Bountiful

by Sarina Bowen

  When I rolled over on the thousand-thread-count sheets and heard…silence—beautiful silence—I knew Dave had gotten up with Nicole, and that she must be feeling better. I would have heard her if she needed me. And I trusted Dave not to wander the resort with a child in pain.

  When I lingered on that idea, though, I realized something. I trusted Dave with Nicole. I really did. Why had I taken so long, then, to trust him with me?

  That thought got me out of bed. I washed my face and brushed my teeth and put on one of the thick, fluffy robes hanging in the bathroom.

  Then I paced the hotel suite for a few minutes, looking out of various windows, wondering when they were coming back—not because I was worried, but because I missed them.

  It was probably only a few minutes later when the door clicked open and Dave appeared like a handsome vision in the doorway. Nicole was riding on his muscular arm, one hand casually resting on his shoulder. When she saw me, she smiled and said, “Mama!”

  “You look so much better!” I cried, reaching for them both.

  A group hug ensued until Dave stepped back to say, “Breakfast will be here in twenty minutes. I’m really hungry so I ordered one of everything.”

  “Oh!” That sounded amazing. “I need to find some milk for Nicole’s—”

  “She already drank one,” he said, pulling her cup out of a pocket in his shorts. “But they’re sending us some more for later.”

  “Wow. You took care of everything.”

  He smiled at me, and I got the same thrill I always did. “I spotted the p-o-o-l,” he said. “It’s a nice spot. We could head over there after breakfast? There’s a kiddie area here somewhere, too.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  * * *

  Seriously, I was in love. Not only with the hot guy on the other end of the couch, but with this whole experience. I was still in my bathrobe while we drank a second cup of the coffee that room service had brought in a silver pot. I was full of eggs, bacon, and pancakes, too.

  “Honey, a year ago, if someone had told me I’d be enjoying a family vacation with you and Nicole at a posh resort, I would have told them to get off the drugs.”

  Dave’s smile was distant. I poked him with my toe. “Everything okay down there? Did you just hear what I said?”

  “Um…” He looked up, chuckling. “Can you say it again?”

  I gave him an affectionate eye-roll. “Is something on your mind? Or maybe we’re all just overtired.” Last night had gotten our adventure off to a rocky start.

  “I tired you out last night?” Dave pulled my feet into his lap and squeezed my instep.

  It felt great. “Seriously. Is something wrong?”

  “Not a thing.” He shook his head to clear it. “Bess asked me a question this morning. She had the strange idea that I should consider a one-year contract extension. But that’s counterintuitive for a guy who’s worried about job security.”

  Now here was a topic I had refused to weigh in on. I knew he was trying to choose between the two-year and three-year contracts. But I wasn’t going to express an opinion, because I didn’t ever want to sound like I was pressuring him to cut his career short.

  “If I took a one-year contract, that’s really a year and a half,” he said. “Because my current one goes through June.”

  “Sure,” I said, so he’d know I was listening. But Dave seemed to need to discuss this with himself.

  His glance went to Nicole, who was sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, holding a teddy bear and watching palm trees move in the breeze. “She’d be three when a one-year contract ended.”

  “Right.”

  “I gotta say, I always had trouble with the idea of retiring.” He worried the edge of his phone with his fingertips as he told me this.

  “Who wouldn’t?”

  “Well, a guy with a life.” He gave me a sad smile. “I mean—every athlete has trouble with the transition. That’s just a given. But when I’d looked at my post-retirement years, I just saw… It was blank. I’d pictured myself standing in my Brooklyn apartment on that first morning, like, what the eff do I do now?”

  I moved my body down the sofa, swinging my legs off his lap so I could get close to him. He wrapped an arm around me. “That sounds hard, honey. I can’t even imagine.”

  “The thing is, I can now. I want to see what you’ve done with the place in Vermont, and I want to be there more than seven or eight weeks in the summer. There’s someplace else I want to be now. If you’ll have me.”

  “Any day of the week,” I whispered, leaning against him, the coffee cup warming my hands. “That sounds wonderful. My house is your house. Literally.” I sipped my coffee.

  He snorted. “But I’m not joking. After I retire, I want to be with you and Nicole. I want to get married and the whole bit.”

  I choked on my coffee and then sputtered.

  “Oh, hell,” he said, taking the cup from my hands. “I told you I’m a rookie at this relationship thing.”

  That just made me laugh, on top of the coughing and gasping.

  “Breathe, baby.” His eyes twinkled. “Sorry.”

  “It’s…okay.” I coughed. “Just never expected you to say that.”

  “Me neither.” He smiled and pulled me into his lap, setting my mug down and then whacking me on the back. “Bess is going to pee herself.”

