Losing an Edge (Portland Storm Book 13) (33 page)

“Cadence?” Sophie said, holding tight to her hand.

“Hmm?”

“You can be Levi’s best girlfriend now.”

The other girls got quiet, and their expressions clearly said
awwwwww
, even if they didn’t voice it aloud, but Cadence sat upright too fast.

She closed her eyes and waited a moment, probably hoping the shooting pains or nausea, or whatever it was this time, would quit. Then she gave Sophie a very serious look. “I can’t be, because you are, Sophie Bug.”

Sophie shrugged. “It’s okay. I’ll let you. And you can kiss him and stuff, too, as long as I can be his other girlfriend.”

Cadence spluttered and looked over to me for help.

I got up and dragged a hand through my hair, studiously avoiding her gaze. “I need to…uh…” I didn’t have the first clue what I needed to do other than get the hell out of Dodge, so I did exactly that, disappearing down the hall to my bedroom.

Because the direction of this conversation was making me think of one thing—marriage. And the more I thought of it, the less it sounded like a bad idea. Whether I wanted to pursue that or not, though, now wasn’t the time to broach the subject.

I waited about ten minutes and then headed back out, hoping they would be on a different topic by now. As soon as I reached the living room again, someone was knocking on my door.

“We should go,” Paige said, giving each of her girls a meaningful look. They blushed when they glanced up at me, so I headed over to answer the door while they busied themselves gathering their coats and purses, not to mention prying Sophie’s grip away from Cadence’s hand.

A few of the other guys’ wives were waiting on my porch. I ushered them in, and Paige herded her daughters out so they could exchange places.

The day continued in that fashion for a long time. Nearly all of the Storm WAGs dropped by, some of them bringing food and others with flowers or books to keep Cadence busy while she recovered. Soupy, Burnzie, and Jens all stopped in, since they were in town recovering from injuries. Jens and Cadence sat together in the dining room, quietly talking about concussions, while the rest of us hung out in the living room.

Early in the afternoon, Anthony and Jesse showed up to fawn over her. They hadn’t even stopped at their place after returning from their honeymoon in Hawaii. Anthony had a nice tan, but Jesse was as red as a lobster.

“Even with SPF 100,” he said. “That sun’s no joke.”

I had to fight not to laugh at him, because the guy winced with every tiny movement.

“So I guess I’m skating on my own for a while,” Anthony said.

“For a while,” Cadence agreed. “I’m hoping it won’t be a long while, though.”

“We’re not messing around with a concussion, though,” he said, ignoring her pout.

They hung around for a while but excused themselves before I was ready to kick them out.

Then Jonny and Sara came over—sans kids, thank goodness—late in the day.

“They’re with Daddy,” Sara said.

“How’d you manage that one?” I asked.

“He’s wrapped around my little finger,” she replied. “Cassidy is quickly learning how to convince her Pops to do anything she wants, too.”

Cadence raised a brow. “How’s that?”

“Kisses and giggles.”

Jonny took a seat in the recliner and stretched out his long legs. “I convinced Mom the last thing you need while you’re recovering is for all of them to come down from Winnipeg.”

Cadence let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Today has been more than enough, and that’s without Mom getting in the middle of it.”

“You look tired,” he said.

All she did to respond was nod. She
felt
tired to me. Once again, she was curled up against my side on the couch, resting her head on my shoulder. Usually, she kept more of her weight off me than this, but right now she’d completely collapsed into me. I didn’t mind in the least, other than recognizing just how worn out she was in order to let go like this.

“I told Jim I could rejoin the team,” he said slowly. “Play in the next game.”

Shit. I wasn’t ready to leave her again. Not yet. Why hadn’t Jim talked to me about this?

“He’s had Rachel book me a flight to join the team in Edmonton tomorrow morning.”

“Just you?” Cadence asked, inching closer to my side. I rubbed my hand up and down her arm. There was no chance I’d be allowed to miss another game now that we knew she was going to be all right. Especially not if Jonny was going back already.

“Just me. We’ll be home again the next day.”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

Jonny fixed me with a stare. “I told him that even though she’s going to be fine, my sister is in no condition to be left alone. That she needs you.”

I had to fight off a grin at understanding what that meant.

Jonny wasn’t going to kill me. He’d decided to accept me as part of Cadence’s world.

GRADUALLY, CADENCE WAS
starting to get back to everyday life.

For the first couple of weeks after Guy’s attack, she’d spent a lot of time in dark, quiet rooms with her eyes closed. Jens, Jonny, and I had ganged up on her about going to see the concussion specialist, and she’d eventually given in. Now that spring was in the air, she was starting to act more like her normal self.

They still hadn’t cleared her to resume skating again, but some lighter exercise was allowed. On my days off when the team was in town, I tried to spend every possible moment at her side, at least as long as she wasn’t growling at me to back off.

She was a lot like Sophie, in some ways. Cadence wanted to do everything for herself and not be coddled along. I found it difficult to avoid helping her more than I should. It killed me to see her struggling to do everyday things, or becoming exhausted from what she could have handled with ease only a month ago.

Still, Cadence’s concussion had turned out to be great for me on one score—it got me out of the Light the Lamp Foundation’s annual fundraiser that had been moved back to St. Patrick’s Day, due to Noelle Kallan’s and Jessica Lynch’s pregnancies. Most of the rest of the guys were being forced to dress up as leprechauns and carry around pots of gold, but I got to spend the night at home on my couch, making out with my girlfriend in between bouts of equally silly and serious discussion.

