Oh man that's sweet, but it's also not necessary. "No way. I committed to you first and the celebration will be just as good on Friday as it would be tomorrow. So tonight I'm yours, tomorrow I sit in your seats at the game, and I'll be yours then too, then Friday you come and hang out with my new family."
Roman's eyebrows furrow and suddenly looks extremely uncomfortable. "Listen, Lexi...I don't think I should go on Friday."
"What?" I exclaim in confusion. "Why not?"
"That's a family thing," he says.
"So?" I say quickly. "It's a group thing and Brian, I mean Dad, explicitly invited you."
One of Roman's arms releases me and he scratches at the back of his buzzed haircut as he gives me an even more uncomfortable look.
"What's wrong?" I ask softly, bringing my palms to his cheeks.
His eyes drop from mine momentarily, but when they lift back up, I see resolve in them. "I don't feel comfortable, really, in that situation."
"Why not?" I ask perplexed, but then immediately it becomes clear to me. "Because of Gray?"
Roman shrugs. "Sort of."
"Well, it either is or isn't," I say, frustrated that he's making me pull this out of him. So I implore, "Just lay it on me, Roman. I'm a big girl and can handle it."
After letting out a big sigh, he brings his arms back around me and says softly, "Part of it's Gray. Things are just tense between us and I'm not sure it's a good idea for us to hang in a social setting. But also, I'm just uncomfortable with the whole family thing."
"The family thing?" I ask.
"This is a special moment for you, and on the best of days, I've never been a family type of guy. It's just foreign to me. I never had get-togethers or celebrations. I've always been sort of a solitary person. I do better in one-on-one situations, so try to think of it as my social game just really sucks in those situations. Add in the pressure that this is a really big deal, you finding your family and trying to establish a bond with them, I just don't feel comfortable with it. So if it's okay with you, I'd really like to pass on hanging out with everyone on Friday."
My stomach sinks with disappointment over Roman's words, and while I don't like them, I can understand them. I mean...I can at least try to understand where he's coming from.
Sort of.
Well, not really.
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.
In the tense few moments before the ref drops the puck, my body naturally tenses up, ready to burst forward, or backward, depending on where the puck goes.
It tenses further when Schultz mutters at me just as the ref lets the puck go, "I bet her pussy tastes sweet, right, Sykora?"
When the puck hits the ice, there's a clamor of sticks at it, and it's knocked free and right toward me. I battle Schultz for control of it, break it clean, and get a pass off to Garrett. He fakes left, weaves right, and puts it right on goal, and by right on goal I mean right into the Cardinal goalie's glove.
The whistle blows and play is stopped again, but this time there's an accompanying TV time-out as evidenced by the red light that's gone on inside the official's booth. It's near the end of my shift anyway, so we'll switch out with the next line.
I start a slow skate toward the bench while loud rock music is played thro
ughout the arena during the time-out. I tilt my head to the side to take a quick peek at Lexi, and I put the brakes on, coming to a dead stop.
It's almost like slow motion.
Lexi's standing at the glass, cheering along with the rest the crowd and clapping to the music. She's looking straight at me with a huge smile on her face, but I don't smile back. That's because I see Nick Schultz skating up to the glass. He comes to a stop, tapping his stick against the glass to get her attention, and her eyes slowly slide to his and then round with surprise to see him standing there.
The fucker drops his right glove, holds his hand up making a V between his index and middle finger, and then lewdly sticks his tongue in between it, wiggling obscenely. Forget he just did this in front of a little kid sitting right behind Lexi. Forget play is stopped and I should be heading to the bench.
Forget that Gray Brannon warned me about doing anything stupid.
Forget all that.
My blood pressure skyrockets and I feel a sensation of pinpricks all over my body, followed by the pure scorching heat of rage. Before I even think about what I'm doing, I burst across the ice at him, raising my stick at the same time. He doesn't even see me coming, which means he's blindsided when I cross-check him across his left shoulder with my stick, sending him crashing into the glass right where Lexi's standing.
