Callie

I knocked on the door of the condo belonging to Faith Devereaux and Sebastien Hunter, Cooper’s best friends. My stomach twisted with nerves, even though I’d been here several times. But always with Cooper. Never on my own.

Faith opened the door and stood back to let me in. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

The honest answer was no. But I was doing it anyway. “I’ve brought some stuff that I hope helps.” I held up the bag.

“Candy?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Hockey figures.”

“Good choice. We’ll see how it goes.”

I followed Faith down the hallway to the big room with couches and kitchen and a view from the balcony. She sighed. “Hailey’s been incredibly stubborn. I don’t know if it’s a phase, or something we have to deal with.”

“I don’t think waiting for her to grow out of it is working.”

Not that I blamed Hailey, not really. Her Kook was not easy to get over. I should know – I’d never planned on dating anyone, and here I was, Kook’s girlfriend. Unlike Hailey, I was willing to share, within reason.

For someone not yet two, sharing wasn’t happening.

Faith leaned against the kitchen island. “Can I get you anything? A drink?”

I huffed a breath. “I think I just want to get to it.”

“She’s in her room. Last door on the right.”

I nodded and started down the hallway. Past the first door on the right, the guest bath where I’d been before. I stopped at the door to the Hailey’s bedroom and looked inside.

Hailey’s hair was up in a ponytail, and like usual, blonde wisps had escaped. A pink tiara balanced haphazardly on her head, and she was wearing her favorite purple tutu over orange striped leggings topped by a tiny Blaze jersey.

I must have moved, or made a noise, because she turned around. When she saw it was me, she glared. It was more effective than anything I’d seen at work, which was remarkable in a firm of lawyers.

‘So, Hailey.” Damn, that glare was scary. “We need to have a sit down and talk.”

She promptly stood to her feet. “No.”

Kids this age were supposed to say no a lot, I thought, but this child? Said nothing else to or about me. But growing up in foster care had given me a thick skin.

Playing nice and staying out of her way hadn’t accomplished anything. I didn’t know how to deal with kids, so I’d treat her as if she was an adult. Someone at the firm who had their tax and legal issues wrong.

I sat in the doorway. Hailey deserved her safe space, but I wasn’t going to let her run me off.

Her bottom lip pouted out.

“You don’t have to sit or talk, but I’m going to.”

Her head tilted. I hoped she wasn’t going to start screaming because I had no idea how to deal with that. But she was curious, especially when I settled a bag in my crossed legs. I’d worn jeans, and an old sweatshirt. Cooper would get that pained look on his face if he saw me, but I wasn’t risking my good clothes on an altercation with a toddler. I was sure she wasn’t opposed to fighting dirty, literally.

“I’m with Cooper now. I mean, I’m his girlfriend.” That sounded a little high school, but the kid wasn’t even two years old. “That means I spend a lot of time with Cooper. Kook.”

She shook her head.

“And he spends a lot of time with you so that means we’re going to spend time together.”

Hailey stomped her foot. “No.”

“You can say no but that doesn’t make it true. You’re stuck with seeing me.” Because now that I had him, I was never giving Cooper up. But he loved his goddaughter, so we had to find a way to co-exist.

“I know you wanted to marry him, but you won’t be ready to marry anyone for years. Twenty or thirty years. He was definitely going to find someone before that happened, and well, here I am.”

Her eyes narrowed, like she didn’t think I’d be around for long. I’d had doubts myself about the two of us working, and sometimes they still popped up. When I saw him in ads or being adored by fans. Women approached him all the time and I couldn’t find an answer for why he’d chosen me.

And yet, here we were.

“Okay, you don’t think I’m here for long. Well, as long as I am, we need to at least be polite around each other. Because if we aren’t, Cooper is going to be upset. Sad.”

She cocked her head,  topknot falling to one side. Okay, she didn’t want Cooper to be sad. I could work with this. 

“I want Kook to be happy. And he’s happy when he’s with you. He’s also happy when he’s with me. He’ll be even more happy if we can be polite.”

Hailey pulled at her tutu. Still not speaking.

“That means we need to negotiate.”

The word caught her attention. “Go-shate?”

