Two Years Later
“Stevie, watch out!” Poppy hollered from the bench.
It was too late, though, and I chuckled as Stevie took a hit into the boards. If you could really even call getting checked by an eight-year-old a hit.
Poppy let her face fall into her hand as the opposing team stole the puck from Stevie and made a goal.
“She’s terrible.”
I laughed, knocking my shoulder into hers. “Hey, that’s my wife you’re talking smack about.”
“Your wife is terrible, you should be ashamed. Can you not teach her to keep her head up, she’s always—” My smile spread across my face as I listened to my niece shit talk her aunt. “Why are you smiling?”
“Maybe I should let you coach.”
She narrowed her eyes, deciding if I was being funny or serious. “I don’t think this is the time for jokes. Our team is down by four.”
I clenched my jaw in an attempt to hide the smile playing at the corners of my mouth. “Tell you what, I’ll let you pick the teams tomorrow.”
Her eyes lit up. “That’s a much better idea.” She gave me the side-eye. “I’m benching her.”
We both turned to look at Stevie at the same time and my heart skipped two full beats. She held her stick with one hand, wobbling like a stack of bricks about to fall, her head was tipped back, and I could tell she was laughing by the way her shoulders shook. Three of the kids from the opposing team were giggling as they pushed and shoved her in an attempt to get the puck she’d trapped between the blades of her skates.
I blew my whistle as I stood and, when my skates hit the ice, she locked her eyes onto mine. As I got closer, the gorgeous smile on her face soaked her eyes with humor, and I shook my head trying to maintain a serious face, keeping up the front that I wasn’t enjoying this, or that I didn’t love how sexy she looked in all that gear, or how watching her with these kids didn’t fucking light me up inside. I’d tell her all of this later, when we were alone, in our room.
Some would say a hockey camp for kids wasn’t the best place to go on your honeymoon, and maybe they were right for the most part, but the reassuring scrape of steel on ice, the cool air of the rink, the kids laughter mixed with cheers and shouts were the things that made this place special, had made it a sanctuary for me every summer. And I wanted to share it all with her. She hadn’t been able to make it up last year, and after we’d gotten married last month, we’d both decided to do this together. I might’ve also promised to take her on a proper honeymoon before I had to report to training camp at the end of the summer. Maybe somewhere tropical or some shit, definitely somewhere we could be alone for an entire week without any distractions.
Stevie’s voice cut through my wandering thoughts. “What’s the whistle for?”
She gave me a sly grin as I said, “Delay of game, two minutes in the sin bin for you, Carmelo.”
Her eyes fell to my mouth. “I’ve gotta get used to that.”
I skated closer, the rink fading away around me as I placed my hands on her hips. I was grateful she wasn’t wearing a helmet with a full mask as I leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her supple lips. The other coaches were probably staring, and I think I heard a few of the kids catcalling, but I didn’t give a shit.
“Now who’s delaying the game?” She pulled away and I lifted my hand to her face.
“Two minutes…” I brushed my thumb over the satin skin of her cheek before letting my hand fall to my side as I skated backward slowly. “FYI, Poppy said she might bench you.”
“Thank God.”
“It’s not that bad,” I argued.
“Hey, Coach.” Simon, one of the new six-year-olds, pulled on the hem of my shirt. “Carrick isn’t letting anyone else get the puck.”
I ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry, little man, I’ll make sure everyone gets at least one shot on goal today, alright?”
He nodded, a small smile on his lips as he skated off.
I opened the penalty box for Stevie, and the smile on her face hit me right in the chest. She watched me, her eyes filled with something I could feel in every beat of my pulse. “I’m glad we decided to do this.”
I risked another kiss, this time on her cheek. “Me too, baby.”
This place, I’d thought, had always held the future I wanted, but it wasn’t until I’d watched Stevie take the ice, watched as she left her burdens behind her and fell in love with these kids, that I realized something very important had always been missing. I turned to look at her and she waved her hockey glove-clad fist and I smiled. It was her… always her.
My fingers ran through his hair as he rested his cheek on my belly. The heat of his breath bathed my bare skin. We were lying naked on the world’s smallest full-size mattress, in a bedroom that smelled more like a locker room than I would’ve preferred, and I couldn’t have been any happier. I was here with him, and after spending the last two weeks witnessing my husband do what he loved best, I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to fall in love with him anymore than I already had. Mark the NHL hockey player, was something to behold, but Mark the coach, it was otherworldly, next-level kind of sexy. His patience with the kids, his love for the game, the way he encouraged and loved these kids like they were his own, my heart was bursting. Having a child wasn’t something either of us wanted right now, or if ever, but in this moment, if he’d asked it of me, I’d say yes. I blamed the past two weeks. Watching Mark with Poppy, with all thirty of these kids, a woman’s ovaries could only handle so much.
The thought made me laugh softly and he lifted his head. His dark eyes smiling, he raised himself onto his elbows, framing my hips with his arms.
“What?” he asked.
“I was thinking about how hot it is watching you coach these kids.” He raised one brow with a chuckle and I playfully swatted his shoulder. “I’m serious, you’re great with them.”
“I know.” His voice was a combination of sleep and sex.
“So humble.”
He laughed and the carefree sound of it squeezed my heart. We’d worked hard to get here. Our relationship was defined by miles and minutes, Skype and hotel rooms, adoration and honesty. Even the strongest of couples would have struggled to survive his schedule, but after our first real fight, back when we’d been barely five months into this journey, we’d gotten a taste of what life was like without the other in it. And it was in that short break, we both recognized being apart was the only un-survivable condition.
“You like my confidence…” He gripped my hips, pressing a kiss to the arch of my pubic bone.
The ache between my legs began to pulse for him. My fingers twisted through the locks of his hair as he lowered his mouth to my belly, licking and kissing and teasing. His teeth pinched the flesh of my inner thighs, and I let my head fall back onto the pillow. I moaned as he left wet kisses along the sensitive skin of my legs and stomach, following a path up to my mouth. Every kiss we shared was like our first, hungry and desperate. He held my face between his palms, capturing me in his gaze as he entered me with a long, slow stroke of his hips. His eyes fluttered closed for the briefest of seconds as he seated himself all the way inside of me. Neither of us moved, and when his eyes opened, he smiled. His nose was almost touching mine, and as the pad of his thumbs caressed the curve of my cheek, he cut the distance between our mouths. His tongue swept into my mouth, and I was flooded with his taste, his heat, and the anticipation of his movement made me moan.
One agonizingly slow thrust of his hips had my fingers knotting in his hair. His lips found the crook of my neck, his nose tickling my skin as he whispered, “Love you.”
Mark’s eyes burned through mine, and it was the reflection I saw in his irises, my reflection, that always took my breath away. It was in him I was able to find myself again. Every road game, every hour we had to spend apart, made each heartbeat, each minute of this, of him, of our time wrapped up in one another, so much better.
This was us.
Together…
This was love…
THE END