“Hawke Therrien,” Todd says with a beaming smile. He pushes past Vale, rounds Dave’s recliner, and advances on me with his hand out. “I’m a big fan. Huge, as a matter of fact.”
His hand grabs mine and he pumps enthusiastically. With a nod over his shoulder at Vale, he says, “Knew you’d been traded here and Vale told me tonight that Dave used to train you in the minor leagues.”
“Junior majors,” I correct him, the moron clearly not knowing a damn thing about me or my career.
“My bad,” he says sheepishly as he pulls his hand away. “Yeah, Vale said you used to be friends way back when.”
“She said that, did she?” I look back to Vale and her eyes are now lowered as she fastidiously studies the carpet. Refusing to look at me and acknowledge the fact that she’s withholding information from her boyfriend.
Interesting.
“Yeah, Vale and I go way back,” I say as I continue to look at her, watching her shoulders tense. A quick glance at Dave and I see him with his face lowered, biting back a smirk. It’s in this moment that I realize Dave isn’t all that fond of Todd and is relishing this interplay.
“Well, as much as I’d like to reminisce about old times, it’s getting late,” Vale says as she steps past her father to stand beside Todd. His arm slips around her waist and he pulls her in close, still beaming that smile at me. Vale looks at me imploringly, her message clear. She doesn’t want her boyfriend to know about me and what we had together. I bet she’s afraid it will scare him off, knowing how quickly she can cut a guy off at the knees.
“Yeah, I need to get going,” I say as fish my keys out of my pocket. I turn to Dave. “See you tomorrow around eight?”
Even as Dave is nodding, Vale butts in. “What’s tomorrow at eight?”
“A party I’m having at my house for the team and their spouses or girlfriends. Figured Dave would enjoy being around some hockey-minded folks again.”
“Oh,” Vale says quietly, and Dave adds, “Can’t wait.”
I watch as Vale gives me a tight smile and her boyfriend pulls her in tighter. It’s a move I don’t like, and I know I shouldn’t have feelings about it one way or the other, but I’m slightly mollified when Vale pulls away from him to grab my beer bottles off the table. Her brow is lined with confusion, and I can see she never expected Dave to get sucked back in with me.
Or maybe she’s just worried about him being out on his own so soon after having a virus injected into his brain.
“Would you like to come?” I ask Vale, and her head snaps up. “I mean, I didn’t invite any of the staff but you and I…we’re old friends, right?”
She just stares at me. Eyes all wide and unblinking.
“Both of you,” I clarify, giving Todd a quick nod. “It will be fun.”
“We’d love it,” Todd exclaims.
But I don’t look back at him. I continue to look at Vale and wait for her answer.
Finally, she gives a little sigh of affirmation and says in a quiet voice, “Sure. We’ll be there.”
Chapter 8
Vale
Everyone’s having a good time.
My dad is in his element, talking hockey war stories with some of the players. He holds them captivated, a natural-born storyteller and an icon within his field. The smile on his face says it all, and I realize that my dad has been way too secluded since we moved here. With me working all the time and the only friend he now has being Hawke, he has to be utterly miserable and alone. I vow to myself to find some way to spend more time with him.
Hawke is sure as hell having a good time. I only talked to him briefly when we first walked in. He greeted Dad with a hand to his shoulder, which he squeezed affectionately. He smiled at me and then turned to Todd.
“Good to see you again, Tad.”
“It’s Todd,” I said automatically, and Hawke gave me an impish grin.
“Right…sorry…Todd,” he says, without an ounce of apology in his voice.
Then he led my dad off to introduce him around to the rest of the team. I kept my eye on Dad, which meant I kept it also on Hawke, who stayed by his side pretty much most of the time. While Hawke sucked back beer after beer, he always kept a fresh nonalcoholic one in my dad’s hand, and I thought that was sweet of him to accommodate him that way.
Most of the partygoers congregated on Hawke’s back deck, so I found myself out there as well. Todd is one of those people that can hold a conversation with any stranger, so he would often leave me alone to make rounds, where he happily introduced himself to anyone and everyone that he could.