  I laughed harder. There were tears leaking out of my eyes now, and it was anyone’s guess whether they were tears of laughter or happy joy or a side effect of aspirating coffee. But I’d never felt so alive. And I finally understood something crucial—that Dave really did need me. It wasn’t just chemistry. He’d dragons of his own to slay, and Nicole and I were part of slaying them.

  He needed us as much as we needed him. And now he wasn’t afraid to say so. Strong arms wrapped around me and I leaned back. He leaned down, whispering into my ear. “Thanks for putting up with an amateur like me.”

  “It’s entirely my pleasure.” It was my turn to be pensive, though. “If you do end up in Vermont…”

  “Not if. When.”

  “When you end up in Vermont,” I corrected, “What will you do to stay busy?”

  “I don’t know yet. But I don’t need to know. You’re there. My family needs me. I liked investing in that house next door. I could do a little more of that.”

  “Yeah, okay.” I’d rented the colonial out to a young family with two little boys. The mom next door and I were already talking about sharing a nanny for a few hours a week.

  “I’ll give myself some time to think about it. There’s always coaching. I could see if my teammates know anybody on staff at the University of Vermont.”

  “Interesting.”

  “I could open a bar and drive your uncle and Alec insane.”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  He laughed. “No. This family runs on coffee-shop hours.” He squeezed me. “But I might bring up the idea at Sunday luncheon just to see who blows first.”

  “You are evil.”

  “And you’re a perfect angel from heaven.”

  I snorted. “There aren’t any of those on this sofa.”

  “You’re right,” Dave agreed. “She’s over there.” He glanced at Nicole. “We’ll take her outside in a few minutes? Go find your bathing suit. I’m going to call Bess.”

  * * *

  Dave

  “Is something wrong?” Bess asked when she answered the phone.

  “I knew you’d lead with that.” My sister lived to worry about me.

  “You’re on vacation, and I already got a call today. Pardon me if I wonder why I’m getting a second call.”

  “I’ve been thinking about your one-year option.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” I hadn’t been lying when I’d told Zara that I almost couldn’t imagine retiring. It gave me the cold sweats. But lately I’d been listening to Zara describe the new house and the furniture she was buying. And the dishes in the hutch in the din
ing room. The omelet pan Audrey had given her for the kitchen.

  I wanted to be there.

  The future wasn’t something I dreaded anymore. If they tossed my ass off the team tomorrow, I knew exactly where I’d go. I wouldn’t even have to stop and think about it.

  “Jesus,” I swore as an idea began to take shape.

  “What’s the deal, big brother?”

  “Maybe this isn’t as tricky as I thought.”

  “The contract thing?”

  “Yeah, the contract thing. If I take the one year, Nicole will be three at the end of it. I could spend eight weeks in Vermont next summer, and maybe see my family four or five other times before then. For forty-eight hours. Maybe.”

  “That’s about right,” my sister agreed.

  I glanced at Nicole. She was toddling at top speed away from Zara, who wanted to put some kind of swim diaper on her. Nicole wasn’t interested, though, and the chase was on.

  Even if I only took the one-year contract extension, she wouldn’t be a baby anymore when it ended.

  Zara paused in the middle of the room, trying to guess the trajectory of our toddler. She stood there in shorts and a bikini top, hands on her hips, a slightly exasperated smile on her face.

  I wanted to take her right to bed and untie that bikini top.

  “Ahem,” Bess said into my ear. “I don’t mind hanging up on other people to talk to you. But you have to actually talk.”

  “Right. Sorry. Okay—new plan. How about no contract extension?”

  “Come again?”

  “No years. I’ll just quit while I’m ahead.”

  Only a gasping, choking sound came through the phone for a few seconds.

  “Bess? You okay?”

  “Jesus,” she exhaled. “If you’re even halfway serious, I need you sit with that idea for a few weeks. Play a few more games. Think about what it would be like to say goodbye in June.”

  “June, huh? I appreciate the vote of confidence, since that takes us deep into the playoffs again,” I said with a chuckle. “But why do the women in my life keep telling me to go play hockey and think? I know my own mind. I have one more full season to play, and then I make a graceful exit right after Nicole turns two.”

  Zara had given up chasing Nicole and was standing stock still, a hand pressed over her mouth.

  “Okay,” Bess said slowly. “I think that’s really brave and really amazing. And if that’s what you want, I’ll give it a few days and then let Hugh know.”

  “I’m not going to change my mind.” I really wasn’t. I loved hockey, but I loved my family just as much. Zara and Nicole deserved the same attention my hockey career had always gotten. And what’s more, I was excited about giving it to them.

  “Didn’t say you would change your mind,” Bess said. “It’s me that needs a few days to get over it.”

  “Don’t buy that yacht, little sis. I’m sorry I’m costing you a stick and a half at least.”

  “It’s not about the money, dumbass. I just worry about you.”

  “I’m good, Bess. It’s all good, or I wouldn’t do it. Gotta run, now. I have a kiddie pool to find.”

