26. Christopher
“Are we going to take my car or yours?” I ask Dakota when I step into my garage and look at my pickup truck and my car.
“We can take mine,” she says. “Are you sure about this?” The nervousness in her voice is apparent.
“I’m more than sure about this.” I walk over to the pickup truck and start it. “It’s family skate day, and I want you and the girls there with me.” Today is the family skate day, and we’ve decided she’s going to come with me as my plus-one. Not as Koda and the kids, but as Christopher’s. She’s been nervous for the past couple of days since we decided to actually do it. Sort of let people know we are together but not flaunt it in their faces.
“I know,” she starts softly, “it’s just that?—”
“Baby,” I reply softly, “it’s going to be fine.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that.” She laughs.
“You going to be by my side?” I ask.
“Absolutely.”
“You going to let me stay after the kids go to bed so we can make out on your couch?”
“Ummm, duh.” Her answer makes me laugh.
“Then we will be fine.” I hear her inhale. “Baby, it’s going to be fine. It’s you and me.”
“Yeah,” she says, not sounding convincing.
“I’ll be there soon.” I disconnect before I tell her I love her on the fucking phone. It’s been over a week since she’s moved into her place. Over a week since I’ve fucked her on her bedroom floor. On her couch. In the bathroom downstairs, in her mudroom before I left for the night. Basically, we’ve had sex everywhere but an actual bed. I’ve also been at her house for dinner every night if I’m not at work.
I pull up to her house, parking beside her SUV and making my way over to the front door. She opens it right away, and I can’t help but plaster a smile on my face. It’s infectious when I’m around her. “Hey, baby.” I look at her from top to bottom and see she’s wearing a pair of tights that look like they are leather with a white shirt with a team hoodie on.
I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her to me. “I missed you.” I kiss her lips softly and then hear the sound of the girls coming toward us. I loosen my arm around her waist but still keep her to me when the girls come in. We’ve started to show a little bit more affection in front of them. I always kiss her on the cheek when I arrive and they are there, and I hug her more so it’s not going to be a shocker when we announce that we are together. When that will be, I have no idea. I’m not pushing it onto them. If they figure it out before we tell them, that would be great.
“I have something to tell you,” Koda says quickly but doesn’t get a chance to finish talking before the girls come into the room.
“Hey, you two,” I say to them, seeing them wearing almost the same tights as Koda, but they are wearing their jerseys.
“Uncle Chrissy,” Luna chirps, jumping at me, making me drop away from her mom and catch her. “I’m wearing your jersey,” she announces to me, trying to pull the back to the front.
“What?” I ask, then look over at Rain, then to Koda.
“The girls wanted to wear your jersey for the family skate,” Koda explains quickly as I stand here tongue-tied, not really sure what to say.
“Look at mine,” Rain says, turning around, “it says Stone.”
“I see that.” My throat closes from the lump that is growing bigger and bigger. “Um.” I kiss Luna on the cheek, putting her down and then squatting in front of them. “That’s a really big honor,” I say, clearing my throat, “it’s very special.” I look up at Koda, who just smiles at me. “Are we ready to go?”
“I’m ready,” they both say, turning to grab their jackets.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Koda asks from beside me, slipping her hand into mine.
“No.” I shake my head and look down before my voice cracks. “That was—” I try to clear the frog in my throat. “It’s?—”
“Yeah, it is.” She puts one of her hands on my chest. “It’s all of that.”
“I’m going to go load the kids,” I tell her, leaning forward and kissing her cheek, but also the corner of her lips.
“I’ll be right out,” she says, turning to grab her leather jacket.
“You look good,” I tell her, winking at her and then smirking. “I see the tights will be a challenge.”
Her cheeks turn a bright pink. “I’ve never known you to back down from a challenge.”
I put my head back and bark out laughing. “Challenge accepted.” I wink at her again before I walk out with the girls toward her SUV. Opening the back door for them, I wait for Koda to come. I walk around the truck with her opening the passenger door for her to get in.
I get behind the wheel, something I’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks when we’ve gone out or to hockey practice or to pick up the girls. I drive them.
I make my way over to the arena with the girls chatting about their day and what they did. I pull into my spot, turning the car off and getting out. I open the back door on my side and Koda opens the back door at her side. The girls walk over to the trunk, waiting for me to hand them their backpacks with the skates we packed and their helmets and gloves.
I close the trunk and see the girls waiting for me and look over at Koda. “You ready?” I ask, and she takes a deep breath as she slips her hand in mine.
Our fingers link together. “Now, I’m ready,” she says, rubbing her thumb over my thumb. “Shall we?”
“I want to hold Christopher’s hand,” Rain states, walking to my side while Luna looks at her mom and runs over to hold her hand.
“Here we go.” I look at her as we walk toward the silver door. I release Rain’s hand for a second so I can open the door, but then she grabs it again as we walk in.
We walk down the hall, the four of us attached in one way or another. When we get to the locker room, the girls release our hands to run in and chat with a couple of the kids. “Hey, guys,” I say to the room, Koda’s hand squeezing mine tightly for a second. The room goes almost silent and you can literally hear a pin drop. I’m ready to throat punch anyone who says anything mean toward Koda.
