Lucky Score (The Hawkeyes Hockey Series Book 6)

Rita offered to let me take her truck into Cancun for breakfast.

Walking into the restaurant we agreed to meet, I see Daniel wave from across the room.

I head straight for them.

It’s a breakfast buffet so we don’t have to wait to order or for our food to arrive. This is for the best since I wasn’t able to finish my chapters last night. All I could think about was Seven meeting Daniel… and Cammy being Seven’s daughter… and Josslin wanting Seven back… and Daniel showing up unannounced, expecting us to start wedding planning before we even got back to Seattle.

It’s not as if there won’t be any wedding planning in the future, but Daniel and I just spent months apart and we’ve been with other people. There’s so much we need to unpack first, both literally and figuratively.

‘You look beautiful,’ Daniel says as he stands up, kissing my cheek this time instead of going for the lips like he tried twice yesterday.

He must have figured my parents would catch on if I kept darting away from his kiss.

‘You really do Brynn. Mexico must really agree with you. Your skin is practically glowing,’ my mother says.

I want to tell her that it’s probably from all the orgasms I’m having, but that would be inappropriate at the breakfast table.

‘Thank you. This vacation was a much-needed trip. I think all the vitamin D has been helpful.’

She doesn’t need to know that by vitamin D… I actually mean Seven’s dick.

‘How’s your book coming along?’ my father asks.

‘I’m so close to finishing but I do have to go back and finish another chapter that I didn’t get written last night.’

They all make an audible groan of disappointment.

‘You’ll need to delay getting back for one hour. I have a surprise for you. Daniel and I booked and wedding venue walk-thru for after breakfast,’ my mom beams.

Oh God…

‘Hold on… what?’ I ask, trying to hide the unwelcome surprise.

‘I had to split the guy a little cash to make it happen. Since you’re flying home tomorrow. Unless you can move your flight?’ Daniel asks.

‘Unfortunately, i can’t move my flight. I have to fly home tomorrow morning as originally planned; my publisher is waiting and I have a meeting with the editor in-house the following day. I have to get home.’

‘I’m proud of you for pushing through on this one. I know it was a tough one but you got it done,’ my dad says.

His praise always means the most to me. Maybe because he doesn’t give it freely most of the time.

‘Thanks, Dad,’ I smile at him, and he smiles back.

Over the next two hours, I sit with them, eating food and discussing Daniel’s Australia trip and the timeline of my trip that started out as the worst vacation of my life… and then turned into the best.

We walk through the venue but I excuse myself at the end, leaving Daniel and my mom to continue their questions to the event planner.

As I drive down the road, I see a sign for the beach that Seven had mentioned that the turtles would be at today for our first date. A date that would no longer be.

I pull into the parking spaces and get out.

I find a spot high on the beach where I can see all the way down the beach.

I watch as researchers take notes and prepare cameras, essentially busy work as they wait.

‘Is this spot taken?’ I hear a deep, raspy voice say beside me.

I look over to find Seven towering over me.

‘No, it’s open,’ I say. ‘How did you know I’d be here?’

‘What do you mean? I came here for the turtles,’ he says, taking a seat next to me in the sand.

‘Oh…’ I say, feeling stupid that I assumed he stalked me here.

I sort of liked the idea that he followed me here.

‘I’m kidding. I saw Rita’s truck and she told me that you were driving it this morning to get breakfast with your family. When I saw it parked here, I figured I’d stop. I’m surprised to see Daniel let you out of his sight. You didn’t stay at the hotel with him last night?’

I glance over at him and give him a raised brow as if to ask if he’s seriously asking me if I slept with Daniel last night. I took Rita’s truck so he already knows the answer.

‘Sorry, it’s none of my business what you do with your fiancé.’

‘He’s not my fiancé… not yet anyway. We have a lot to work out.’

‘What does it mean that you have a lot to work out?’

‘It means that we need to get home and think through everything. We’ve been a part for eight months and…’

‘And he doesn’t do it for you. What more do you need to know?’

‘I put eight years into this relationship. I can’t just walk away from it. I need to know if it’s still viable. I can’t do here. Once we get home, he and I can discuss everything and figure it out.’

‘Why can’t you do that here? What’s holding you back?’ he asks, but we both know what it is.

