I Want You Back (Want You #1)(93)

“Did it hurt your feelings that I said that?” she asked in a small voice.

“Not at all.”

“Am I bein’ bratty not wanting to share my daddy?”

“God no.” Jax kissed her forehead. “I’m glad you told me this. Because it does change a few things, but sweetheart, some of those things can’t be changed. When I agreed to be the fill-in coach, it was as good as a promise. If I go back on my promise, that means not only do you not get to play in any hockey games, none of the other kids on your team get to play either. Do you think that’s fair?”

Mimi twisted the ends of Jax’s hoodie string around her finger as she thought it over. Then she said, “No, that wouldn’t be fair.”

“Do you think you could share me for a few more games? Until it’s decided if Coach Welk will be assigned to your team or until they find another coach?”

“I guess that’d be okay.” She paused and looked at him. “I hope they pick Coach Welk. Did you know she played in the Olympics?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Two different times?”

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

“Uh-huh. And her sister is gonna play in the Olympics soon.”

How did Mimi know that? None of it was a surprise to Jax either. How much time had he spent with Coach Welk?

“Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?” Jax asked her. “Anything at all, maybe even something not about hockey or coaches?”

“Nope.” She hugged him and scrambled off his lap. “Wanna come in and have some of the cookies that me ’n Calder made?”

“I’d love that.”

When he pushed himself up from the floor, I noticed he winced. He’d used his body as a battering ram for most of his life, so I suspected he was paying the price for that now. But I didn’t recall ever hearing him complain.

I continued to stare at him as he moved closer to me.

In that moment, I fully grasped the multitude of changes Jaxson Lund had gone through; I saw the different aspects that had come together to turn him into this amazingly complex man. A man strong enough to walk away from a sport he loved, from booze, from a family business that didn’t fit him . . . from me Saturday night, when I knew he’d wanted to stay, but the timing had been wrong.

That’s when I knew I loved him, this Jax, the man he was now. A man who was becoming the father Mimi needed. A man creating a career outside a hockey rink. A man looking for a home of his own. A man who’d asked for my forgiveness and had earned it. A man I wanted to spend the rest of my life loving, and laughing with, and yelling at, and listening to, and holding in my arms every night.

“Lucy?”

He’d said my name with wonder and surprise from whatever he’d seen on my face.

Mimi sighed and grabbed the keys from my hand to open the door. She went into the apartment, leaving Jax and me alone.

“Luce, baby, are you okay?”

I smiled at him, the smile that had him smiling back at me. “Actually I’ve never been better. Come in and have some cookies.”

“They’ll have to tide me over until I get home since I didn’t eat supper.”

I handed him the pizza box. “Have at it.”

“Thanks.” Then he looked at me suspiciously before he cracked the cardboard lid open and peered inside. “Of course there’s green olives on it.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers, dude. And you better get used to green olives on your pizza, because Mimi and I both love them. You are officially outnumbered.”

The dining room table was still covered in crafting supplies, so Jax ate the leftover pizza, six cookies and a glass of milk standing at the counter.

Mimi chattered on about the things she and Calder had done, including a ride in the elevator up to the new apartment. “Daddy, when are we gonna move in?”

By “we,” was Mimi including me?

“The moving company is packing up your room on Friday and bringing my stuff as well as what I had in storage.”

“Can I stay over in my new room Friday night?”

“Yep. After the hockey game.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin and wandered over to where Mimi sat, working on another bracelet. “Whatcha doin’, squirt?”

“Making a friendship bracelet for Coach Welk for when she is our new coach.”

Jax smiled. “That’s sweet. I’m sure she’ll love it.”

“Do you wanna make one?”

“For Coach Welk? No.”

“No, silly, make one for someone else. One of your other friends. Like Uncle Nolan.”

My eyes met Jax’s over Mimi’s head, and we both grinned, imagining fashionista Nolan with a brightly woven, slightly misshapen plastic beaded bracelet beneath his Armani shirt and Van Cleef and Arpels cuff links.

“You’ll show me how to do this?” Jax scooted a chair closer to her and plopped down. “Because I’ve never been artsy or crafty.”

“That’s not true,” I pointed out. “When I was pregnant with Mimi you untangled those three balls of yarn that were all twisted together.”

He looked at me with surprise. “I’d forgotten about that. Then you knitted those tiny yellow and green booties from it. I remember being floored by the thought that the lump in your belly would eventually be out and wearing those booties.” A guilty expression crossed his face.