On a chilly October night, the Wildcats have their first home game. I ride to the arena with Scarlett. I completely forgot about the WAG box until we’re walking through the doors of the swanky suite.
It has a private bar, cushy seats, a large screen to follow the game closer, restrooms, a private nursing room, and even a playroom for the women with small kids.
The girls that know each other hug and catch up. Excitement hangs in the air for the game and season.
Someone thrusts a green beanie in my hand. It has Sato in white with the number seventy-seven.
“What is this?” I ask, glancing at my best friend.
“You’re officially a WAG.” Scarlett grins at me and then puts on her own beanie with Leo’s last name and number. “Amalia owns an adorable clothing boutique. Mostly kid stuff, but she makes custom gear for the wives and girlfriends every year. I have a sweet leather jacket from the playoffs. She’s married to Morrison. He’s number twelve. They have a little boy named Johan. Cute but a total terror,” she whispers the last part.
“I don’t think I should be in here.”
“Why not?” She ignores me and leads us to seats next to Piper and Dakota. “You’re one of us now.”
Declan told me that his team was his family, but I don’t think I realized exactly what he meant until now.
“How’s work?” Piper asks. “Loved your article on makeup sex, by the way.”
“Yeah, that was gold,” Dakota agrees. “Johnny and I don’t really fight, but sometimes we pretend, just so we can have hot makeup sex.”
“Work is…” I struggle to find the right word. “Challenging.”
“Melody is on her ass,” Scarlett answers for me.
“She wants me to push harder into the whole married to a professional hockey player angle.”
“Makes sense. Hockey players are hot,” Piper says.
Everyone murmurs their agreement. Me too. Declan’s body is insane, which I already knew, but seeing him use it like this is definitely doing something to me.
The ladies continue to chat and they’re all smiles and laughs until the puck drops. Then, all their attention is on the game. Some of the ladies are quiet, nerves making it hard to do anything but watch. While others, like Scarlett, are loud, cheering like she wants every person in the arena to know she’s Leo Lohan’s girl.
I’m caught somewhere in the middle. Not because I’m nervous, but because I feel the weight of everything hitting me at once. I know what family, or rather the lack of one, did to Declan. It sent him spiraling for years until he found it in the guys on the team.
I can’t risk that for him. Which means I can’t quit the magazine, no matter how much I might want to. Besides, it’s my mess. Walking away feels like giving up. Even if someone else wanted to hire me, I doubt Melody would make that transition easy.
When Declan’s on the ice, it’s hard for me to focus on anything else. He skates hard and fast from one end to the other. On one shift, he slams a guy into the boards. On the screen, they capture Declan’s half smile as he takes off in the other direction, leaving the other guy stunned for a second. I wince and my pussy throbs at the same time. Damn, that’s hot.
I don’t know a lot about hockey, though I should for as many games as I’ve watched with Scarlett over the years. Even before Leo, she’d occasionally drag me along to a game, so she could cheer on her dad.
Coach Miller. Another reason I can’t risk everyone finding out that Declan got married to help me keep my job. Scarlett’s dad is the closest thing to a father figure I’ve ever had. I don’t want my mistakes to mess up anything for him or the team.
I can do this for eight more months. Maybe if Declan and I attend a few more events, that’ll get Melody to relax a little on the articles.
At the first intermission, I spend a few minutes talking with the girls about the first period and then find a quiet corner and call my mom. We haven’t spoken since I left her house, almost a month ago. I hurt her feelings, but she hurt mine too.
“Hello?” she answers, hesitation in her tone.
“Hey, Mom.”
A few seconds pass in silence. “I wasn’t sure I’d hear from you.”
“You could have called me.”
“When someone storms out of my house, I’ve found it best to let them approach me in their own time.”
“Why didn’t you try to stop me?” Like Declan had. It’s bugged me for weeks. I expect men to walk away or let me walk away, but not my mom.
“I figured you needed some time to sort through things on your own. That’s why you came home in the first place, right?”
I hadn’t told her that, but I guess it isn’t surprising she figured it out. “Yes.”
“And did you sort through it?”
“Mostly.”
“Good,” she says. The buzzer sounds, signaling the end of intermission. “Are you at the game?”
“Yeah.”
