Make Your Move (Aston Archers Hockey #1)

23. Nova

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

NOVA

A s I step inside the ice cream shop, my eyes scan the inside of the building when my gaze collides with his. Lincoln and Posey are sitting toward the back of the room, both of them on the same side of the booth together. Her blonde unruly curls spill from the adult-sized baseball cap sitting backward on her head. My heart swells in my chest as Lincoln smiles brightly, lifting his hand to wave at me. He texted me before I left work and told me to meet them here.

My footsteps are light, yet they move quickly as I cover the distance between us and slide into the booth across from Lincoln and Poe. Posey’s face lights up when she sees me, and she ducks under the table, crawling across the floor until she climbs into the seat with me.

Her little arms snake around my neck, and I hold her close, breathing in the familiar scent of her as my eyelids fall shut, and I soak in the moment. Our surroundings momentarily fade, and I hold on to her, afraid to ever let go.

Time is a fucking thief, constantly stealing the hours and the minutes from us. Each moment is fleeting and passes by without the opportunity to do it again. I can’t believe how much time has gone by, how big Posey already is. I feel like she was born, I blinked, and now she’s becoming this whole person.

How long before she doesn’t need me anymore? Even now, she’s becoming so independent. It’s only a matter of time before our snuggles will be a lingering memory. There will come a time when she’ll have someone else to depend on. Another shoulder to lean on.

A time when I won’t be her number one.

Tears burn the corners of my eyes, and I quickly blink them away as Posey starts to squirm in my arms. Even now, there are moments where I just want to hold her, and she wants to go. She wants to explore. She wants to live . I release her, watching as she settles into the seat next to me as Lincoln pushes her bowl of ice cream across the table to her.

“Are you wearing Lincoln’s hat?” I ask her as she grabs the spoon and shovels some into her mouth. She smiles brightly, nodding as the hat falls from her head.

A smile pulls my lips upward as she gets a smudge of strawberry syrup on her cheek, and I leave it there, savoring the moment. I grab a napkin from the center of the table and gingerly wipe it away from her face. One day, she won’t wear her food anymore. She won’t need me to help clean her up.

Reaching onto the seat, I grab the hat and hand it to Lincoln. He’s watching me with a tenderness in his eyes as he puts his hat on backward. He tilts his head to the side, his eyebrows pulling inward in the slightest movement as he scans my face. “Are you okay?”

Rolling my lips between my teeth, I choke back my feelings and nod. I release my lips and offer him a smile that doesn’t quite reach my eyes. “Just trying to soak in the moments before they’re gone.”

He can’t possibly understand as he doesn’t have a child of his own, but I don’t miss the way he looks at me. The sadness that lingers behind his sympathetic smile. Lincoln reaches forward, his hand finding mine as he gives it a soft squeeze. He doesn’t say anything, but words aren’t needed.

He knows the loss I experienced with my mother.

He knows the importance of fleeting moments.

“How was your day?” I ask the two of them as Posey looks up at me with more ice cream around her mouth. “Did you and Lincoln have a good day?”

Posey eagerly nods before she rattles off the things the two of them did. Lincoln took her to the park, they had a tea party, and he took her to the ice rink. Posey’s face lights up as she tells me that he skated her around because there weren’t any skates that were her size.

I look at Lincoln. He told me he had nothing today and could watch her. The last thing I wanted to do was inconvenience him. “You had practice?”

He gives me a coy smile and shrugs his shoulders. “I did, but we made it work.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have burdened you with watching her.”

He stares at me for a moment as he sets his spoon down in his bowl. “Because you didn’t burden me, Nova. She had a great time seeing the guys and getting toted around on the ice by everyone.” He pauses for a moment, looking at Posey before he looks at me. “Our coach’s daughter was there because she’s interning for the organization, and she kept an eye on Poe while we went through our drills.”

Posey is filled with smiles and giggles as she hangs on every last word that falls from Lincoln’s lips. “Mommy, look!” she says with excitement as she quickly ducks under the table, grabs her small backpack and comes back to me. I watch her for a moment as she digs inside of it and pulls something from it. “I got a pfuck!”

She holds up the black piece of rubber, handing it to me as I look at it. I turn it in my hands, flipping it over to the other side when I see a little note written on it.

For my favorite girl.

#7 LM

Those damn tears prick the corners of my eyes as I look up at Lincoln across the table. “You signed it for her.”

“I thought she might like to have one from her favorite player,” he says softly with a wink before he smiles at my daughter. “She’s special,” he tells me, his voice quiet and filled with emotion as he looks back at me again. “Just like you, supernova.”

Well, fuck.

If I wasn’t already a melted puddle, I certainly am now.

I’m at a loss for words, but the blush creeping across my cheeks says enough. Lincoln continues to watch me as pushes his spoon through his ice cream and lifts it to his mouth. I stare at him, not breaking eye contact as he slides it into his mouth and licks it clean. The thought of his tongue on my flesh breaks through my thoughts, and I can’t think about that right now.

