Only For Him (Only For #3)

Chapter 1 – Knox

one

Knox

I pull out my keycard and swipe it on the black magnetic strip, waiting for the garage door to open.

Advancing just a touch when the door starts to slide up, I drive down the ramp and look over to see Clive, the valet guy, is waiting for us to arrive.

He gets out of his chair and walks over to where we usually stop.

Putting the SUV in park, I open the door.

“Morning, Clive.” I smile over at him. “How’s it going? ”

"Could be better,” he says, and I nod at him, knowing the feeling, “but there’s always next year.”

“Coming back better and stronger.” I slap him on the arm as he passes me to go to the driver’s seat, and I walk over to the black steel door and pull it open.

I step into the hallway and see a bustle of activity coming from the front offices, different coaching staff people walking in and out of the doorways. “Hey,” I say to a couple of them as I walk down to the locker room.

The hallway is bare now that the season is over, no sticks lined up outside the room.

No equipment staff running in and out with skates in their hands to sharpen or fix.

Stepping into the room, I see most of the guys are already here.

“Hey,” I greet to the room, walking over to my spot on the bench right under my name.

“Hey,” Jaxon, my teammate and our team’s best defensemen says, looking over his shoulder at me, giving me a chin up. “How you doing?” he asks me as he reaches for something on his shelf and tosses it in his duffel bag on the bench.

“Sucks.” I shrug, trying not to feel the dread of another season that has come and gone with us not winning the Stanley Cup. “But it is what it is.”

“Getting knocked out while in the wild card spot is harder than not making the playoffs,” he says. “It isn’t something anyone wants to happen, especially when it went to the last game of the season.”

He’s not wrong about that. We were tied with the Edmonton team for the wild card spot, and we had the same number of points, but they had an extra game in hand.

It was our last game of the season and felt like playoff hockey already.

We were going on a five-game winning streak on top of that.

All eyes were on us; everyone was ready for that first round of playoffs.

But the hockey gods had other plans for us. We needed one freaking point to be contenders but lost the last game of the season. I’m pretty sure it sucked as much as going to the final round in the playoffs and losing that chance to hoist the Cup. At least that is how it felt for me.

That was last week and now we were asked to all come in today to do final interviews with the press and pack up our lockers.

You never know what can happen over the summer break, even if I have a contract with the team for the next two years.

I’ve seen it time in and time out; trades happen in the summer.

Here today, gone tomorrow. I’ve been at this game for the last twelve years, and I’ve been lucky to only be hit with a trade once.

That trade brought me from Montreal to the LA Warriors, done in the summer months.

I want to say I didn’t know it was coming, but my contract was up, and they were trying to wring me to take less than I knew I was worth.

My agent at the time was looking out for me and didn’t back down.

He took a couple of calls from other general managers, and I gave him four teams I’d be okay with being traded to.

LA was one of them and then, in the span of three hours, I was traded.

I was in the middle of my honeymoon on a boat in Capri when it happened.

Josephine was beside herself since she’s from Montreal.

Her whole family was from there and now she had to move to the other side of the continent.

It took her a full year of going back and forth for her to finally settle in LA, but it was only because she was pregnant at that point.

Now that she’s here, she loves every single thing about the city.

“Morning,” Kirby, the other top defenseman says, coming into the room. His phone in his hand, he tucks it in the back pocket of his shorts. “This fucking sucks,” he mumbles as he walks past me, slapping me on my back.

“It just makes you want it more next year,” I reply as I stand in front of my locker. “What’s going to suck more is the exit interviews.”

“Ugh,” Jaxon groans and his head goes back, and I laugh at his displeasure. “Like, how many times can you say ‘this isn’t how we wanted the season to go’ before you say ‘you think you can do better? I’ll lace up your skates.’”

“I will pay you one thousand dollars,” I grab my duffel bag from under my bench, “if you say that to them.” I look over at him. “Fuck that, I’ll double it and donate it to this guy for his foundation,” I point at Kirby, who just started a new foundation to help domestic abuse survivors.

“I will triple that,” Kirby adds. “Fuck, I’ll give you twenty thousand dollars.” I snort-laugh when he pushes Jaxon’s arm. “Do it.”

Jaxon smirks and shakes his head. “We’ll see,” he says, and I start packing my bag, grabbing the handmade cards the kids made me during the season.

Smiling, I see the last one my five-year-old daughter, Nora, made me when we were away for two weeks straight.

It’s the two of us on the ice together, holding hands, with her name and “Dad” in her handwriting with arrows pointing to our respective stick people.

The next thing I put in my bag is a picture of the five of us at the last family skate.

Josephine is next to me, with my arm around her and Nora in front of her.

Vincent, our eight-year-old, has his arm around Nora and Westley, our six-year-old, is in front of him.

The five of us are smiling big for the camera.

“Two hours and I’m officially on summer vacation. ”

I look over my shoulder at him. “What do you have planned?” I ask him as I put some of my workout clothes in the bag.

“We have Ariella’s family vacation for two weeks,” he says, “then we are going to just spend the summer here.” I nod at him. “What about you guys? Going to Italy again for two months?”

I laugh at him. “Last time I did that, I came back twenty pounds heavier, and it took me a whole season to work it off,” I remind him of the trip we took last year for our summer break.

We drove from the top of Italy to the bottom, stopping for weeks on end in small towns close to the beaches.

