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He paused briefly before continuing. "I’m not a perfect individual. I can be a hothead when it comes to this game, mostly because I’m passionate about it. And I’m stubborn. But in my personal life, there’s no room for drama or chaos. I’m a private, quiet individual who would rather stay at home cuddled up watching a movie than be out on the town for a night."
The thought of cuddling up with him came to mind, and I knew my cheeks were red. I could see it in the tiny box in the corner of the screen. But there was nothing I could do about it.
Paxton shifted in his seat. I wondered if I was making him uncomfortable. I pushed aside my own feelings to tell him what I was considering.
"You seem to be a good fit," I admitted. "There are a lot of logistics involved, including me talking to Royce about the possibility of drafting you. As you know, it won't happen until the summer. Depending on what you have going on now, we could bring you down early. Maybe find you a place to stay that’s inexpensive. Keep you in the sphere of Bellport so that if everything works out, you'll already be on the ground and ready to move."
He smiled, nodding quickly at my words. "That sounds perfect. And I graduate in a few weeks, so that's it. My pops has been looking at rentals in Bellport. He won't mind if we have to live together. In fact, he would probably be overjoyed—at least until we knew for sure."
My heart ached at the thought of having such a loving family. It was a desire of mine, one I knew I'd probably never get to live out. Even if I found a partner, they might not have adoring parents either.
"I'm glad he’s supportive," I said. "And if he needs to know of the best places to live, he can shoot me an email as well, or I can just send them to you, and you can pass them along. I happen to know quite a few of the major players here. They'll be able to get you settled into something just right, whether it's leasing or long term."
"Thank you." His words were simple, yet they felt almost as if he had said, "Good boy," or, "Well done." It was the equivalent of a gold star and a pat on the head.
My cheeks, still red, only got warmer.
"Well, it was lovely to meet you, Paxton. I have another meeting to get to. My apologies for being abrupt."
He tilted his head just a tad, enough to give me a curious look. "There's no need to apologize. You're doing your business. I should be thankful you even took time out for me today, like I said before. And anything you need, I’m here to answer via email or call. The minute I know where we're headed, and when we're headed to Bellport, I’ll give you a ring, if that's okay."
"Yes, that's fine. Let me give you my personal number." I rattled it off to him, watching as he typed it into his phone. Then I got a text that lit up mine. I didn't dare look at it, because I just had a feeling whatever it said would be enough to make me squirm on camera. Even a simple smiling emoji would do it at this rate.
"Have a good day, Grizzly," Paxton said in a low voice.
"You too," I choked out.
The minute the call ended, I dropped my head to the desk with a thud. Moseley stomped into the room, clapping. "He’s perfect, boss." I heard him stop when he saw me. "Why is your head down? Is something wrong? Is he not as nice as he sounds?"
I shook my head, rubbing my forehead into the wood of my desk. "He's absolutely perfect," I replied. "And that’s the problem."
Moseley didn’t ask me to elaborate, thankfully, and I wouldn't have been able to had I tried. Because this was layered. It was complex.
It was a dream and a nightmare all at once.
CHAPTER 5
Paxton
A week after my call with Grizzly, Pops showed up to my apartment with a big smile and two plane tickets.
"We're going to Bellport, baby," he said, shaking his shoulders while waving the tickets around.
I moved to the side and watched as he cha-cha'd into the house. The man was absolutely giddy.
"You know, you could have told me that you didn't like the cold weather before now. I’ve been trying to think of you in my decisions, because I know you're too stubborn to not follow me around."
He shrugged. "Eh, it is what it is. You’ve got to experience everything in life. Personally, I just think it would be great to not experience getting trapped in multiple feet of snow every single year. I won't complain about being near a beach or within driving distance of some fishing."
I moved to sit by him at one of the kitchen stools. Pops always said he couldn't sit on my couch because it was too comfortable. It would make him fall asleep in an instant. Anytime he wanted to have a conversation, he would move to the chairs I had at the counter. And if he was going through one of his rare bouts of insomnia, he would come to my house and sleep on my couch.
We were close that way. Losing my mom at a young age devastated us both for a time.
One day Pops came home from work, took me by the shoulders and said, "We're a team now, bud, and we're gonna make it through. It's what she would have wanted."
Ever since then, we'd been in each other's back pockets. I considered myself extremely lucky to have a parent who was so in tune with me and supported my choices. Best of all, he wasn't pushy about it. I didn't feel as if he was being overbearing or injecting himself into my world when he shouldn't be.
My pops was the coolest guy I knew.
