Chapter 20 – Victoria
twenty
Victoria
“I can’t believe we did this,” I say, snapping pictures of the new playground that has been transformed from one that looked abandoned and haunted to one with a huge splash pad, a massive jungle gym, a newly paved basketball court, and now—according to Shauna—will also have room for an outdoor hockey rink.
“Your social media skills sure did help,” Lexi praises. “Who would have thought to reach out to vendors and ask them to donate in return for free promotion on our page.”
“Well, it did help that we had the LA Warriors coming to help us.” I look over at them and smirk. “I may have name-dropped a bit.” I see them look at me. “What? If I can’t use my brother’s name to get me things that aren’t even for me but for the community, what’s the point?”
“I agree,” Kylie says, with her hands on her hips. “If it makes you feel better, I would totally pimp out Knox.”
“Okay, as much as I want to sit here and pat myself on the back,” Lexi adds, “I need a shower and, apparently, the guys have set up a celebration dinner for us.”
“Fun.” I hold up my phone. “Okay, girls, selfie time,” I announce, making sure the three of us are all in it and the playground is in the background before I take the picture. “That will be going into our social media as well as the newsletter I’m going to be sending out on Monday,” I tell them.
I get into my car and head home, taking a nice long shower.
My body feels like I just did the biggest boot camp of my life, along with a triathlon.
I take my time blow-drying my hair and applying my makeup, telling myself it’s just for me, but secretly knowing it’s just in case Zane’s there.
Seeing him today dressed down and working side by side with his team had me fanning myself a couple of times, and it had nothing to do with the heat.
I grab the white tank bodysuit, putting it on before slipping on a pair of tight blue jeans. I turn around, making sure it looks good from the back before I grab the dressy white jacket with shoulder pads. Pushing the sleeves up to my elbows, I then slip my feet into my nude sky-high stilettos.
I’m parking my SUV when I see the parking lot full and wonder how many people are actually here. I grab my purse and walk into the restaurant, and I’m shocked when I see the whole fucking hockey team here, along with all our volunteers from today.
The whole restaurant is filled and I look over at Lexi, who comes over to me. “Surprise!” she exclaims to me, and I just shake my head. This is a lot more than who I thought would be here. I thought it was going to be just us.
“It wasn’t even my idea,” she admits to me. “I was just as shocked as you were.”
“So much for a quiet night out,” I mumble as Kirby and Kylie come up to me.
I kiss Kirby on the cheek as we crowd the front door and then look over to the side.
I see more of the team, but also see Shauna and Seth are at the side talking, when he notices me.
“Hey.” He comes over. “How great is this?” he says, looking around at the packed bar.
“The team came out to celebrate with us.” Kylie and Kirby walk to the side to talk to Shauna and her husband.
“Oh, wow,” I say, looking around. “I thought it would just be a couple of the guys,” I tell him, but I’m looking for one person in particular—the one person who I shouldn’t care whether he’s here or not.
I feel him before I see him when the door opens behind me and he steps in.
His frame fills the doorway, and when I look over my shoulder, I find his eyes directly on me.
He’s wearing black pants with a black shirt.
The army-green color jacket is pushed up at the sleeves, a silver watch on one wrist, while the other has a black beaded bracelet.
“Hey.” His gruff voice sends shivers down my spine.
His hair is perfect and my hands itch to run my fingers through it.
“Hi,” I say, looking down and trying to not make it more uncomfortable than it feels. I’m about to say something else, but it would seem my mouth has forgotten how to do anything but drool when his scent finally makes it to me.
“This is fantastic,” Seth states from beside me. “Thank you guys so much for all your help today.”
Zane nods at him. “It was a pleasure.” He looks at me one more time. “But all praise has to be given to Victoria. She’s the one who got in touch with Jill to get the team set up.”
“Someone gave me the idea,” I remind him, and he grins and looks down. My hands are gripping my purse tighter than needs to be.
Jaxon and Ariella come our way. “She’s here,” Ariella announces, coming to me and kissing my cheek. “Surprise!” she says. “I know you weren’t expecting anyone but us and a couple of friends but—”
“Zane,” Jaxon cuts in, “thought it would be nice to celebrate.” My head whips to Zane.
His eyes are on me as he puts his hands in his pockets. “It was the least we could do.” He looks around. “Now if you guys will excuse me, I’m going to go and show my face so they don’t think I forced them to come here and then bailed on them.”
He walks past me but not before his hand touches the bottom of my back as he passes by.
I watch him walk away from me. “Ariella, have you met Seth?” I hear Jaxon speaking, and even though he’s in front of me, it sounds like he’s far away.
The only sound present in my ears right now is the beating of my fucking heart.
I see him walk up to a couple of the guys and shake their hands. “Are you hungry?” Seth asks me and I nod my head.
“Starving.” I smile at him, and he motions with his head to the side, where there are tables. “You guys joining us?” I ask Ariella and share a look with her that says she’s joining us.
“Oh yeah,” she answers, getting the look, “I’m starving.”
“We just ate,” Jaxon reminds her, and she looks over at him with a tight smile.