It was a trip I would never forget. “We’re going to spend the summer in Montreal with Josie’s family,” I tell them.

“We rented a cottage on the lake. I have a trainer coming in four times a week and it’s got a rink not too far from it, so I’ll be skating too.

” They both laugh at me. “It was all fun and games until I couldn’t even play two minutes last year. ”

A couple of guys come back into the room. “Kirby, Jaxon, and Knox, they are ready for you guys.”

“Great.” I grab the last of my things and toss them in the bag. “Let’s do this,” I say, looking at Jaxon and Kirby, who take a deep inhale.

I walk out of the locker room and head over to the media room.

Stepping in, I see the table in the middle of the room on top of the stage, walk up the three steps and head to the last chair, pulling it out and sitting down.

Our PR coordinator, Jill, comes out and puts my name in front of me and then proceeds to do that with the other two.

As if the reporters who have been following us for the last year don’t know who we are.

“Okay,” Kirby starts, “let’s get this over with.” We all chuckle as we take questions. The interview lasts for a whole forty-five minutes. We reflect on the year and add in what we should work on as a team.

When the last question is asked, I get up and walk out with my teammates. “Boys,” Jaxon says, “it’s been a pleasure.” He smirks. “Even though I didn’t win the bet…” He turns, walking backward. “I’m going to do the honorable thing and donate to the foundation anyway.”

“Great.” I roll my eyes. “So if I don’t, I’m a cheap bastard. Fine, I’ll match it.”

I walk into the locker room. “We’re done earlier than we thought,” Kirby states and I look at my watch and see it’s only one, and I told Josephine I would be back at four. Now I’ll be home in time to go with her to grab the kids at school. “Want to hit up the golf course?”

“Nah.” I shake my head. “I’m going to head home and surprise my wife.” I smile as I grab my bag and go give them a handshake and then a side hug. “Keep in touch over the summer break.”

I walk out and say goodbye to a couple of people before I head out and get in my SUV.

I call my father on my way out, like I do all the time, something that became a habit from when I was in Montreal, but now he lives thirty minutes from me.

They came down to visit and two months later, by chance, I found a house that wasn’t too far from us, so I sent it to them as a joke, never expecting them to move out here.

But they shocked the shit out of me by buying it.

Two years later, my younger sister and her husband also came for a visit and decided to uproot and move west. “Hey,” my father answers after one ring, “how was today?”

“Not as hard as I thought it was going to be,” I answer him honestly, “but it sucks.”

“Makes you want it that much more the next time,” he states. “You guys will come back and get better. Fuck, two years ago, you guys were dead last and now you almost made it into the playoffs.”

“Yeah, totally,” I agree with him. “I’m just happy I get to have a couple of weeks off before school is out.”

“It’ll be good for you to give your body a break,” he says as I turn onto my street.

“Okay, I’m home,” I tell him. “I’ll call you later.”

I pull into the driveway, opting to park outside instead of in the garage.

Jogging up the four steps, I smile as I open the door.

I close it behind me and head to the kitchen, expecting Josephine to be there preparing dinner.

I look right and left and find the house is eerily quiet.

Her routine never changes, so I walk to the stairs when I suddenly hear noises.

Stopping when I hear muttered voices, I wonder if she has a repairman here.

I get to the top of the steps and I’m outside our half-closed bedroom door, when I hear Josephine say, “No one fucks better than you.”

The blood drains from my whole body. My feet are planted on the floor like they are in cement boots.

“How are we going to do two months without this?” I feel like I’m floating out of my body, my head spinning around and around.

My hand comes up and pushes open the door a bit.

“Fuck, that’s right, baby, right there.” I blink for what feels an eternity, not sure I’m actually seeing what I’m seeing.

I stand here wondering if this is a dream, or better yet a fucking nightmare.

There, in the middle of the king-size bed is my wife with her back to me, her blonde hair swinging side to side as she rides.

My eyes go to the hands holding her hips, to the guy lying in the middle of my bed.

A guy who has been in my house more times than I can remember.

A guy who has told me he would look after everything when I was on the road.

The same guy who is married to my sister. “Fuck, it’s so good.”

A snort comes out of me, and then a bark of laughter now rages out. I don’t know who looks over first, if it’s Josephine or Jeremy. I don’t think I’ve ever been this out of my mind before. “She said the same thing to me this morning.”

Josephine is the first to scramble away from him, grabbing his T-shirt from the bed.

“Don’t cover up just yet, sweetheart. I did pay for those tits.

” I look at Jeremy, who is flying off the side of the bed farthest from me.

“Well, this is an interesting way of taking care of my wife for me.” He holds his jeans up in his hand.

“Knox,” he says, the color now drained from his face, “we can explain.”

I hold up my hand. “Not sure I need you to give me a play-by-play.” I look at them both.

My wife is in the middle of the bed with tears running down her face. “Knox,” she says my name in a whisper. “I…” she trails off.

“You what? Didn’t mean for this to happen, but you fucked him in my bed?

” I roar out the last part. “Or are you going to pretend this is the first time?” I shake my head, my heart feeling like it’s being shattered in my chest. The pressure of it feeling like someone has gripped it from the middle of my chest and yanked it out.

“You fucked up.” I look into her eyes. “You’ve ruined this family. ”

“Knox.” She moves onto her knees as she comes to the side of the bed. “Please.”

I look at her then back at my brother-in-law. “You can have her.” I take one more look at her. “Goodbye.”