“Declan is playing well. Or that’s what this announcer is saying.”
“You’re watching the Wildcats?” I got my love, or rather lack of, sports from my mom.
“It’s on. I wouldn’t say I’m watching it exactly. I started a new cross stitch. But I thought I should see if this new son-in-law of mine is any good.”
A laugh slips free. “Yeah, he’s pretty good.”
The guys take the ice and Mom and I fall quiet again.
“I’m sorry for the things I said about you and Declan,” she says when I’m sure the conversation is over and she’s going to excuse herself and hang up. “You were right. I don’t know anything about healthy relationships or staying married. I hope you two are really happy together for a long time.”
“I’m sorry, too. I was awful to you. No matter what choices you made when I was a kid, I’m an adult now and I can’t put this on you.”
“No, you can’t, but you weren’t wrong. I gave up on finding love a long time ago. I’ve settled for companionship. But when I met Declan, I thought you’d found what I hadn’t. I guess it was a little bit of a shock to find out it wasn’t real.”
“I think love is like the color pink. It’s ageless. You can still have more than companionship, Mom.”
She lets out a small chuckle. “Maybe you’re right.”
“I better go,” I say, when the action starts back up on the ice. “Can I come back another weekend and see you?”
“It’s your home,” she says. “You’re always welcome here.”
I hang up and take my seat next to Scarlett.
“Everything okay?” she asks.
I nod. “Yeah.”
“You don’t look convinced.”
“Do you consider home to be your parents’ house or Leo’s now that you live together?”
“Leo’s house.” She smiles. “Why?”
“My mom called her house my home, and it was strange. I don’t feel like that’s my home anymore. I guess I haven’t lived there in so long anyway.”
She bumps her shoulder against mine. “It isn’t the house. It’s Declan. He feels like home to you now.”
After the game, Jack has a party at his house. Declan and I drive straight there, and it’s already packed.
Declan guides me in front of him with a hand on my lower back.
“Who are all these people?” I yell over the music.
“I have no idea and I don’t care.” He pulls me backward into a corner of the living room and presses into me. His lips are on mine before I realize what he’s doing.
I wrap my arms around his neck and smile into the kiss. His hands slide into the back pockets of my jeans and his fingers dig into my ass as he draws me tighter against him.
“Someone is feeling frisky.” I nip at his bottom lip. “Are you always like this after games? Because I think I just found a new appreciation for hockey.”
“It isn’t hockey.” His mouth slants over mine and he lets out a little growl. “It’s you.”
“Me?” I ask, when we pull apart a few seconds later. “You didn’t greet me like that this morning.”
“You wearing that hat with my name and number on it, cheering me on.”
My fingers lift to touch the beanie still on my head. “How do you know I was cheering?”
“Just a guess. Were you?”
“Maaaybe.” I draw out the word. I definitely was. It turns out, once I stopped freaking out about the lies we’ve spun and how they could hurt the people he cares about, I’m not that different from Scarlett when it comes to cheering on my man.
He lets out a low, deep groan. “I knew it.”
“You looked real good out there. I got a little carried away.”
“I’m about to get carried away here.” One hand moves from my ass and slips under my shirt. His fingers leave a trail of goosebumps as they move up my spine and then wrap around the back of my neck.
“You know, we do live like a hop, skip, and a jump down the road.”
“Can’t wait that long. Come on.” He’s walking again, dragging me along as he weaves through people until we reach a closed door. Pushing it open like he lives here, he flips on a light and then shuts the door, pressing me against it.
Bookshelves grab my attention as his mouth descends and covers mine.
“What is this room?”
“Library,” Declan says.
“Jack has a library?!”
“You want a library, baby?” He lifts my shirt and his lips graze over the top of my breasts.
“I didn’t know that was an option. I don’t even buy paperbacks anymore because I got tired of moving them from apartment to apartment.”
He pulls back long enough to look me in the eye. “You can have whatever you want.”
My heart pounds in my chest at the sincerity of his words. Declan is the kind of guy I have to remember to be careful sharing my dreams with because he’s just ridiculous enough to try to make them come true.
“Right now. I just want you.”
A slow smile pulls at the corners of his mouth. “If you weren’t already my wife, I’d ask you to be my girlfriend.”
