Family has just always been important to me. I didn’t have a big family, but my mom and I were close. We did birthdays and Christmas and Halloween in style. We loved being with each other.
And now I’ve got that again here with Brian and Gray. The thought of spending an evening with them laughing and talking and getting to know each other better, to have them come out and support me while I’m singing…well, it just means everything to me.
But apparently, it doesn’t really mean anything to Roman. Or rather, he might understand it, he just won’t indulge in it because it takes him out of his comfort zone.
Still, we’re early on in our relationship and I can totally see how it could be awkward for him. My hope is that as we progress, perhaps he’ll get more comfortable with the situation, and maybe we can take baby steps. Like maybe I can have Brian over to my apartment for dinner and Roman can come to that.
I’m sure we can figure this out, and I’m also sure Roman will warm up to the idea eventually.
Chapter 21
Roman
“Asshole.”
“Dickweed,” I mutter back to Nick Shultz as we line up next to each other at the neutral zone face-off spot on the right.
“Anytime you want a go at me,” he growls out of the side of his mouth, “all you have to do is drop the gloves.”
I don’t respond as the ref drops the puck and our captain, Alex Crossman, is able to reach it first, flicking it out to his right winger, Garrett Samuelson, and I take off after him as he streaks toward the Cardinals’ goal.
The Cold Fury crowd erupts in a deafening roar of encouragement, and for no more than a second, I imagine Lexi on her feet, banging against the glass in her excitement. The few times I’ve glanced at her way during the game, she’s been either clapping, cheering, or slapping her hands against the glass along with the other front-row fans. Of course, I only spared such glances at the beginning of a TV time-out or between periods, but never when there was live action on the ice.
Our team easily sets up our perimeter and I take my place hovering near the blue line just barely inside the neutral zone. A series of fast passes from Garrett to me—and I grit my teeth when Schultz whacks the back of my leg with his stick—then back to Alex, who winds up and takes a blistering shot at the net. Unfortunately, it ricochets off a Cardinal defenseman’s stick and shoots into the safety net behind the goal, which causes the play to go dead.
As we skate to the face-off spot, Schultz bumps into me roughly and says, “That pretty little girl you keep making eyes with your woman, Sykora?”
I don’t respond to him and I have to force myself not to look over at Lexi, who is no more than twenty feet from where I am right now on the other side of the glass. I’m pissed at myself that apparently Schultz has been watching me close enough to see me looking at Lexi, but then again, I didn’t make it any secret she was mine as during warm-ups I went up to the glass and put my glove against it. She fist-bumped me from the other side and gave me a huge grin, yelling, “Kick ass, baby.”
That had me skating away from the glass with a huge-ass grin on my face, and chances are Schultz saw that.
Nick Schultz and I have a volatile history. Both of us are defensemen, but not all defensemen are the same. You have offensive-minded ones who tend to handle the puck more but aren’t as physical. Or you have defense-minded ones, which is what Schultz and I are, who are bruisers on the ice. We get very physical when protecting our teammates and the goal, and we don’t venture out of our zones.
Unfortunately, when you have two opposing defensemen like us on the ice who have had some pretty big scuffles throughout our history of playing against each other, you can usually count on at least a major fight, if not something more nefarious.
But I know what Schultz is trying to do. He’s trying to bait me into doing something stupid. It may be that he’ll be satisfied with a bare-knuckle brawl, and that’s fine. I’m always down for that. Or he may try to draw me into a stupid penalty, which we really can’t afford right now, as we’re up by only one goal.
“If she’s not yours, maybe I’ll have a go at her,” Schultz says as he comes to line up beside me.
I bend over and get my stick poised and ready for Alex to take the drop. I ignore Schultz, because he can run his trap at me all day long and I won’t jump. I’ve never been one you can bait with words, because they’re nothing but noise that fades away as soon as they’re spoken.
Besides, I’ve got a vested interest now to try to keep my cool. With Gray on my ass, and me now dating Gray’s sister, it’s going to be best if I can try to lie low for a bit. Doesn’t mean I won’t play tough, and doesn’t mean I won’t get in legitimate fights when called for, but I won’t let my emotions get away from me and do something that could get me ejected or suspended.
At least that’s my game plan for the immediate future.