Alessia

Without the eviction or my firing to worry about, Alec convinced me to spend the next few days sight-seeing with him. We did a lot of the usual touristy things. On Tuesday, we hit up the Freemont Street Experience—with a quick stop at the chapel where we got married to pick up the photos from that night. When we were done, we spent a few hours exploring the Strip, including a romantic gondola ride.

Wednesday was all about the outdoors when we went to Red Rock Canyon. Alec found a tour through a western-style ranch that included a huge breakfast, horseback trail ride of the canyon, and a tour of a wild west town. Then we followed it up with a dune-buggy tour of the canyon in the afternoon.

I thought we were just going to chill out on Thursday, but Alec flashed me puppy dog eyes and got me to agree to a driving experience at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Not that he had to work too hard at getting me to say yes once he told me there were Lamborghinis involved. We started out our session at the track in a 3D simulator, complete with a roll cage. It was a little bit intimidating, but I was glad for the practice when I slid behind the wheel of the Lamborghini Gallardo GT they let me drive. I had no idea how much Alec spent, but it was well worth the money to accelerate down the straightaway and fly through a sharp turn.

By Friday morning, I didn’t want to open my eyes when I rolled over and found the bed empty. Between all the sight-seeing and the hours we’d spent in bed together not sleeping, I was exhausted. Half-listening to the sound of the toilet flushing and the water running in the bathroom, I snuggled deeper into the pillows until Alec padded back into the room.

“You promised me a lazy day,” I murmured, patting the mattress next to me.

“I was thinking you could be lazy watching me while I got some time on the ice.”

That wasn’t the response I’d been expecting, and my eyes popped open. “The ice?”

“Yeah, I got a text this morning from a guy I know who was traded to the Golden Knights. He heard I was in town and wanted to know if I was interested in doing some skating since I’ve been here longer than I originally planned.”

“Oh.” That was my brilliant response. Oh.

But in my defense, I was busy thinking about how Alec had put his life on hold to stay in Las Vegas with me and feeling horrible for letting it happen without even acknowledging the sacrifices he was making for me. For someone who’d spent years going above and beyond for the people in my life, I’d somehow turned into a taker in our relationship without giving back in equal measure. But that was going to stop. Immediately. “I’d love to watch you skate.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely. I’m a hockey wife, after all. I should probably learn something about the sport, right?”

“Damn straight.” He dropped a quick kiss on my lips. “And I’m just the guy to teach you.”

“Just so long as there isn’t a quiz later on,” I joked as I flung the covers off me and crawled off the mattress. “Because I’ve never even been inside an ice rink, let alone watched a hockey game.”

“So what you’re telling me is you’re a hockey virgin, and I get to pop your cherry?”

I winked up at him as I walked past him on my way to the bathroom. “Sounds like a good time to me.”

“Fuck yeah, it does,” he groaned as I closed the door.

We only had an hour before we needed to leave for the arena, so I skipped my usual bath and took a shower instead. After a quick breakfast of waffles for me and an egg white omelet for Alec—some might have said we were already turning into a boring married couple when it came to our morning routine—we headed over to the arena they’d built for the new hockey team. It didn’t take long to get there since it was only a few blocks away, next door to the New York-New York Hotel and Casino.

“Hey, man. It’s good to see you.” Alec’s friend greeted him with a hand shake before flashing me a grin. A growl rumbled up Alec’s chest, and his friend burst into laughter. “It’s like that, is it? I never thought I’d see the day when Alec Rourke would be jealous over a woman, but seeing you I can understand why.”

Alec yanked me closer to his side and glared at his friend. “Stop hitting on my wife, Greg.”

“Wife?” Greg echoed. “I’d heard a rumor but had a hard time believing it. No wonder you haven’t left Vegas yet. You were too busy breaking hearts in hockey arenas across the country by getting married.”

This time, I was the one who growled, making Alec chuckle before he introduced me to his friend. “Greg, this is my wife, Alessia.” Greg stretched his hand out to shake mine, but Alec slapped it away. “I know how much of a player you are, dude. Hands off.”

Greg smiled at me. “We’d better get your husband on the ice. It sounds like he could use the workout.”

My cheeks filled with heat at the thought of the workouts he’d been getting between the sheets with me. Alec chuckled again, and gave me a squeeze that let me know he was aware exactly where my thoughts had wandered. My blush just barely died down by the time we made it through the arena and I followed Alec into the visitor’s locker room.

“Are ice skates like bowling shoes? You can wear whatever they give you as long as they’re the right size?” I asked when he sat down and picked up a pair of black skates from the floor. There were three pairs sitting out, next to a locker filled with pads and a helmet.

“Hockey lesson number one,” he began, holding up one of the skates and turning it to the side so I could see the Bauer logo on the side and “Vapor” towards the back. “All skates are not created equal. This is my favorite brand. I haven’t played a game in another kind of skate in years. It would’ve sucked to skate in something else today, but I would’ve handled it since I need the ice time and didn’t bring my equipment with me.”

“It was nice of your friend to make sure you could wear your favorite skates.”

He half-laughed half-snorted as he stripped out of his shorts and started to pull on another pair with Velcro straps on the bottom. “Nah, that was a purely selfish move and one I’m betting the owner or coach put him up to.”

“What do you mean?”

