"Yes," he says. "That was me in love with her."
"I think at one point you truly loved her," I answer him honestly. "But people grow apart."
"I was trying to remember the last time I felt something for her." He looks over at me. "We lived together for five years. We had two children, and for the life of me, I can’t remember the one time I felt something for her."
"It’s because of all the bad stuff that happened," I remind him. "It just didn’t go bad overnight."
"Oh, don’t I know it," he says. "I know we weren’t meant to be together, and I truly want her to be happy. I just …" He rubs his hands over his face. "I called her today, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember a time I liked her."
"I’m sure there were moments that you will remember." I scoot closer to him. "But maybe you're just so over her bullshit that you can’t see it." He laughs. "I mean that in the nicest way." I put my hand on his shoulder. "She always gave you a hard time about your family."
"She said they meddled too much, and I can see it, but they are my family. It’s the way they are."
"Then she didn’t like that you had to train year-round," I remind him. "She didn’t like the way you dressed. She didn’t like when you didn’t shave. She didn’t like how you laughed at certain things. She didn’t like your hair at one point. I mean, the list was endless with everything she wanted you to change. Toward the end, she hated everything about you. And you hated everything about her."
"You’re right. I just, you know with my family, I thought once you find the woman, it’s like bam, it’s over. I’m just asking myself what I did wrong."
"You are asking the wrong person.” I hold my hand up like I don’t know. "I’m over thirty and single. My last relationship was over three years ago," I say, and he gags, thinking back to the guy.
"That guy was a douche.” He shakes his head. "Like there was nothing good about that guy."
"Well, he cheated on me," I admit for the first time, and he looks over at me, shocked. "Yeah, the idiot forgot we shared the fitness app, and then I saw that his cardio was on another level at four o’clock in the morning." I get up, walking over to the fridge I have outside and grabbing a bottle of sparkling water. "The next day, I asked him how he slept, and he said like a baby, and he woke up at six."
I look over at Cooper, his mouth hanging open. "Why didn’t you tell me?"
I shrug. "Because you would have blown it out of proportion."
"Oh, this coming from the woman who basically said finish her when I got divorce papers." He points at me.
"She served you divorce papers during a fucking practice!" I shout at him. "In front of everyone."
"Yeah," he says softly. "Well, today, she was not okay with you sleeping at my house."
"She was upset I slept at your house?" My heart beats in my chest as I close my mouth and think about the words that come out of my mouth. There is so much I want to say right now. "We lived together for two months after she kicked you out."
"I know," he agrees, holding out his hand for my drink. I get him a bottle of water, walking to the couch and handing it to him. "Trust me, I know. That is what I told her."
"Did it bother you?" I ask him. "Her thinking we were together."
"I don’t give a shit what she thinks about us," he says between clenched teeth. "We’re best friends, and she’s always had issues with it."
I look at him, shocked myself. "What?" I ask him.
"She got over it eventually," he adds, and I shake my head.
"You never ever told me." I put my hands on my hips. "And here I was, thinking she liked me."
"What was I going to say? Hey, Julianne wants to know if we have feelings." I shake my head. "Then you dated one of her friends’ brothers."
"Who was gay." I point at him, and he laughs, bringing the bottle of water to his mouth. "That was not a fun situation for me. He wanted me to do him." He spits water everywhere and chokes. "I’m not lying." I bring my water to my mouth. "Then she set me up with her dentist, who stared at our waitress’s ass while in front of me, and he was mid-conversation."
"Remember that guy you dated?" He starts laughing. "The one who said he was in finance, and you found out he lived with his mother."
I slap his arm. "His mother lived with him," I remind him, and he just laughs. "It’s very different, and he was in finance."
"As a bank teller," he says. "When we went on that double date, he kept talking about all the stock trades he did."
I hold up my hand. "Okay, enough of the walk down memory lane." I sit down next to him. "I’ve dated five guys my whole life," I admit, holding up my hand. "Five." I shake my head. "How sad are we?" I ask, and he puts his arm around my shoulder.
"We aren’t sad.” He kissses my temple. "Everyone else is sad, and we are perfect."
I laugh. "Yeah," I say, looking at him. "Now, let’s turn on some Sister Wives. I don’t get it," I note, grabbing my food. "I would never be able to share my man, but this show is just so intriguing."
"You won’t share your man?" he jokes with me, and I glare at him. "I’ll watch this with you, and then I get to pick the next show." And I groan. "You’ll like it, I swear."
"Your taste in television sucks," I say. "Your taste in music sucks, too." I fold my arms over my chest. "Actually, you have good taste in one thing only."
"Oh, yeah," he says, amused. "And what’s that?"
I lean into him and hit his nose with my finger, smiling. I’m happy he’s smiling. "Having me as a friend."
Chapter 9
Cooper
"I don’t know what the fuck you guys are doing out there," the coach says, "but you guys need to take your heads out of your ass." I look down at my skates. We are between the second and third period and down by two goals. "You guys know how to win, so let’s go out there and show them. This is your ice. This is your home." He turns and walks out of the room.
"We need to get back faster and support Mika," Manning says of the goalie. "Those two goals were our fault and not his." Everyone nods and stays silent.
We walk back down to the ice, all of us silent, and when we take our place on the ice, we are ready for war. We push harder, skate harder, and fight harder, and with two minutes to go, we tie the score.
"Grant." He calls my name, and I jump over the board, skating into the neutral zone. Manning skates up the side and passes it to Miller. He gets the puck and skates into the zone, going to the corner and passing it to me. I let it sit on my stick for a second before looking over to see Manning in his sweet spot. I pass the puck over to him, and he raises his stick, bringing it back. The puck flies through the bodies, and the goalie has no time to even react. Manning has the hardest shot in the whole league, and it’s times like this that it works in our favor.