Chapter Fourteen

Zack

Walking into the rink Friday morning, I do it with a little bounce in my step. I can’t remember the last time I was able to come to work with hope, and I have to say it feels like I just won the fucking lottery.

Mom got in early this morning, and Jack has been all over her; the two of them thicker than thieves. He had so many stories for her; I was sad that I had to leave, but I knew there is no one better to care for him than my mom. I left while he was telling my father, on FaceTime, his funny story about sneezing sauce all over Denise.

I walk into the locker room, throwing my bag down in front of me and saying hello to everyone. Half the team is already here. We have a practice skate this afternoon, and then we leave to go to Philly for the game tomorrow and come back Saturday night.

I take off my suit jacket, hanging it up, and start to put on my practice uniform when the rest of the guys trickle in. “Coming in, so hide all weapons,” Olivier says, and most of the guys laugh, but the rookies all grab something to put over their crotch. I shake my head and laugh.

He walks into the room wearing a gray suit with a blue shirt and tie. The guy is buff; he’s bigger than most of the guys who are in the room. “Oh, good, you’re all decent.” He smiles and then stands in front of us as we all look at him. “I come with big news.”

The little chattering that is going on stops automatically. “The Max Horton Foundation has decided to do a casino night for their annual fundraiser.” Everyone looks over at Max. It’s his foundation that Allison started when they first got together, and it is now one of the biggest ones in the hockey community.

“It’s going to be a black-tie event, so if I see any of you in jeans, I will be leaking that you have small equipment and it matches the rest of you,” he says, and the guys all laugh at him. “You will be asked to volunteer an hour or two during the event; just remember it’s for the children when you’re flipping cards over or spinning the ball on the roulette table.”

“Can we bring a date?” one of the rookies, Joe, asks, and Olivier just nods. “Max, think Denise will go with me?” he says, and my head whips around, and I glare at him. He just laughs and looks down. I look over and see that Matthew was watching me, and he now has a smirk on his face.

I don’t bother chatting; instead, I finish getting dressed while Olivier answers questions about the casino night. I grab my helmet, then walk to the ice. I’m the first one on, so I skate around, getting my sharpened skates just the way I like them.

The practice is full throttle with Coach riding our asses hard. I get off the ice, heaving with sweat dripping down my face. “Bus leaves in one hour, boys!” Olivier shouts into the room. Everyone is on the bus before the hour, and we take off earlier than expected.

The plane ride is about fifty minutes. I grab my bag when I walk off the plane and head to the team bus. Chatting is at a low; Matthew sits next to me on the bus, and Max comes in after him, sitting across from me. “Want to hit up the steak place near the hotel?” Matthew says to me, and I look over at him.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” I say to him, and then Max butts in.

“That works for me too.”

“No one asked you,” Matthew says, and I know he’s joking because he smirks.

“He’s just throwing a hissy fit because we are tied at first place for points, and he knows I’ve been going easy to make him feel better about himself.” Max smiles proudly at him.

“Fuck you,” Matthew says. “You’re lucky I love my niece and nephew.”

Max throws his head back and laughs while Phil comes in and sits next to Max. “What are you two arguing about now?”

“Matthew’s pissed he’s getting old and can’t score,” Max says, and then Phil just shakes his head, laughing to himself.

“Aren’t you two almost the same age?” Phil asks him, and Max smiles at him.

“He’s six months older.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Older,” he emphasizes.

“These two are like the honeymooners. You never know who is going to send who to the moon,” Phil says, adjusting his tie as the bus takes off and heads toward the hotel. Check-in is a breeze, and I grab a key from Olivier. “Meet in twenty minutes,” Max says, going toward the elevator and getting in. “Gotta FaceTime my girls,” he says, and the doors close while he smiles.

“He’s going to have face sex with my sister. Gross,” Matthew says, walking to the elevator with me.

“I don’t even know what that means,” I tell him, “nor do I want to know.”

We get off on the same floor because his room is right next to mine. “Knock when you’re ready to go down,” I tell him, swiping my key card. Dumping my bag on the floor, I take my phone out and FaceTime my mother.

She answers on the first ring, and it looks like she’s in the kitchen. I look over and see it’s almost five.

“Hello,” she says, “you got in safe?”

“I did,” I tell her. “Are you preparing dinner?”

“I am,” she says and turns the phone around to make me see she is making a pasta sauce. “My boy wants spaghetti.” She smiles. “Little does he knows I’m making squash spaghetti.” She laughs.

“Where is he?” I ask, noticing he isn’t jumping for the phone.

“He’s playing mini stickswith a friend,” she says, and my eyebrows pinch together.

“What friend?”

“Let me show you,” she says, and I see her walk down the hall to where he is playing mini stick. She doesn’t have to go much farther before I hear a familiar laugh.

“That was a good shot.” I hear Denise’s voice, and my mother turns the camera around, and I take in the sight.

Denise stands in the middle of the hallway, dressed in jeans and a thick Stingers sweater shirt with Horton on the back, and her hair tied on the top of her head. She’s refereeing the game between Jack and Michael. “Say hi to Dad,” my mother says, and all eyes come to me.

Jack yells, “Hi, Dad,” while Michael just waves.

“Who’s winning?” I ask them.

“It’s a tie,” Denise says, laughing. “Jack just tied it up.”

My mother turns the phone around and then turns to walk back into the kitchen where she starts whispering.

“He asked to borrow my phone to call his friend this afternoon after you left. I thought he was playing pretend. Instead, he called Dr. Denise.”

I laugh. “He asked her for her number last night at dinner, but I never thought he would call it.” I smile, thinking of my boy. He is slowly coming out of his shell. It’s almost as if New York has been his home forever.

