Chapter 34
Icould tell his concentration was off. One thing I’d come to learn in the short time I’d been watching my guy play hockey was that he had tunnel vision when it came to his job. He’d confirmed for me that nothing rattled him, that his mind and body were on one accord when he was out on the ice. All that mattered to him was the puck, getting it to the net when it was in Sires possession, and intercepting it when it wasn’t. He was a machine out there. While other players would wave at fans and acknowledge their families, Orlando never did, and I understood that. When he was in the middle of a game, he wasn’t someone’s friend. He wasn’t my man. He was a damn beast with one thing in mind—winning. Tonight, I noticed him peering at the crowd more than once. It took a while for me to figure out he was looking for me. When he spotted me, he seemed relieved, and I felt like shit. He was worried about me and the baby. I’d finally begun to show, and on top of that, my wonderful fans had commenced to crowding the games—both home and away. Therefore, he insisted on me having more security. My presence was obviously throwing him off his game and I hated it. Also, there was the whole Smoke thing. A judge had granted me a restraining order mainly because Patrick didn’t bother showing up in court, and now, he was feeding bullshit to the blogs. My loyal fans were on the defense for me, but it was all so messed up.
I suppose it didn’t help that he had other, and in my opinion, more important things on his mind—his birth family. It’d been nearly a month since he first saw his father during that video call, and he was stuck somewhere between wanting to learn more and being afraid to, so he just didn’t do anything. I didn’t press him, but I knew it would help if he moved forward with the process.
I wasn’t the best at keeping up with the action on the ice. It was just too damn fast-paced, but I could see that he was the one in possession of the puck at that moment, moving fast while being pursued by an opposing player. We were in Sunrise, Florida, playing the Panthers. It was rare for me to see my team down by a point, and as Orlando neared the goal, I feared their undefeated season record was about to be ruined.
The crowd had grown louder in a millisecond, and I joined many of the spectators in standing from my seat at the glass. Orlando smacked the puck toward…Jones? Yes, it was Jones who had it now. He skated so fast that he actually outpaced his defender. When Jones hit the puck and it slid toward the goal, I unconsciously held my breath and joined the spectators around me in letting out a disappointed groan when the goaltender successfully blocked it. Next, everyone’s attention shifted to the right where Orlando was arguing with a Panther. Both men threw their sticks down and started throwing punches. I knew this was a part of the game, a part many fans lived for, but this was my man, my damn baby daddy! What if he got hurt? Well, that fear was quickly allayed because Orlando beat that man’s natural ass! I’d never seen him be physically violent, and while I can admit there was something extremely sexy about his savagery, the shit was also disturbing. Jones had to pull him off the other guy, but then Jones was shoved and started fighting, too. Before it was over, practically every player on the ice was fighting, including Orlando, who’d found himself a new adversary. I was glad when they all settled down because my heart couldn’t take that shit.
Oh, and the Sires won.
“Baby, I have to ride with the team. We discussed this,” Orlando said, those eyes of his narrowed almost to nonexistence. I was waiting outside the visitors’ locker room for him when he exited it. BG and Feather were flanking me.
“I’m an owner. Maybe I’m here to speak to the coach,” I countered.
“Which one? There are several.”
“All of them.”
He gave me a smirk that made my clit twitch. I needed to get myself together.
“I bet you can’t name even one of them,” he challenged.
“Lampkin, Donaldson, Marchand, Wyatt, Jacobs?—”
“Okay, I stand corrected.”
“Now, you know me better than that. I might not know all the ins and outs of the game, but I do pay attention during business meetings.”
“You just don’t pay attention when I ask you not to do shit that’ll make me look like I’m getting special treatment. I’m the captain. I need my team to trust me.”
“And they do trust you.” Tilting my head to the side, I adjusted my shades and added, “Tell me, how is me meeting you after a game special treatment?”
“It isn’t, but no one else got told fifty-leven times by their teammates that their lady was waiting for them. I’m probably holding up the damn team bus right now. The pilot probably done already cranked up the team plane and got it idling.”
I rolled my eyes. “I was worried about you. You were out there fighting. You were off your game. I just…”
He stepped closer to me, cupping my face in his hands. “It ain’t on you. It’s on me.” He kissed my forehead and gave me a fake-ass smile. “I’ll see you at home.”