  She signed off, and I hung up to meet Zara’s startled eyes. “Did you really just do that?”

  “I really just did.” And it had felt pretty great to make a decision. “Let’s go swim. Do you have sunblock? I don’t think I remembered mine.”

  Zara blinked. “I really don’t want to be the reason you give up your career.”

  I stood up and hugged her. The scent of coconut shampoo washed over me, and I took a deep breath. “The thing is, this kind of career comes to an end. Always. And this way I get to decide how that happens. I get to say when.”

  “You always were bossy like that,” she joked, and her breath at my neck gave me goosebumps. The good kind.

  “You better believe it.” I gave her a quick kiss on the hairline because it was either that or a not-so-quick kiss. And we had places to go and things to do. “Hey, Nicole! I can’t take you swimming unless you put on this special diaper. There’s a fish on it and everything.”

  My baby girl turned around and squinted at me, considering. “Otay.”

  “Then get over here, angel.”

  She came willingly, and Zara gave me a glare that said, I can’t believe that just worked for you.

  * * *

  Nicole exhausted herself at the kiddie pool. Then we went down to the beach, where I built a sand castle. Fine, a sand-blob. But Nicole liked it.

  Eventually Zara talked her into wrapping up in a towel on a beach chair under an umbrella. And she took her nap right there as the Atlantic lapped at the sand a few yards away. Leaving her on one of our two chairs, Zara came and sat with me. I draped my legs over the sides to give her some room, and she leaned back against my chest.

  “I could get used to this,” she said.

  “Next year we can plan a vacation without looking at the NHL calendar,” I said. It was hard to wrap my head around. The game schedule had ruled my life since I was nineteen years old.

  “Maybe we won’t plan any big getaways for a while, though. We’ll have to be a little careful with money until you figure out what you’re going to do.”

  “Nah,” I said. “We might as well travel before Nicole is in school. Besides, I have investments. And I think I can get three million for my Brooklyn place.”

  “Three million…dollars?” She turned around, looking hot as fuck in her sunglasses and bikini top. And the way she was sitting between my legs was doing things to me. I’d probably be carrying a towel in front of my body on the way back to our room.

  “Give or take. I’ll put it on the market in the spring.”

  “So…” She cleared her throat. “You don’t even need to work, do you?”

  “No. But I’ll want to eventually.” My phone buzzed in my pocket.

  It was a text from Bess. Okay. I’m over my shock. I get it.

  Good to know, I wrote back. I feel good about this. I’m pumped.

  You should be. Now you can come work for me.

  Say again?

  Work. For. Me. How is that hard to understand? You can scout hockey players and lure them into my clutches.

  Zara and I both laughed out loud.

  We would kill each other, I pointed out. Also, I can’t do contracts. They make my eyes glaze over.

  Nobody is letting you near a legal document, my sister wrote back. I’m the brains of this operation. You’ll be the brawn.

  My head spun. Can we talk about this later? Like, a year or two from now? Don’t try to plan my life.

  But it’s what I do!

  I put the phone away. “Is it too early for a celebratory beer?”

  “Never.” She spun around and kissed me. Then she kissed me again, all heat and tongue and ambition.

  I groaned my approval. “Stop, or I’ll get carried away and then arrested for public indecency.”

  Zara sat back on her heels and laughed. “Maybe it’s time to get out of the sun?”

  I glanced at the sleeping baby. “Will she stay asleep if I carry her back to the room?”

  “You can try,” Zara said.

  I gathered my sleeping child up and kissed her wispy hair. “Come on, angel. Let’s go home.”

  And I realized home had a different meaning for me than it used to. It meant wherever my girls were.

  I liked the sound of that. I really did.

  * * *

  Thank you!

  * * *

  Looking for more? Dave’s team is featured in the Brooklyn Bruisers series. And join the mailing list to hear about the next True North book!

  Also by Sarina Bowen

  THE BROOKLYN BRUISERS

  Rookie Move (#1)

  Hard Hitter (#2)

  Pipe Dreams (#3)

  * * *

  TRUE NORTH

  Bittersweet

  Steadfast

  Keepsake

  Bountiful

  * * *

/>   THE IVY YEARS

  The Year We Fell Down #1

  The Year We Hid Away #2

  Blonde Date #2.5

  The Understatement of the Year #3

  The Shameless Hour #4

  The Fifteenth Minute #5

  * * *

  GRAVITY

  Coming In From the Cold #1

  Falling From the Sky #2

  Shooting for the Stars #3

  * * *

  AND

  GOOD BOY by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy

  STAY by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy

  HIM by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

  US by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

  Copyright © 2017 by Sarina Bowen

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is strictly coincidental.

  Cover photograph by Pat Lee. Cover design by Sarah Hansen / Okay Creations.