Page 58 of The Player's Club
“Let me do the thinking here. That’s what you pay me for, right?” Tony grabbed a pen and a Post-it. “Name.”
“You don’t need to do a background,” I repeated, frustrated at Tony’s insistence.
“Dude, stop thinking with your dick and think with your head. If she has nothing to hide, then it’ll come up with nothing. But you’ll be pissed at yourself if she does have something and you were too caught up to do the bare minimum.”
I knew Tony was right, even as it pissed me off. I got up out of my chair, feeling like Tony’s gaze was pinning me to the floor like an insect.
“Name, Mackenzie.”
“Christ, you’re fucking relentless.”
Tony chuckled. “Like I said, that’s what you pay me for.”
After a few more moments of indecision, I gave Tony Elodie’s name. He looked triumphant, and it took all my self-control not to punch his smug face.
Why did I hire this guy again? I thought darkly.
“Good, I’ll run that through today. I’ll have the background check by Monday.” Tony watched me pace, his expression amused. “What’s going on? I’ve never seen you like this about a woman.”
“Like what, exactly?”
“Cagey. Protective. Like you’d tear somebody apart for looking at her funny. You know, you remind me of myself sometimes.”
That remark made me laugh. “You?”
“Yeah, me. You know, the second I met Miranda, I lost my ever-fucking mind. I had to have her, but she didn’t make it easy. She told me to go to hell on more than one occasion. The first time I asked her out, she laughed at me. Laughed! Told me to come back when I’d finished law school. So I finished law school, passed the bar with flying colors, and then she told me to come back when I’d started my own firm.
“So I did, and she had no more excuses. We got married a few months later.”
“Jesus.”
Tony chuckled. “Yeah, we were fucking crazy. But I have zero regrets. The second she agreed to marry me, I had to lock that shit down. And she’s told me since that she wished she’d said yes when I’d first asked her out.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “What the hell does this all have to do with me?”
“Mackenzie, I’m telling ya, if this woman is special, don’t let her go. You’ll regret it for the rest of your fucking life. And do whatever she wants. That’s what women do. Drive you crazy. But it’s worth it.”
I was about to counter that Elodie wasn’t like Miranda in the slightest, but I also understood what Tony was getting at.
Intuitively, I knew that Elodie was different. She was special. She’d already burrowed herself into me, and I didn’t know if I could get her out. Or if I even wanted her out. I started to feel guilty about giving Tony her name to look into. Was that really necessary?
The thought of never seeing Elodie again was like a punch to the gut.
Tony cleared his throat. “I’ll get that background check in, then. And take that contract with you and actually read it.”
I knew when I was dismissed. I gave Tony an ironic salute and headed out.
That weekend, we had a game up in Vancouver, Canada, which we lost—badly. It didn’t help that my mind had been on everything but hockey. My mom had called last night and said that Caroline was deteriorating, and I hated to be away from Elodie. When I’d missed a goal, Coach had looked like he’d wanted to choke me out.
“Get your head in the game!” he’d yelled at me, his face red as a cherry.
The only upside—which was really not an upside at all—was that I hadn’t been the only one distracted. Brady had missed a pass, while our goalie had also let an easy shot from the other team get through. I wasn’t sure what was going on with either of them, but I’d been wrestling with my conscience all week long about whether I should visit Caroline. The debate ate away at me.
Our relationship had always been complicated. No one could understand it except the two of us. But I still cared about her despite everything. The thought of her dying without me seeing her at least once more made my gut twist. And that twist turned into a knot when I thought about how Elodie might feel if she knew I went to visit Caroline.
One of my teammates was from Idaho, and when I found out he was flying to Coeur d’Alene to visit his wife, I didn’t hesitate to hitch a ride on his private plane. Then I drove to the hospital twenty minutes from the tiny airport. The entire ride felt like my heart was in my mouth—I had no idea what to expect, just how bad she was. Nor did I have a clue what I would say to her. Would she even recognize me? God, this sucked. But in my heart, I knew I was doing the right thing. I’d regret it for the rest of my life if she died and I never went to see her.
Walking into the hospital, I almost hoped they’d tell me visiting hours were over—make the decision for me. But when I asked for directions to Caroline’s room, nobody stopped me.I stood outside her door for a long moment. A nurse slid past me, giving me a strange look, and I waited for her to leave again before entering.