Chapter 15

Marek

My skin prickles with excitement and my blood sings in recognition of a new hockey season starting. It’s nice to have my body physically react to something other than Gracen.

It’s nice to have something else to keep my mind occupied other than Gracen.

Gray Brannon moves to the podium that sits at the base of the team meeting room. It has stadium-style seating with arced rows. Each seat has a flip-over desktop for us to take notes if necessary. We use this room mostly to review game film, but it’s also for announcements and group discussions. Today’s the first day of training camp, and it always starts off with a welcome speech by our general manager, who happens to be the only female GM in the league.

Each of my teammates sitting in this room probably have their metaphorical tongues hanging out as Gray strides up to the podium, a combination of grace and toughness. She’s a knockout redhead with a slammin’ body, which seems even curvier since she gave birth to her first child in May. If her husband, Ryker Evans, knew what every man was thinking in this room at this moment, he’d be wanting to stomp all our asses. As it is, our esteemed goalie coach just casually watches his wife take the stage front and center, although I don’t miss his eyes dropping to her ass briefly.

Gray puts her hands on the podium and picks up a remote that turns on a projector. A pull-down screen behind her lights up and a four-digit number appears: 1983.

Jerking her thumb over her shoulder at the screen, Gray says, “Nineteen eighty-three. The last time a team has won more than two Stanley Cups in a row.”

She pauses and takes a moment to sweep her gaze slowly across the rows, taking in all of her players who are burning to get back out on the ice and get our third consecutive championship.

Gray clicks the remote control and a new image appears behind her. A low rumble of growls from the players resonate through the room as we take in a screen shot of a recent article that was published in Sports World magazine by one of their senior hockey reporters, Colin Hannity.

The headline reads, WHY THE COLD FURY WILL FAIL THIS YEAR.

Gray grimaces and nods her head. “I see you all have read this scintillating piece of sports journalism.”

More growls.

Someone in the back of the room mutters, “That reporter is a cunt.”

Gray doesn’t even blink over that crudity. She’s in a roomful of testosterone-driven men who play a violent sport. Words like cunt and fuck are dropped repeatedly, and Gray has heard it all. More important, she would never want us to change our language in deference to her being a female, since it’s been a struggle for her to overcome the prejudices she’s faced over the last two seasons since she took on this new role with the organization.

“I want to make Mr. Hannity eat his words,” Gray practically snarls.

There’s a lot of fuck yeah’s in response.

“It won’t be easy,” she continues. “The pressure will be great. The scrutiny will be jaundiced. But I know something that cunt of a reporter doesn’t know.”

Lots of snickers from the players, myself included.

“I know that every person sitting in this room—whether you’re a player, a coach, or staff member—has got a huge, fucking hard-on for that Stanley Cup, and the brass balls to go out there and get it.”

Clapping, affirmative cursing, and banging fists on the desks resound throughout the room. The prickles on my skin intensify.

Gray holds her hands up and motions for us to settle down. The room grows quiet again.

“I’m proud of you,” she says so softly that all traces of her recent vulgarity have been forgotten. She’s speaking from her heart right now. “I’m proud of your spirit. Your determination. Your sheer willingness to claw your way to the top. I’ve got the hardest working people I’ve ever known, and I’m not sure this team could be any more blessed.”

The room is silent and thick with emotion. We all want to continue to make Gray proud of us.

Without a word, Gray steps aside from the podium so Coach Pretore can talk. His speech is low on pep and high on the mechanics of how he’s going to conduct training camp. My muscles are already cramping in anticipation of how bad they’re going to be hurting by the end of the day. No matter how hard I work out in the off-season, nothing can ever keep my muscles conditioned the way they become from hours on the ice. It’s going to be a brutal few weeks coming up, but I’d have it no other way.

After Pretore moves away from the podium, Gray steps back up and asks, “Anyone got any announcements they need to make?”

The sound of someone standing up behind me has my head turning to look over my shoulder. Hawke Therrian is a defenseman and about as tough as they come. But right now he looks like a big, goofy puppy dog as he stares down at his fiancée, Vale Campbell, who happens to be one of our trainers. She’s standing in a line of coaches and trainers behind the podium. Her cheeks go pink and I turn to look back at Hawke.

He clears his throat and says, “Just wanted to let you guys know that, um…well, we found out earlier this summer that Vale is pregnant.”

There’s a rumble of congratulations, and those closest to Hawke thump him on the back.

“She’s due early next March,” Hawke continues, his voice a little thick with emotion. He coughs and then tries to bring some levity to the situation. “God help you poor bastards that get on her hormonal side when she’s working on you.”

My head swings back to Vale, and she shoots Hawke a death glare, but then she smiles in smug satisfaction as she realizes she’ll get to torture us more than she already does. My muscles contract in protest of the pain that’s sure to come at her hands, but I couldn’t be happier for her.

Hawke clears his throat again, this time to indicate he’s got more to say. The room goes quiet. “Just as important, we decided to go ahead and get married this summer. So the big, fancy wedding is off the table, but we’re going to throw a hell of a party before it gets too cold. You’re all invited, of course.”

Several of the people in the room laugh, and the overall atmosphere of happiness within the room feels damn good. It speaks to the heart of this team and how we have each other’s backs.

