Valerie sighed as if she were the one suffering. “I guess my point is that your relationship with Ty is difficult but not impossible.”
“It feels impossible.”
“Do you love him?”
What she felt was so new, so raw, she didn’t want to talk about it. “I don’t want to love him.”
“Well, I don’t want age spots, but it’s something I can’t help.”
“Are you equating Ty and age spots?”
Valerie shrugged a bare shoulder. “Your body is going to react a certain way and there is nothing you can do about it. You can’t control who you’re attracted to. And you can’t control who your heart wants.”
A few weeks ago she would have told her mom that was a load of crap. And she would have believed it too. “But I don’t want my heart to want him. I don’t want to fall for any man right now. It’s too soon.” And she especially didn’t want a relationship that was so complicated.
“I know you loved Virgil. He was your husband but he was never your man.”
She looked into her mother’s green eyes surrounded by heavy mascara. “What does that mean?”
“It means that he wasn’t the man who drew your attention across the room or made your stomach go squishy at the sight of him. Virgil may have been nice to you, but he didn’t make you want to lie beside his body, next to his heart, for an entire afternoon.”
Curling up alongside Ty was one of her favorite things to do. “Is that how you feel about Pavel?”
Valerie shook her head. “Pavel is not the kind of man a woman should ever fall in love with. He’s a heartbreaker, and I am old enough, with enough experience under my belt, to see him for what he is. But he’s great company and we’re having a lot of fun. He’s only here to see his son win the cup.” She ran her fingers through Pebbles’s fur. “Ty is not like his father. He is not all fun and games and having fun. Pavel thinks he has feelings for you.”
Faith didn’t know how Ty felt. He’d never said. She knew he liked having sex with her. That much was obvious. And she knew he gave her gifts with some thought behind them. That had to count for something. But she also knew that if it came down to a choice, he’d pick his career over her. She understood that. Hockey was a part of him. It flowed through him like his own blood, giving him substance and strength and purpose. His drive and dedication were the things she loved about him.
They were also the things that would break them apart.
Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Seattle Chinooks was played on Seattle’s ice. The Key Arena was filled to capacity and the cool air buzzed with the excitement of more than fifteen thousand cheering fans.
Early in the first period, the Penguins dominated the puck, but the Chinooks came back strong in the second and third frames. Faith watched from the skybox, her heart pounding in her throat as the Chinooks beat Pittsburgh 3–1.
Game Two was played in the Mellon Arena on Pittsburgh ice. Despite the Penguins’ hometown advantage, Game Two was a repeat of Game One. Chinooks goalie Marty Darche stopped twenty-five of twenty-six shots on goal, while Ty scored in the remaining minutes with a one-timer shot across ice from the stick of Logan Dumont. The Chinooks once again won 3–1. The flight home from Pittsburgh was jubilant while remaining cautious.
Later as Faith lay curled up beside Ty’s warm body, next to his heart, she was actually starting to feel a bit optimistic about the future. Somehow, maybe everything would work out. She wasn’t exactly sure how, but once the playoffs were over, maybe they could go away together and find a solution.
She was still thinking about possible solutions the next afternoon when she returned from a meeting with Jules and the Chinooks Foundation. Perhaps their relationship could remain a secret for a few more years.
When she walked into her building, a card waited for her at the front desk. It wasn’t signed but said, “Meet me in Virgil’s office inside the Key Arena at 6:00
P.M.” It was an odd request. Ty would be at the Key getting suited up to play Game Three. She knew he was as cautious as she was about being seen together, and she wondered what would prompt him to want to meet her.
At five thirty, she dressed in her team jersey and figured it had to be something really important, but when she walked into the office that night, it wasn’t Ty sitting in her chair with his feet up on her desk.
“Come in and shut the door,” Landon said, a particularly smug smile flattening his colorless lips.
Faith didn’t move. She looked into the cold eyes of the one person on the planet who truly frightened her. “We don’t have anything to talk about.”
Landon took his feet from the desk and pushed a file toward her. “You’re wrong about that, Layla. We’re going to talk about your boyfriend and how fast you’re going to sell me my father’s team.”
Faith’s heart slammed against her ribs as she moved to the desk and flipped open the file.
Inside were photos of her and Ty. There were four of them, but the most incriminating picture had been snapped the night she’d come down from the penthouse wearing nothing but her raincoat. It had been dark outside, but the photograph clearly showed Ty kissing her while his hand was inside her coat cupping her breast. Her stomach fell and she thought she might vomit all over her desk and the front of Landon’s gray suit.
“I’m thinking I don’t want to pay one hundred and seventy million for the team.”
“And what happens if I don’t sell?” she asked, although she figured she knew the answer.