“Do you want to have kids?” Cadence asked me, staring up into my eyes. Hers had taken on that deep, mossy green tint again.

I quirked up a grin. “With you?”

She punched my shoulder. “I mean in general. Do you see kids in your future?”

“I don’t know. Not any time soon.” Then I remembered the day the previous weekend when Sara had brought Connor and Cassidy over, and Connor had proceeded to empty every cabinet in my kitchen. “I don’t suppose there’s any way to control what sort of personality they’ll end up with, is there?”

“We’ve already got one Connor in the family. No idea if that means we’re likely to end up with another just like him, or if the opposite is true.”

“We?” I said. “In the family? You realize you’re the one saying these things, right?” Not that I minded. I kind of liked the thought that she wanted me to be part of the family. That she was thinking about kids with me in the picture was a definite bonus.

“Hmm,” was all she said, and she cut me off from making any other points by kissing me. Her tongue glided along the seam of my lips, not that I needed much prodding to open for her.

When we broke apart a bit later, she asked, “What about Jamie and Katie? Do you think they want kids?”

“Want them? Yeah. Very much so. They’ve been trying to get pregnant, but I kind of doubt if it’ll happen.”

“Because of the chemo and all?”

“The doctors tell her it isn’t likely,” I said.

“So will they adopt if they can’t do it on their own?”

“No idea.” We’d talked about them trying to get pregnant, but this wasn’t a subject I felt comfortable broaching with him. Maybe he would bring it up with me, when he was ready to talk about it again.

Cadence fell silent for a minute. She leaned back against me and we watched some of the pranks the guys were pulling on each other on the newest episode of
Impractical Jokers
. In no time, we were both laughing so hard she could barely breathe, and I definitely snorted a time or two.

“How’d you find this show?” she asked me when it went to commercial break.

“Koz. He thinks it’s the best thing ever. He even tried to convince me to start up our own version of it—not for TV, just for fun.”

“But you didn’t want to?”

I shook my head. “Koz’s idea of fun things to do to me would equal torture. No doubt about it. He doesn’t recognize when he takes things too far. Social cues don’t click for him.”

“Yet you’re still friends with him…”

I shrugged. “I understand him. I mean, he’s not good in social situations. He doesn’t realize how he comes across. But he’s a good guy underneath it all. A jackass, sure. But he’s a good guy.”

“Seems to be a common thread between you two.”

“What do you mean?”

She tipped her chin up to look at me. “You don’t see yourself the way the rest of the world sees you. He doesn’t understand how he presents himself. I get it. That’s all.”

“You don’t mind that I’m friends with him, do you? I swear, I won’t let him pull something with you.” Not that it was easy. I was constantly reminding the guy that he was behaving like a jerk, and that he couldn’t say certain things to people because it was rude. He just had no clue.

Cadence shook her head. “I think I love you more because of it. The same as I love you more because of how you are with Sophie. You see the good in people, even when no one else can. I only wish you could see it in yourself more often.”

“I do, though.”

“Do you?” She looked skeptical.

“I’m starting to, at least. You’ve helped with that. And Hammer. He’s constantly reminding me that I’m doing exactly what I should be, but I need to believe in myself more. It’s sinking in, a bit at a time.”

She kissed me again. This time, we both lingered over it, not wanting to separate at all.

After a few minutes, we settled back against the couch and returned our attention to the show on TV. At the next commercial break, though, I knew it was time.

I picked up the remote and muted it.

“What?” she asked.

“You never picked your card for the day.”

“Oh.” She smiled all the way up to her eyes.

I got up to collect her box, then brought it back to her. “It was running a little low. I restocked it earlier, so you might want to look through all of them before making your choice.”

“But I already know what I want,” she said.

“Just look through them.” I handed her the box and headed into the kitchen to kill a few minutes. This wouldn’t work if she didn’t pick through the cards and read all of the new ones. Once I thought enough time had passed, I slipped into the hall to retrieve the ring from my coat pocket.

Sure enough, when I returned to the living room, she’d dropped the entire box, and the cards had spread all across the floor. She had one in her hands and was staring at me with tears in her eyes.

Cadence turned the card around for me to read, not that I needed to see it to know what it said. Her mouth kept opening and closing.

“So will you?” I asked after what felt like an eternity had passed. My heart was in my throat, and I felt like I was being poked with a thousand thumbtacks in all my most sensitive places, because the wait was killing me. I opened the ring box and held it out for her.

She looked through her tears, letting one fingertip trace the stone. Then she looked up at me again. “I can’t give you an answer yet. I need to talk to Sophie first.”

“What?” That answer felt like a punch to the gut. Had I read the signs wrong? Maybe Cadence didn’t want to marry me. I could be right back to being the guy who always fucked everything up, just like that. “But Sophie already told you she’s okay with us,” I said.

“She did. I can’t explain it yet. It’s only— I need to talk to Sophie first, and I need you to be okay with that. Paige is bringing her to your game tomorrow night. And I think I’ve recovered enough I can handle being at the arena through a game.”

I thought I might puke up the contents of my stomach at any moment, but I agreed. After all, at least she hadn’t said
no
. That had to be a good sign. Didn’t it?