Chapter 34 #2
“That’s Finn admitting that maybe you know what you’re doing after all.” His smile widened. “And that our boy here picked someone worth keeping.”
Mia sobbed. Right there in the office, she fell into a chair and began bawling. For once, Benji had no more jokes. He dabbed his own watery eyes before dropping beside Mia and pulling her into an embrace.
I turned from them back to Jacks, but before anyone could speak, the door burst open with enough force to rattle the frame.
“WHERE IS HE?” a deep voice boomed.
Tyler exploded into the room like a hurricane in hockey gear. He still wore his base layers. His hair was damp with sweat, and his eyes were bright with post-game energy.
“Tyler—” I started.
“No! No more waiting! This is happening right fucking now!” He pointed at Jacks with the intensity of a man who’d been denied this introduction for far too long. “You! You’re the guy who’s been making our captain float around like a lovesick Disney princess!”
“I do not float,” I protested.
“You fucking float if I say you float. Yesterday you hummed while taping your stick. You hummed, Skyler. You don’t even like music.
You’re like a two-by-four with a penchant for hockey.
” Tyler stuck out his hand toward Jacks.
“Tyler Kowalski. We met at the bar, but it’s time we had a proper introduction.
I’ve heard so much about you by now it’s borderline obsessive. ”
“Jackson Armstrong,” Jacks said, reaching out to grip the big man’s hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you, too.”
“Good things, I hope?”
“Mostly.” Jacks glanced at me with mischief in his eyes. “Something about you and Erik and a Swedish royalty prank?”
Tyler’s grin turned wicked. “Oh, we’re definitely sharing that story later.” He turned to the others. “I know Finn, the protective one, but I don’t know the lady. Who are you and why did they make you cry? Who should I beat up?”
Mia looked up, tears streaking her face, and blubbered, “I’m really happy.”
Tyler looked like he’d been struck with a stupid stick. His head lolled as he glanced from Mia to me, then back. I’m not sure if he accepted her explanation or gave up trying to understand it, but his focus shifted to a new direction.
“And, you.” He paused at Benji, who was still giggling about the closet situation. “You’re the magical bartender. I remember your hair.”
“Benji,” Benji managed through his laughter. “The one who just witnessed the greatest metaphor in romantic history.”
“Excellent. I like you already.” Tyler shook hands with all of them, his energy somehow managing to fill the small office without making it feel crowded. “Welcome to the Lightning family. Any friends of Sky’s are friends of ours.”
“Speaking of which,” I said, glancing at my phone, “I really should get to the press conference before they send security.”
“Right, yeah, go be Captain Professional,” Tyler said.
“But first—” He grabbed Jacks’s shoulders and looked him in the eyes.
“Thank you for making him happy and being here. Thank you for wearing our jersey, for all of it. He’s been an impossible prick to live with because he’s so fucking cheerful, and it’s all your fault. ”
Jacks gulped hard. “Thanks, I think.”
The door burst open again with even more force than Tyler’s entrance, slamming into the wall with enough force to poke a hole in the back of the wooden panel. One of Coach’s favorite motivational posters fell off the wall.
Erik filled the doorway like a Norse god having a very bad day. His expression was the particular brand of serious that meant he’d made a decision and nothing in heaven or earth was going to stop him from executing it.
His gaze swept the room and landed on Jacks like a missile finding its target.
“You,” he said, pointing at Jacks.
“Me?” Jacks asked, looking alarmed but game for whatever was about to happen.
Erik stormed across the room with the inexorable force of an avalanche beginning its tumultuous tumble.
Tyler stepped between them, arms spread wide. “Whoa, whoa, Erik, buddy, maybe we start with a handshake? A nice, normal, non-intimidating handshake?”
Erik looked at Tyler like he was a small and irrelevant obstacle, then gently but firmly moved him aside with one massive hand. Tyler stumbled into the desk.
“Erik,” I said, suddenly concerned. “What are you—”
“This is important,” Erik intoned, still advancing on Jacks. He had nowhere to retreat in the small office. “Very important. Ancient tradition must be observed.”
Finn stepped forward now, his protective instincts kicking in despite his earlier approval. “Look, I don’t know what this is about, but—”
Erik moved him aside, too, just as gently, just as stubbornly. Finn found himself pressed against the wall next to the fallen motivational poster.
“Erik!” Mia tried next, moving to block his path. “Maybe we could—”
Erik picked her up by the waist, rotated her ninety degrees, and set her down out of his way. She blinked in surprise.
“Nobody can stop this,” Erik announced to the room at large. “It is written in the old ways.”
Benji, wisely, stepped aside and started recording on his phone.