‘Being here is too big of a distraction.’

‘Does it have anything to do with me?’

‘Of course it does, but that doesn’t matter. You have a family that needs you.’

‘Brynn, Josslin and I aren’t getting back together if that’s what she told you is going to happen. I could never trust her again, and even if I could, too many years have passed and she deliberately kept my daughter from me to hold onto my brother.’

‘Even still, you already admitted that you’re not interested in a relationship and that you haven’t had one in almost twenty years. I already put eight years into a relationship Seven, I can’t do that again. I need someone who wants the same things as I do.’

‘I can give you that. I can give you a relationship if that’s what it takes.’

‘You’re only saying that because it’s what I want, not because it’s what you want.’

‘I just want to make you happy. Whatever that means.’

‘Exactly. You don’t want this. And someday one of us will have to give in and then that person will resent the other. I’ll resent you because I won’t want to force you into getting married and having kids, or you’ll resent me for pushing into a life you never wanted. We can’t both have what we want.’

‘It seems as though you’ve made up your mind,’ he says.

I look down at my hands.

I wish things were different.

If I could believe that Seven wanted the same things that I do, and if I wasn’t so hellbent on making my dad proud, this decision would be so much harder.

At the end of the day Seven needs to fix his family and I need to find out if my eight-year relationship has finally ran its course.

‘I’m sorry,’ I say softly, tears welling in my eyes, but I don’t let a single one drop.

I grip at my necklace, rubbing the pendent space needle between my fingers.

‘Don’t apologize Brynn. I had you for a time and I’m grateful for every minute. I wouldn’t take any of it back.’

He leans in, pressing a soft kiss to my temple and then stands.

He doesn’t say anything else as he heads for her Jeep.

I listen for his Jeep until I hear it rev to life and pull out of the parking area.

He’s gone.

And now I have to pick myself back up out of the sand and live with the decision I’ve made.

Just as I stand, I see little speckles of black emerge from the sand.

Baby turtles are finally hatching in one of the nests as researchers go crazy, keeping a safe distance but getting all the pictures and data that they need.

I watch for a little bit and then realize that though seeing the baby turtles pop out from the sand and head for the sea, is a cool experience the real excitement I had for this date… was getting to spend it with Seven.

Without him… something missing.

My phone chimes with an incoming text and rip the phone from my pocket, desperately hoping that it’s Seven but then I see the name.

Fiancé: I got my flights switched over to tomorrow morning. I couldn’t get seats together but I’ll check when we get there in the morning. I’m leaving the rental car for your parents. Do you think someone can give us a ride to the airport tomorrow?

I should be overjoyed to be flying back with Daniel but for some reason, I was looking for the last bit of alone time before Daniel came home Mexico. This is what I wanted for the last eight months and now here he is, making grand gestures left and right. Showing up here to see me, bringing my parents, changing his flights.

But those grand gestures also feel… I don’t know, off a little. Maybe a little push? Or controlling. Maybe I’m reading too much into it.

I send a text to Rita and she agrees to drive me in and pick up Daniel on our way to the airport.

Then I decide to make a change to my contact list.

Brynn: Rita and I will be there to pick you up bright and early. See you tomorrow.

Daniel: Ok, see you soon. I love you.

He’s the one I chose so why does it feel so wrong when I write out the words. I’ve said them to him a thousand times before, this should be no different… but then again, everything’s different. Or maybe it’s only me that’s no longer the same.

Brynn: Love you too.

Walking into Scallywag’s I make my rounds to say goodbye to everyone.

Rita makes me promise to come back against when I’m ready to write book two, Maria and I exchange social media handles so that we can keep up with each other, and Cammy plans a coffee meet-up at a cafe that I’ve never been to called Serendipity’s Coffee Shop for a few weeks after we both return to Seattle to give me time to get through my book one edits and for her to get familiar with the new fall semester.

I’m relieved to be leaving with a connection to this place and these people. The idea of returning to work on book two already has me anxious to make plans with Rita, but with book one not even launched and Daniel and I needing to make some major decisions about our relationship, it will probably be months before I’m back.

I say goodbye to everyone and then head up to finish my last few chapters and pack the rest of my things.

The only person I didn’t see downstairs was Seven… but I guess we already said our goodbyes.

What more is there to say?