On the Fly (42 page)

“
I suppose you could look
at it that way,” I said with a cheeky grin.

“
Then I accept.”

He kissed me, his hands cupping my
cheeks and keeping my head in place. Even when he broke off the
kiss, he kept holding me like that.

“
I’m good at freaking out
when it comes to the people I love,” he said, his eyes roving over
my face. “But I can’t promise I won’t punch the next man who scares
Maddie.”

“
Can you at least warn me
first so I can make sure the kids aren’t watching?”

“
Deal.”

It was about time he made a deal with
me instead of my kids. I kissed him again to seal it. All good
deals should be sealed with a kiss.

I was still
dripping in sweat after practice when Hammer came
up to my locker stall.

“
Jim said he needs to see
you when you get cleaned up, Soupy.”

I felt every eye in the room fall on
me, even though Hammer had said the words quietly. Today was a day
every hockey player in the league dreaded: the trade deadline. No
one wanted to get called in to the GM’s office. No one wanted their
phone to ring with news that they’d been traded. Even after we went
home, we would all be glued to the TV. Sometimes we’d find out we
were on the move through the all-day trade deadline coverage before
the GM could contact us with the news. It wasn’t uncommon to
discover that a good friend and teammate had been traded because it
flashed across the news ticker.

Trade deadline day sucked. There were
no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

I forced myself to swallow and dragged
a dry towel over my face, trying to staunch the sweat. “Yeah,
Hammer,” I said. “I’ll head up in a few minutes.”

The look on his face just before he
turned and walked away was one of pure pity, which only served to
piss me off. I didn’t want his pity. I wanted to stay here, with
the Storm. I thought that I’d done enough to deserve the chance to
do exactly that since I’d come back from my injury. I’d done
everything Scotty had asked of me.

When he’d started me out on the fourth
line, only letting me play a few minutes a game, I’d worked my ass
off for those few minutes and proved I could contribute even with
the limited ice time. I hadn’t voiced a single word of
complaint.

It hadn’t been long before my play had
justified him moving me up the lineup, and I’d been back playing
alongside Zee and Babs for the better part of the last month. We
were scoring, and we were keeping the other team from scoring more
often than not. We were working as a unit, the three of us, and
that meant I was doing my fucking job.

Most importantly, I hadn’t been giving
Scotty any reason to cuss me out. I’d played smart hockey, taking
what the other team gave me and not taking too many chances. I
hadn’t reinjured myself. I was doing everything right, for once in
my damn career.

The team as a whole had been playing
really good hockey lately, and that was largely due to our line. We
had worked our way up the standings and at the moment, we were
hanging on to a playoff spot. It looked like the Storm was going to
get back into the postseason for the first time in five years. That
meant any moves Jim made today would likely be to improve the team
in the here and now—not trading for draft picks or anything that
wouldn’t pan out until sometime in the future. He would want to
give us the best chance at winning he could. But did that mean I
didn’t factor into the picture?

I hurried through my shower and got
dressed. There wasn’t much point in putting this off. If he’d
traded me, I might as well find out now so I could figure out how
to explain things to Maddie and Tuck. Rachel wouldn’t need
explanations, but she would definitely need time to adjust to the
idea that I would be gone for a while.

I was just about to leave the locker
room, but Zee stopped me.

“
Hey,” he said. “It might
not be what you think it is.”

“
I know.” Not that I could
think of anything else Jim might want to see me about, at least not
today of all days.

“
And if it is, Rachel and
the kids won’t be alone. You know we’ll look after
them.”

“
I know.”
Apparently,
I know
was all I was capable of saying anymore.

“
Okay. Well, we’ll see you
after. We’ll wait here.”

I nodded and turned to leave, but Webs
stopped me right after I got through the door.

“
I, uh…” He dragged a hand
through his hair. “Today’s Katie’s first chemo treatment. I’ve
gotta go to the hospital, so I won’t be around. To
hear.”

“
Shit.” I’d almost
forgotten. Maddie had picked out a teddy bear to give to Katie and
sent it with me. It was in my stall. “Stay right there,” I said
without explaining. “Just for a second.”

I headed back into the locker room and
dug through my bag until I found it. When I pulled it out, Babs had
a funny look on his face, but he buried his head and pretended
nothing was going on. When I went back out into the hall, Webs
laughed.