“I was in shock when he passed me the phone, and she was on the other line. She is lovely,” my mother says, looking at me. “I’ve never seen him so taken with a woman before.”

“She’s his doctor,” I tell her. “The best there is.”

“It’s more than that,” my mother says. “If she sits down, he sits on her lap, the whole time twirling her hair in his fingers.”

“I know,” I say, smiling as I think of his habit.

She dabs her eyes as if tears are going to come out. “I have a good feeling.”

“So do I, Mom,” I say, though I’m not sure if we are talking about the same feeling.

The knock on the door has me turning my head. “Okay, Mom, I have to go. I’ll call you guys when I get back from dinner.”

“Okay, love,” she says. “Speak to you soon.”

I hang up the phone and walk to the door, opening it and meeting Matthew in the hallway, who is on his phone typing. “I’m pretty sure my sisters are going to give my father an aneurysm,” he says, looking up. “I have twin sisters who are twenty-one and ...” he says, shaking his head.

“My sister just sent out this tweet,” he says, handing me the phone so I can see.

Zara Stone @ZaraStone

When your ex-boyfriend gets engaged, you ask his idol @EvanRichards to be your date to crash his wedding. What do I say? Wanna be my date?

#myexhasapencildick

I laugh out loud, and then I gasp. “Holy shit, he answered her.” He grabs the phone from me, no doubt reading what I just read.

Sounds like a plan. DM me.

“What the fuck does DM me mean?” He looks at me. “Is that sex talk?”

I laugh when the elevator arrives and opens, and Max is there. “Did you see what your sister-in-law just did?” he asks him, and Max just shakes his head.

“Which one?”

“Zara,” I tell him, and Matthew turns his phone to him, so he can see.

“You need to call Evan and lay the smackdown,” Max says, “and what the fuck is a DM?”

“I’m googling this shit right now,” Matthew says, and Anthony, one of the rookies, steps in with him in workout gear and a pre-workout shake.

“DM means direct message.” He turns to Matthew and Max. “See that little box up in the corner that looks like a mailbox? You press that to direct message her.” He looks at them. “You have 3478 direct messages.”

“Who the fuck is sending me these messages?” He looks at us, and I can’t help but laugh out loud.

We walk out of the elevator while Matthew gets on his phone, calling his father. “Are we waiting for Phil?” I ask. Max just nods his head, and Phil joins us a second later.

“Dude, did you see the tweet from Zara?” Phil laughs, slapping Max on the shoulder. “I bet you it’s on SportsCenter by the end of the night.”

Max shakes his head, and we walk outside where Matthew groans and hangs up his phone. “What did your father say?” Max asks him.

“I couldn’t understand with the groaning and then my mother laughing in the background. It didn’t help that Zara was calling the ex a pencil dick.”

We walk around the corner, getting a table right away. We sit down, and they throw their phones on the table. I open the menu, and we place our orders.

“Michael is at your house?” Max turns and looks at me.

“Yeah,” I answer. “My mom just told me when I FaceTimed her.”

“He’s a good kid,” Max says and then gets up. “I need to wash my hands.” Phil gets up and goes with him.

“So,” Matthew says, looking at me from across the table as I pick up my water and take a sip. “How long you think it’s going to take him to realize that you’re falling for his sister?”

I choke on the swallow and cough. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that you couldn’t stop looking at her when you were at my house. I’m talking about the fact that she’s at your house with your son while you’re away. I’m talking about you glaring at the kid when he joked about taking her as his date.”

“She is Jack’s doctor.”

“She’s also a beautiful, smart, and successful woman.”

My eyes close a bit, and I try not to glare at him. “Aren’t you married?”

“That right there is what I’m talking about,” he says, laughing. “This is going to be fun.”

“What does that mean?” I ask him, confused.

“Max dated my sister right under my nose, and I had no idea. I thought she was dating a stockbroker, and all along, she was dating the guy who was my right wingman.”

I laugh when he says that. “I can’t cross that line,” I say softly. “I won’t do that to her.”

“Do what to who?” Max asks, sitting down.

“Talking about his divorce,” Matthew says, saving the day because all I did was open my mouth over and over while nothing came out.

“Must be tough,” he says, and I just nod.

“If I’m honest, I knew it wouldn’t last. We are just so different.”

“What would you do if Karrie wanted a divorce?” Max asks Matthew.

“I’d kidnap her and take her to a deserted island with our kids,” he says, glaring.

“Same,” Max says, and we don’t talk much more because our food comes, and we all dig in. All of us fight over who will pay the bill, so we put all our credit cards in the middle and the waiter chooses one. Matthew won that round.

When we walk back to the hotel, I see that it’s almost eight. I pull out my phone and find that my mother sent me a picture of Denise sitting in the middle of Jack’s bed with Jack on one side and Michael on the other, her arms wrapped around both of them as she reads them the I love you forever story. I show Max the picture, and he just smiles.

“I can’t wait for her to find someone who can give her that,” he says. “Give her the family she deserves.”

“You never know,” Matthew says with a smirk, “it’ll happen when it’s ready to happen.”

“Yeah, I guess. I never expected to be knocked on my ass by Allison, and if I’m honest, I fell in love with her the first time I knocked into her and smashed her phone.”

“She fucking hated you,” Phil and Matthew say at the same time.

“Maybe she did,” he agrees, “but in the end, I made her fall in love with me.”

The elevator pings, and Phil and Max get off the elevator at the same time, leaving Matthew and me. “Don’t say it.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Matthew says, smiling, and I just look ahead as I let my thoughts get lost in the what-ifs.