Chapter 31 – Ramona
Chapter Thirty-One
Ramona
“ W hat the hell is taking them so long?” Alise grumbles, pacing back and forth in front of the door leading to the locker rooms. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t just let us go back there to see them.”
“Because we don’t have the nifty get-into-the-locker-room badge like after the exhibition game,” Darius says, pulling a chair from the little grouping of tables to my right, and taking a seat. “I just want to see how many players I can get to sign my gear tonight.”
“Hate to break it to you, but I doubt anyone besides Beau and Cooper will be coming out this way. Most players head out the back entrance to hide from the media. Not that there is anyone here today.” Alise ruffles his curls before resuming her pacing.
Both of us have been amped since the fight that broke out on the ice near the end of practice. Everything was going well. We made sure not to disturb practice, although I blew a few kisses to Cooper when no one was looking. But once the guys started their scrimmage, it seemed like things went off the rails. After that guy scored, he must have said something to Beau because he just lost it. Whoever he was didn’t even stand a chance. He got off maybe one swing before Beau was on him again. I don’t even want to imagine what he’d have done if Cooper and the rest of the team hadn’t pulled them apart. After that, Beau, Cooper, and the injured player skated off the ice and never came back.
“He better hurry the fuck up, or badge or not, I’m going back there,” Alise growls, storming toward the door, ready to give the security guard what for when Beau appears.
“Stop giving the poor man a hard time. He’s just doing his job. Besides, here comes Beau now.”
“Thank fuck.” She throws her hands up in the air before spinning on her heels and storming toward Darius.
“I thought you wanted to see him,” Darius asks as she quickly shushes him, pulling out her phone and pretending like she isn’t paying attention to everything going on around her.
Beau waves goodbye to the security guard before pushing through the doors. His head is down with the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his head. “Hey, Ramona,” he says, coming to a stop right in front of me.
“Hey, Beau.” I smile up at him, tilting my head back to look into his eyes. I scan his face, searching for any sign that the guy may have gotten a few licks in, but find nothing. “Is practice normally this interesting?”
Beau chuckles humorously, pushing his hood down. His dirty blonde curls are pointing in a million different directions. “Yeah, not so much.” He runs his hands through his hair, his eyes flicking to Alise sitting at the table with Darius before coming back to mine. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I usually can keep my cool better than that, but someone needed to teach him a lesson he wouldn’t forget.”
“I have no doubt he deserved whatever happened to him. You don’t look like the type of man that would throw a punch for no good reason.”
“Maybe you could explain that to my dear older brother.”
“Hmm, guess Cooper didn’t see it the same way?”
“You could say that,” he says, his eyes flicking toward Alise a second time.
“In case you were wondering, she was just as worried about you as I was. She’s been pacing back and forth, threatening to beat the security guard's head in if you didn’t appear soon.”
Beau doesn’t say anything for a few moments, his eyes remaining locked on Alise as she continues pretending he doesn’t exist. Suddenly, he grabs his hood and pulls it back onto his head. “Can you tell Cooper I went to get a drink with Cole? I’ll meet you guys at the restaurant.”
“Cole is your younger brother, right? Why isn’t he coming to dinner with us? I'd love to meet him.”
I’m probably pushing my luck, but I can’t help wanting to know more about Cole Hendrix and why he and Cooper have been at odds for so many years. I’m too afraid to ask Cooper, not wanting to bring up bad memories he isn’t ready to share with me. But maybe Beau will at least give me a hint about what happened.
“You’ll have to ask Cooper about that, but he’s only in town for a few more hours. He wouldn’t be able to make our reservation anyway. We’re actually meeting at a place near the airport before he heads back to Boise.”
He moves to walk past me, but I reach out to grab his arm. “Wait a second.” I turn and motion for Darius to come over. He quickly grabs the bag off the table and comes running toward us, stopping just short of running smack into Beau’s chest.
“Slow down there, Big D. I don’t want to be blamed for you being hurt and not being able to play in the game on Saturday.”
“Sorry, Uncle Beau.” He smiles up at him before wrapping his arms tightly around his waist. “Happy birthday.”
My hands immediately come to my mouth to hold in my gasp. My eyes shift between the two of them, waiting to see how Beau is going to react to his new name. Darius never mentioned anything about wanting to call him Uncle Beau, but it seems the next logical step. Everyone in the Hendrix family is uncle or auntie, although Ms. Melanie has been trying to get him to call her grandma since he got hurt back in October, but he’s yet to budge. I have a feeling she’s wearing him down; he’ll be calling her that soon.
