“Might as well go.” Willow sighs as she removes her arm from around Dillon, her gaze coming to me. “Pepper will cause a scene if we don’t.”
I twist toward Jim, and he must see some of the panic I feel in my chest. Am I prepared to socialize with these women given our circumstances?
He squeezes my thigh under the table, a silent affirmation that it will all be okay. Squaring my shoulders, I nod and push up from my chair, following Willow over to the women.
Pepper and Brooke stand as we approach, immediately rushing to me. I’m given hugs and whispers I look fantastic and they’re so happy to see me. My defenses instantly lower, and I squeeze them back. Willow takes a seat beside Clarke and Mollie, then makes quick introductions to Clarke as we haven’t officially met.
As I smile and shake hands with her, I recall what Jim told me. Clarke owns a bookstore downtown, and Aaron Wylde—who was the team’s resident playboy—quickly fell for the pretty, bookish woman.
While I don’t know Mollie all that well, she has a fascinating story having been best friends with Kane Bellan—the trade the Vengeance made late in the season—for years. They went from friends to lovers to being engaged in the course of a late-summer fling, but, from what Jim says, they were destined to be together. True soul mates.
I believe in that term. Once upon a time, I had thought that was what Jim was to me. I think he can still be that, too.
God, I hope he can.
Brooke tells everyone to sit, then turns her attention to Willow first. “How long are you in town?”
“Until Monday,” she replies.
“Perfect,” Brooke beams. “We’re having a ladies’ brunch on Saturday morning. It’s been a while since we all got together, and the team is in town. Plus, we’re going to help plot Mollie and Kane’s wedding.”
Willow blinks, looking at Mollie in shock. They’ve only been engaged a few weeks.
Mollie shrugs. “I can plan a year-long trip cross country, but navigating a wedding gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
Pepper snorts as Brooke turns her gaze to me. “And will you please come too, Ella? We’d love to pull you into our group of girls.”
I freeze, not knowing what to say. I can’t tell if they’re being nice because I happened to be sitting at the same table with Willow or being genuine. They’ve never made overtures toward me before—not throughout any part of last season before Jim and I split.
“It’s a recent thing,” Pepper explains, and my gaze moves to her. “Late last spring, when we were in the playoffs, we all sort of found out how much we have in common and like each other, so we started having little get-togethers.”
“And well,” Brooke takes over, reaching out and putting her hand over mine. “We didn’t know if we should approach you when you and Jim separated. We thought—maybe wrongly—that you’d want some space from the team.”
“But now that you and Jim are back together,” Pepper finishes the pitch. “We’d love to have you start hanging with us.”
“Oh, Jim and I aren’t back together,” I blurt out, then immediately want to clap my hand over my mouth. It’s none of their business what we are.
Or maybe I didn’t want to say that out loud as it might jinx us?
“Oh, you’re back together,” Willow says slyly, nodding her head.
“Well, what I mean is that we’re not sure it’s going to work permanently,” I explain.
“Jim sure looks like it is,” Willow challenges me, peering over at the table where he sits with Dominik and Dillon. All ladies turn to look that way, and Jim smiles back.
“Maybe what I should have said is I’m not sure it’s going to work permanently,” I admit in a small voice.
And just like that, the women all collectively pull their chairs in closer and lean in, sympathetic smiles on their faces, including Mollie and Clarke, who haven’t said much since I joined them.
“Tell us what’s going on,” Brooke prods me… her tone genuinely empathetic. “Sometimes, it helps to brainstorm things.
I consider this a moment. I’ve never had a close female friend to share things with. Jim has been my best friend since we first fell in love. It was one of the hardest things I had to adjust to when I asked him to leave… not having someone there to listen to me work through something.
And even though he has been listening very closely to me the last few weeks, it might be good to have another perspective.
“I’m scared,” I say bluntly, boiling my reservations in admitting we’re back together down into simple terms. “Everything is great right now, but what if he moves back home, gets complacent, and then I go through the whole heartbreaking process of separating again? It was so hard that first time. I wasn’t sure I’d survive it. But I did, and I don’t want to go through it again.”