Eunice did the housekeeping and the cooking. She made the most delectable meals with whatever she found in the refrigerator. I’d never seen her use a recipe book or look up cooking instructions on the internet. Esme told me in confidence that Eunice had once been a chef in a popular restaurant in Seattle, but the stress got to her.

All in all, Bria’s absence didn’t affect the running of the household because she’d never participated in anything domestic and wasn’t a large part of the children’s lives. They missed her, though. She was, after all, their mother, and I knew more than anyone how it felt to be abandoned by the one person on earth who should be your rock above everyone else. At least they had Jock. From what I’d seen during the months I’d lived here, he was an incredible father.

I’d been raised an only child with an absentee mother and workaholic father. I embraced this boisterous, loud, unruly bunch. They became the family I’d never had growing up, and I became their beloved, though clueless about kids, Auntie Gen.

My job didn’t allow me to be home much, any more than Jock was, but we did our best to be there for the kids in the week that followed their mother’s exile from their home. Regardless of what I thought of her, she was still their mother, and I never said one bad word about her in front of them, quite a feat for me.

When Jock had told me about the coach’s decree that Axel be his roomie on road trips, I thought it sounded like a good idea. Then Jock told me about his sarcastic offer to have Axel to dinner once a week, and I laughed my ass off. There was something inherently funny about forcing these two tough hockey players to play nice with each other.

A few hours later, we were all seated around the table doing just that. Esme mothered Axel, and Eunice plied him with more stew every time he put a dent in his bowl. Much to my surprise, Axel was a charming dinner guest. He had Esme and Eunice eating out of his hands. The kids adored him almost instantly. I grudgingly admitted the guy had a way with kids. He didn’t talk down to them but treated them as if they mattered. He remembered every one of their names and seemed able to tell the twins apart. I’d reserve judgment on that, as they hadn’t had an opportunity to get out of their seats since he’d been introduced. They’d surely pull a switcheroo at some point in time tonight.

Jock sat sullenly at the head of the table and fumed.

I had a front-row seat for the entire show and was able to observe Axel without anyone else noticing. I was having a hard time believing he would’ve knowingly slept with a teammate’s wife. He didn’t seem that type, and I knew that type because I’d been around such men most of my life.