Beau freezes for a moment before he wraps his arm around Darius's shoulders. “Thanks, Big D. I really appreciate it, although my birthday isn’t until Saturday.”
“I can’t come to the game on Saturday, so I wanted to make sure I said it today. Mona said I could text you and say it, but that doesn’t seem fair. I love hearing people tell me happy birthday. That’s way better than reading it in a text message.”
“You have a point there.” Beau chuckles, ruffling Darius’s curls.
Darius unwraps his arms from around Beau before shoving the small gift bag toward him. We racked our brains for weeks, trying to come up with an idea for a birthday present for Beau and a Christmas present for Cooper. We spent the holiday with our respective families, so I had a few extra days to work with Darius and find the perfect present. Cooper whined, yes whined, the entire time about wanting to wake up with me on Christmas morning, but I didn’t give in. We had already planned to spend a few days in Portland to celebrate Beau’s birthday and come check out the practice. The much-needed alone time with Cooper is a bonus.
“Ramona and I spent almost two weeks trying to pick this gift out. I don’t know if you have one yet, but the magazine said every respectable cigar owner had one.”
How the hell do you buy gifts for guys who can literally have anything they want whenever they want it? We even resorted to asking Ms. Melanie for ideas about what we should get them, but she wasn’t exactly a lot of help. After a while and a lot of googling, we had practically given up, but then it was Alise to the rescue with the perfect present idea for Beau. We came up with gifts that we thought suited both of them; however, Cooper will get a very special gift just from me later tonight.
“How did you even know I smoked cigars?” Beau reaches into the bag and pulls out a humidor to store his cigars.
After Alise gave us the perfect suggestion, we did a lot of research and discovered that Spanish Cedar is the best material to have because it removes moisture and maintains humidity very well. We wanted to get something a little more personalized, so we had the glass top engraved with his jersey number, 30, and the Timberwolves logo above it.
“Alise—” Darius begins, but I immediately cut him off.
She gave us very specific instructions not to let him know where we got the idea for the gift and what to tell him if he asked. Stupid, I know, but if my bestie asks for it and it isn’t illegal, it shall be done. Honestly, I’ll probably still do it whether it’s illegal or not, but don’t tell her that.
“Google. You said something in an article last year about enjoying a good Cuban cigar, so we ran with it. Hopefully, you really smoke cigars or this gift is pointless.” Darius narrows his eyes at me before shaking his head. He probably thinks this lie is as stupid as I do, but this is what we're going with.
Beau’s eyes flick up toward Alise before bouncing back to Darius. “Thanks so much, you guys. I’ve been in the market for one of these for a while now. And it’s even personalized. Thank you so much.”
Beau steps away from Darius, holding his arms out toward me for a hug. I quickly step into his embrace, wrapping my arms around his waist. He leans forward and whispers in my ear, “It was her idea, wasn’t it?”
I don’t respond, just nod my head slightly and tighten my arms around his waist. “You two really need to have a conversation with each other. I have a feeling you both have things you need to get off your chest.”
“It’s not that simple, Ramona. I’m sure you're aware of that.” He pulls away slightly, planting a kiss on the top of my head before turning back to Darius. “Coop is going to be so jealous.”
“Nah, we got him one, too.” Darius smiles, running his hands through his hair. “I wanted to get one for your other brothers, but Auntie Mel said Kyle isn’t allowed to have one, and we didn’t know if Cole smoked cigars or not.”
“It's the thought that counts.” Beau slides the humidor back into the bag before fitting it into his bag. “Cole doesn’t smoke, just the occasional drink, but that’s it. He’s a lot like Cooper in that respect. All about your body being a finely tuned machine you need to take care of in order to always play your best.”
“That sure sounds like something Cooper would say.” I giggle, my eyes flicking toward the players’ exit, hoping that he’d appear.
“He’s more than likely checking on the guy I decked and trying to smooth things over for me with Coach.”
I open my mouth to ask why he wasn’t doing it, but I snap it shut quickly. I have a feeling that even if Beau tried to speak to them himself, Cooper would’ve followed right behind him. Some people would believe that’s him wanting to control his brother’s life, but to me, it seems like a need to fix everything for the people he cares about. However, by the look on Beau’s face, I don’t think he feels the same way.