Jacks looked around the room, first at Tyler tangled up with the desk chair, then at Finn flattened against the wall, then at Mia still processing being rotated like a chess piece—and started laughing.
“You know what?” he said to Erik, spreading his arms wide. “Do your worst.”
Erik’s face lit up like Christmas morning.
Without a word, the giant wrapped his massive arms around Jacks, lifted him clean off the ground, and planted what could only be described as the most enthusiastic, ridiculous, theatrical kiss in the history of professional sports directly on his mouth.
The room went dead silent except for the sound of Benji’s delighted giggling and the click of his phone camera.
Erik held the pose for a full five seconds, long enough for it to be absurd, then set Jacks down and stepped back, nodding once with deep satisfaction.
Jacks stood there blinking, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as though he’d been kissed by an overly affectionate Saint Bernard.
“What,” I said, “was that?”
“Ancient Viking ritual,” Erik said matter-of-factly, straightening his base layer like he’d just completed an important business transaction. “For welcoming new family members. It is sacred.”
“A Viking ritual? Seriously?” I repeated.
“Yes. When warrior brings home someone who makes heart sing like northern winds across fjords, clan must welcome them with kiss of brotherhood. It binds their fate to ours forever.”
Tyler, who had extracted himself from the desk chair, stared at Erik. “That’s the most elaborate bullshit I’ve ever heard in my life.”
“Is not the bullshit. Grandmother taught it to me,” Erik replied with complete conviction. “She was concerned with proper rituals. She said old ways must be preserved or spirits of ancestors would be angry.”
“Your grandmother was from Minnesota,” I pointed out.
“Minnesota has many Vikings,” Erik said without missing a beat.
“Those are football fans, Erik,” Tyler snapped. “They wear cheese on their heads, and I’ve never seen one of them riding a longboat across Lake Superior.”
Erik scowled.
Benji was now cackling, his phone still recording. “This is the best thing I’ve ever witnessed. I’m posting this everywhere.”
“You will not post the sacred ritual,” Erik said sternly. “Valhalla will not wait for you if you share our ways.”
“Your ancestors from Minnesota?” Tyler smirked.
“Vikings traveled far,” Erik said with the patience of someone explaining basic geography to a child. “They were mobile with boats and shit.”
“Boats and shit?” Tyler was wheezing now.
“Boats and falcons?” Benji asked innocently.
I lost my balance and dropped hard, laughing the whole way.
Thankfully, the door opened, and Kevin poked his head in, looking like he might have a stress-induced breakdown.
“Cap, the press is getting restless. They’re starting to ask questions about where you are, and Coach is looking for you.
I think one of the reporters is having some kind of deadline-related panic attack. ”
“Right.” I picked myself up and glanced around the room. Tyler was grinning like he’d witnessed the best comedy show of his life. Erik was maintaining his ridiculous straight face. Jacks’s friends looked like they’d been through a very benevolent hurricane.
And Jacks.
Jacks looked like he was still processing his induction into Erik’s imaginary Viking clan and whatever might come with it.
“I have to go,” I said. “Press conference. Captain duties.”
“Go,” Jacks said, his voice warm and understanding. “We’ll find our way out.”
I started toward the door, then stopped.
The whole room was watching me.
Tyler with his knowing grin.
Erik with his solemn satisfaction.
Finn with his finally-relaxed approval.
Mia and Benji with expressions of pure romantic investment.
And Kevin looking like he was about to drag me to the media room.
Jacks in the middle of it all, still wearing my jersey, still looking at me like I was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
I closed the few steps between us and cupped his face in both hands.
And in front of Tyler and Erik and Finn and Mia and Benji and Kevin, I kissed him.
It wasn’t a peck.
Not a casual goodbye.
It was a real kiss.
The kind of kiss that made statements and answered questions and left no room for interpretation.
When I pulled back, his eyes were wide and his lips were parted and the room was so quiet I could hear my own heartbeat.
“Meet me at my place?” I whispered, quiet enough that only he could hear. “Bring an overnight bag. Please?”
He nodded, still looking stunned.
“Good.” I kissed him once more, quick and soft, then stepped back. “Kevin? Let’s go before they send a search party. And not a word about any of this until I talk to the boss, okay?”
Kevin, whose eyes had become silver dollars, nodded but didn’t speak.
As I walked toward the door, I heard Tyler’s voice behind me:
“Did our captain kiss his boyfriend in front of everyone?”
And Erik’s response, delivered with the gravity of ancient wisdom:
“Next, he will test hammer. Make iron. All very Viking. Though I don’t think men can make little Vikings. Such a shame.”
I didn’t see Benji double over so much as heard it in real time.
I was still smiling when I reached the media room.