Seduced by the Game (32 page)

I couldn’t handle seeing
that happen to Katie. I wasn’t ready to let her go.

It seemed like Laura’s
words had hit Webs just like they’d hit me. He looked as nauseated as I felt.

She moved a few steps
closer to his bench and sat down next to him. “She has to remember that she’s
still alive. She has to remember what she’s living for or we’re going to lose
her. This whole ordeal has just proven that, no matter how much we may want to,
we can’t protect her from life.”

“I don’t want to protect
her from life,” Webs grumbled. “I want to protect her from dipshits like him—”

“He’s not going to hurt
her, Dave, and you’re seriously deluding yourself if you for one second believe
otherwise.”

I was a lot more afraid
that I was going to be the one to get hurt in all of this—that I would end up
with a broken heart. Someday, when Katie was healthy again and ready to get
back to her life as it should be, she would move on. She’d probably head to LA
or New York, somewhere she could pursue an acting or singing career. It was
what she’d been dreaming of as long as I’d known her. I’d have to let her go,
even though it would probably rip me to shreds. It would be worth it, though,
getting hurt in the end. At least it would if it meant giving Katie
something—anything—she could hold on to.

If it meant getting to
hold her at least for one night.

“I don’t like it,” he
said, looking straight through me.

“None of us likes it,”
Laura said. “It makes us feel helpless because we can’t do anything. But for
once, try to imagine what it’s like for Katie.”

I had to wait a long time
for Webs to respond.

* * * *

We had several games on
the road after that, so I didn’t get the chance to see or talk to Katie for
over a week. I got to see Webs a whole lot more than I might have liked, since
he was still more than happy to glare at me and tell me all the horrible and
painful things he’d do to me if I did hurt her in any way.

I’d do anything to keep
her from getting hurt, though.

Once we got back, I was
really glad I’d taken Zee’s advice last season and bought a tux. He’d told me
there would be black-tie dinners, an annual Casino Night, and God only knew
what else that I’d need one for during my pro career, and it just made more
sense to have one of my own instead of wasting time trying to rent one. When
you considered the fact that most hockey players needed custom-made pants
anyway because we tend to have big thighs and asses, it really seemed stupid to
rent.

Even still, I’d had to get
some adjustments made to mine before Casino Night about a month ago. Everyone
had warned me to get one with extra allowance for alterations because I
probably wasn’t finished growing. They’d been right. I’d added a couple more
inches in height and about fifteen pounds of muscle since I got drafted the
summer I was eighteen.

My tux still fit me now,
though. My body hadn’t changed too much since Casino Night. I adjusted the
cummerbund and bow tie, looking myself over in the mirror.
Fuck
. I
should have gotten a haircut, at least. It was a lot shaggier than it should
be, and my faux hawk probably wasn’t the best choice for an event like this,
but there hadn’t been time for that once we’d landed at PDX. I’d just had time
to get home, eat something, and get dressed.

I rubbed some product
between my hands and tried to get my hair to settle down—without much luck.
Yeah, I really should’ve worked in time for a cut. If I was going almost
anywhere else, I could toss a ball cap over it and pretend there wasn’t a
problem. Not tonight.

After a minute, I gave up
trying to get it to lie flat or even to stop poking up in random ways. There
wasn’t much point.

I headed to the living
room. Kally came out of the kitchen with a glass of water. He looked me over
and nodded.

“You’re doing a good
thing,” he said. “Katie’s really lucky to have you.”

He had it all wrong,
though. I was lucky to have her. I tried to shrug off all the jumbles of things
racing through me. At least for tonight, I had to keep it together.

“Got big plans for
tonight?” I asked him. In the few weeks since Kally had arrived in Portland,
there hadn’t been too many times that he and I weren’t doing something together
on a night off. I’d been trying to help him get to know the area, to make sure
he wasn’t alone too much. It had to be tough, being the new guy on a team that
had been together all season.

He shook his head. “Not
really. I think I’m just going to drive around and see the city. I haven’t had
much opportunity for that.”

“Yeah. Well, if you get
bored, call Burnzie,” I said. Keith Burns didn’t believe in boredom. He always
had something going on. Granted, probably not the sorts of things that would
interest Kally, but still. I hated to see the guy alone, knowing what I did
about how his wife died. It had been all over the news—the mainstream news,
too, not just the hockey news. She’d had a flat tire on the highway and had
been hit by an eighteen-wheeler while she was trying to change it.

He’d been gone with the
team on a road trip. I hadn’t ever talked to him about it. I didn’t know how to
bring it up, or if it would be stupid or rude of me to try to get him to talk.
But everyone knew.

“I doubt I’ll need to do
that,” Kally said, grinning.

I could never tell if his
smiles were real or if he was just trying to pretend he was okay.  How long
does it take to get over something like that? I hoped I didn’t have to learn
anytime soon. “Yeah. You’re probably right.”

“Get out of here. Go get
Katie, and don’t worry about me.” He swallowed a big swig of water. “I can look
after myself.”

I didn’t have time to
argue with him unless I wanted to be late picking up Katie. Considering all the
threats Webs had issued lately, I didn’t think that would be a good idea.

I pulled into their
driveway about five minutes early.

Luke Weber—Katie’s younger
brother—opened the door. “You’d better come in and help or you’ll never get out
of here. Mom’s fussing over her.”

As soon as I stepped into
the foyer, I could hear the commotion.

“This one looks so pretty
with the color of the dress, though,” Laura said.

