And then his gaze falls to the stroller in front of me, to my hand that’s firmly wrapped around the handle.
His eyes heat up a little, darken with something dangerous, but I wouldn’t know why. Even if that baby in the stroller was my kid, Grey Davis has no right to be mad about it. He was the one to ghost me after all. And if he used his brain for a second, he would realize that it should be impossible to suddenly have a newborn in just three months.
I don’t owe him any explanations, but when he finally shakes off his shock and allows his niece, I guess, to pull him right into the store and he passes me, my head just snaps.
“Grey,” I say and even though I can tell he doesn’t want to stop, the little girl does.
She looks up at Grey, then at me before she scrunches up her entire face with a smile. “Uncle Grey, look!” The little girl points at me. “Someone wants to talk to you.”
Grey visibly exhales then turns to me. Before he even gets to utter a single word, the blonde kid cuts him off. “But no rude-talk, okay, Uncle Grey? Daddy says you have to be nice.”
I almost want to laugh.
Deciding to listen to his best friend’s daughter, he says, “It’s great to see you again.”
Is it? I mean, I am awesome and meeting me is always a pleasure, but I’m not sure he would agree right now. “That’s not my kid,” I blurt out without greeting him first. “He’s the son of one of my co-coaches, I just offered to take him for a walk because he was getting restless.”
Grey nods, his face stays unchanged, still almost robotic. “Cool.”
The girl, I think her name is Brooke, but I’m not sure, kicks her tiny feet against Grey’s. “Be nice, Uncle Grey. We practiced.”
Grey looks down to her, a hint of a smile now tugging on his lips. “Did we?”
She nods. “Yesterday, remember? When we practice a smile?” She lets go of Grey’s hand, then brings both of her index fingers to either side of her mouth, slightly pushing up the corners. “See, like this!”
Grey shakes his head, and the sound leaving him almost takes my breath away. He actuallychuckles. Then he picks her up from the floor, holding her in his arms. “Are you going to tell your daddy that I was being rude, Brooke?”
See, Brooke. I knew it.
Brooke nods proudly. “Unless you be nice now, okay? Daddy always say you need more friends, Uncle Grey.”
“I have plenty.”
I doubt that. Sure, he has his teammates, but are those really considered friends? It’s more of a forced friendliness they have to keep up, isn’t it?
“Like who? And not say Daddy, or Uncle Ron, or Uncle Colin. Or Memory, and Lily, or Sofia. They don’t count, Uncle Grey.”
That’s surprisingly a lot more people than I thought he’d genuinely accept in his life.
“I have you and Eden,” Grey answers, then tickles Brooke’s belly to make her giggle. “That’s plenty of friends.”
Brooke narrows her eyes at Grey, then seemingly shrugs off the entire conversation like it never mattered and turns to look at me. “Uncle Grey said we go ice skating later, do you want to come?”
“Ice skating? The rinks are closed, aren’t they?”
Brooke shakes her head. “We always go to the arena when it’s the summer too in New York. My uncles and Sofia and Lily and Daddy and me, we always skate when they don’t play the ice hockey anymore. But Memory never skates with us because she has to watch my brother because he’s very little so he can’t skate yet. So the ice hockey arena is open, right, Uncle Grey?”
“An acquaintance on the LA Kings team pulled some strings so we could skate in their arena for a little while. If you want to come…” Grey doesn’t voice the invitation all the way, but I’m a little moved anyway.
As much as I want to say yes, despite knowing I shouldn’t, there’s one problem. “I can’t skate,” I say, feeling weird having to admit I amnotgood at something. “I’ve never skated in my entire life. I am a beach guy with a love for summer temperatures, not a… cold-freak.” I have never even seen snow before, not in real life.
“That’s no problem. Uncle Grey can teach you.” That kid is going to grow up being the wingman for everyone she knows, I’m calling it.
“Do you know how to inline skate?” Grey asks, to which I sort of nod.
“It’s been a while.” Like alongwhile. I think the last time I inline skated was when I was twelve or ten. Maybe eight, who even knows. Definitely sometime before my teenage years started.
“It’s like riding a bike. Once you know how to do it, you don’t unlearn it. You might be a little wobbly on your feet at first, but you’ll get used to it. Ice skating is sort of like inline skating, it’s why a whole lot of figure skaters inline skate and practice stunts evenoutsideof the rink.”