“And I want a snack,” she snaps between clenched teeth. “Now, let’s join your sister.”
We sit at a table and are joined by Shauna and her husband.
Ten minutes later, everyone is sitting down, and then I hear a glass clinking.
I look over and see Lexi standing up, Kirby beside her.
Knox is next to him and Zane is sitting at their table.
His eyes meet mine for a brief moment before he looks back at Lexi.
“I wanted to take a minute to thank you all for coming tonight,” she starts, “and for all the help today. There was no way we could have done this without you.” She puts her hand on Kirby’s shoulder.
“So on behalf of the Make The Choice Foundation, we thank you.” She holds up her glass of wine and I grab my glass of water.
“Also, keep an eye open for our newsletter coming on Monday,” she points to me, “for some pictures from today, and it’ll be your chance to score tickets to our first ever holiday fundraiser. ”
My eyes are on Lexi, but I feel the heat from his stare, making it hard for me to swallow.
I smile at the group, ignoring the need to look over at him and when I take a sip of my water, it has trouble going down.
Lexi sits down. “I don’t know how you do it all,” Seth says from beside me.
The two of us have been working closely for the last week to make sure everything went smoothly today.
I think there were four meetings during the week that we had together, as we took pictures of the different stages that were going on before today.
I was even there a couple of nights and volunteered during the dinner session, where he told me that many of the kids who stayed in the after-school program are fed there in the evening.
It was something that wasn’t really offered before he came on board, but he decided to do when he started.
It heavily relied on donations from the community as well as the local grocery store.
“It takes a village.” I use the words he told me this week and he smiles at me. I wait for it to happen. Wait for that little flutter in my stomach. Wait for my palms to get damp. Wait for me to feel anything for him, but all I feel is a platonic friendship.
“It really does,” he agrees as Shauna calls his attention over to her. I don’t know why, but I let out a little sigh of relief when that happens.
We get our food, and he gets up to go over with Shauna and Jill to take a couple of pictures with some of the team.
I fold my arms in front of me as I see the crowd start to dwindle.
“You did good.” I hear from the side and look over at Jaxon, who has taken Ariella’s chair when she got up to go to the bathroom.
“Why do you sound surprised by that?” I sit up straight in my chair. “I don’t know why you don’t know this by now, but I’m fucking fantastic.” I hold up both my hands in front of me. “It’s a gift.”
He rolls his eyes at me. “Oh fuck, I forgot to tell you. There is a Family Day thing,” I watch him, “at the arena next week. Zane is the one who started it. Wants to build unity with the team.” My eyes go to the table where Zane is sitting, as I see him with Aaron talking about something.
“Okay,” I say, not sure why he’s telling me, “do you need me to babysit?”
“We have a game Friday, the thing is on Saturday,” he clarifies. “So we are going to be picking you up.”
“What?” I ask, shocked. “Why do I have to go?”
“It’s Family Day and you are part of my family,” he deadpans.
“What if I have plans with my boyfriend?” I ask him.
“You have a boyfriend?” He pushes away from the table. “You don’t have a boyfriend,” he quickly adds, snort-laughing and shaking his head.
“You don’t know my life, Jaxon,” I snap at him. “I could have a boyfriend. I could have ten if I wanted to.” He glares at me. “I could even be a sister wife, and you would never know.”
“There is no way in fuck you would be able to be a sister wife.” He laughs. “You have trouble sharing your fries with me, you think you’ll be able to share a man?”
I look up at the ceiling. “Good point,” I mumble. “I could have a reverse harem. Or the opposite of sister wives is brother husbands.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Ariella comes back and sits beside Jaxon.
“Do you know Tori is dating?” He looks at her and she looks at me. “She has a boyfriend.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” I quickly refute. “I’m just saying I could have a boyfriend.”
“But do you have a boyfriend?” Ariella leans in and quietly asks me. “Are you and Seth a thing?”
I make a grimace. “No, we are just friends.” I shake my head.
“So who are you dating?” Jaxon gasps out.
I push away from the table. “Okay, I’m leaving,” I look at both of them, “and for your information, I am dating.”
He nods his head like “I’m sure you are.”
“You are so lucky you need both feet to do your job, or else your toe would be wearing my heel,” I warn, turning now and stepping away from my chair.
“You aren’t leaving, are you?” Seth asks me and I nod my head.
“It’s been a long day. Stick a fork in me, I’m done.” I smile at him.
“Well, at least let me walk you to your car,” he offers. I nod at him as he puts his hand at the base of my back, very much like Zane did before, but again, no romantic feelings surface.
“I think I’m good,” I reply before we walk out the door, “lots of people outside.” I point at some of the guys outside shooting the shit. “But thank you.”
He leans in and kisses my cheek. “Thank you for everything,” he says, and I just nod at him as I walk out of the restaurant and see a couple of the players there with Zane.
His eyes are now trained on me, and I don’t think they’ve left me all night.
“Night, boys,” I say, avoiding looking at him.
“Thanks for today.” I head to my SUV, put it in reverse, and drive away from him and his eyes.