Push (Colorado Storm Hockey #3)

Chapter 4

4

HUX

I scroll through my contacts and find the number for my divorce attorney, John Leverge. As it rings, I kick a few pine cones through the fallen pine needles on my deck. Voicemail picks up. “John, this is Nikolas Huxley. Hey, so listen, I did something stupid and I don’t want you to give me any shit about it, but I got married in Vegas on a whim. Needless to say, I need an annulment. Give me a call back.”

I slip my phone in my back pocket and look up at a mostly cloudless sky, but clouds are gathering near the peak, and I figure it’s going to be a cold night, which is par for the course up at 8,600 feet in the springtime. I pick up my axe that’s sitting against the house and head down to that old stump that’s been on this property since I bought it. I grab a few logs from the big wood pile that got delivered last September and drop them beside the stump.

I place one at the center of the stump, grab the axe and swing, making contact right down the middle, splitting the wood perfectly. I start up a rhythm, one right after the other, getting lost in the motion. There’s tightness in my shoulder and soreness in my hip, but nothing worse than I feel in my day job. Nowhere close to it.

I swing and swing again, one after another. With each strike I let something out that’s trapped inside me. Usually, it’s something to do with Debbie, but not today. With each crack of wood, I think of marrying Ada. Sometimes I cringe. Sometimes I huff.

Mostly I smile.

I smile when I think of the way she looked in the bakery cafe the morning after we got married. Her ponytail captured all her dark curls on top of her head, with a pale blue ribbon tied around it. Fucking adorable. Her lips were glossy and plump with a dark cherry sheen. She smelled incredible, like cedar wood and citrus. She wore a blue striped shirt that was perfectly snug over her chest. It took a lot of control not to fixate on her. Thankfully, her eyes have a way of trapping me.

I strike a log and think about the blue ribbon again. That damn blue ribbon.

Sweat beads on my neck. I strip off the flannel shirt I’m wearing and tie it around my waist. Then place another log on the stump and swing.

My phone vibrates against my ass. I assume it’s John calling me back. My brows knit together when I see it’s my ex-wife, Debbie.

I lean my ax against the stump and answer.

“Hey Debbie,” I say, more out of breath than I expected.

“Bad time?” she asks.

I wipe the sweat from my brow. “Chopping wood. What’s up?”

“I had a meeting with Father Sherman to get guidance on the petition for the annulment. Have you decided if you’ll join me in the petition or not?”

“Does it matter if I do?”

“No, it doesn’t. You’ll just be informed as it progresses. ”

“In this petition you’re creating, what is the basis for why our three-year marriage wasn’t valid?” There’s no hiding the bitterness in my tone.

“He advised me to petition on the basis of Cannon 1099,” she answers, as if I could possibly understand what that means.

I don’t reply and wait for her to elaborate.

She knows me well enough to go on. “Essentially, it means that we married in error, not understanding that marriage is actually a religious sacrament, not a civil arrangement done in the woods by the bride’s half baked friend.”

The wedding I once considered sacred, held in these very woods amongst mother nature’s creation, apparently doesn’t pass a spirituality test. Fuck that.

“It was either that or that you deceived me about having children, and I’d rather not go there with the tribunal.”

I start pacing and kicking dirt and rocks. “I did not deceive you, Debbie. You assumed I would change my mind. I was always clear about my stance on children and you agreed with me. You’re the one that changed your mind.”

“You have no idea the power you had over me, Hux. I would have said anything back then. I didn’t know how I really felt. I figured?—”

“Yeah, that I’d change my mind. I am firm on that, you know why.”

“Therapy would do you a whole lot of good, you know that? And if you don’t fix your shit, you’re going to be alone for the rest of your life,” she declares.

Well, I have a declaration of my own. “You’re wrong about that. I’m not alone. I got married.”

There’s nothing but silence on the other end of the phone. I pull it back to make sure we didn’t get disconnected since cell service is shoddy up the mountain. But she’s still there. “What did you just say?” she asks.

“I’m married.” It’s all I’ll give her .

“And this is how you think to tell me? The way you continue to disrespect me is unreal.”

“What did you want? An invitation. Let me tell you, Debbie. It doesn’t feel too good to be on the receiving end of one of those.”

“It was just a Save The Date, and I thought you were happy for me. I thought we were past this.”

We will never be past this.

“Who is she, Nikolas?”

“You don’t know her.”

“Who is she?” Debbie asks again.

“Her name is Adaline. She lives in Denver.”

Anything else and I’ll draw a blank because I know nothing else about this woman.

“When did you do this?”

“Does it really matter?” I tell her. “The point is, I’m going to give you what you want. I’ll do what I can to help you marry what’s his name in the Catholic Church.”

She’s quiet again, and I hear a sniffle. “Let’s talk later,” she says.

And now I know I’ve really upset her. I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me that felt a wicked sense of pleasure in this revelation. “Okay.”

She hangs up on me like she has so many times before.

I kick the axe hard and feel my knee pop, and then the pain that always follows. Fuck .

I do what I can to walk it off while cursing under my breath. Max, my German Shepard, comes out from the house and checks me out. “I’m fine,” I tell him and give his head a rough rub, just like he likes it. He follows me around as I pick up the split wood and carry it up to the house.

My phone vibrates again and I expect it’s Debbie calling me back to chew me out, but it’s John, my attorney. I’ve had enough annulment talk. I send the call to voicemail and head into the house. I’ve got a game tonight and I need to get going.