Butcher

Chapter 11

11

Kaylee

I stood in front of my closet, trying to pick what to wear for my date with Levi. We were going to try a new sushi restaurant that had received rave reviews, and I couldn’t wait. It had been almost two weeks since I’d bumped into him on my run, and I was looking forward to seeing him again. Not only had the previous week at work been busy as hell like I’d told him it would, but the current week also hadn’t been much better. Now that it was over, I was ready to go out and have a good time.

Deciding I couldn’t go wrong with a cute dress, I grabbed a red one that hugged my curves in all the right places and paired it with a gold necklace and matching earrings.

While checking my reflection, my phone began to ring. Picking it up from my bedside table, I saw my sister Maggie’s name on the screen and answered immediately. “Hey, sis. How’s it going?”

“Busy as always.” She chuckled. “How are you doing?”

“Pretty good. Just getting ready for a date,” I replied, slipping on a pair of strappy black heels.

“Yay!” she squealed. “I’ve been waiting for you to get back into the dating game.”

When my last boyfriend broke up with me, Maggie had been there to dry my tears and tell me I deserved better than some guy who couldn’t decide what he wanted.

“I’ve gone out with other guys since Joey.”

“One-night stands don’t really count as dates. Not that I’m judging,” she clarified quickly.

I snorted.

“Nice snort, Kay. I hope you don’t do that on your date,” she teased. “Now, tell me about this guy. Where did you two meet?”

“Ford introduced us. He’s his husband’s teammate.”

She gasped. “You’re going on a date with a hockey player?”

“Yep.” I grabbed my clutch and started transferring things I needed from my regular purse. “And he’s going to be here any minute.”

“Okay, I’ll let you go, but promise you’ll call me later and tell me all about it.”

“I promise.”

“Oh, wait. Emmy wants to say hi to her aunt.”

I looked at the picture of Maggie’s family on my dresser and smiled. My nieces and nephews were the best, and I loved spending time with them.

“Hi, Auntie Kay,” a sweet four-year-old’s voice came across the line.

“Hi, pumpkin. How are you?”

“Good. I start school soon,” she squealed.

I chuckled at her excitement about pre-k, hopefully she’d always feel that way about school. “That’s so exciting. You’ll have to call me and tell me all about your first day.”

“Okay. Bye.”

“And she’s off.” My sister laughed.

There was a knock on my door, and I said, “My date’s here, so now I really need to go.”

“All right. Love you and have fun.”

“Love you too, and I will.” I pressed end on the call, glanced in the mirror one more time and then answered the door. “Hey.” I smiled when I saw Levi on the other side, looking incredibly handsome in a blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of charcoal gray slacks.

“Hi.” He lifted a bouquet of pink roses. “These are for you.”

I lifted them to my nose and inhaled. “Thank you so much. Come in so I can put these in water before we go.” He followed me to the kitchen, where I found a vase in the cabinet. As I arranged the flowers, Toby sauntered in and began weaving between Levi’s legs. “Hope you don’t mind cats. He’s extremely friendly and probably won’t leave you alone until you pet him.”

Levi squatted and scratched the top of Toby’s head. “I don’t mind at all. I’d probably have a house full of pets if I didn’t spend so much time on the road.”

“A man after my own heart.” I smiled.

Once I finished with the flowers, I grabbed my clutch and keys and told Levi I was ready to go. When we reached his car, he opened the door for me. “I should have said something the minute I saw you, but you look beautiful tonight.”

“Thank you.” I pecked him on the cheek and slid inside.

The drive to the restaurant was spent talking about the ad campaign that had taken over my life for the past couple of weeks. I doubted my job sounded very exciting to someone who played hockey for a living, but he’d asked questions and had seemed interested in what I did all day.

“So, what have you been up to this week?” I asked, curious what he did in his spare time besides working out with his teammates.

“I was at the rink running some drills for a youth hockey program.”

“Oh wow.” I shifted in my seat so I could see him better. “That’s really cool. How old are the kids?”

“This group was six and seven-year-olds, but the Bruins support programs for kids of all ages. We raise money to buy equipment and run a week-long camp during the off-season.”

I thought about my nephews who were the same age as the kids he’d been working with and smiled. Getting to practice with an actual NHL player had to be a dream, and I was sure the kids loved it. “I bet you made their entire summer.”

His cheeks turned pink. “I don’t know about all that, but I had a great time.”

Levi pulled up to the Japanese restaurant and passed his keys to the valet, then took hold of my hand as we walked inside. Once directed to our table, Levi pulled out my chair for me.

I gave him a grin and took a seat. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He winked and sat across from me.

“Your server will be over soon to take your order,” the hostess said and handed us our menus.

I scanned the list of cocktails, deciding on a matcha mule before looking at the food. “Everything looks really good.”