I see a couple of the guys look over at us with a smile and then look down at our hands connected, their mouths opening and their eyes looking like they are about to bulge out of their sockets. “Hey,” a couple of the rookies respond, trying not to be too awkward.
“Uncle Chrissy!” Luna yells my name as she sits on the bench where I sit, taking her skates out of the bag.
I give Koda a squeeze of the hand before I let her go and walk over to the girls. Rain has her skates already on, waiting for me to tie them. I feel Koda behind me as she waits for the girls to get laced up. The chatter in the room is now back to normal as Rain stands up first and then Luna. “We are going to head out to the ice,” Koda says, “see you out there.”
I nod at her as she walks out with the girls, her head high, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. It took a lot to come back to this arena, and she did it time and time again. But then it took even more courage to come back while holding my hand. She did it, and she fucking killed it.
“Holy shit,” Cole says from beside me, “you and Koda.”
“Yeah, me and Koda.” I sit down, kicking off my sneakers and grabbing one skate, waiting for whatever will come. Knowing it’ll for sure be a shock for all of them, but knowing that I’m not going to sit here and take shit and criticism from them. I’ll go down fighting for her today and every single day after.
“It’s cool.” I look up to see Andreas sitting at his spot, not even bothering to get ready. “It’s beautiful.”
I laugh at the way he says it, and I’m not the only one. “When did this happen?” Cole asks from beside me.
“Not too long ago.” I don’t give him any details because even if we said we would come out, we really didn’t discuss what we would say.
He shakes his head as I lean forward to tie my skate. “You and Koda?” He laughs as he says it.
“Me and Koda,” I repeat, looking over at him, the smile now filling his face.
“Happy for you.” I sit up, my eyebrows pinching together.
“Well, you weren’t going to go there unless you were a hundred percent sure of it.” He gets up on his skates. “So I’m happy you found her.” He looks around. “And I’m sure as fuck happy she found you.”
“Thanks,” I mumble, trying not to freak out at his words. I put my other skate on, standing up and heading out of the room. My head spins from his words.
I see Koda by the benches talking with Brittany as she looks over at me. “Hey.” She smiles at me.
“Your girl is out there skating around all of the boys,” Brittany observes, and I smirk, looking over and finding Rain right away. She’s skating around a couple of the older guys, and she smirks at them.
“Those extra lessons are paying off,” Koda declares, folding her arms over her chest. “Totally worth the extra five hours a week we are in the arena.”
“I told you,” I say, knowing she’s sarcastic, winking at her. Brittany’s eyeballs almost pop out of her sockets. “Next year, you’ll be on skates.” I point at her, and she just shakes her head.
“You wish.” I skate backward away from her.
“I love a challenge.” I smirk at her as she rolls her eyes at me, making me laugh. I skate over to Rain, who is skating like a boss, going to Luna who is getting better and better as the weeks progress. Not as good as Rain, but better.
I see one of the boys telling Rain that she’s not that good of a skater, and she looks at him and says, “I’ll race you.”
I want to butt in and tell the kid he’s being a dick, but I just stand here now watching it play out. The kid is a good head taller than she is. One of the rookies, Reed, skates over to them, and he asks them what’s going on.
Cole skates beside me. “What’s going on?”
“Kid says he can skate faster than Rain,” I explain as Reed tells them the rules. I watch him point from one blue line to the other.
They line up behind the blue line, and I stand here with my arms over my chest watching, waiting to see if maybe perhaps I have to go in and trip this kid by “accident.”
I see Rain smirk over at him as he says something, and she just shrugs. “Okay, one, two, three. Go,” Reed announces, and the two of them take off. The kid makes the mistake of looking over at Rain, who ignores him and just focuses on getting to the line before him. She takes him with a couple of seconds to spare, her hands going up in the air.
“Yes,” I hiss, holding my hand in a fist and skating over to her. I hold up my hand for her to give me a high five.
“That’s my girl,” I praise her and then sneer at the kid. “Punk,” I mumble under my breath. “Go get something to drink.” I motion with my head toward the bench.
The photographer is on the ice taking pictures, so I skate over to the bench and hold out my hand for Koda, who just stares at it. “I want to get a picture,” I tell her, and she comes over, putting her hand in mine as she walks onto the ice. Her hand is in mine as we gather the girls, who stand in front of us. I pull her to my side, wrapping my arm around her waist, her front is stuck to my side so I can put one hand on Luna’s shoulder, who stands in front of Koda, and put an arm on Rain’s shoulder. I literally have them all in my arms, and I couldn’t be happier.
“You okay?” Koda whispers.
“Yeah, baby,” I confirm. This is it, I think to myself. This is what I’ve been looking for. This is what all of my cousins have, and it’s here right now in my hands. The only thing I can think of is how do I make them know that for the rest of my life, I’m going to do whatever I can do in my power to make them happy. “I’m more than okay.”