expect him to answer.
But he did.
“How ready I am to move on with my life.”
“You mean switch teams?” I grasped onto that with two hands. I could easily imagine how hard it was for him to be such a good player on such an inconsistent team. How could it not be discouraging?
He made a noise deep in his throat, his attention focused on the road ahead of him.
“Have you talked to Trevor about it anymore?”
“No. Last time we talked, he said there wasn’t a point in making plans until the season was over. He knows what I want to do. I don’t want to keep repeating myself. If he wants to pay attention, he can; if he doesn’t want to, he knows my contract with him is going to end right before I’m eligible to sign with another team.”
Huh. “Do you… know where you want to go?” I realized why we hadn’t talked about this topic before. He wanted to focus on the season, not on the what-ifs that would all take place afterward. But suddenly, there seemed to be so much pressure and focus on all the possibilities. The moving. The future.
Casually, casually, casually, he raised a shoulder. “How do you feel about heading up north?”
North? “How far north are we talking about?”
Those coffee-colored eyes peered at me over his shoulder. “Indiana… Wisconsin…” he threw out.
“Ah.” I looked forward to collect my words and put them in an order I wouldn’t regret. “I can live just about anywhere. I’ll just have to buy better winter clothes.”
“You think so?” Why did his voice sound so amused all of a sudden?
I snorted. “Yeah. Some winter boots, a scarf, and some gloves, and I’ll be fine. I think.”
“I’ll buy you a dozen jackets and winter boots, if that’s what you need,” he threw out there in a tone that was getting more amused by the second.
It made me perk up a little bit. “You don’t need to do that. You do enough for me as it is, big guy.”
His fingers drummed the steering wheel and he seemed to shake his head. “Van, I’ll buy you a jacket or ten if I want. We’re in this together.”
Ovaries. Where were my ovaries?
“Aren’t we?” Aiden suddenly asked in a hesitant voice.
I lifted my head off the window and really turned to look at him. There was something so devastating about his profile it was annoying. There was something about him that was so great it was annoying. He was so dumb sometimes I couldn’t handle it. “Yeah. Of course. We’re Team Graves.”
He made an amused sound and I suddenly remembered what I’d kept making myself put off asking him. “Hey, are you… when are you going to Colorado?” I mean, the season was over. The last two years, he’d left as soon as he was able to, yet this year, he hadn’t said a word to me. Then again, why would he? I wasn’t the one leasing out a house or making plans to rent a car or anything.
Just like that, his body language completely changed. He went rigid. His fingers curled over the steering wheel. His tongue poked at his cheek. “I’m supposed to leave the second week of February.”
“Oh.” That was about three weeks away. “Are you still going for two months?”
He didn’t vocalize his answer; he simply nodded.
But the response still hit my heart like a sledgehammer. He’d be gone for two months. Sure we didn’t have in-depth talks every day, but at least in the last month and a half, I couldn’t remember a day where I hadn’t spent some time with him, even if all we did was watch television quietly or sit on the floor with Leo between us.
“Cool,” I kind of mumbled, but it wasn’t cool at all.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tossing the fifth shirt over my shoulder, I groaned. It wasn’t until I had to pack that I ever thought I didn’t have enough clothes. It was like a ninja snuck into my closet and drawers and stole everything that fit me well and looked good.
“What are you doing?” Aiden’s low, grumbling voice asked from behind me.
I turned around to spot him leaning against the doorframe, hands in the pockets of his gray sweatpants, one ankle over the other. I blew a lock of pink hair that had fallen into my eyes away in frustration. “I’m trying to pack for my trip tomorrow.”
“What’s the problem?”
Damn it. I sighed. He really did know me, and that only made me feel sheepish.