Heart and Snow (Texas Highlanders Ice Hockey) (15 page)

True to form, Jo whipped out a copy of Consumer Reports, and some list off a mom’s board she had printed out. Her blonde brow furrowed in concentration, even more so as she started to wander toward the cribs.

“This one by Vasbro has high marks in Consumer Reports, but several of the moms said that it was overpriced and shoddy.” She twirled around to face him. “What do you think about a convertible crib?”

“What about it?”

“I mean, it would save us money in the long run.”

Cody sighed and cupped her face. “Jo, get whatever you want for this baby. You want to buy a car crib, buy one.”

Jo snorted. “It’s not a car, Cody. It’s a crib that converts to a full size bed. It grows with the baby.”

“Oh.” Well, didn’t he feel foolish. “Okay, then. That sounds good.”

“Did you mean that?”

“What?”

“That I could get whatever I want?”

“Yes, babe.”

“But what about what you want?”

Cody sighed. “Baby, I don’t know anything about this stuff. You’ve been reading up on all of it. I’ve been on the road for the last month. I’m kinda clueless.”

Jo took his hand and lightly dropped a kiss on his lips. “I still want you to be part of this.” Her smile faded. “You do still want to be part of this, right?”

Alarm bells went off in his head as he saw the mood shift. Her eyes started that pre-watering thing she was prone to doing.

“Of course I do!” He rested his hands on her shoulders and touched his forehead to hers. “We’re a team, remember?” She nodded, forcing him to nod along with her. “Good, then no more questions like that. I’m here because I want to be.”

“Sorry,” she started to pull away, but he wrapped her in his arms, and lowered his head to her. Their lips touched, hers warm and inviting. The belly she sported had become noticeable in the last few weeks, and the baby inside made her disapproval of the sudden closeness known. Three kicks close to his groin area and he pulled back. Jo laughed. “Already this baby has a strong opinion.”

“There goes our sex life,” he retorted.

She took his hand and led him to the cribs. As she inspected each crib, he pulled his phone out. He had five texts from his dad. All of them pictures of the construction in the new facility. At one point, he needed to show Jo this new venture. They’d talked about it, but she had a lot on her plate just then. Plus, he wanted to surprise her. She’d ice skated a lot as a kid, so he thought she’d get a kick out of what his dad was building.

He glanced at his watch. He had four hours to when he needed to be at the arena for the game tonight. He’d promised Jo this shopping trip or he’d not have gone at all. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to pick these things out, but on game day, he usually relaxed around the house.

“Cody?” He snapped his head up, as Jo pointed to a chestnut crib with a gate on the top. “What about this one?”

He walked over to where she stood. The crib was sturdy, the slats wide with a small space between them.

Jo grinned. “It’s perfect. It turns into a toddler bed with the same mattress, and then later, when she’s older, we can buy frames for it and it can be a full size.”

“That’s great, hon.”

“So, you like it?”

Cody glanced at his wife, her excitement almost contagious. Despite their troubles a few short weeks ago, they were committed to making this work, and Jo was really getting into the pregnancy stuff. Maybe it was hormones, but she seemed to have accepted that she was going to be a mother. He thought maybe it was Christmas with her family that did it for her.

He nodded. “Yeah, it’s perfect.”

Jo emitted a little squeal, and a large smile passed over her face. “I’ma take a picture of it to send to Mom.”

Cody’s heart melted with the radiance of that smile. He’d do just about anything to see that smile on her all the time.

*~*~*

Cody dropped the crib’s box carefully in the soon to be baby room. They hadn’t yet cleaned it out in preparation of the baby, but it was on the list of things Jo wanted to do soon. She stepped back and stared at the box. This was real. Even while it was still in the box, it felt real.

As if in response, the baby kicked inside her, just a faint movement that was almost like a gas bubble. She rested her hand on her stomach. They’d wasted so much time fighting about this. Now, she just wanted to move on, and get ready for this huge change in their lives.

“What are you thinking about, Jo?”

He came behind her and embraced her, one hand under her breasts, his hand splayed across her growing belly. The other, he ran down her arm, and intertwined their fingers together. She leaned against him, dropping her head against his shoulder. His lips on her neck made her sigh.

