Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
T he next morning they both turned their phones on. It wasn’t planned. They didn’t talk about it. But during breakfast the phones went on and both sat in unhappy silence as they read through way too many messages, emails and social media posts. Sarah didn’t know what Travis was reading but she was pretty sure it was similar to what she’d been blasted with.
She laid her phone down and looked up at him.
He sensed her gaze and did the same.
“So basically the Seahorns seen leaving Bombles, driving under the influence, some arrested and many found with possession. Travis.” She lowered her head in her hands. Then she jerked back up. “And half the world is speculating about how you’re involved. People haven’t seen you in a couple days and everyone either thinks you’re the ring leader and in hiding or you got hurt or you’re seriously ill.”
“Why can’t they just think I’m out of town with my secret lover?” He wiggled his eyebrows. And Sarah tried to smile. She did have a couple stomach flips over the secret lover part, but basically this whole situation was a nightmare that she would not be able to ignore. “My boss wants me to cover the story. She wants me to expose every player on your team and do a special piece about you full of speculation.” She looked away. “I know how bad that sounds.”
“It sounds terrible. She wants you to make up stuff about where you think I am? And sell it to the public. She’s worse than terrible. She is the problem. Have you ever paused to consider that the young impressionable youth would have no idea what hockey players did in their spare time if you didn’t tell them? Your newspaper is the problem.” He was obviously ticked off but his words hurt. And she tried not to respond, but words started forming anyway. “So you’re going to blame me? What about the players doing the drugs, using the women, driving under the influence? What about the team owners and coaches who don’t have deterring consequences? No? This is going to all go down as my fault.” She shook her head. “Travis, you can’t really believe that.”
He brought his dishes to the sink. “I don’t know what I believe.” He started to pace. “The team is not perfect, but they aren’t nearly as bad as all this looks. You have to know I was working on this. Without the press interfering and making everything worse, blowing it all out of proportion, I was talking to the guy who…the one who invited everyone. I had him half convinced he needed to make a better life for himself.”
“Well, that’s good. But no one is blowing anything out of proportion…yet. It sounds like they’re just saying what happened?”
“Oh? What about the speculation about where I am? What about my reputation?”
She conceded. “Well of course, that’s terribly exaggerated. Why don’t you call someone and let them know you’re out of town?”
“I’ll take care of it. But honestly, it’s none of their business. Or anyone’s business. If I want to go somewhere quiet, spend time with someone special, I don’t need everyone talking about it. It’s none of their business, can’t they see that? Can’t you?”
“Of course I see that. I’m not the bad guy here.”
“No, well sort of you are. And your boss wants you to be. You’re right in the middle of it all.”
“I don’t want to be here. I don’t love what my job requires me to do most of the time.” She leaned back in her chair. “But I do think someone needs to hold the players accountable. If their coaches won’t, then I will.” She closed her eyes. “At least I did. I don’t know what I’m going to do anymore.” She walked to Travis and put both hands on his hips, looking up into his face. “I don’t want to be at odds with you. I want to support you and the guys and your team. I want everything to be rosy and beautiful and easy. I’m still in a tough spot here. But I promise you, I’ll figure it out.”
He searched her eyes for several seconds and then nodded. “I know you want to do the right thing. I know this is tough. Every negative article you write about hockey hurts me, hurts my sport, hurts my team. I feel it. No one knows the good stuff, the top-notch guys I play with. They only hear the problems.”
She nodded. “I get that. I do. Travis, I promise I’ll figure this out. I’ll do it in a way that’s true to my personal mandate and to you.”
He looked out at the water over her head. “I have no idea how you are going to do that.”
“I don’t either, yet. But let me try? Can you do that?”
He ran a hand through his hair and then nodded. “I don’t really have a choice. But I do trust you. And I hope you can see both sides of this in a new way that helps you make your decisions.”
She nodded. “Absolutely. Travis. I never want to hurt you.”
“I’m going to believe you.” He nodded and then the corner of his mouth turned up. “And now, I think we both need a hard-core skate session!”