“Yes, negotiate.”

I opened the bag on my lap. Inside were a pile of hockey figurines. Apparently the kid loved them. I’d been able to find some online. They weren’t Blaze players, but from their crosstown rival team. I didn’t think a toddler would care, but we’d see.

I dumped them out in my lap.

“Cooper – Kook – tells me you have toys like this.”

Now her attention was focused on my lap.

“So, if you wanted these hockey figures, and I did too, we would negotiate to find a way for us both to get something we wanted.”

I was careful to make this speculative, because I did not want hockey figurines, either Blaze or any other team. I just had nothing else physical to make my point with. Well, maybe ice cream but if I made her sick, I’d have problems with more than Hailey here.

Hailey suddenly darted to her closet and pulled out a basket, filled with more hockey figures. These were all in black and red and yellow, so Blaze colors. Mine had different colors and Hailey was eyeing them greedily.

She took a few steps toward me, staring at the hockey figures.

“Negotiating is like trading. I want something, you want something, and I’ll give you something I don’t want very much if you give me something you don’t want that I do.”

Her forehead furrowed. Maybe this didn’t make sense to her.

“So, what I want, is for you to be polite to me when I’m here with Cooper – Kook – so that he’s not sad.”

“Twade.” She said, looking from my figures to hers.

I didn’t really want to trade figures, but if that brought home the point, sure.

I pulled up one figure. He had his feet splayed out, stick out to the side. I didn’t know this team and had no idea if it was supposed to represent an actual player.

Hailey dug through her basket and pulled out a black suited figure with a stick down low. “Twade?”

I was losing the direction here, but since trade was the nicest thing she’d ever said to me, and she’d done it voluntarily, I nodded.

She crossed her room to just in front of me, and dropped down to the floor, holding out the hockey player. I held out mine, and we swapped. I quickly checked the one she’d given me and did not see a #57 across the back. No way was she giving me a hockey figure of Kook/Cooper.

She dug out another figurine, this one missing a leg. She pointed at mine.

I wasn’t a pushover, even with toys I didn’t want. “That one is broken.”

“Hurt.”

That happened in hockey. It had happened to her father, though at least he hadn’t lost a limb. Still, negotiating was part of my job.

“Do you have any other hurt ones?”

She reached her free hand in and dug through till she found another one with an arm missing.

“Okay, two hurt players for one that’s not hurt.”

She hesitated for a minute, but finally nodded. “Twade.”

I passed over my goalie and took the two injured players.

She reached in for another, and I wondered if we’d end up completely swapping figurines.

“Twade.”

She stopped when we had a mix of about half of each team.  Her frown was gone, and she was moving her fingers over her new hockey players.

“Now, here’s what I propose for our negotiation.”

The frown was back. “Twade?”

“Kind of. But not hockey players.”

She sat quietly.

“If you can be polite when I come over with Cooper, I’ll bring my hockey guys—” I pointed at the pile of plastic in my lap “And let you play with them while I’m here.”

I hadn’t expected to swap them out, but the association of my presence with new toys might help bring her around.

Her mouth moved and her forehead creased and smoothed. Pretty sure this was heavy duty toddler thinking.

“Twade. Me po-lite, you play.”

I nodded, then caught myself. No, she was going to play. I had no idea how to play with figurines. I hadn’t had a lot of toys, and when I was Hailey’s age, people had shoved dolls and stuffed toys at me without worrying whether I liked them.

“You play.”

“Play.” She smiled, big and wide, and I had the sudden realization I’d been out negotiated by someone who couldn’t even pronounce the word.

Cooper

I’d come over to Hunt and Faith’s place as soon as practice was over. Not that I thought Callie was in any danger from Hailey, but I was afraid her talk with my goddaughter might not go well. Hailey was a doll, but she was stubborn and jealous of my attention.

That had been cute, before Callie was my partner. I’d like my two favorite people to get along, but I wasn’t sure how to make it happen.

Faith knew I was coming, so I let myself in to their condo, as familiar to me as my own. I found Faith in the living room, watching game tape. “Hey, Blondie.”

I rolled my eyes but let it go. “How are things with Callie and Hailey?”

