Page 142 of Face Off With Fate

I exhaled something that was almost a laugh.

“You’re the best.”

“I know.”

Monroe’s neighborhood was quiet. Old trees cast shadows across the pavement, the houses set back from the sidewalk. Itzel pulled up to the curb and put the car in park.

I sat there for a second, hand hovering over the handle.

“You good?” she asked.

“No,” I said honestly. “But I’m going anyway.”

I got out before I could think too hard about it.

The walk up to the front door was approximately one thousand miles long. My heart was beating loudly in my chest, and my palms were damp.

I raised my hand and knocked, fighting back the need to hurl in his planter.

The door flung open.

But it wasn’t Josh.

A woman in her early sixties with warm blue eyes and brunette hair laced with silver stood there, a soft smile on her face.

“You must be Graciella. I’m Josh’s mom, Cindy. I was waiting for you to show up.” She held the door open wider, signaling for me to come in. “Now, why don’t you tell me what’s got you two love birds actin’ like fools so we can fix it.”

“I…how did you know?” I asked, stepping past her, my body seemingly on autopilot.

“I know I look twenty-five, but I’m actually nearly sixty.” She drew a laugh from me. “And you don’t live to my age without experiencing heartache. I’ve always found it helps to get it off your chest.”

She pulled out a barstool and sat, waiting for me to follow.

I didn’t know what it was. The steadiness of her blue eyes, same as her son’s. The way she wasn’t pushing, just waiting, like she knew I’d get there. But whatever it was, the floodgates opened, and everything spilled out.

“He’s going to be pissed when he figures out what I’ve done. But I…I didn’t have any other choice. It was leak a story that I’d pursued him…” A pain-filled sob slipped past my lips. I pressed my fingers to my mouth.

“Or what?” she asked, clasping her hand over where mine lay folded on the marble. “Why didn’t you have a choice, sweetheart?”

“She was running a story regardless, and he…he’s already lost a career once, and no one in the NHL stood up for him.” I shook my head. “He’s not anything like what they painted him as, what he lets them see.” I looked at her. “He didn’t deserve to look like the bad guy again when he’s never been one to begin with.”

She smiled, patting my hand. “That doesn’t sound like anything to be heartbroken about…”

My eyes stung again. “I didn’t tell him I was doing it.”

“Ah.” She nodded, eyes revealing her understanding. “Have you asked yourself why you didn’t tell him? Why you didn’t go to him and solve this together?”

I nodded my head.

“I thought if I handled it, he wouldn’t have to. Wouldn’t have to choose between protecting me and protecting himself. Because what if he didn’t choose m—” My voice cracked, and I pressed my lips together, waiting a beat to try again.

Cindy was quiet for a moment.

“What if he didn’t choose you?” she asked gently. “But isn’t that his decision to make? Don’t you want to know if he would, instead of living life always wondering?”

I opened my mouth and closed it, letting the question sit heavily between us.

I took his decision from him.