“Your brother loves you very much, Beau. He just wants to make things easier for you.”
“I love my brother, too, but sometimes he needs to remember that I’m his brother, not just his teammate he needs to manage.” Beau smiles down at me before giving my shoulder a light squeeze. “I’ll see you guys at dinner.”
Beau strides past me and out the door, not even bothering to say one word to Alise. Now that gets her attention. She jumps to her feet and shouts after him, “Who the fuck pissed in your Wheaties?” She immediately spins around to me, looking for an answer, but I don’t have any for her.
“You kept all your attention focused on your phone the entire time he was standing here. How else did you expect him to react?”
“He could have at least said hello. Fuck off. Something.” She throws her hands up in the air before flopping back into the chair.
“And so could you,” I counter, hoping to drive my point home.
Anyone who spends over three seconds with these two can tell they have feelings for each other. I understand their reservations, but this is ridiculous. Not to mention they’re practically perfect for each other.
“When are you two going to act your age?” Darius sighs, strolling toward Alise and sitting in the empty seat. “Even I can tell you both have the hots for each other. This crap of ignoring each other does nothing but piss the other person off. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience.”
“Out of the mouths of babes.” I spin around at the sound of Cooper’s voice coming up behind me.
I can’t even say hello before he lifts me into the air and crashes our lips together. He nibbles at my bottom lip, and I open my mouth for him. The all-consuming need to get closer to him, wanting to crawl beneath his skin, shoots through me. How the hell is it like this every time we’re near each other? I expected it to lessen or something the more time we spent together, but if anything, it’s become even more intense the longer we are away from each other. It’s only been a few days. I can’t even imagine how painful it’s going to be when I’m away from him for weeks at a time once the playoffs start.
Cooper pulls away from me, gasping for air as he rests his forehead against mine. His eyes are clenched shut as if he’s in pain, but that’s not right. Kissing me should feel right, like your soul has been reunited with its other half. That’s how I feel every time we kiss. Is it different for him?
“Everything okay?” I cup his cheek in my palm, and he nuzzles into it, planting a kiss on the inside of my wrist.
“It is now.” Cooper’s hands slide down my back, cupping my ass in his hands as he lifts me into the air. My legs instinctively wrap around his waist as he heads toward the exit. “Let’s get the hell out of here. I need to stop at my place and grab something before we head to dinner.”
Darius and Alise fall into step beside us as if Cooper carrying me out of the arena is an everyday occurrence. It isn’t, per se, but the man loves carrying me around whenever he can. “Uncle Beau said he’d meet us there. He’s meeting Cole for a drink before he leaves.”
If my body wasn’t wrapped around Cooper like a glove, I would’ve missed the slight flinch of his muscles at the mention of his younger brother, Cole.
“Thanks for the heads-up, Big D. I’ll call Momma from the truck and let her know we’re all running a few minutes late.”
“No need. We dropped Auntie Mel off at your place before we came to practice. She said something about needing to refill your fridge.” Alise giggles as I narrow my eyes at him, reminded of how furious I was when Ms. Melanie said that.
“That reminds me, for someone who’s determined to keep their body in tiptop form, how can you not cook for yourself?”
“Why would he do that? If Auntie Mel would fill my fridge for me whenever I needed food, I’d take it. That’s a good deal, and her cooking is amazing,” Darius quips.
“And what am I? Chopped liver?” I squeal, wiggling in Cooper’s arms, trying to get free.
“Your cooking is amazing. Way better than Auntie Mel’s,” Darius retorts quickly, realizing his misstep.
“Good save, kid.” Alise giggles, pulling open the door to Cooper’s truck.
Cooper places me gently on the seat, and I unwrap myself from around him. “Don’t you lock your door?”
“There is a small black button on the door that will unlock it when the key is within a certain distance.” He places a kiss on the tip of my nose before buckling me in.
“But I also have a spare key to his truck.” Alise rolls her eyes before opening the small jump door and sliding in. Darius climbs in right behind her, and Cooper closes the door tightly.
My eyes track Cooper as he makes his way around the front of his truck. “Something is going on with Beau and Alise. I just know it.”
“I agree, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. We’re just along for the ride,” Cooper responds, pulling out his phone.