“Oh yeah we do. I need to skate this out. Now.”
They both ran to their rooms, pulled on all their warm clothes, long socks, hats and coats. With their gloves tucked under their arms, the ran to the end of the dock and laced up their skates, buttoned up their coats, and then pulled on their gloves.
Travis cranked up the music. Rain Came Down by The Magic Mushrooms. Which made Sarah’s smile grow. Then they dug out the shovels from the shed that sat at the edge of the water.
With both of them working, they cleared a decent sized rink in about thirty minutes. Sarah was warm enough to leave her coat on the dock and then skated out onto the smooth ice. Travis was right behind her. She tossed a puck down in front of them. But Travis shook his head. “First, let’s get you up in the air.”
She laughed. “What? Are you sure?”
“Do you think I can’t lift you?” He pretended to flex.
“Of course you can. I just thought you’d want to do some hockey drills.”
“Let’s do them both.” He started skating backwards in a circle around her, like any of the figure skaters.
She nodded. “Ok. Do you remember my old routine?”
“The one that took you to finals?”
“Yep, that one.”
“I think so.”
They started in the middle of their homemade rink, facing each other, their hands touching above their heads.
“I’ll count it down. Five, Six, Seven, Eight.”
They pushed off one another and began a wide circle, their feet weaving over and under until they came back to the center to begin their dance. Sarah relaxed into their old routine, their old ways of relieving stress. They worked out old kinks and perfected the moves just for the sake of it until they were both out of breath. But Sarah wasn’t finished, she grabbed their old sticks and hit the puck out to the middle of the ice. “And now we work on your drills. I want to see you make your shootout. Every time.”
He smirked. “Did you see that last one?”
She skated up close to him. “I see every one.”
He tugged at her sweatshirt and pulled her close, their mouths almost touching. “Thank you.” He pressed his cold lips to hers, warming her in all the other ways.
She grinned beneath his mouth. “You’re welcome.”
Her stick hit the puck between his legs and she took off skating around him to go pick it up.
They raced and played one on one and went through all this drills for another hour or more until they had both lost most of their layers and they were sweating through their clothes. Out of breath, she came to sit beside him at the end of the dock. “That was incredible.”
He nudged her with his shoulder. “It really was. I wish we could do that every day.”
“Me too. Nothing seems as hard. We got this.” She held up her hand for a fist bump.
“We totally do.”
Eventually they went back inside, showered up and had another amazing, cozy, romantic evening alone together. The airlines notified them that flights were open in the morning. The magical escape was ending. But Sarah felt inspired and empowered. And she knew what she wanted to do.
She couldn’t tell Travis because he would appreciate some of it and not welcome the rest. But it was important and she really thought she could fix things.
They woke the next morning, both a little pensive, but both also tender and hopeful. Before climbing in their shared ride to the airport, he held her close. “I will never forget this week. I’ll call you when I land.”
“Thank you for everything Travis. Call me in a couple days. How about that?”
Hurt flashed through his eyes but he nodded. “Fair. But I’ll be twitching and thinking about you and wanting to call until then.”
“Aren’t you supposed to pretend to be hard to get or something?”
“I’m way past that. I’m yours if you want me. I thought I did enough convincing…” He opened the door. “If not, I’m happy to work on that some more.” He winked and looked so enticing she had to laugh.
“More than anything, I’d like to see what kind of convincing you got for me.” She stood on her toes and pressed her lips to his. “But I have to do this. And I’m ready for some closure so I can be free for more of you.”
He nodded, a hint of worry still in his expression but there was nothing she could do about that right now.
When they stepped off the porch and into the car, she was already thinking ahead, already planning the next few days and the articles she would write.
He could sense that and was busy on his phone for the ride to the airport. They separated after security.
Sarah was full of energy and drive. Things were going to be so much better from here on out. As long as Jess was willing.
And that was the one thing she had no control over, and the one thing she was banking her whole relationship with Travis around. Crossing her fingers was not enough. Prayers, hope and good thoughts filled her as she prepared for the next couple days.
Before even Jess, Sarah had to face Tatum.