I Want You Back (Want You #1)(88)

She smiled widely, showcasing the gap in her gumline. “Yay! Can we go out for ice cream now?”

“I bought ice cream at the store today,” Lucy said. “We can make sundaes at home.”

“But I wanna go out for ice cream with Daddy.”

“Then it’s a lucky thing that I already asked him to come over.”

But belligerent Mimi had settled in. Lucy noticed it and she tried to hustle Mimi out. “Come on. You’ll ride with me. Daddy will be right behind us after he’s done with his paperwork.”

“No. I’ll wait for Daddy. You can go home and get stuff ready.”

Lucy’s patience thinned. “Watch your tone or the only thing that I’ll be getting ready is you for bed without any ice cream.”

“That’s mean.”

After everything that had happened in the last hour, I wasn’t about to ignore Mimi’s attitude. I leaned across the railing. “Go with your mother now, Milora Michelle. And no back talking.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want any stupid ice cream. And I don’t want you to come over if you’re both gonna be mean to me.”

Nolan muttered under his breath.

I looked at Lucy and she mirrored my WTF? expression.

But she rallied first. “Have it your way, Mimi. We’ll skip the ice cream tonight. Say good-bye to your dad.”

“Bye,” she said sullenly, not coming closer for a hug.

Lucy said, “I’ll call you,” and followed Mimi as she stomped off.

“Man, it’s like an alien inhabited her body,” Nolan said. “Haven’t you told her you’re back together yet?”

“Nope. If she reacts that way when she sees us kiss I don’t know how she’ll take it when I’m at her place in the morning after I’ve spent the night. Or if Lucy is at my place.”

“Isn’t that the dream of most kids whose parents have broken up? That they get back together and life will be unicorns and sunshiny rainbows once again?”

“It’s different for us, because there’s never been an ‘us’ as a family.” I didn’t have time to brood about Lucy having to deal with Mimi’s bratty attitude alone, because the parents who’d been milling around finally descended.

“Your questions will be answered as soon as I have answers,” I said. “Assuming I’m approved to coach, let’s keep the same schedule for now for skills and practices. Margene will update you with changes.”

Nolan accompanied me to Margene’s office, which I hadn’t expected.

Margene didn’t chatter with me or my brother, which allowed me to get the paperwork done faster. But I was curious about one thing.

“What can you tell me about the woman who owns this place?”

“Eccentric is frequently used to describe her. She bought the land—or if you believe the rumor, she won it in a poker tournament—intending to build a paintball gun recreation area. Something happened with the zoning that didn’t allow it. Someone advised her to build an ice rink. So she did. She initially wanted the space to be strictly for figure skating—guess she had a crush on Dick Button back in the day, that’s how old she is—but hockey has grown so rapidly she banked on that instead. She did insist on having an hour blocked out on Saturdays and Sundays for ice rental for kids’ birthday parties.” Margene shook her head. “She’s great to work for, but there are a few things, like hiring Dennis, that make no sense.”

“Is she ever here?”

“She drops in. She likes to catch us unaware. But she hasn’t been in for ages, and all my correspondence with her is either through her property manager on the phone, or via email. Why do you ask?”

I shrugged. “Just wondering if I oughta be on the lookout for a granny type coming after me with a cane or a walker for insulting her nephew.”

Margene and Nolan both laughed.

Then I said, “It’d probably be best if I went on the offensive and asked to meet up with her first.”

“She’d like you all right. Big, handsome athlete who’s a master on the ice.”

Nolan coughed, “Suck-up.”

She merely grinned at him. “Telling it like it is. I’ll see what I can do about hooking you up with her.”

I cringed. “Jesus. Don’t say it like that.”

“Dirty mind,” she chided. “Now get outta here so Gabi can sneak in and blister my ear.”

In the parking lot, Nolan said, “Thanks for the interesting evening, bro.”

Then it occurred to me that it was Saturday night, his sacred “hang and bang” club night. “What’s going on with you? Why aren’t you out trolling like the tomcat you are?”

“I told you. It’s gotten old. Or maybe I’ve gotten old.” He brushed a speck of lint from his navy wool coat. “Or maybe I just like hanging out with you. We’ve never gotten to do that on a regular basis before.”

What a sweet little shit. I shocked the crap out of him when I said, “Aww. I’m touched, and prepare yourself, bro; I’m coming at ya for a hug.”

During the backslapping, tight-squeezing, laughing hug, that sneaky sucker managed a quick shot to my kidney. I’d forgotten we used to do that, and I laughed, even when it stung. “Nolan, you dirty-fighting fucker. Good thing I love you, bro, or I’d be rubbing that GQ face on the concrete.”