Laces and Lace (Assassins #6) Read online

  And not knowing the answer was killing him.

  Karson was proud of himself.

  He left his issues with Lacey at the door and was playing some damn good hockey. As he sailed across the ice, Shea at his right, he moved the puck with the blade of his stick while waiting for his forwards to set up. The played called for Brooks to crash the net after Karson shot, but it wasn’t going to work. He didn’t have a clear shot. So without looking, he acted like he was going to shoot, but instead, he sailed the puck to Shea and he took the shot without even thinking, Karson suspected. When it flew through the goalie’s five-hole, Karson threw his arms up in the air as Shea pointed to him with a grin on his face.

  “Great pass, King,” he said, tapping Karson’s head when he reached him. With a grin on his face, he congratulated his linemates before heading to the bench for another round of congratulations. With that goal, it put the Assassins up by two against the Ducks. Tate was hoping for a shutout, and Karson was all about giving him one. Gotta keep his goalie happy.

  Sitting on the bench, he squirted some water in his mouth as he watched the Assassins fight off the Ducks. Since they were down two and it was only the second period, he figured they were trying to get some momentum, but the Assassins weren’t going to let them get it. Thoughts of Lacey tried to sneak back in, but Karson pushed them away. He hoped she was watching, but he wasn’t going to stress if she wasn’t. She was with her dad. Having a grand fucking time.

  Shaking his head, Karson leaned back and squirted more water in his mouth. As it dripped down his chin, he wished he could just let it go. She was coming home. She was going to adjust, and they were going to be fucking happy together. That’s all there was to it, damn it. Clearing his mind of all those negative thoughts because he had a damn game to win, he watched as his teammates fought to get the puck out of their zone.

  Stealing the puck, Titov raced up the ice and had a two on one, but somehow there was miscommunication because the Ducks got the puck back, sailing back up the ice. Thankfully though, Tate was there, fighting off the three shots. JT tried to clear the zone, but then a Ducks player stopped it and shot it, though it rebounded off Tate’s left leg pad. JT cut left and raced to the puck to clear it, but so did another player. The player somehow tripped JT up, and before he even crashed into the wall, Karson knew it was going to be bad.

  But nothing could prepare him for the sounds of JT’s pure agony or the image of his leg lying lifeless in a way that wasn’t natural.

  No, he wasn’t ready for that.

  Her father and Sabrina were getting married.

  Yay.

  While she wanted to be excited for her father and the big, glitzy wedding they were planning, Lacey couldn’t muster up those feelings. It was clear that her father was extremely happy, and she knew he would be. He loved Sabrina, but it still bothered her. It should have been her mother sitting beside him. She should be the one to move his hair back to the side. The one to look at Lacey with all the love in the world and tell her how proud she was of her. She should be there. But she wasn’t.

  And it still gutted Lacey umpteen years later.

  While dinner was nice and she enjoyed spending time with her father and his new fiancée, she hated the way any time she brought up Karson, they changed the subject. It was essentially the Sabrina and Nate show, and it was annoying as hell. She wanted to talk about her house, about how Karson was playing on the first line that night, and how she couldn’t wait to get home to him, but she basically wasn’t allowed to. It irritated her to no end, and the first chance she got to leave, she took it.

  She knew that her father was upset she left so suddenly, but she was just burnt out. After a full day of shopping, hanging with her friends, and spoiling her nephews, dinner with the newly engaged couple was the last thing she wanted to do. What she wanted to do was cuddle up in Karson’s clothes and watch him kick ass on the ice. She only caught the first period, but he looked amazing and she knew he would continue kicking some major Ducks ass.

  A grin sat on her face as she pushed open her apartment door and locked it behind her. Looking around the apartment, it felt so dull. She used to love this place. It was her own sanctuary of loneliness, but after sharing a home with Karson, she found herself missing his socks laying all over the place and the many cups of water that he left everywhere. She missed him; she always did.

  Being back in Chicago was great though. Yeah, it was colder than a snowman’s balls, but she couldn’t help but miss it. Nashville had great weather and she loved how it didn’t know what it wanted to be weather-wise, but she loved the bite that Chicago gave her. Her beautiful city always kept her on her toes. Also seeing all her friends, visiting the store, and seeing all her clients caused her to be a little misty-eyed. She missed this place, but it wasn’t home without Karson.

  Home was where your heart was.

  And her heart was with Karson.

  It was that simple.

  While she couldn’t wait to go home to welcome him, she was going to enjoy Chicago and get her fill before returning back. She would treasure her time with her friends and steal as many kisses from her nephews as she could. She would make the next week last her until she came back, but maybe by then she wouldn’t miss it as much as she had. It had been hard, but she knew that it was because of all the changes. She didn’t do change before Karson, but since being back with him, that’s all she had done. Change after change, and while, yes, it was good and she was happy, it was all a little crazy.

  But it was their crazy.

  Hanging her coat up and then her scarf, she saw the pile of mail Grady said he had dropped off. Picking up the pile, she went to the counter to open it all. She would need to call to have her mail forwarded now that they’d moved into their house. There was no reason to keep mail going to her apartment, especially when they wouldn’t be renewing the lease. It worried her a bit to do that since she wouldn’t have her own space to stay when she came to check on the store, but then again, it gave her more time with her nephews since she would stay with Rachel and Grady.

  Just thinking of Rachel, a grin formed. It was like they hadn’t been fighting for the last month, and Lacey couldn’t stop being giddy from it. She was thankful that Rachel had let it go and that she had apologized. Whenever Karson called, Lacey planned to tell him that Rachel was completely genuine. It was honestly like they were back in college. She asked questions about Karson for hours, and it was great to talk to a fellow hockey wife who went through the same things Lacey was going through now.

  Lacey had everything she wanted, and life was good.

  She just hoped it stayed that way.

  She and Karson still hadn’t spoken about the kid thing since that night in bed, and she wasn’t sure if he’d forgotten or if he was waiting for her to speak to him. If that was the case, he would be waiting a long time. She knew that was wrong, but why ruin a good thing? They were happy and they were adjusting to being apart. Soon they would be pros and the time would fly by until the moment they were together. It was going to be fine. Great even, and then they would discuss the kid issue. Even then, they would work it out. That’s what they had to do because they belonged together.

  Still smiling, she flipped through her mail that was mostly junk mail until she came to a letter from her doctor. Her brows came up as she opened the letter to find that her doctor needed her to come in for further testing because her levels were off. As her stomach sank, she sucked in a deep breath, rereading the letter. Checking the time, she figured it wasn’t too late to call the doctor who had been her physician for as long as she could remember and who was also a close friend of the family.

  He answered on the second ring. “Why are you calling me at nine o’clock, Lacey Martin?”

  She smiled. “It’s Lacey King now.”

  “Oh really, no invite for your favorite doctor?”

  “We eloped.”

  “How very spontaneous of you. I’m surprised I haven’t seen your father