“Us. This.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “It’s feeling more real. Val wants to throw me a baby shower.”

“I didn’t think you and Val were so close.” She glanced back at him. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s okay by me. Just an observation.”

She smiled, his backtracking amusing her greatly. She’d talked to Val a lot lately, trying to figure out this whole baby thing. She finally had a handle on it, but now she’d gotten super close with the counselor. “When are we going to put all this together?”

“Well…” He nuzzled the crook of her neck. “We could do it after the game tonight.”

“You’re always tired after games. And what if you want to go out with the guys?”

She accepted the rituals Cody had with the other players. When they won, they went to the Penalty Box for drinks. Hell, when they lost, they went out for drinks. Either way, they needed that male bonding thing they did. She didn’t want to mess with that. Hockey players were too damn superstitious.

“I’d skip it for you,” he said.

“We can always do it in the morning.”

“Interviews with the press in the morning,” he said. “And you have an appointment in the afternoon.”

“It’s not like it’s got to be done tomorrow.” She was feeling a little weird now. He was pushing setting up the room, and it was setting panic in her. She didn’t want to pressure him for what they had weeks to do still.

“But we should do it.”

“You’ll be here? Tonight?” Unsure, she turned to face him.

“Yeah. I’ll let you know if I run late, though.”

She studied his face. He seemed serious enough, but she couldn’t get that nagging feeling out. He had his rituals, and he was offering to change them for her. She smiled, and slid up to her tiptoes to drop a thankful kiss on his lips.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Gavin woke to the sound of the front door, and realized he’d fallen asleep on the couch. He groaned softly and stood, rubbing his arms as he started back toward his bedroom. He needed to not be in the living room, especially if Misha had a female friend with him.

“Gav, man.”

His back stiffened as he heard Misha’s voice. Slowly he turned. Misha stumbled a little as he walked through the living room, overcompensating as he tried to curve around furniture.

“You bailed on me.”

“Sorry, man. I wasn’t into it.” Gavin eyed his friend. His eyes were bloodshot. “I was just going to bed.”

“You were waiting up for me.” Misha grinned, showing off the twin dimples, the ones that held the key to women dropping their panties for him.

Gavin frowned. What the hell? “I’m not your mother, Misha. I just fell asleep watching TV.”

“No. Not my mother. Very much not my mother.” Misha loosened his button up shirt, leaving two buttons near the top undone.

Oh, lord. The deep V left him a clear view of the smooth chest and firm muscular tone beneath. He didn’t have a hard on right then, but he was ridiculously close. He ached, in a very real need to possess Misha.

“So how long we dance here?”

“What?”

Misha tended to lose some of his vocabulary when he drank, his Russian accent getting thicker and the words were harder to pronounce for him.

“I’m thinking we drop the
derr`mo
and discuss real issue.”

“What are you talking about?”

Misha crossed the room in long, confident strides. He stopped two feet from him.

Gavin swallowed. Damn, Misha looked good. Blond hair mussed in whatever artful way was trendy right now. His blue shirt was half undone, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His black jeans matched his black boots. That damn spicy cologne he wore permeated his senses again.

“
Davay potrahaemsya
.” His voice was low, seductive, and each syllable of the Russian words went straight to his groin. “Do you know what that means?”

Gavin shook his head. But by the way Misha said it, it was dangerous.

“It means… let’s fuck.”

Shock slammed into him at Misha’s words, a cargo train going full speed, barreling right into him. He had to have misheard. There’s no way Misha Kozlov was seriously propositioning him. No. The man was straight as an arrow. He met Misha’s eyes, and that might have been the worst mistake he could make. Heat smoldered within them, leaving his answer plain as day.

Misha really wanted him.

“No. That can’t be.” Disbelief swam in his stomach, turning it into knots. The thing that he’d wanted this long, that desire he felt for his best friend… He had to be fucking with his head. There was no way that Misha wanted him.

“Why not?”

All of a sudden, he couldn’t think, couldn’t stay there. He couldn’t breathe. Misha started to step toward him. Gavin jumped back. “No. We’re not doing this. This is not happening.”

