Chapter 37
LOGAN
My post-game routine is down pat now. Gloves off, ring off. Strip off half my gear. Necklace off. Ring on the chain. Keep stripping down. Hit the shower and never, ever make eye contact with my useless coach.
The only thing that’s different tonight is that instead of going back to Buffalo with the team, I’m staying in Hamilton for the night. My parents are in the city on baby watch for my sister, and the plan is that my dad will drive me home in the morning since it’s just an hour down the highway.
But the plan was also that they were going to drive me to Emery and Alexei’s house after the game.
“Granger, Artyomov is looking for you,” one of our trainers says.
I make sure everything is squared away with the equipment guys, then grab my overnight bag. I’m reading a cascade of text messages from my sister as I step into the hallway.
Emery
FYI, you’ve been abandoned at the rink
I had a Braxton-Hicks contraction and Mom insisted we go home right away
Alexei will find you and bring you back to our place
I hope you’re hungry, because I’m stress cooking, please come distract our mother
Leaning against the wall across from the visitors’ dressing room is the big dark-haired, pale-skinned Russian goalie who called me fucking outrageous when I scored on him less than two hours ago. It’s a good thing I’m related to his fiancée, so he can’t murder me on the drive home.
Frowning, he holds out his hand.
“Hey bud,” I say, clapping my palm against his. “Sorry you had to wait.”
“It’s okay,” he deadpans. “I was thinking of blocking your shot in the shootout.” He taps his temple. “Permanent replay.”
I grin. “I’ve got Coop blasting his shot past you on a loop in my head, too.”
He scowls. “What did you tell him?”
“That’s a team secret.” I gesture to the exit. “Emery says my parents have already taken her home?”
He makes a face. “They love her very much.”
“Ah, they’re smothering her?”
“She’s not happy. But deep down I think she is very happy.”
“That’s par for the course with her and my mom.”
He shakes his head. “The mother daughter relationship is complicated. Especially now as we get closer to the baby arriving.”
“She wants my mom here, but not right on top of her?”
“Yes, something like that.”
There is only one big brother move for me to make here. It’s not one I want to do, but I’ll do it anyway. “Do you think I should suggest that my mom come with us tomorrow when my dad drives me home?”
A grin spreads across his face. “You are a good brother. That’s a great idea.”
When we arrive at his house, we’re greeted by raucous laughter. Deep laughs, from my dad and Sergei Artyomov, and little high-pitched giggles, too.
As I toe off my boots at the front door, Alexei raises his voice. “I take it bedtime didn’t happen?”
“Papa!” His three-year-old daughter Inessa comes racing down the hallway, then stops when she sees me, her eyes going wide at the unexpected uncle appearance so late at night. “Wait. Who are you?”
Emery follows, round baby belly appearing first, her blonde waves flying in all direction, face very pink.
“What is wrong?”Alexei demands to know.
It’s pretty clear that she’s stuffed full of a giant Russian baby, but I’m not going to say that out loud.
My sister is a very online person, so there is no shortage of photos documenting her pregnancy, but it’s still a shock to see her in person looking very different than the last time I saw her in the summer.
She rolls her eyes at her fiancé. “I’m fine. We were just doing a centre of gravity challenge. And this is my brother Logan, Inessa. You remember him from last summer.”
Inessa buries her face in Emery’s leg and shakes her head.
“It’s okay,” I say, crouching down where I’m standing, giving her lots of room. “Emery has so many brothers, doesn’t she? We’re hard to keep straight. I’m the smart one.”
“Logan!”
“What?” I stick my tongue out at my sister. “Oh, right. I’m also the handsome one.”
She sighs in exasperation.
Inessa races back into the living room, so I rise and cross to hug my little sister. Her belly is a firm boulder between us. When I ease back, I gesture to the beach ball of life. “Wow.”
“I know, I’m huge.” She says it with appropriate awe.
Alexei wraps his arms around her from behind. “And perfect.”
It’s impossible to hate a guy who treats your sister that well.
I nod. “So,” I say, keeping my voice low. “Mom is driving you nuts?”
“I wanted some of her attention,” she whispers. “Not all of it.” She lifts her voice. “Come on, I made enough food for an army.”
“Hang on, what is this centre of gravity challenge?” I look at Alexei, who despite his concern for Emery’s out of breath state is also curious about the word challenge.
We can’t help it, we’re competitive.
Emery shakes her head. “It’s not for you guys.”
“What does that mean?”
“You won’t be able to do it. It’s something I saw online and tricked Dad with. But it’s impossible for men.” She looks over at Alexei. “I wouldn’t trick you.”
“Me, she would trick,” I say.
“Of course,” she says.
“But we are younger than your father,” Alexei says. “And I am very flexible. What is this challenge?”
She pauses. Presses her lips together. Then shrugs.
“Alexei wants to do it,” she calls over her shoulder.
Everyone in the living room laughs.
I frown, pulling out my phone.
Emery snatches it away. “Too late, you can’t look it up.”
“Why not? I’m not going to back down, but how do I know you’re going to be impartial in your instructions?”