“Do you want to get a few different rolls to share?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. Which ones are you thinking?”

“My go-tos are the spicy tuna roll and the dragon roll.”

I looked at those to see what was in them. “They sound delicious. I usually get the spider roll.”

“I’m good with that one. And maybe an order of edamame?”

“Perfect.” I beamed.

Our waiter came over a couple of minutes later to take our drink order. I ordered my drink and Levi got a Toki old-fashioned. He also gave our server our food order. Once the waiter left, Levi reached out and clasped my hand.

“I’m glad we were able to get to do this. I’ve been looking forward to our date for the last two weeks.”

Most of the guys I’d gone out with in the past tried too hard to play it cool, so it was refreshing to hear him admit he’d been thinking about spending time with me.

“Me too. Knowing we were going out was the light at the end of a very long work week.”

“I can imagine. That’s how it is when we have a long road stint.”

Our server dropped off our drinks, and I took a sip of my cocktail. “I’ve been curious, how did you get started playing hockey. I can’t imagine it’s very popular in a small town in Tennessee.”

“No, it’s not.” He shook his head. “But my grandfather was a huge Nashville Predators fan, and I used to watch games with him when I was little. He’d take me to a few games every season and if it weren’t for him going behind my father’s back and paying for me to join a team, I probably would have never played.”

“Oh, why didn’t your dad want you to play?”

Levi downed half his drink. “He believed sports were a waste of money and would take my attention away from God.”

“Seriously?” My eyes widened. “Although sports were never my thing, even I know the benefits they offer children.”

He shrugged. “Unfortunately, my dad picked up a lot of backwards thinking from my mom’s father who was the lead pastor of their church when my mom and dad started dating. According to them, the only thing I was supposed to focus on was church. They had dreams of me becoming a pastor like them, and nothing short of that was acceptable to those two.”

“That had to be difficult. Did your mother feel the same way?”

“She’s always wanted me to do whatever made me happy, but her relationship with my father is complicated. He doesn’t allow her to voice an opinion opposite of his, and she accepts it because she was raised in a home with those same beliefs.”

“Allow?” I snorted. The idea of a man telling his wife how to think was something I didn’t understand. “Does he think it’s still the Dark Ages?”

“Pretty much.” He chuckled, but there was no humor behind it. “Every stereotype that comes to mind when you think about a conservative, close-minded religious organization fits my father’s church. Needless to say, we aren’t all that close.”

“I understand why. It must have been a relief when you finally left home.”

“Yeah. I guess you could say I had a couple of exciting years when I first moved to California.” His eyes sparkled mischievously.

“Lots of wild oats to sow?” I winked.

“You could say that.”

We spent the next couple of hours eating way too much sushi and getting to know each other better. While initially, it was his good looks that drew me to him, there was so much more about Levi I was attracted to. He was dedicated to hockey and his team, cared deeply for his friends, whom he viewed as family, and had a kind heart, as evidenced by the children’s charity he was involved with.

After he paid the bill, we walked back to the valet. Levi’s hand rested on the small of my back the entire time.

“I had a great time tonight,” I said as we waited for his car, the cool summer breeze causing me to shiver.

He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. “Me too.”

The valet parked Levi’s Audi in front of us and Levi opened the door for me. Once he was in the driver’s seat, he laced his fingers with mine. “Next time, we’ll have to plan for Butcher to join us.”

I hadn’t seen Austin in the past two weeks, although we did text occasionally to check-in and had mentioned getting together some time soon. The thought of all three of us going out made me smile, but then I felt selfish because I would be lucky to date one of them, let alone both. However, if someone told me I needed to pick only one, I wasn’t sure I could.

“Have you talked to him while he’s been in Miami?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. I haven’t talked to him since …”

“Since when?” I arched a brow.

We pulled up to a stoplight, and Levi glanced over at me. “I know you weren’t upset when I told you he and I kissed, but given our unique situation, I think it’s important for me to continue being honest with you.”

I squeezed his hand because he seemed nervous. “Okay. You can tell me anything.”

He took a deep breath. “We ended up having sex.”

“Oh.” I squirmed in my seat hoping it didn’t reveal how hot thinking about them together had made me.

“I’m interested in dating both of you, but I’m not sure how that would all work,” he admitted.

I turned in my seat so I could face him. “Really? I want the same thing, but I’ve been worried that if things lead to something more, I’d have to pick one of you. I wonder if Austin feels the same way.”

Levi shook his head. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about it other than both of us saying we want you, but I’m not sure if he meant beyond what we’re already doing with each other.”

The idea of us all in a relationship together sounded like a dream come true, but we needed to be on the same page if it had any chance of working.

“I think all three of us need to have a chat. When does he come home?”

“Tomorrow,” he answered. “I’ll talk to him about meeting at my place and let you know.”