We’re in public, and Posey is with us.

“I’m—uh—I’m going to go get some ice cream,” I suddenly declare as my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. I clear my throat, smiling at Posey. “I’ll be right back, baby.”

“Otay, Mommy,” she says with a smile as she licks her lips.

I glance at Lincoln, and he gives me a devious grin as he continues to eat his ice cream, acting like he’s so goddamn innocent. Leaving the two of them there, I head over to the counter and get in line, resisting the urge to look over at them. My heart pounds erratically in my chest—a series of palpitations that make me question whether I need to see a cardiologist.

Lincoln Matthews is terrible for my health.

“Nova?”

My body freezes at the sound of his voice. My heart falls into my stomach as my spine straightens on its own, each vertebra stacking over the other. I lied…this man is the one who is terrible for my health.

I slowly turn around, swallowing hard as I find myself face to face with Dane. The man I gave far too much of my time and attention to. The man I thought would have at least called once to check in on his daughter.

My stomach holds on to my heart and falls to the fucking floor as my hands travel down his arm to his hand that is holding the hand of a small child. My eyes flash to his and then to the woman who steps up to the side of him. There’s a massive diamond on her ring finger, coupled with a wedding band. The kid walks around Dane to the woman and she lifts him into her arms as he points to the ice cream counter.

She says something to her husband, but I don’t hear a single thing she says before she walks the small child over to look at the flavors.

“Dane.”

His name is barely audible, and I try to push the pain away that’s filling my chest.

My ex is standing in front of me with a whole new family while the little girl who he helped to conceive is sitting across the room without a single memory of this man.

“You look great, Nova. How are you doing? It’s been a long time.”

I stare at him for a moment. “I’m—” Words fail me at the audacity of this man. “It has been a long time. What brings you back to Aston?”

His eyebrows pull together, and he looks irritated as he stares down at me. “Cynthia has family here, so we came to visit them for the week.”

“Well, that’s sweet,” I say, feeling my emotions kicking into overdrive. “How old is he?”

“What?”

The muscle in my jaw tightens. “Your son. How old is he?”

“Stepson,” he corrects me. “He’s five.” Dane shifts his weight uncomfortably as his words knock the fucking air from my lungs. “Cyn and I met last year, and we got married a few months ago.”

I never wanted to stay with Dane. I didn’t want to be in a relationship with this man, and we both knew that years ago. That didn’t mean I wanted to raise his child by myself while he was out raising another man’s child.

“That’s very noble of you,” I tell him, nodding as the venom drips from my teeth. “He’s lucky to have you. Such a strong father figure.”

“Nova…”

I hold my hand up to silence him. “No, really, Dane. You stepped up to take care of another man’s child while your own has never even met you.”

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” he says, his voice low and quiet. “You know it was better for me to not be involved.”

“Better for the two of us, yes,” I agree, trying not to look in Lincoln and Posey’s direction. “Your daughter is one day going to wonder why you signed your rights over. Do you know how hard it has been to make up bullshit excuses when she asks about her dad?”

“Is everything okay here?”

Fuck.

Lincoln’s voice is like silk against my eardrums, but I cannot have him here right now. I glance at him over my shoulder, seeing Posey at the table from the corner of my eye. She’s watching something on Lincoln’s phone so she doesn’t even notice the three of us. “Everything is fine.”

Lincoln doesn’t look convinced. He looks right past me, his angry eyes meeting Dane’s. “Who the fuck are you?”

Dane, being the idiot he is, holds his hand out to shake Lincoln’s. “Dane Tucker.” Lincoln doesn’t take his hand. He looks at it before looking back at his face, his jaw set as he steps up beside me. Dane lets out a breath.

“Meet me out in the car, Nova.”

“Lincoln,” I say softly, my hands wrapping around his bicep as he steps into Dane’s space. “Come out with us.”

He turns his head to look at me. “I will meet you outside.” He brings his face down to mine, pressing his lips to my forehead. “I’m not going to do anything stupid. Dane and I just need to have a few words.”

Dread rolls in the pit of my stomach, but I trust Lincoln. I trust the words he says, and as angry as he may be, I know he won’t do anything to put himself in jeopardy, especially in public. He gives me a reassuring look, and I look at Dane once more.

“There is a special place in hell for people like you.”

Dane stares back at me, but he doesn’t say anything. Regret washes over his eyes, and I know he can feel it. That doesn’t change the fact that he has no intention of changing things in the future. He closed the chapter that included Posey. He has no want for the situation to be any different.

I walk over to my daughter, scoop her into my arms and head directly to the exit without looking back in his direction. I may regret letting him off so easily and not trying to convince him to keep his rights, but you shouldn’t have to convince someone to be involved in their kid’s life.

That’s how I know she’s better off without him.