She backs up, leading us into the living room, where Alexei’s parents, who live with them, and my parents, who are visiting, are all sprawled on the oversized sectional couch. No wonder Emery is overwhelmed. It’s a lot of people to have in one house at the same time, even if everyone gets along.
“Good game, son,” my dad says, standing and offering me his hand.
“It’s fun to see our boys play together,” Alexei’s father, Sergei, adds. He gestures at the carpet. “Now you can compete again. Maybe one of you can do the impossible.”
“Impossible?” Alexei says something in Russian, and his father snorts. “Okay, Emery, you tell us what to do.”
She gives the collected parents an innocent look. “One, two, or three?”
“Three,” they all say in unison.
She gets down on her knees, then leans forward, on her hands first, then her elbows.
She wiggles her hips, then puts her hands behind her back, holding herself up off the ground solely from the angle of her hips and thighs.
Triumphantly, she straightens up, lifting her torso vertical. “That’s all you have to do.”
As one, Alexei and I roll our eyes and kneel beside her.
“Easy,” I say.
“Not for you, maybe,” he replies. “But yes, for me, easy.”
Which makes it extra funny when he immediately tips forward and smashes his face into the carpet right alongside me.
“What the fuck,” I mutter as I scramble to my knees.
Inessa giggles.
“Shit, sorry.”
We try again, and Alexei manages to hold himself up for a split second before flattening like a pancake again.
“Do it again,” I snap at Emery.
“She’s pregnant,” Alexei warns me, as if I’m not aware.
“I’m fine.” She drops to her knees and demonstrates the move again. “There are two others we can do.”
“We’re doing this one.” Alexei and I say at the same time.
She gives me my phone back and I watch a video. Then I send it to Frankie.
Logan
Help! How do I do this as a man?
Frankie
Are you being hazed?
Logan
yes, by my sister
Frankie
Oh no
Frankie
Does she need help?
Logan
You’re my wife, help ME
Frankie
Put the top of your foot flat on the floor
I try it.
Logan
I can’t
Frankie
Sounds like a skill issue
I huff a frustrated sigh and glance forward to Alexei, who has already figured out the top of the foot flat on the floor difference maker, but he’s still struggling. If he can’t do it, I’m never going to do it.
Jumping to my feet, I gesture at Emery. “Feed me, sister.”
“Who did you text for help?”
I make a not in front of the parents silencing face at her. “Shush.”
Her eyebrows lift. “Oh?”
“Food. Now.”
She drags me into the kitchen as the parents and Inessa are distracted by Alexei almost getting it on his sixth try.
Under the clatter of her pulling out salads from the fridge and turning on the extractor hood over the stove so she can heat up chicken, I tell my sister that I’ve met someone.
“You can’t tell anyone,” I warn her. “You’ll get to meet her at some point before the wedding, but until then…”
“She’s coming to the wedding?” My sister’s face transforms. “It’s serious serious?”
“As serious as it gets.” It feels so fucking good to say that out loud.
I want to tug my ring out from under my shirt and show it to her.
I settle for singing Frankie’s praises without any specifics.
"She's a medical student in LA. We met in a bar on New Year’s Eve, in Vegas, and I told her it was my birthday. One thing led to another and we spent the whole night going up and down the Strip. Luck was on my side and I followed her to LA two days later, and we got to spend more time together around my games out there. She’s incredible.
But she’s not ready for the spotlight of being public. ”
“What’s her name?”
“That’s secret.”
“Mmm.” She narrows her eyes. “She’s not scamming you?”
I choke on a laugh. “No.”
“Not married?”
It’s a good thing I was already laughing, so I don’t have to answer that. I just stare at her.
“Then why the secrecy from us? Why the don’t tell Mom eyes?”
“Because you know how she is. And frankly, how you are. If I tell you a name, you’re going to find this incredible woman in a hot second and then she’ll be uncomfortable. She’s the one, Em. I’m not risking that for anything. But her career is in LA, so…”
“Ah.” Emery take a deep breath. “And you’re good with that?”
“Fucking hell, of course I am. She’s incredible. I’m only going to play for so long, and during the season, I’m on the road half the time anyway. When I retire, California sounds like a pretty amazing place to spend the rest of my life.”
“Wow. You’ve thought it all out.”
“Absolutely.”
She throws her arms around me and squeezes me tight. “Your secret is safe with me. But I also want to be the first to meet her on a video call.”
I hug her back. “Deal.”
“Plus one for the wedding, huh?” She bounces on her feet. “This might be the distraction Mom needs—after the baby arrives. When you’re ready. And just think, once Mom knows that you’re taken, she can start focusing on Wyatt and Forrest next…”
“Leave them alone.”
“Oh, no. No, no, no. They have to get a turn under the Mom Microscope.” She exhales, then her face pinches tight.
Alarm rises. “What’s wrong?”
“Contraction.” She shakes her head. “It’s nothing. Not the real deal. But…”
“You want Mom?”
She leans against the counter and gives me a rueful smile. “The microscope isn’t so bad when your uterus is doing practice runs for a baby eviction, yeah.”