You are the happiest gladiator I’ve ever seen,” Levi tells me.
“It’s a party, Levi. I’m supposed to have a good time,” I reply.
“We’ve been here forty minutes and you’ve mixed cocktails for people, talked to every person in the place and just spent five minutes dancing in the living room. I feel like someone should give you a lampshade to wear on your head, Mr. Life of the Party,” Jude quips, pulling up his sunglasses. He’s wearing a referee outfit with sunglasses and a white cane. A blind ref. I have to admit I smiled when I saw him. His girlfriend, Zoey, is sitting on his lap wearing jeans and a white T-shirt with fake blood on it and plastic baby arms coming out of her pregnant belly.
The party is in full swing. Every player on the team is here and so are their friends and girlfriends, and everyone seems to be having a great time. I’m doing a bang-up job of pretending I’m enjoying myself too, although clearly I’m not.
I haven’t talked to Dixie since the locker room five days ago. We played twice in that time, and I didn’t start either game. The Thunder lost both, but there was a sick feeling of relief that it wasn’t my fault, and it superseded the feeling of humiliation at being benched. That had me toss and turn all night long. I should have been more upset that I didn’t get to play than relieved by it. I’m sick of disappointing my team and myself.
I saw Dixie right after both games, directing the press for interviews. She never made eye contact with me or acknowledged my existence. This is exactly how we’re supposed to act, like we barely know each other, but it sucks. Hard. And I told myself to stop thinking about her, but I can’t. I still think about her all the time. I miss talking to her and texting with her, because it was so fun and easy, and nothing else is right now.
Levi stands up and reaches for his girlfriend’s empty cup. She’s dressed like a cat and she looks sexy and adorable. Then he turns to me. “You wanna come get drinks with me?”
I nod and stand up. Levi is dressed like Thor. It’s his way of embracing his nickname, and judging by the long, sultry stares from the women in the room as we walk back toward Duncan’s kitchen, it’s being well received. I catch a couple women looking at me that way, but I ignore them.
“So how did your meeting with Lu Price go?” Levi asks as we enter the kitchen and make our way to the island that’s covered in bottles of booze and mixers.
“Fine,” I reply shortly. Lu Price is the goalie coach for the Thunder. The meeting didn’t actually go fine, but I don’t want to get into it tonight. I’m supposed to be having fun. I walked into the meeting jovial and upbeat, but Lu was all business and blunt. I need to improve and fast. He suggested the problem was related to my accident and that I see the team sports psychologist. I told him I would think about it. He told me to think fast and hard, and that I needed to take this more seriously—as serious as a heart attack were his exact words. Definitely not the beginning of a great working relationship.
Levi looks like he’s about to keep asking me questions about it, but luckily Eddie walks over to join us. “Hey, kids!” he says happily. He’s dressed like a shark attack victim. His top half is bare, except for his chest hair, which is in desperate need of grooming, and the rest of him is covered by a felt shark. Its mouth is around his waist, where’s he’s put fake blood.
“There is some serious talent here tonight,” Eddie advises me as he leans on the island beside me and reaches for the bottle of Patron. “I figured it would be lame. Just a bunch of hockey players and their ball and chains and their ugly single friends, but there are hot chicks!”
Levi scowls at him. “Dude, you’re a total pig.”
“Yeah. So?”
Levi shakes his head and reaches for the vodka. Eddie just shrugs. “Hey. Did you know? You must have known.”
“Know what?” Levi asks as he pours vodka into Tessa’s glass and then reaches for the orange juice.
“That the hot piece of ass in the PR department is Jude’s baby sister,” Eddie announces, and my whole body bristles. Levi’s head spins around so fast that his dark hair slides into his eyes.
He leans toward Eddie and almost growls. “Who told you that?”
“Someone else in the PR department,” Eddie vaguely explains. “I guess she’s been lying since she started. I mean, I know you must have known, because you grew up with Braddock.”
Fuck. I know Dixie didn’t want this to get out.
“It’s not just me,” Eddie says defensively because he can tell by our expressions that we’re upset about this. “Everybody has been talking about it all week. Didn’t you hear Marchie call her Baby Braddock when she brought the press in?”
