Page 53 of Securing the Pucking Rebound
“You want…” she prompts when my words trail off.
“I want a relationship. I want a man I can rely on. I want date nights and cozy evenings in. I want to talk long into the night and wake up the next morning excited to open my eyes to see him again.”
“Who says that isn’t what Calvin wants?” Bea asks innocently.
“Look at him, Bea.”
“Yeah, and look at what Rett was like. I’m not saying that you might be the one to change him and all that. All I’m saying is, don’t write him off. People aren’t always the versions of themselves we see in the media.”
“What about in real life? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him kiss three different puck bunnies in one night before.”
“So? He’s young and living his best life. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“I know it doesn’t.” I know I’m only telling myself what I want to hear.
“So, how were your cozy evenings in with Calvin?”
“Uh…cozy, I guess. He brought food, we watched movies, and I blew my nose and hacked my lungs up every few minutes.”
“Ah, romance at its finest,” she teases as I throw a spring roll at her. “Thanks.” She bites the end off and smiles as she’s chewing.
“I think he’s struggling with his injury more than he’s letting on,” I confess.
“I thought he was making good progress with Darcy?” Bea says, concern twinkling in her eyes.
“I don’t mean physically. Mentally, I think he’s having a hard time.”
“That’s understandable. Life as he knew it changed in the blink of an eye. Surely we should be more concerned if he weren’t struggling?”
“Yeah, I guess.” He’s lightened up over the last few days, relaxed a little more in my presence, and he’s let a few things slip that I don’t think he meant to. “What are they doing tonight?”
“They’re recording a podcast.”
“Oh, right,” I say as if I have any idea what that really means.
We continue chatting while we eat, but every few minutes, my eyes flick to what I’ve been working on all day, waiting for the right opportunity to bring it up.
Finally, Bea turns the conversation to work, and I prepare myself to give her the pitch I’ve been working on.
“Are you sure you’re ready to come back tomorrow?” she asks.
“Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Thank God. We’re back-to-back all day, and I’m pretty sure Rachel is gonna call in.”
“These two weeks are gonna take forever to recover from.”
“Yeah, we could do with a few extra sets of hands to get through the backlog. And the waitlist.”
“About that,” I say, pushing my chair back and walking toward my stack of paperwork. “I've been thinking, and…if you’re not interested, then tell me, but how do you feel about expanding?”
16
CALVIN
It’s been five days since I’ve seen Sienna for more than a few seconds, as she’s either left for work or shuffled back in late and exhausted.
They opened the salon on Sunday to try to catch up with the appointments they had to reschedule due to the sickness that ripped through the team. Well, all apart from Bea. Somehow, while everyone was dropping, she stayed strong and worked through the whole thing.