He falls to the ice and then immediately tries to jump back up, but it's not fast enough. I dump my stick and gloves, then drop down on him with a knee to his stomach, whereby I proceed to have that bare-knuckle fight I've been itching for since that asshole mentioned Lexi to me.
I'm able to get off three quick punches to his face, completely dissatisfied his skin doesn't split, before multiple sets of hands are pulling me off him. I struggle against them, even as they haul me up on my skates.
Schultz also jumps up and comes at me, but his teammates are on him as well.
Both of us strain and pull against our captors, and I only stop the futile effort when Alex Crossman hisses in my ear, "You need to calm the fuck down, Roman. You're in a world of shit as it is right now."
Those words turn my heated blood immediately to ice, as I consider the repercussions of what I just did. Cross-checking an unsuspecting player is some serious shit. The fighting, not so much, although it will surely earn me an ejection from this game, since it was unprovoked. As it stands, I just put my career in jeopardy...again.
And my girlfriend's sister is going to have something to say about it.
"I'm good," I tell my teammates, and they take me at face value, releasing me. Schultz's teammates do not let him go, but I don't care. He can come at me again, and I'll give him more of the same. But for now, I'm done.
"You're out, Sykora," the senior ref says as he skates up to me, then turns to look at Alex, since he's the captain. "Game misconduct."
I don't even argue, because it's a fair call. I'll let Alex be the one to make a fuss, even though it won't do any good. Instead, I skate toward the exit from the ice that leads to our locker room, which is in the opposite direction from Lexi. I don't look at her once, not because I don't care what she's feeling, but because I care too much.
--
I roll my tie up and shove it into my gear bag before zipping it closed. Picking up my suit coat, I drape it over the top of the bag, having no intention of putting it back on.
"You okay?" Alex asks as he comes to sit on the bench beside my bag. The locker room is clearing, as most of the players are showered and dressed. I didn't bother getting out of my gear until the game was over, not because I thought I could get called back in, because I wouldn't--an ejection is an ejection--but really, I was just glued to the TV screen in the locker room watching the rest of the game, which thankfully we won due to some exceptional goal tending from Max Fournier.
"Yeah," I tell him truthfully. Because I am okay. No regrets whatsoever for going after Schultz, but I do worry about how this will affect Lexi, and maybe slightly worried it will affect my career. "I know hindsight is twenty-twenty and all, but I'd do it all over again."
"I didn't see what prompted your reaction," Alex says, giving me the opening to explain.
I shrug. "He'd been running his trap like normal, but I was ignoring him. Figured we'd get into a fight at some point, but I kind of lost my shit when he started talking about my girlfriend and then made a lewd gesture at her."
Alex's eyebrows shoot upward. "You have a girlfriend?"
I give him a bland look. "I suppose that's the expression people used to give you when you started getting serious with Sutton, right?"
Alex bursts out laughing. "Yeah, pretty much. I suppose if I can fall, you can too. Is it serious?"
I incline my head his way. "I just cross-checked an unsuspecting player because he wiggled his tongue at my girlfriend. Let's just say this is as serious as it gets for me."
"Good for you," Alex says as he stands up from the bench. "But, man, I hate to tell you...you're going to catch some shit on this. Gray's talked to me about her concerns with you, so I'm aware of her feelings on the matter."
Oh, Alex...you have really no idea. He has no clue how complicated this is, given that Gray and Lexi are sisters, which just complicates the hell out of everything. And he won't know for a few days at least, so I don't say anything.
Brian called Lexi today and they talked a little about how to make the announcement, but ultimately decided it could wait until at least Friday when they all got together so everyone could weigh in on the opinion. Lexi had asked me after she hung up what I thought, but I told her my opinion shouldn't matter. Not on something like this, and she didn't push me for it.
"Want my advice?" Alex asks as he claps a hand on my shoulder in a brotherly fashion. It feels odd, as I've never been particularly close to any of my teammates, but Alex is one I feel most comfortable with. He's our team captain so it's his job to connect with us.
