Page 16 of Thrown Off Balance

“I think she still has a thing for you.” Jax nudges my shoulder with his knee.

“It doesn’t matter, man. She made it clear she thinks we’re different people now.”

“What did you do?” I groan as I glance towards the stands and see Jude and Sloan sitting in the same spot they were two nights ago.

Jude waves energetically and Sloan rolls her eyes at him. I feel bad for her. If she doesn’t want to be at a hockey game, she shouldn’t be here.

“What? What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything.” Jax follows my line of sight and his eyes widen. He’s definitely telling the truth, he wasn’t behind this. “Well, jeez. I think we have a new stalker… I wasn’t expecting that.” He scratches his jaw.

“She’s going to think you had something to do with this,” I mutter.

“Well, I didn’t!” Jax scowls at me. It would kill him if Sloan got mad at him. “Are we supposed to go say hi? We’ve clearly seen him wave like a crazy person.”

“I don’t know! I’ve never exactly dealt with my ex-girlfriend’s crazy fan of a boyfriend before.” I roll my eyes.

“Wait! Sophia and Pecker are sitting next to them. We can go say hi to her and then politely nod in his direction.”

Before I can stop him, Jax takes off skating as quickly as he can. He slams into the wall right in front of Sophia and makes her scream. She pounds on the glass and I can tell she’s yelling at him from here.

I skate over at a much slower pace and grin at Sophia. Her eyes soften as they land on me and she blows me a kiss. I love my baby sister, I just wish Charlie and Wyatt were here too. They rarely come to our games since Carter was born.

No sooner is the thought in my head do I see my big sister making her way down the steps with Wyatt behind her. They wave as soon as they see us and I can’t help the massive grin taking over my face. I can’t wait until our houses are finished being built. I want to live close to both of my sisters again.

“Where’s the wee one?” Jax calls loud enough for Charlie to hear.

“Mom and Dad took her so we could come to the game!” Charlie calls back. I can’t really hear her, but after years of playing hockey, I’ve learned to read lips so I could figure out what Sophia was screaming at people.

“Are you staying after the game to see us?” I ask her. She nods her head and my smile widens even more.

The whistle is blown for us to get off the ice so we can start the game. I wave goodbye to my family and my eyes stray to Sloan. She’s already watching me and I don’t know how to feel about that.

I want to think she’s here to see me, but I know that isn’t true. She’s only here because Jude asked her to be.

Chapter 8

Sloan

“Oh my gosh! Sloan!” Charlie squeals and hurries to my side to wrap me in a hug.

We were close when I was dating Cody. We always talked about Cody and I getting married and having a big family. We’d live next door to Charlie and Wyatt’s family and have so much fun. We’d make sure the next generation of Mulberry Lane stayed close and our kids got to experience everything they did.

“How are you?” I ask, hugging her back just as hard.

Don’t get me wrong, I missed Cody when I moved. I missed him more than I ever imagined, but I missed his entire family too. I became so close to them, it was like I lost my family when I moved.

“Amazing! Basically living my dream life.”

“I heard you even have a house on Mulberry Lane.” I grin.

“Yes! I love it. Every second of the crazy, nosy, overprotective family. I wouldn’t ask for anything else.” She’s smiling so wide her face has to hurt. I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as she is right now. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you the last time I was truly happy.

“Hey, Sloan. It’s so good to see you again.” Wyatt wraps me in a hug and I swear it’s like hugging your big brother.

Whenever we had a problem with anything, Cody would text Charlie or Wyatt and ask for advice. Sometimes he would call Wyatt after he went to college, just to talk about his day with him. Cody looked up to him so much. It was adorable.

“It’s good to see you too. I can’t believe you two finally figured things out.”

“Yeah, sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get where you’re meant to be.” Wyatt smiles shyly. “Charlie and I were destined to be together. There’s no way we would’ve been happy with anyone else.”