“But it’s
flannel
,”
Dani Weber—the youngest of the Weber siblings—said. You could almost hear a
horrified shudder in her voice.

“Exactly. It’s flannel,”
Laura countered. “Which will keep her head warm.”

“I’m not wearing a flannel
scarf with this dress.”

“You could just stay home
and not have to worry about what scarf to wear,” Webs put in hopefully.

“She’s going,” Laura and
Dani said at the same time.

“Not in a scarf that
doesn’t look right,” Katie said. “I’d rather go with nothing on my head at
all.”

“But you’ll get cold,”
Laura argued.

Luke glanced over at me,
his eyebrows shooting up into his hairline almost comically. “See what I mean?”

He led me into the living
room, where dozens of scarves of every color and fabric imaginable were draped
over all the furniture. Laura must have started shopping for them the same day
they got the diagnosis. Katie stood in the middle of the mess wearing an
ice-blue dress that made her look like a princess. She even had on gloves,
those long satiny ones that went up higher than her elbows. It was like she’d
stepped right out of a fairy tale.

She looked up and saw me
then. And she smiled.

My tongue got thick and
dry. No one had caused that sort of reaction in me in a long time—no one but
Katie. I cleared my throat. “You look beautiful.”

She gave a tiny shake of
her head, and she blushed. “Do you mind? If I don’t wear a scarf tonight? I
haven’t found a wig I like yet, and I just…” Her eyes fell down to the flannel
scarf in her hand.

“I don’t mind whatever you
do. You’ll always be beautiful to me.”

Webs shot me a go-to-hell
look and grunted, and I was sure he was about to spout off another threat, but
Laura’s eyes turned soft and misty before he could. “But if you get cold…” she
said.

“We’ll take a scarf with
us,” I said, and I felt the weight of Katie’s gaze fall on me. “And a sweater.
Just in case.” She had those gloves going up her arms, but her shoulders were
bare. I didn’t know how warm that dress was, but it didn’t look anywhere close
to as warm as my tux, and it was cool out tonight.

Katie nodded. “Just in
case.”

After a little more
hemming and hawing, Laura finally relented and agreed to let us go as long as
we took a warm scarf and sweater with us. I draped them both over my arm to
carry them for Katie, and she picked up a small, white evening bag. I reached
for her hand, but Webs cut between us and put a hand at the small of Katie’s
back.

He lifted a brow at me in
challenge.

I turned tail and headed
for the door. The sooner I could get her away from his prying eyes, the better.
Part of me wondered if Webs had gotten them to install video cameras at the
school gym so he could spy on us from home. I wouldn’t put it past him.

“Wait!” Laura practically
shouted behind us. “Pictures. I need to have pictures.”

“They’re already late
enough,” Webs said, but he turned around. “They’ll have a photographer at the
prom, won’t they?”

“Have you
seen
the
kinds of pictures those photographers take?” Laura countered.

“It’ll be fine, Mom,”
Katie said. “You’ve got the pictures from last year anyway. And we’ll make sure
they take good ones. Won’t we?” She looked at me when she asked that last bit.

I nodded. “Absolutely.”
Not that I had a clue how I could make sure of something like that, but I had
seen Laura Weber staging photo shoots before at team events—ordering people
around like a drill sergeant. If I let her stop us now, we’d be here for
another hour. Maybe longer.

She scowled, but she let
us go.

When we got to my car, I
opened the passenger door for Katie. Webs helped her in and shut the door
before spinning around on me.

I had my free hand up in
self-defense without thinking. “I swear I’m not going to—”

“Shut up, Babs,” he
interrupted.

I dropped my hand to my
side, readjusting my grip on Katie’s sweater and scarf. “Sorry.”

“I just wanted to thank
you. For this.” Webs waved his hand haphazardly, encompassing everything around
us. “And to say I’m sorry I’ve been an ass. I just don’t know—” He cut himself
off just as suddenly as he’d cut me off, and he blinked hard a couple of times.
“I just needed someone to blame. Someone to take it out on. And I used you for
that, even though it wasn’t fair.”

“You don’t need to apologize.”
It might suck for me, but it made me really glad Katie had a dad who cared
enough to be like that. That’s how families are supposed to be.

“I do,” Webs said. “And I
really do appreciate what you’re doing for my little girl, but if she isn’t
inside my house by midnight, all my previous threats are back in play.”

I bit down on my tongue to
keep myself from laughing. Moments like this, I was never sure if he was joking
around with me or being serious. I figured it was somewhere in the middle.
“Yes, sir. I’ll have her back.”

“You’d better. And if you
fucking call me
sir
again…” Webs headed back toward the house without
finishing his thought. “Take my little girl to her prom, Babs. Get out of here
before I change my mind.”

I headed around to the
driver’s side and got in with an uncontrollable smile on my face. I set her
scarf and sweater down on the center console.

Katie put her hand on my
forearm as I put the key in the ignition. “Was he horrible? Please tell me he
wasn’t awful to you.”

I turned the key, and the
engine purred. I might have been purring, too, because she was touching me.
Shit, I was a mess. “He wasn’t awful. He just loves you,” I said finally. I
almost said something crazy like
Just like I love you
, but I stopped
myself. I didn’t even know if I loved her. I knew I liked her a lot—more than I
should, considering she was Webs’s daughter. But tonight wasn’t about me
spilling my guts and making her feel like she needed to reciprocate. Tonight
was about giving Katie a night where she could be a princess. “But we’d better
not be late getting you home. I don’t want him to turn my car into a pumpkin.”
Or me, for that matter.