"Sure," I say automatically. Because...why not?
"Make sure Gray knows what provoked the attack," he says solemnly. "Let her know he was going after your girl."
"And why should I do that?" I ask, although I had already decided I was going to tell her the reasons for my behavior. I sort of suspected that at the least Gray would respect I was defending her sister. But I do want to hear why Alex is suggesting it, as he might have more insight into Gray and what makes her tick.
"Let's just say that Gray's been in that same exact situation," Alex says as he leans in toward me conspiratorially. "Ryker defended her once and got into a fight with Claude Amadee."
"I'd forgotten about that," I say with a nod.
"She won't accept it as an excuse," Alex adds, bursting my bubble. "She fined Ryker and told him the behavior was inexcusable."
I wince.
"But," Alex continues. "She still was his champion when it came to keeping him with this team. There were some that wanted to get rid of him, but she was able to put all of it into perspective and weigh the good against the bad. I'm just saying...she'll bring that into consideration."
God, I hope so.
I thank Alex as I pick up my bag with the jacket draped over it and head out of the locker room. Lexi will be waiting on me in the family room, since she came with me to the arena, and will be going home with me right now.
As soon as I step into the hallway, my entire body locks tight when I hear Gray Brannon say from my right, "Got a minute to talk?"
I turn slowly to look at her. She's leaning up against the painted cinder-block wall, dressed more casually then I normally see her, with a long silvery sweater that comes down past her baby bump with black jeans.
There's nothing casual about her demeanor, as she's got her arms crossed over her chest and her look is anything but happy to be having this conversation with me.
With a sigh, I walk over to her and let my gear bag slide to the floor, but not before grabbing my suit jacket. I slip it on, because we're supposed to dress up for game day and somehow I think she might be expecting
me to wear it.
"That was a dangerous move," she says in a low voice that seems to be barely controlled with fury. "You could have seriously hurt Schultz, which could have earned you a suspension for the rest of the year. As it is, all we can do is hope like hell the league doesn't review that hit."
"It was after we went to a TV time-out," I say nonchalantly, knowing damn well that will infuriate her. "I doubt they'll see it."
Gray's cheeks flame red and her eyes narrow to tiny slits. She pushes off the wall and steps into me, and although Gray is a tall woman, she still has to look up. "Just because you're dating my sister doesn't mean you get any special privileges with me, Sykora."
"Never would assume that," I assure her.
"Then how about treating me with some respect as this team's general manager," she hisses at me. "We just had a conversation a little over three weeks ago about this very thing. If you think I won't take action, you're sorely mistaken."
I let out a long exhale and breathe in deeply to try to calm down a bit. With as much humility as I can muster, I tell her, "I'm sorry I put this team in jeopardy today because of my actions. I know it could have cost us the game. But I am not sorry for what I did to Schultz. He deserved it."
"How in the hell do you figure that?" she asks in exasperation. "No one deserves a surprise cross-check from the back."
"He went after Lexi," I say quietly as a few of the last players trickle out of the locker room and walk past us.
"Explain," is all she says, crossing her arms back over her chest.
"He was trying to get me riled up on the ice, saying things about her," I tell her. "But I didn't rise to that. No problem ignoring him."
"But?" she prompts.
"But I got a little on edge when he told me he bet her pussy tasted sweet," I say bluntly, and Gray's nose wrinkles in distaste. "But still, I ignored him. It was only after the TV time-out went into effect and he skated over to Lexi and made a gesture with his fingers and tongue that mimed he wanted to eat her pussy, well...I wasn't going to let that pass. So I went after him. And would do it again in the same scenario."
Gray's face remains impassive for a moment as she considers what I told her, but then she puts the hammer down. "It doesn't matter what he did. That was a stupid penalty to take and you're at risk for a league suspension if they review this. Nothing warrants that, particularly when you were warned not all that long ago that I was not happy with the suspensions."