She paused the video. “You worried?”

“Should I be?”

She was holding back a grin, so maybe not? Faith loved to yank my chain. “They’re in Hailey’s room.”

I sped down the hallway, not sure what I’d find. But I was definitely surprised at what I saw.

Hailey was on the floor, with her beloved hockey figurines, wearing her pink tiara and purple tutu. Across from her, with a distressed look on her face, was Callie, wearing a pink tiara on her bright red hair, and a purple tutu over jeans and a sweatshirt.

I narrowed my eyes at the baggy jeans and sweatshirt. I’d have to find something better for Callie to wear when she was playing with Hailey.

Then I saw there were new hockey figures in the group the girls were playing with.

“Hey girls.” They swiveled their heads toward me.

I stepped in, picking up one of the little characters, wearing the colors of our cross-town rivals. We did not speak their name, one of the Blaze hockey superstitions.

“What the—” I stopped before a ‘bad word’ slipped out.

Hailey grinned up at me. “Go-shate. We twade.”

I drew in a breath. “Why are some of these things the wrong color?”

Hailey pointed at Callie. Yeah, I’d thought so.

“We need to get rid of these before they cause harm.”

Hailey frowned. “No.”

“Hailey monster, I’ll get you some more. But you can’t have the wrong team. It’s bad luck.”

Callie and Hailey shared a glance. Hailey looked back at me and shook her head. “No.”

“Those are Callie’s, right? So she’ll be taking them home with her?” I could arrange to get rid of them then.

Hailey glared at me. “No. Twade. Mine.”

Toddlers assumed ownership of everything, but when I checked with Callie, she shrugged. “Don’t look at me. Do you think I’m wearing the tiara because I like pink?”

I checked out the ornament on her head. And the tutu. Callie did not look like she was enjoying them at all.

“What happened?”

“I tried to negotiate with her. I lost.”

I heard some noise back in the living room of the condo. Hailey started to shove hockey figurines into her basket. She mingled together the players of both teams indiscriminately. Callie shoved to her feet, and Hailey quickly snatched Callie’s collection as well.

“She’s taking your stuff.”

Callie looked down, and bit her lip. Then she smiled.

“You took my things, so I’m done playing.” She pulled off the tiara and shoved the tutu down over her hips.

Hailey looked between Callie, divesting herself of her princess gear, and the new hockey figurines she’d stolen. She shrugged.

I pulled Callie to me and kissed her. “How did it go?”

“She said something other than no, so good I guess?” And she hadn’t reacted when I kissed Callie.

“Hailey, Don is here!” Faith called.

Hailey’s eyes brightened and she picked up the tiara and tutu that Callie had removed. Like a tiny tornado, she ran past us, heading to see Don. Past me!

“What the hell?”

Callie gripped my hand and headed to the living room.

“She didn’t even hug me!”

In the living room, Braydon Mitchell, our backup goalie, who lived in the same building as Seb and Fatih, had stopped by. His girlfriend Jayna was a former teammate of Faith’s, and Faith and Mitchell had a lot in common, both being goalies. But currently, he was holding my girl in his arms, while she rammed a tiara on his head.

My jaw dropped. Hailey was babbling at ‘Don’ and ignoring me.

Callie tugged me closer. “Sorry, I think she has a new favorite. I didn’t think being polite to me meant she was giving up on you.”

I stared at Mitchell. He was listening to Hailey, a fond smile on his face. I turned to Faith and saw her watching the two of them with the same kind of sappy expression.

I narrowed my eyes. Faith, Braydon and Hailey. Blue eyes, blond hair, the two adults tall…a suspicion popped into my head. Faith’s father was a chronic cheater, and I’d always wondered why Mitchell had ranted about Faith after the game he’d played with her. Were they possibly…

Not my business. Not unless they wanted to tell me. But if Hailey and Don had that kind of connection…I could put my wounded ego aside.

I wrapped an arm around Callie. “Worth it.”

She frowned at me. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

I wrapped my arm around her, and kept her tightly by my side. Maybe it was time for Hailey to move her favoritism to someone else. Because Callie was my number one now.

And someday, she’d be the one I’d marry, not Hailey.