“
It’s from Maddie,” I
explained. “I’ll text you later. Once I know.”

“
Yeah. Thanks,
Soupy.”

“
Katie’s going to be all
right,” I said. I had to believe it. He nodded and stuffed the bear
into his bag, and then he turned toward the parking
garage.

I made my way upstairs. Rachel was
finishing up a phone call and frantically typing something into her
computer when I got there. Jim was on his phone, too, with the door
closed. I lifted a brow at Rachel, but she could only shrug her
shoulders in response as she hung up the phone.

“
You know I don’t know
anything, and even if I did it should be Jim to tell you,” she
said. But God, she looked worried. Easily as worried as I was,
maybe more. I hated that for her, but there wasn’t a whole lot I
could say to console her at the moment.

Jim opened his office door and smiled
at me. “Come on in.”

I wasn’t particularly in the mood to
smile at the moment, but I went through the doorway and took a seat
across from his desk.

“
If anyone from the
Islanders calls for me, I need you to put them through right away,”
he said to Rachel. “Take messages from anyone else, and I’ll get
back to them as soon as possible.”

“
Yes, sir,” she
said.

He closed the door and crossed to sit
next to me. “I’m not trading you,” he said.

“
I— Wait, what?” That
didn’t compute.

“
I know you’re worried that
I’ve traded you, but I called you up here to tell you that’s not
going to happen.” Jim crossed his ankle over his knee and sat back
in his chair. “I had a long talk with Scotty last night, and he’s
finally seeing things my way. You’ve done enough to keep your spot
here.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“
The next step is for the
two of us to sit down and talk about the future, but that’s going
to have to wait for another day. My phone’s been ringing off the
hook today, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime
soon.” As if to emphasize his point, his phone rang right then.
Rachel answered it out at her desk, and Jim waited a moment,
looking through the window from a signal from her. She looked in
and shook her head. He smiled. “You’re not going to steal her away
from me, are you? I didn’t know if I could find someone to replace
Martha, but Rachel’s handling it better than I ever
expected.”

“
I guess that’ll depend on
what happens in those talks about the future,” I said once I could
remember how to speak.

Jim laughed. “Fair point. Listen, I
don’t want to keep you long, and I know you want to get out there
and tell her she can stop worrying, so just keep doing what you’re
doing.”

“
Yeah, thanks, Jim.” I got
up and shook his hand, the weight pressing against my chest slowly
easing. I headed for the door, but he stopped me before I could
open it.

“
There will be changes,
Brenden. But not you. I don’t want you going anywhere.”

I nodded and headed out just as Rachel
was hanging up the phone. I bent down to kiss her on the cheek.
“I’m staying put.”

“
Really?” Her eyes searched
mine, back and forth.

“
You think I would joke
about something like that?” I laughed. “Really. I’m staying right
here. That’s all he wanted to tell me.”

“
Oh, thank God.” She
slumped back in her chair, dragging the back of her hand across her
forehead in exaggerated relief. “I didn’t know when I was going to
have time to deal with all that paperwork.”

“
Paperwork?” I shook my
head and pulled her to her feet so I could kiss her
senseless.

No sooner had I gotten my lips on her
than her phone started ringing again.

She pulled away from me, giving me a
sexy look as she picked up the phone. “Jim Sutter’s office. Yes,
I’ll get him for you right away.” She pushed a button to put the
phone on hold and called over her shoulder, “It’s the Islanders,
Jim.”

“
Got it!” he said as the
phone rang again.

“
I’ll see you later?” I
said, backing away from her. I stuck my hands in my pockets and
grinned at the feeling of the small jewelry box in one of
them.

She nodded. “Jim Sutter’s
office?”

Later couldn’t come soon enough. We
had things to celebrate. Maybe a lot of things.

Catherine Gayle is a bestselling
author of Regency-set historical romance and contemporary hockey
romance with a New Adult feel. She’s a transplanted Texan living in
North Carolina with two extremely spoiled felines. In her spare
time, she watches way too much hockey and reality TV, plans fun
things to do for the Nephew Monster’s next visit, and performs
experiments in the kitchen which are rarely toxic.

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