Penny glanced around, clearly looking for Aubrey. “Now, where is that beautiful niece of mine that I’ve heard so much about?”
“Sleeping but you can peek in on her if you like.”
Penny grinned with delight and lumbered from her seat, breathing a little heavier. Shannon smiled in memory of being that pregnant. Hard to believe but Shannon had carried an extra forty pounds on her lean frame while carrying Aubrey. Thankfully, breastfeeding had melted away the weight but Shannon had a feeling Penny was just fine with her curves as the woman radiated confidence.
Penny’s gaze lit up with pure joy as she gazed on Aubrey and her hand went instinctively to her rounded stomach. “Those Buchanan genes are strong,” she remarked softly, looking to Shannon.
“Yeah, I knew right away just by looking at her that she favored Nolan.”
“Luckily Nolan is almost too pretty for a man,” Penny said, winking.
Shannon chuckled and they left the room. “Does Nolan know you’re here?”
“Oh goodness, no. He’d have a fit if he did. He’s still licking his wounds and being a total ass. I’ve never seen him so agitated. Nolan is the cool kid who never gets ruffled but you’ve really turned his world upside down, which is a good thing. Nolan needed a little chaos in his perfect little world. My Papa used to say that certain people come into our lives to give us the opportunity to grow but growing pains are often painful, that’s the part that often gets overlooked. You and Aubrey did for Nolan what I wasn’t meant to do; challenge him to grow as a person.”
Shannon digested that information and marveled at Penny’s wisdom. Behind that merry smile and dimpled cheeks was the brain of a very smart woman. No wonder Dillon had snapped her up. She regarded Penny to ask in a quiet voice, “Do you think Nolan could love me eventually, not just as Aubrey’s mother, but as a woman and a partner?”
Penny’s eyes sparkled mischievously as she answered, “I think he already does.”
Shannon sucked in a surprised breath. Was it possible? Her eyes watered. She supposed it was time to make a difficult and emotionally scary phone call.
She could only hope it wasn’t too late.
-10-
Nolan’s phone buzzed on the table and he ignored it, choosing instead to finish off his tequila. He wasn’t even sure why he was still hanging around this town when he was clearly not wanted. He ought to leave. Pack his shit and go; let the lawyers hash it all out. Shannon was going to lose — he was going to pick her bones apart in court. But that didn’t give him a hint of satisfaction. He didn’t want to destroy Shannon. She’d pushed him to this place. He’d wanted to provide for her and Aubrey; he’d wanted to wake up with her in his arms.
Hell, maybe he’d even wanted to marry her.
But she didn’t want anything to do with him. Not that he blamed her. Who would want a perverted son-of-a-bitch like him? In his life he’d done nothing worth crowing about, but he certainly had enough to be ashamed of.
Isabel, Penny…now Shannon?
And that wasn’t counting the number of nameless one-night stands that he’d fucked and forgotten.
What kind of man was he? Why would Shannon want anything to do with him? What could he offer her aside from cold, impersonal wealth? He didn’t know how to be a decent person.
A loud banging sounded at his hotel room door and Vince hollered from the other side. “Stop crying in your beer and let me in.”
“Go away, Vince,” Nolan said, reaching for a fresh bottle of tequila. He planned to drink away this pain or die trying.
“Open this door, you pussy.”
“Fuck off.”
“C’mon, let me in.”
Nolan sighed and cast a sour look toward the door but climbed to his feet nonetheless. He opened the door and returned to his tequila.
“This is pathetic,” Vince remarked, taking in the general disarray of the room and the Nolan’s overall sense of self-loathing. “What is happening here? I can tell you what’s not happening — personal hygiene,” he said, waving away the stench of Nolan’s unwashed body. “Jesus, open a damn window. You could choke an elephant.”
Nolan smirked, unmoved by his twin’s disgust. “I’ve resigned myself to wallowing in my own filth because it’s where I belong.”
