Apparently everyone’s caught a case of the jollies today. Even our resident manwhore. While the children wait their turn, other teammates are skating around in front of the bleachers, showing off. Selfies and autograph signing will come later.
For now, I get to enjoy the chill against my cheeks as I skate with my three favorite girls. This is an intimate event for players, their families, and the kids from the charities, along with some hand-selected members of the press. It’s my favorite kind of mandatory function. No penguin suits, no schmoozing, and lots of fun.
“WHAT AN AMAZING TURNOUT!”
“She’s loud,” Libby whispers, gazing up at me with wide eyes.
I chuckle under my breath. “She sure is.”
“Who’s that girl skating with Jess?” Hailey asks curiously, touching my arm.
I follow her gaze toward the laughing, vibrant teenager next to Blake’s girlfriend. “Oh wow. I think that’s Layla,” I say after a moment, startled when I recognize the girl. “Remember how Jess was saying she works in the pediatric cancer ward as part of her nursing program? That’s one of the kids she met there. Riley said the girl was pretty damn sick for a long time, but she’s in remission now.”
Hailey’s eyes get watery as she stares at the pretty teen. I love how sensitive she is, how much she cares about people, even strangers.
“Daddy!” Libby interrupts. “Let’s skate!”
I grin down at her. “Sure. How ’bout we race each other to the boards?”
Her expression brightens. “Okay! One…two…”
The little imp shoots forward before the count of three, and I pretend to growl in displeasure as her pink-jacket-clad body whizzes across the shiny surface. Still, we both know I’m letting her win. When it comes to my kids, I’d lose any day of the week if it means putting a smile on their faces.
Even with me skating in slow motion, Libby’s still not much faster. She’s got tiny legs but a lot of grit. Her arms pump fiercely as she picks up speed. I hang back even farther, wait until she’s a yard away from the boards, and then pretend to skate my legs off.
“You’re fast!” I reach her a good ten seconds later, panting as if I can hardly breathe. “When did you get so fast?”
She smirks at me. “When I turned four.”
A laugh pops out of my mouth. God, my kids are fun. Hailey and June lazily skate our way, and my laughter turns into a different kind of smile. June’s wearing the same jacket as Libby’s, except hers is bright purple. And Hailey’s decked out in a gray wool sweater, skinny jeans, and a thick red scarf draped around her neck. She looks fantastic.
Sometimes I still can’t believe she’s mine. And I sure as shit can’t believe I was prepared to throw this all away. The embarrassment of missing her awards ceremony still haunts me, and I definitely feel guilty about the fact that I can’t spend as much time with her as I’d like. But we’re making it work. We text a lot, see each other whenever I’m home, and we’ve even talked about her flying to Dallas next week for our road game. The team’s return flight doesn’t leave until late afternoon the next day, so that’d give us an entire night and most of the morning to fuck like bunnies in my hotel room.
“Matt…” There’s a warning note in Hailey’s voice.
I meet her gaze and realize that she’s read my dirty thoughts. The naughty twinkle in her eyes confirms it.
“What?” I blink innocently.
“Nothing,” she chirps back, but then she idles closer and whispers in my ear, “This is family-skate day, not undress-Hailey-with-your-eyes day.”
“Can’t I do both?”
“Both what?” Will O’Connor—without the sled this time—does a hockey stop in front of us, spraying me with ice shavings.
“You jack…rabbit.” I stop myself just in time.
Instead of giving me grief about the improvised curse word, he puts his hands up in front of his chest like rabbit paws and starts jumping around like a bunny in skates. It’s the dumbest thing I ever saw in my life, but naturally my daughters find this hilarious. Even Hailey giggles. O’Connor has a way with women of all ages, apparently.
“I wouldn’t have guessed you’d be good with kids, O’Connor,” I remark.
“No?” He stops hopping and does a goofy spin. “I’m immature. Ask anyone. How does that not compute?”
“Good point.”
“I need the potty!” June announces. “Do I gotta take off my skates?”
“Thankfully, no,” I say, since there’s black rubber matting all the way back into the locker rooms.
“I’ll take her,” Hailey offers. “I could use a pit stop myself. And this way you can keep losing races to Libby.”
My other daughter beams up at Hailey. “I'm faster than Daddy!”
“I saw!” Hailey ruffles the top of Libby’s head. “Keep that speed up and maybe you’ll play pro hockey yourself one day.”
“No,” Libby announces, her gaze drifting beyond Hailey. “I wanna be that!”
We all follow her gaze to the other end of the rink. There, a young woman in black leggings and a bright green sweater has taken up the job of entertaining the waiting children. I don’t recognize her. On one leg, she sweeps in a backward circle. Then she plants a toe and leaps into the air, spinning at least two full revolutions before landing neatly on the surface again.
I whistle under my breath. “Wow. Who is that?” I ask my teammate. When O’Connor doesn’t answer, I check his face.
It’s ashen. And then it’s bright red. “Holy f…”
“Fudge,” Hailey says quickly. “You know her?”
O’Connor’s mouth opens and then shuts again. He does that twice more before frowning angrily. “I’m out of here. See you all later.” Then he skates off in the opposite direction, his shoulders drooping, his hands in fists. No more bunny hops.
Hailey gives me an inquisitive look, but I just shrug in response.
“I really need to go,” June says, crossing her legs.
Hailey snaps to attention. “Sorry, Junebug, got distracted by the pretty lady. C’mon, let’s get you taken care of.” I watch as Hailey leads my daughter off the ice, and my heart damn near overflows in my chest. She’s so damn good with my girls. For my girls.
It just figures that Kara isn’t Hailey’s biggest fan. My ex has taken to lecturing me about how it’s inappropriate for Hailey to spend so much time with our daughters. Even worse, she’s tried to weasel time with my girls away from me. In fact, she was adamantly against the girls coming to family skate today, claiming it’d be too “dangerous.”
I pointed out that the team owners weren’t about to hand all the kids hockey sticks and let them duke it out. For fuck’s sake, this event is for vulnerable children. Eventually Kara calmed down and agreed to it, though she scowled pretty damn hard when she found out Hailey was coming, too.
It’s taken every last drop of my patience not to argue with her lately. Kara’s boyfriend spends even more time with my kids, and you don’t see me putting up a fight about it. Besides, Kara has no fucking right to talk about what’s appropriate. She fucking cheated on me. Or at least, she probably did. I’ve been trying so hard not to think about it—the weekly lunches between Kara and Dentist Dan, the ones that started long before she and I signed those divorce papers…