“Not happening, Caro. I’ll take care of the move. Quit jerking me around. You can’t undo what’s been done. I can’t forget what I know. Neither can you.”

“I understand, and I’m so sorry. Please, give me a little more time to adjust.”

He was silent for so long I hoped he’d hung up. No such luck. He was still on the line. “Where shall I meet you? How about the hotel café?”

He wasn’t going away. He was right; there was no turning back, only going forward.

“I’ll see you at eleven,” I said, resigned to my fate.

He ended the call without another word.

I sank down onto the couch, wondering what kind of monster I’d created.

Chapter Eleven

Complications

~~Easton~~

Later that morning, I arrived early at the small café in the hotel my attorney had booked for Caro and our children. The hotel wasn’t far from my condo, so I walked, enjoying a crisp fall day with clear skies.

I ordered a cup of coffee and stared out the window, more fidgety and nervous than I’d been in my first NHL game. This wasn’t a game. This was life, and being a father was forever.

Caro stopped in the doorway and glanced around. I gulped down some water to ease my dry throat. She dropped something and bent down to pick it up. My eyes were drawn to her nicely rounded ass hugged by a pair of skinny jeans, and I swallowed hard. She still had an effect on me, and I had to get beyond what she did to me physically and see her merely as the mother of my children.

This situation was complicated enough without throwing a physical or emotional relationship with Caro into the mix. Her husband had only been dead a few months. She wasn’t ready for a relationship, and I was a sworn bachelor, a Puck Brother. I didn’t take my PB status lightly either. I’d earned it, and I would wear my badge proudly. I had to rein in my lust.

No complicated relationships, and a sexual relationship with her, even for one night, would be too complicated for my easygoing, do-as-I-please lifestyle. The woman planned her life and made lists while I wandered through life without a care or a worry.

Confusing shit, that was.

I wasn’t one who dissected situations or worried about much of anything, but she had me so inside out I was doing both, and I didn’t like the experience.

Seeing her again brought back old insecurities, and I could not allow a woman to jeopardize my pro career. I hadn’t seven years ago, and I wouldn’t now. I was absolutely committed to hockey, my team, and now my children. There wasn’t room for anyone else in my life. Well, except my family, but they didn’t demand much from me.

Steeling my shaky resolve, I plastered a neutral expression on my face and waited for Caro to walk in. I gripped the manila envelope stuffed with paperwork and waited for her to sit. Her gaze flicked from me to the envelope and back again. She had as good of a poker face as I.