Chapter 38
Thirty-Eight
Colt
“You all good?” Kylie asks, straightening the neck of my jersey.
My five hundredth game is tonight.
I’m getting fucking old—at least in the hockey world.
The players are getting younger and faster and…
Maybe I shouldn’t be thinking about the leeward slide of my career.
Maybe I should be thinking about how this is a pretty cool accomplishment.
But that hole inside me—the one that grew a little bigger when Blake confirmed he and our parents wouldn’t make it tonight—feels raw tonight.
No charity event.
No family night.
No milestone celebration.
“I’m good,” I lie.
She leans close, presses her lips to mine. “It’s really cool of you to invite Adrian.”
I glance over at the kid and his parents, all of whom are wearing my jersey, and feel a bit of that jaggedness in me smooth over. “It was cool of them to come.”
Her hand finds mine, squeezing my fingers through my gloves.
A facsimile of a touch when I want her bare skin on mine.
But she’s here too.
And wearing my jersey. Speaking of which—
“Nice jersey, Teach.”
Her cheeks go pink. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those guys who likes his girl wearing his name on her back.”
“Deep down, we’re all cavemen.”
She rolls her eyes.
I lean in, lips going to her ear. “Please tell me you’ll be waiting in that jersey and nothing else when I get home tonight?”
Mischief in her eyes, that tempting mouth curved into a sexy smile I want to taste. “How’re you going to convince me?”
“I haven’t done enough, Teach?”
“My pajamas are really comfortable.”
Laughing, I bend down and kiss her…and as it often does when it comes to this woman, I forget where we are and who’s around and—
“Give me one reason to not trade you.”
My dick is hard and pressing uncomfortably against my jock.
But there are far too many people around for me to make the necessary adjustments, including—
“Damon,” she says on a beleaguered sigh.
“I’m kidding,” he mutters.
“You are”—she leans up and presses her lips to his cheek—“you just wish you weren’t.”
“That’s true enough.”
He turns to me, eyes sparking with humor. “You saw the news?”
“About Ambrose?”
A nod. “Fifty game suspension, anger management, and potential criminal charges.”
“Not enough,” Kylie mutters. “He should never play in the league again.”
“He might not,” Damon says.
“Might isn’t good enough.”
“Bloodthirsty,” I say lightly, drawing her against me. “I didn’t expect that.”
“You’ve seen her play Ticket to Ride and you didn’t know that?” Damon’s words are dry…and earn him a swat from his sister.
“Quit making me crazy.”
“Never going to happen.”
But he’s grinning as he walks off, Kylie glaring after him.
“I think if you played hockey, you would have been an enforcer,” I tease.
“There’s someone I want to punch right now, that’s for damn sure,” she mutters, not looking back at me until he’s turned the corner.
“Starfire?”
Her gaze comes to mine.
“The jersey?”
Softness in those pretty blue eyes…and heat. “I think I might be able to be convinced.”
I touch her cheek. “Yeah?”
She lifts on tiptoe, her voice for my ears only. “Depends on how well you play with your stick.”
“Fuck,” I whisper as my dick goes hard again.
“What?” she whispers back.
“I—”
“It’s time to go Ms. C and Colt!” Adrian calls.
I take her hand. “I’ll tell you later, Teach.”
There’s a carpet rolled out onto the ice and the lights are bright, the players from both teams lined up next to their benches.
When I step out onto the ice—Kylie at my side, Adrian and his parents opposite her—there’s a rush of noise…
But it’s not the highlight video that starts playing on the Jumbotron or the roar of the crowd. It’s—
I skate to the end of the carpet where a familiar woman is standing and—
“Blake!”
My brother grins at me. “Hey, bro,” he says casually.
Casually.
When nearly every time we talked over the last weeks he was telling me how disappointed he was he couldn’t convince our parents to bring him.
He would come on his own, if he could.
But the logistics of transporting him and his medical supplies, his very expensive wheelchair…it’s a lot, especially when he’s the one with the health issues.
“Colt,” he says, nodding to the woman standing at his side—a woman I’ve only met on video chat, a woman who stares down at my brother adoringly. “This is Sara.”
“So nice to meet you.”
We hug then she steps back and I glance at Blake. “Are Mom and…”
I trail off when his smile flattens out.
Of course not.
I exhale, shove that down.
“How are you here?” I ask, but even before he answers, I know.
“Kylie arranged it.”
I look over my shoulder to where my girlfriend—no, where the woman who fucking owns me, especially after this, is standing.
She winks at me, her smile wide.
But her eyes…they tell me she both understands exactly how much it means to me to have Blake here…and how much it hurts that my parents aren’t.
I hold out my hand.
She says something to Adrian and he runs up to Blake, the two exchanging a complicated handshake I’d have no hope of replicating.
Then she’s at my side.
“Good surprise?”
I touch her cheek, press my lips to hers. “The best surprise.”
Her eyes warm…before compassion creeps in. “I’m sorry—”
“Don’t,” I say. “I don’t want to think about the sad stuff. Not when I have so many good things to focus on.”
“I love you.”
“See?” I take her hand, draw her forward. “That’s one of the best things.”
She’s smiling as the lights come up and it’s fucking beautiful. So fucking beautiful I’m glad the marketing team is filming and taking pictures. Because I’m going to need a big ass copy of that picture for my wall. Especially since—
“Glad you finally convinced her to be your girlfriend, bro!” Blake calls.
Especially since that smile turns into laughter at my brother’s razzing.
More flashes.
More pictures with all of us.
Then Adrian is holding the puck for the ceremonial drop.
The crowd cheers when he lets it fall to the ice and his smile touches me almost as deeply as Blake’s, as Kylie’s.
“Where are you sitting, starfire?” I ask as I walk her off the ice.
She nods to the opposite corner of the rink, and I spy the cluster of open seats and empty space where my brother will have plenty of room for his oxygen and his chair. “So Blake, Adrian, and I can keep an eye on you.”
So I can see them.
So I can know they’re with me.
“Colt?” she says just before she heads down the hall.
“Yeah, baby?”
A wicked grin. “The jersey.” A beat. “And nothing else.”
Her hair flows like a cape behind her as she turns and follows Blake and the others, leaving me with a hard-on again…
And the knowledge that tonight is going to be the best of my life.