Vince rolled his eyes, irritated. “When did you grow ovaries? This is ridiculous. All this over one chick?”
“She’s not just a chick!” Nolan shouted, slamming his fist down on the table so hard that the tequila nearly spilled. “She’s the mother of my daughter. Don’t you get it?” He stared hard at his twin, unable to contain his fury. “She’s the most amazing woman I’ve ever met and she doesn’t want a thing to do with me and you know why? Because I’m not worthy of her time.”
“Says who?” Vince retorted, not impressed. “There are plenty of fish in the sea as they say.” He helped himself to a shot of tequila and gulped it down. “Think about it, Nolan. You only want this woman because she’s the first to turn you down. Eventually, you would’ve gotten over whatever you’re going through and you’d have moved on. Count yourself lucky that she cut you loose before things got ugly and complicated.”
“You don’t get it, Vince,” Nolan said, shaking his head. “What I feel is more than a passing thing. Whatever I feel, is so strong, I feel it in my bones.”
Vince cut his gaze away. “It’ll pass.”
“Did it?” Nolan pressed, daring his brother to lie to him. “Did it pass with Isabel? Or does not a day go by that you don’t think of her?”
“That’s different,” Vince said, refusing to look at Nolan. He reached for the tequila. “No fair bringing up the dead.”
“Who said any of this was fair?” Nolan mocked, leaning back in his chair to stare out the window. “If life were fair…hell, we both know it’s not good to travel down that road.”
“True.” Vince stared morosely into his tequila before downing it. A long moment stretched between them before Vince said, “Do you love her?”
Nolan squeezed his eyes shut, almost afraid to put a name to the wild feeling wrapping itself around his heart but he knew whether or not he admitted it wouldn’t change anything. “Yes,” he said, his lids flipping back open. “I do.”
“Then you can’t give up,” Vince said finally. “Go to her, figure it out.”
“She doesn’t want me. I disgust her.”
“There’s a fine line between love and hate. Maybe you can nudge her the right way.”
“I screwed up.”
“We all screw up. At least you’re trying to fix it. That’s more than what some of us did.” Nolan knew Vince was talking about himself and how things had unfolded with Isa
bel. Vince’s pain over Isabel’s loss was almost palpable when Vince cracked open that box. Of the three of them, Vince had suffered the most over Isabel’s suicide. Nolan feared that as messed up as the Buchanan boys were, Vince’s damage was the deepest. Vince stood abruptly and walked toward the door, saying gruffly, “If you really love her…stop bitching about how pathetic you are and just go make it right. It’s the only choice there is.”
And then he left.
Nolan drew a deep breath. Vince was right. He could sit there crying like a whiny baby or he could man up and go after his woman.
He stumbled to his feet and swayed when the tequila caught up to him. Oh damn, he realized when the room tilted on its axis, he was trashed. And there was no way he was going anywhere — but straight to the floor.
And that’s exactly where he ended up.
Shannon worried her bottom lip, her mind nowhere near where it should be as the new line up of players received their beginning of the season talks from the head coach. Most of the players already knew Shannon as the head athletics trainer but she still had to make her appearance, nod and wave and then return to her office to finish the odds and ends of paperwork for the insurance requirements.
Usually, she enjoyed the fresh start of a new season — she loved hockey and everything that came with it – but her thoughts were a chaotic mess. She’d tried repeatedly to get a hold of Nolan but her calls had gone unanswered. She supposed that was to be expected as she’d tossed him out of her life like a diseased potato but she was a bit shocked that he refused to take her calls.
Okay, so maybe her pride was dinged but the bigger issue was that she was a bit worried. It seemed unlikely that Nolan would refuse to answer the phone, especially since they shared a child together. What if the call were about Aubrey? She frowned, chewing her pencil. Perhaps she ought to call the hotel and have them do a security check. No, that was silly. He was fine. She couldn’t blame him for being prickly given their last meeting.