?
At least some sort of honorary thing. What did you call someone who did that anyway? Honorary aunt?
I could bring him a baby present, but none of that practical stuff. I could bring him something frivolous—a puppy!
Actually, a puppy probably wasn’t what they needed right now, but it was a farm, and it was sorely lacking a dog.
Okay, so better than a rattle and not as awesome as a dog…
Kitten…but again, something that needed to be kept alive.
I closed my eyes and time sucked me back to when Cain delivered that little boy and the stricken anguish on his face in the quiet stillness after. Brief, but breathtaking, the look slid into gritty determination as he worked, and a flood of sweet relief when he heard that first wail.
I blinked open my eyes, tears burning again, but I knew just the thing.
I slid my phone out of my pocket, made sure Scooter wasn’t watching because he’d been ornery lately and no one needed more of that shit, and dialed Rockabilly’s.
“Yo,” Jackson answered.
“That’s how you answer the phone?”
“It’s early. You should be more surprised I’m awake to answer the phone.”
“Have you heard from him?” I asked, trying not to hold my breath while I waited for the likely answer.
“No,” he said quietly. “I wish I had a better answer for you, Maze.”
Knowing what he’d say didn’t make his answer hurt any less. “Any chance you can do me a favor?”
“Anything,” he said, his voice remarkably swift for such a laid-back guy.
“You can make skates, right?”
“Yeaaaahhhhh,” he said, drawing out the word.
“Can you make skates for say…a two-year-old?”
“Sure.”
“With flames on the side?”
“I see where you’re going with this,” he said, his voice perking right up at the idea. “You know what, I can. I’ll get started now and call you when they’re done.”
This was gonna be great…I just wished I asked him the timeline because I’d be watching the clock all day now.
If this was, say… a week-long job, I was in some serious trouble. Plus, I was not going to wait a week to see that baby.
I finished out my shift, ready to go home, but my phone rang instead, and thank fuck this time I knew the number.
Jackson.
“They’re ready.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’ve even got them all packaged up for you in their own box and ready to go.”
A half hour later, he handed me a bag with a custom-built pair of black skates just like Priest’s, with little red leather flames affixed to each side.
“If he doesn’t come back here and scoop you right up,” he said, holding my car door for me, “I’m going to go down to Boston and kick him in the balls for you.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” I said, kissing him on the cheek before firing up my car and heading out to the farm.
I parked next to Lilith’s SUV, grabbed the bag, and headed for the door, but hesitated when I got there. I’d always knocked when we used the bathroom during practice because this was another woman’s house and it felt disrespectful not to.
But I’d helped Lilith through childbirth here.
I’d done laundry.
I saved a quilt.
Read from a well-loved book in the easy chair by their grandfather’s lamp.
I’d started to let Cain go here even as I held on to him while we made love all night in his bed.
Fresh tears burned in the back of my eyes and I froze, unable to knock, unable to walk away, so damn heartbroken it choked me as I stood staring at