He’s talking about one of our defensemen, Vincent LaMarche. Levi’s scowl deepens. “Is LaMarche here tonight?”
Eddie nods. “Over there by the fireplace. He’s picking up a hot blonde dressed as a blind mouse.”
Levi looks at me. “Bring Tess her drink for me? I have to ruin Marchie’s night.”
I nod. There is nothing I would rather do…except maybe call Dixie. This has to be upsetting her. I know it was really important to her to not be associated with Jude. She didn’t want the team to think he got her the job, and I’m sure the nickname Baby Braddock must make her blood boil. I grab Tessa’s drink and a beer out of a cooler by the island and weave my way back through the house to the living room.
I hand Tessa her drink and tell her Levi went to talk to someone. Then I take a sip of my beer before I turn to Jude and try to sound as casual as I can as I ask, “Did you know that the team found out Dixie is your sister?”
Jude frowns momentarily and stands up next to me. Zoey seems to have gone somewhere because I don’t see her. “Yeah. One of Dixie’s co-workers accused her of having an affair with me, so HR told this woman the truth and she told everyone.”
“So did the chick get fired?” I ask because whoever did this to Dixie should have gotten fired.
“No. Dixie’s secret wasn’t an HR policy,” Jude explains and pushes his sunglasses up on his head again as he glances over at me. “Management doesn’t care if she’s related to me. Only she cares.”
“The team is teasing her about it,” I explain.
Jude smirks. “You don’t know her well enough, but trust me, if they bust her balls long enough she’ll break theirs. My sister is tougher than any guy I know.”
He’s right. I knew that even in the little time we were communicating and touching and everything else. Dixie is tough and brilliantly smart. Still, I know this sucks for her. I hear a bunch of people gasp and then I hear a laugh—loud and deep. It’s Levi. I step around Eddie to look into the dining room, where the sound’s coming from. Carla, Duncan’s live-in girlfriend, is pushing her way through the crowd holding a roll of paper towels. Levi is still laughing. A girl dressed as a blind mouse in a short black skirt with a tail attached, a black crop top, big black mouse ears, sunglasses and a long white cane walks by me into the kitchen holding an empty plastic cup. Another one darts by with longer, slightly darker hair in the same outfit. She’s obviously chasing the first mouse.
Levi makes his way back over and wraps an arm around Tessa. “I went over there to give Marchie hell for picking on Dixie. Turns out he was hitting on Sadie, and when she heard what I was saying about what he did to Dix she poured her drink on his head.”
“Yeah, that sounds like Sadie.” Jude smiles, and then he turns to me. “Dixie’s not my only sister who can hold her own.”
So Sadie Braddock is one of the blind mice. The other must be the other sister…Winnie, I think Dixie said. There are usually three blind mice. Is Dixie the third mouse? I glance around the room and take a few steps to get a better view of the people in the dining room. My eyes move down the hall, and I see Zoey at the foot of the stairs. She’s looking up the stairs and talking to the third mouse. It’s Dixie. Her back is to me, but I would recognize that petite body and that sleek blond hair anywhere. Seeing her fills me with an ache so deep it feels physically painful, and I have to move, shifting from foot to foot like I would to shake off a cramp, but of course it doesn’t help. I don’t know if she feels the weight of my stare, but something makes her glance over her shoulder. She’s got the sunglasses from her costume on, so I can’t see where she’s looking, but I know it’s at me. I can feel it. I’m frozen under her gaze, unable to move. Zoey says something, touching Dixie’s wrist, and she finally turns away.
I continue to watch as Dixie hugs Zoey and then darts up the stairs as Zoey comes walking back into the room. Well, waddling is a more accurate description. The girl is almost as tiny as Dixie, so her frame is having trouble with that giant baby belly. Jude immediately reaches for her and helps lower her into the chair he’d been sitting on earlier.
“Dixie is in the bathroom upstairs,” Zoey tells Jude. “I think she regrets letting Winnie and Sadie talk her into coming tonight. She said she was going to call a Lyft soon and head home.”
I slip away and make my way down the hall and then up the stairs. I have no idea why I have to see her or what I’m going to say. All I know is she’s not leaving here until I do.