His mother lifted her chin. Her eyes brightened. “I would love that.”
Lance connected her laptop to the hospital’s Wi-Fi network. Morgan rolled the bedside table over to the bed. A few minutes later, Kevin’s face appeared on the screen.
Jenny smiled.
“We’ll leave you two to talk.” Lance kissed her on the cheek. “I love you, Mom.”
“Love you too.” She smiled at Morgan. “Take care of each other.”
“We will.” Lance followed Morgan out of the room.
That’s exactly what they did best.
Lance stood on the sidelines of the ice arena and watched Eric send a hockey puck into the goal. The buzzer rang and the small crowd cheered.
Next to him, Morgan clapped her hands around Sophie, who sat on her mother’s hip. Ava and Mia stood on the bench so they could see over the wall.
“Did we win?” Sophie kicked Morgan’s sides as if she was riding a pony.
“Yes, we won.” Morgan pointed to the score board. “The blinking number four is Lance’s team.”
“Yay!” Sophie squealed.
The team skated by Lance, pulling off their gloves and high-fiving him as they zoomed past. By the time the last member had slapped his hand, Lance was holding his ribs.
“Lance pwomised to take us on the ice after the game.” Sophie squirmed.
“Oh, honey.” Morgan hugged her daughter. “Lance isn’t quite up to that yet.”
“I can manage,” Lance said, looking mildly offended.
Morgan gave him a look. “The doctor said your ribs would take six weeks to heal. It’s been two days. You shouldn’t even be here.”
“I wasn’t missing this game.” Lance had neglected the kids on his hockey team enough.
After finally learning the truth about his dad, Lance was ready to live. Really live.
One selfish man had changed the course of his life. Lance had lost an entire future with his dad. He’d spent twenty-three years mired in the fallout. Two decades of pain, of doubt, of just being happy to get through the day.
But now that it was over, he realized that life was too precious to waste a minute of it. He had a second chance at happiness with Morgan and her girls. He was grabbing it with both hands and holding on. No more being satisfied with the bare minimum life had to offer.
He had a whole future out there, and it was bright and shiny and new.
“I’ll take her.” Eric handed his gloves and helmet over the wall to Lance and held his hands up.
“Pweeeeeese,” Sophie begged.
“All right.” Morgan carried Sophie to the opening that led onto the ice. Ava and Mia hovered close behind her. The rest of the team crowded around the girls. Eric took Sophie’s hands and let her shuffle across the ice in front of him. The only girl on Lance’s team, Jamie, offered Ava and Mia her hands.
“Not too fast,” Morgan called out.
“They’ll be fine.” Lance leaned on the wall next to her. “They’re barely moving.”
“I know.” But she would still worry. “How do you feel?”
“Very happy to be alive.” He kissed her temple. “And very happy to have you.”
“Are you sure you’ll be all right by yourself tonight?” she asked. She’d stayed at his house the night before.
“Yes,” he said. “Though I’m tempted to say no, just so you’ll spend the night with me.”
She turned. “The girls would be all right with me staying over to take care of you. They were all worried. You’re lucky Sophie isn’t here playing doctor.”
Lance laughed. Pain encircled his ribs. He put a hand on his side. “Her bedside manner needs work.”
Morgan checked her phone. “We should go soon. The girls will be hungry. Come for dinner?”
“I’d like that.”
“My girls love you.”
“I know.” He turned. “I was worried about that for a while.”
“Worried?”
“A relationship with your kids is a whole different kind of responsibility. I didn’t want to disappoint them if my taking care of my mother got in the way. Your girls deserve better.”
“You would never do that.” Morgan took his face in her hands. She kissed his cheek. “And I would never be with a man who wasn’t good for my girls, but I love that you were worried about them. You are a good man, Lance Kruger. I love you, and my kids love you. I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do about it. You’re stuck with all of us, the whole crazy, chaotic bunch.”
He pulled her mouth to his. “I was an idiot to resist.”
“Resistance is futile,” she said against his mouth.
He kissed her. “In that case, I surrender.”
And he did, heart and soul.