Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 136296 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 681(@200wpm)___ 545(@250wpm)___ 454(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136296 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 681(@200wpm)___ 545(@250wpm)___ 454(@300wpm)
She nods pensively. “Or you. Can you stay with Mom and Dad for a while?”
“Yeah. They’ve been awesome about the whole thing. Really supportive. I think it’s gonna take some time for Clover to get comfortable with the idea of being in her cabin again. It’s pretty secluded. But Dad’s going to have a security system installed.”
“Sounds like a dad thing to do and a good idea. How’s Mom handling the fact that you’re dating your professor?”
“She didn’t love it at first, for obvious reasons, but she seems to be coming around now.”
“That’s good. She’s had a lot thrown at her this weekend, so I’m sure coming home to find out that your girlfriend’s ex threatened to burn her cabin down was the icing on the cake.”
“What do you mean she’s had a lot thrown at her? What’s going on with you?”
“The production company offered me a full-time residency. I’m going to transfer to a college program here.”
“Holy shit, you’re going to live in New York?”
“Seems that way. And with Kodiak in Philly, we’ll be able to make the distance thing manageable. He said Nashville offered you training camp but you’re not all that inclined to take it.”
“I don’t think I want to live in Dad’s shadow for the rest of my life.”
She nods, her smile knowing. “He casts a big one. Sometimes you have to forge a new path so you can find your own light.”
By the middle of July, I still haven’t made a decision about training camp. I have until mid-August to either accept or pass, and I’m taking that time to think the decision through.
In the meantime, I help Clover pack up her things in Chicago and move what she needs back to my parents’ pool house in Lake Geneva. We’re still waiting on Gabriel’s trial, but her lawyer is confident he’ll do jail time. It doesn’t make me happy, but there is some relief in knowing he’s on house arrest and can’t be in the same state as Clover anymore. And the charges against him made it a lot easier to get the divorce papers signed, so Clover is legally free of him as well.
Clover has convinced me to start talking to a professional. It didn’t take much work on her part to get me to see the validity of it. Lavender was right. What happened with Gabriel unearthed more of the shit from my childhood, and if I don’t deal with it now, it’s going to make my life impossible.
I can’t be attached to Clover at the hip, and anyway, I need to find a way to manage the fear and worry without smothering her. It isn’t logical or possible or healthy to be with her twenty-four hours a day. So I get myself a therapist and talk through all the crap my family has been through, sorting through damage so I can be a better version of myself.
I transfer to the Pump It Up location in Lake Geneva, agreeing to also stay on at the Chicago gym for a while to train self-defense instructors once a week, since they want to keep the program running, and it’s one of the things I feel passionate about.
For a couple weeks, Clover and I stay at my parents’ place, but at the end of July, we do move into her cabin on Pearl Bay. Clover starts her position at the local library, and I start working part-time with my dad at his hockey training program.
My alarm goes off at five fifteen in the morning. I hit the snooze button and wrap my arm around Clover. I nuzzle into her hair, breathing in her cloves and citrus shampoo. She makes a little noise but doesn’t stir otherwise.
Practice skate starts early, and I have to be on the ice at seven thirty. Still, I lie here, body curved around Clover’s, until my alarm goes off again. Then I reluctantly roll away from her warmth and carefully climb out of bed.
Although Clover’s day doesn’t start until nine, she often gets up at the same time I do so we can have coffee and breakfast together. But yesterday, the verdict for Gabriel’s trial was finally read. In the end, he was given five years. It was an emotional day for her, and we stayed up later than we should have. I’m glad that chapter is finally over. It means she can move on with her life.
And I feel like I’m ready to move forward with mine.
Forty-Two
From Here
Maverick
Six months later
I step down out of the moving truck and take in the neighborhood. It’s a nice area on the outskirts of Lake Geneva. A couple walking a dog passes us on the sidewalk, looking curiously from us to the neatly manicured brownstone with the blue BMW parked in the driveway. The license plate reads Dr. Dave.