She lowered her voice to a murmur. “You know we had a chat with him the other day.”
I had asked Jason to intercede, so that was good, I supposed. “Let me guess, he was a complete clam about it.”
“Well, actually …” But whatever she was about to say was interrupted by a couple of new arrivals. Rosie was the daughter of former Rebels D-man Cade Burnett and ex-general manager Dante Moretti, as well as stepsister to Franky. Her bestie was Adeline Kershaw, daughter of Theo and sister of my client, Hatch. I’d known these girls all my life—I used to babysit for Rosie—and it was lovely to see them grown into such amazing young women.
“What’s up, bitches?” Rosie spied Cammi and winced. “Sorry, sis.”
“It’s okay,” Franky said. “Your niece has plenty of time to pick up your foul-mouthed habits.”
Rosie leaned over. “Oh, she’s going to adore me. Her favorite quirky aunt.” Something like sadness crossed her brow, but it vanished so quickly that I wondered if I’d imagined it.
Addy held up a shopping bag. “I have some clothes that Mabel’s outgrown.” Adeline was dating Rebels captain, Lars Nyquist, who was father to two-year-old Mabel.
“Thanks, favorite niece.” Jason took the bag from her and moved toward his daughter. “I can take her?—”
A chorus of “no’s” shut down that nonsense.
“Okay, okay. But you’ll have to surrender her eventually because I don’t want my daughter to hear all that saucy talk. She’s a little sponge right now.” He headed off into the kitchen.
A moment later, I followed and found him mixing a jug of margaritas.
“Jason Isner, look at you, domesticated god.”
He grinned. “Uh, domestic, not domesticated. I’m just glad Francesca’s getting some time for herself. In case you hadn’t heard, she’s kind of a bookworm.”
“Which you love.”
He smiled. “I do. But I also want her to be fulfilled. Momhood, professionally, emotionally. So I’ll support her however I can, and if that means making excellent margaritas to fuel your filthy book talk, I’ll do it. This is a non-alcoholic version, by the way.”
Boo, but probably for the best given my Vegas drama.
I checked over my shoulder to ensure we were alone. “So, she mentioned that Alexei came over and you guys talked about the situation.”
“We did.”
I gestured with my hands. “And?”
“Franky told him he needed to stop treating you like a puppet and accept that you want out.”
“And what did he say to that?”
“That he cared about you and he wanted to see if all that had happened between you years ago still meant something.” He raised an eyebrow. “So what happened? He said he hurt you.”
He cared about me? “Kid stuff.”
“Lauren, why did I not know that you and Alexei had some sort of relationship in college?”
“Because it was nothing. Or I wanted it to be something, but he basically told me nothing more serious could ever happen between us. And then he headed to Miami and I barely spoke to him for fourteen years until Vegas.”
Jason inhaled. “I had no idea. If I’d known?—”
“What would you have done? Been mean to him on the ice? Look, he was still grieving his mother, so I should cut him some slack. I know what that’s like. I didn’t appreciate the way he went about it, but it’s water under the bridge.”
“And now?”
“And now, I’m in a stable relationship with a normal, boring man.”
His eyes turned shrewd. “You think your boyfriend is boring?”