“I would have come here to you, though I would’ve been more terrified than I would like to admit.”
His hands leave my hair and his arms wrap around my body. “Have I ever let you down before?” He continues on before I can say no. “If I ever do—”
“It’ll be okay,” I interrupt. “I won’t worry about it. Besides, I’ve already let you down, so if you do, then we’ll be even.”
Brayden chuckles. “Fair enough.” He mostly looks as if he wants to be done talking. He leans forward to kiss me. “Happy with your conversation?” he asks as his lips move over mine.
“Yes. I feel better.”
“Good.” His lips move over mine again, but a loud beeping noise goes off. “Dinner,” he groans. “Just as I was about to eat.”
I laugh and move off his body. My stomach growls as if suddenly realizing how hungry I am. “I’ll get it; you stay.”
The rest of our night is spent eating, lounging on the couch, and then heading up to bed.
We’re there, lying together, utterly spent but satisfied, when I realize sleep is not coming so easily for me tonight. Brayden’s breathing is slow and even; I close my eyes and try to let it lull me to sleep. My eyes, however, have another plan. They keep opening.
“Darlin’.” Brayden’s hand comes up and covers my eyes. “Stop blinking. Sleep. I got you off enough times that you shouldn’t be able to keep your eyes open; I can’t.”
True. Yet, here I am. “I can’t sleep.”
“Deanna,” he starts.
“If you bring up your damn patience, I’ll hurt you.”
He laughs. “I wasn’t. I was going to ask what’s the problem.”
I shrug a shoulder. “I don’t know.”
He sighs and tugs me closer. “Sleep, Deanna.” He demands it as if my body has no choice but to listen to him. His fingers trail up and down my back and my arm. Between that and listening to his breathing and heartbeat, I eventually fall asleep.
“Pick any one you want.”
Jackson’s eyes widen. “I can have one of these?” His fingers rub the material of the kid’s jersey. “Momma said I can?”
“It’s a gift from me. I’m sure she’ll be okay with it. Do you want a blank jersey or one with someone’s name on it?”
“Mr. EJ’s,” he quickly says.
“Okay then.” I release his hand to flip through the jerseys and he grabs my shirt. The store is busy and it makes me relax to know that he’s holding on anyway. When Raelynn texted me and said Jackson wanted to see the game up close and EJ wrangled glass seat tickets, but Bree was being extra fussy so she didn’t want to go, I didn’t think twice about taking him. In fact, I felt really fucking proud. Raelynn trusted me with her kid. That’s huge in my book, especially so early on in our friendship.
With his jersey in hand, I double check that he can wear it and then go find my own Hayes jersey. We check out, step outside the store and off to the side, and then I help Jackson put his jersey on before slipping mine over my head as well. He thanks me at least five times. Ready to go, we walk hand-in-hand to our seats. The guys are just coming onto the ice for warmups.
I pick Jackson up, so he can see better.
He bangs his hand on the glass. “Mr. EJ!” he shouts as EJ skates behind the net. EJ’s eyes widen as he sees the jersey. He doesn’t seem surprised to see me, so I’m assuming Raelynn talked to him early enough to let him know she wasn’t coming and I was.
“Hey, J-man,” he says.
I turn us a little, so EJ can see that Jackson is wearing his jersey. “He picked it out.”
“Thanks, Jackson. I think it’ll give me good luck.” He bumps his fist against the glass and skates off.
Jackson’s eyes follow him as he goes. “Do you think I’ll give him good luck?”
“We’ll have to wait and see.”
EJ taps B