“You want to fuck me, don’t you?” Such a fucking innocent question. God, yes, he wanted to fuck the shit out of Misha. “Because I want to fuck you.” A spike of lust drove straight into his cock, but the man was drunker than shit. It wasn’t how he wanted things to go.

“We can’t.”

“Why?”

“You’re drunk.” Gavin said.

“Just enough to realize what I’ve been missing.” Misha cupped Gavin’s cheek. The heat from his hand had Gavin jumping back again. Panic gripped him, because god, he wanted this man, and here he was, just right there and hot for him. But this wasn’t Misha. Not the Misha he knew.

“No.”

There. That sounded more authoritative.

“Gav.”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he spun away and ran for the door.

“Gavin.” The commanding voice rooted him. God, why did he stop? He needed out of there. He didn’t look back. “I want the same fucking thing you do.”

Gavin zipped around. Misha’s sparkling blue eyes told the truth. They really did. But the revelation was short-lived as Misha took an uneasy step toward him. If he did anything with Misha now, he’d regret it, wonder if it was because Misha was drunk. Tension solidified in the room, thick and suffocating, threatening to choke him. “Tell me that when you’re not drunk. Otherwise, we’ll forget this ever happened. Good night, Misha.”

With the last ounce of strength he had, he turned away, and left his best friend in the middle of the living room.

*~*~*

Sweat trickled down the sides of Cody’s face. He reached behind him and gripped the water bottle on the net. He tilted his head back, and sprayed the water into his mouth. He swished it around and swallowed. Third period, tied at one each. The Blues were up on shots on the net though, and that made him nervous.

Their defense was sucking tonight.

The face-off was to his right, this time. Moran came forward, with Ferrara and Kozlov flanking him. It wasn’t the normal line up, but Charbonneau was out on a shoulder injury. Moran was picking up the slack for the night.

He glanced up at the scoreboard. Five minutes. Five minutes and the game would slide into overtime. And the Blues were currently incredible in overtime, or so said their stats.

The puck hit the ice. Moran surged forward, snapping the puck away and toward Kozlov while Ferrara slammed his full weight into one of the Blues players and checked him into the boards. Kozlov skated around the goal and took off, breaking away from the pack. The lines went charging down the ice toward the other goal, but Kozlov had the head start. He deked once, and slapped the puck, the quick movement bypassing the Blues’ goalie’s glove by mere hundredths of a second. It clanged loudly on the red pipes and fell behind the line.

The crowd soared out of their seats, the screams reaching a decibel he did not realize the place could handle. Cody glanced up at the clock. Thirty seconds. The boys switched out lines, and fought it out on the other side of the ice.

When the buzzer sounded, the crowd cheered. Cody grinned and sprayed his bottle in his face. Water dripped from his face as he skated back to the benches and the team filed back to the locker room.

The locker room was filled with high energy. Cody showered and got back to his cubby. His phone was blinking with messages. He picked it up, and keyed in his code to unlock it. First message was from Jo, congratulating him on the game. She said she’d see him soon. He knew he had a big goofy grin on his face.

The next message was from his father.

Great game! Come have a celebratory dinner with me.

He wanted to see his father. He’d never spent any time outside of practices and such with him. When he was a kid, his father had never been around. Now that he was, he found he was aching for more time with him.

But Joey was waiting for him.

He scrolled back to her message and replied.
Going out with Dad. BBL tonight
. He hovered over the send button. Jo would be there when he got home. It would only be dinner. It was still pretty early, so he could go have a quick dinner and then head home for celebrating with Jo. He hit the send button.

There was no immediate reply, so he got dressed, only halfway paying attention to the guys around him as they made plans for the late night.

Charbonneau entered the locker room to a chorus of guy cheers. “Nice game, fellas.”

His arm was in a sling, over a double breasted suit. Cody hadn’t even known he was there tonight, but Charbonneau hadn’t missed a Highlander game in more than sixteen years.

Gavin let out a wolf whistle. “Look at you, GQ!” A sexy growl left his throat, and he made some way inappropriate gestures involving his dick that made Cody glad they didn’t have press in there at the moment.