Always.

My eyes cut over to Reed, who is sitting one row down from me and to my left. He’s turned in his seat, grinning up at Hawke, and a rush of fondness for my buddy hits me hard. I’ve thought these last few weeks that he’s a dick because of the way he’s ridden me about how I was treating Gracen, but I know deep down that he was doing it because he cares about me.

“That’s wonderful news,” Gray says from the podium, and my attention swings that way. She turns to look at Vale. “And anything pregnancy related you need to know, my office door is open.”

Vale blushes as she nods at the general manager, her boss who has offered to dish over babies and pregnancy. That’s just Gray being all girl, and that’s also all right by us.

“Any other news?” Gray asks briskly as she grips the edges of the podium.

I look around but no one stands up. My gaze goes back to Gray, who watches us all for a moment before taking our silence to indicate the meeting is over. She leans forward and opens her mouth as if to say some last-minute words of encouragement, but without thinking I’m pushing up out of my seat.

“I have an announcement,” I say as I tuck my hands down into the pockets of my cargo shorts.

Gray’s eyes alight on me and she nods.

“I’ve got some big news too,” I say, surprised that this isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. “I found out a few weeks ago that I’m a father.”

Mutters of disbelief mixed with joy hit me from all angles after it takes a moment for my teammates to process what I just said. I grin and look around. “It was a shock, but I’m pretty fucking stoked about it.”

The guys all laugh and grin back at me.

“Her name is Lilly,” I tell my team, and my neck turns warm as I hear the gravely emotion in my voice just from saying her name. I give a little cough, suck in a breath. “She’ll be four in January, and she’s pretty fucking amazing. I’m sure you all will be meeting her at some event or another. Maybe a game here soon.”

I look quickly around the room, nodding at my teammates in acknowledgment of their happiness for me.

“That’s just amazing, Marek,” Gray says from the front of the room. “I can’t wait to meet Lilly.”

I blow out a breath and smile back at her.

“All right guys,” Pretore says as he steps back up to the podium. “You got thirty minutes to get suited up and hit the ice. We’re going to be doing drills today to get your skating legs back in working order.”

I groan at the thought of how much pain I’m going to be in, even as excitement pulses through me to get back out on the ice.

Everyone stands up and starts filing out of the meeting room, while others stand around in small groups for some chitchat and catch up after a nice summer break. I meet Reed and Holt at the bottom of the stairs. Both of them clap me on the shoulder and Holt says, “Good job on announcing Lilly.”

Reed and Holt were the only two who knew about her, and now the whole team knows.

A hand wraps around the back of my neck and I’m given a quick shake. I turn to see Alex Crossman, our team’s captain there. He sticks his other hand out and I shake it.

“Congrats, man,” he says warmly.

Ryker and Gray walk up, both also wearing smiles to indicate their happiness for me as well. Holt and Reed give me two more claps on the shoulder and head off toward the locker room.

“Some news you just dropped on us,” Ryker says as we shake hands.

Gray merely lays her hand on my forearm and murmurs, “You’ll be a great dad, Marek.”

“This is all so weird,” I say with a nervous laugh. “I feel like I should be passing out cigars or something.”

“You’ll need to bring Lilly over to play with the girls sometime,” Gray tells me. Ryker has two children, Ruby and Violet, from a former marriage, but they live with him and Gray. “And definitely bring her to the season opener party this weekend.”

“Absolutely,” I reply with an appreciative nod. The Cold Fury is truly one big family, and I’m sure they’ll all be fast friends.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Gray says in a lower voice as she inches in closer. “How did you just find this out? I mean…did you have any clue?”

A surge of unease causes a little sweat to break out on my upper lip. While I was fully prepared to talk about Lilly to anyone and everyone who wanted to listen, I wasn’t quite sure how to handle Gracen. Many of the people on this team are considered my close friends, and the others are friends all the same. I should have no problem telling my mates about the shitty reason I didn’t know about Lilly for over three years.

But something inside of me just can’t bring myself to throw Gracen under the bus. She’s Lilly’s mom, and she’s a great fucking mother. I don’t want my negative feelings to color other people’s perception of her.

“Let’s just say it was a misunderstanding between two people,” I tell the group still standing around me. All three lean in to listen. “Lilly and her mom, Gracen, are staying at my house for the time being so I can get to know Lilly better.”

And just like that, Alex, Ryker, and Gray accept what I’m saying. I can tell by their faces that they understand it’s a delicate situation and intensely personal. Their expressions show they respect that we’re making the most of a difficult situation.

“Well, you have the team’s full support,” Gray tells me.

“Absolutely,” Alex adds, punching my arm lightly. “And we’d all love to meet Gracen too. You should bring her to the party as well.”

I don’t know what to say. I’d planned on bringing Lilly to the season opener party, which is traditionally held at Coach Pretore’s house, but I had not thought to invite Gracen. The party is for family and significant others.

Technically, Gracen is neither of those things.

But still, I bet Lilly would feel more comfortable if her mom was there.

So I smile at Gray. “Yeah…I’ll bring both Lilly and Gracen.”

And I tell myself that I want to have Gracen come to the party just for Lilly’s sake and it has nothing to do with the fact that I’m wanting to spend more time with Gracen.