Easy (Chicago Blaze 6)

“Yeah, I’m home. Graysen had the vacation time scheduled, but another therapist where she works had her baby a few weeks earlier than her due date, so Graysen has to cover her patients.”

“And you didn’t want to go without her?” I grin. “Adorable. Does she let you borrow your balls on the weekends, or does she keep them in her purse all the time?”

“Haha,” he says flatly. “Says the guy living with his mom.”

“I’m not living with her. I’m helping out. I’ll be here for a month, tops.”

“Yeah, that’s actually why I’m calling. Your birthday’s in a couple weeks, man.”

“It’ll be a low key one this year.”

“The hell it will.” Alexei runs a hand through his hair, smoothing a few strands into place. “You only turn thirty once.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to get away from here, bro. Not even for one night. My mom and my aunt need my help too much.”

“Yeah, I figured. So we’ll come up there.”

I sit up abruptly in Aunt Jo’s patio chair. “What? Who?”

“It’ll at least be me, Graysen, Kit, Jonah, Anton and Mia.”

“You guys will be bored out of your minds here, though. It’s a really small town.”

“Nah, it’s all good. Graysen and Mia said they’ll hang out with your mom and your aunt so we can go out for your birthday.”

I’m silent because I can’t believe they’d all come up to Greentree Falls, Wisconsin just because it’s my birthday. And for Graysen and Mia to offer to help with my mom and aunt is above and beyond.

“Are you sure?” I ask Alexei. “There are just a few hole-in-the-wall bars here.”

“Perfect.”

“And my mom’s gonna want to meet you guys. She’ll probably try to cook you dinner even though she’s on crutches.”

“Hell yeah, we’re meeting Mama Z. Let’s grill out or something, though. She doesn’t need to be cooking.”

“That’s…great of you. All of it, I mean.”

“We’re not missing your birthday.” He grins. “I never would’ve thought a French-Canadian gentleman slash fashion model would be one of my wingers, but here we are.”

I laugh and say, “I’m not sure I qualify as a gentleman anymore given all the time I’ve spent with you. And that modeling you’re heckling me about is for high-paying endorsement deals, thank you very much.”

“So seriously, you doing okay up there? You’ve at least got internet, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve got internet. And I’m doing fine.”

Alexei narrows his eyes. “You seem off.”

I dismiss his comment with a laugh and say, “You’ve just been spending too much time with your therapist wife.”

“Nah. What’s going on, Easy? Is it Allie?”

I sit back in my seat, stunned that first of all, he remembers her name since I only talked about her once, many months ago when I’d had way too much to drink. I also can’t believe he can tell something’s bothering me so easily and know it’s her.

“I saw her,” I admit, exhaling hard.

“And how’d it go?”

“We didn’t even talk. One of her nieces plays on the team I’m coaching, and she saw me there and looked like she was about to be sick.”

Alexei shrugs. “You do have that effect on women, though.”

I shake my head. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you, asshole.”

“Lighten up.” He gets up from his couch and I see the Chicago skyline behind him through a window in his apartment. “I think you should try to talk to her.”

“And say what? We’ve been over for ten years.”

He looks skeptical. “Have you, though? Because you’re definitely not over it.”

“I told you, Alexei. She dumped me. End of story.”

“That’s not the end of the story. She was between a rock and a hard place. Her nieces or nephews, whichever it was. They had no one else to raise them. Isn’t that what you told me?”

“Yeah, but I probably didn’t tell you I offered to drop out of school and move back here to help her raise them. Or have them come move in with me.”

Alexei scoffs. “What, in your college dorm room? You dumbass. What kind of woman is gonna let you drop a full-ride to Penn State for her?”

My chest tightens. In that one question lies the answer to everything between me and Allie. She wouldn’t let me quit school to come home and be with her back then because while she loved me and wanted me, she didn’t need me. It was a painful realization for me as a college freshman.

Allie would find a way to raise those kids, and she didn’t need me to do it. I knew it back then, and I can tell just from the quick look I got at her a couple days ago that I was right.

She’s more beautiful than ever. The real kind of beautiful. The yoga pants and ponytail kind. I was mesmerized by her. And then when I saw her concerned about her niece’s injury, I couldn’t help but remember how she would take care of me after games and worry about my injuries back when we were together.