“Gossip travels fast in the hockey world, and someone in the Golden Knights camp is probably hoping I’ll be open to the idea of playing in Vegas since I have a good reason to want to make my move here permanent.”

“Whoa,” I breathed, dropping down onto one of the chairs across from him. “Is that an option? Is it something you’d consider? I’d assumed that since you’re a professional hockey player, you kinda have to go wherever the league sends you.”

“I’ll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season when my contract expires. I’ll be free to negotiate and sign a contract with any team I want.” He looked up from the pads he was strapping onto his shins, his blue eyes scanning my face. “Move to Chicago with me for the next year, and at the end of the season we’ll talk about our options and make the decision for where I should play together.”

“I—um—wow—” I stammered.

“Fuck, I promised myself I wouldn’t push you too hard,” he groaned, running a hand through his thick, dark hair. “You don’t have to decide right away. I can talk to Greg, set something up so I can use the rink, workout room, and trainers here for the summer. As long as I’m able to set that all up, I won’t have to be back in Chicago until early September.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath and nodded, thinking about my decision just that morning to be an equal giver in my relationship with Alec. “I’ll think about moving to Chicago with you. Sooner, rather than later. After I make sure Ariana has her situation figured out in a more permanent way than staying at the hotel. And once I know what’s going on with my mom. She still hasn’t returned any of our calls, and it’s been a whole week since I left the first one. As unreliable as she can be, radio silence from her for this long isn’t her style.”

The blinding smile Alec gave me made my leap of faith well worth it. “Like I said, there’s no rush. Family is important. We won’t leave until you know yours will be okay.”

“You did hear the part where I said I was going to think about it, right?”

He flashed me a cocky grin as he stepped into a pair over over-sized, padded shorts with suspenders hanging off the top. “Yeah, but your only objection was related to shit I can easily fix. If you’d said you weren’t sure about our relationship or the idea of moving at all, then I’d know I have my work cut out for me. But finding an apartment for your sister and figuring out how to handle whatever mess your mom has gotten herself into? Those are problems with solutions I can find.”

“Don’t be too sure that my mom’s mess will be easy to fix,” I warned him.

He sat down and pulled on the skates. “It doesn’t matter how hard it is, if it keeps you by my side I’ll figure it out.”

Alec Rourke.

My white knight.

The man I’d married on a drunken whim.

The best darn decision I’d ever made. And one I should stop second guessing.

“Yes,” I blurted out.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, I’ll move to Chicago with you at some point this summer, before you need to be back for your team.”

“Get over here,” he growled, dropping the laces he was in the middle of tying. My legs were shaky as I crossed the locker room to stand in front of him. He pulled me down on his lap and wrapped his arms around me. “We almost forgot our serious conversations rule.”

“Yeah, I guess we did.”

“You really going to move to Chicago with me?”

I nodded.

“That’s one hell of an anniversary present. I’m not sure I can top it, but I’ll do my best tonight.”

“Anniversary?”

“It’s Friday, beautiful. One week since we met. One week since we got married.”

It was sweet that he was calling it our anniversary, but as much as I appreciated it I was also startled by how quickly things had progressed between us—and I wasn’t even thinking about the whole getting married the night we met thing. “I can’t believe it only took you one week to talk me into moving half-way across the country!”

“C’mon now,” he chuckled. “We’ve spent the past week together, non-stop. Going by the two hour per date rule, that’s about eighty dates. We’re definitely in moving in together territory by now.”

“For real; I’m married to a crazy man.”

He kissed me until I was breathless and then set me back on my feet. “Crazy for you, beautiful.”

“Well, crap. How am I supposed to argue with that?” Especially when I was crazy for him, too.

He grinned at me before bending down to finish lacing up his skates. “You aren’t.”

“Since it’s our anniversary and I’m married to such a softie, I guess I’ll let that slide.”

He picked up a small towel off the bench next to him and snapped it at my ass as I jumped out of the way, giggling. It took him about five more minutes to finish getting ready, and then I followed him out to the bench and watched while he and Greg skated. I wasn’t on the ice, but it was still freezing and I was glad Alec had talked me into bringing a sweatshirt and a jacket, plus the socks and gym shoes he’d urged me to wear so my feet didn’t get cold.

The guys ran through a bunch of drills, skating hard and passing the puck back and forth so fast that it was hard for me to keep up with where it was on the ice. Alec came over to the bench several times for a drink of water and tried explaining some of the basics of hockey to me. It seemed awfully complicated, with rules for when you were allowed to pass the puck over one of the blue lines and how many lines it could cross at a time. Before we left, I’d already decided to watch some videos online and check to see if there was a Hockey for Dummies book out there for me to read since I could use the extra help if I was really going to make a go of it as a hockey wife.

“I’m starved.” Alec patted his stomach as we walked out the arena doors.

“Starved starved? Or professional athlete who needs to eat healthy after a workout starved?”

“Why? Do you have something specific in mind?” he asked as he pulled out his phone to call for the car.

I placed my hand over the screen to stop him and grinned. “I do.”

“Why don’t I trust that smile of yours?”

“Because it’s my I-really-want-a-double-double-with-fries smile?” I blinked at him and puffed my bottom lip out in a pout. “Pretty please? I promise to skip the grilled onions I usually get on my burger.”

“You sure you want lunch from a fast food place on our anniversary?”

I grabbed his hand and led him towards Park Avenue so we could circle around New York-New York to head down Tropicana. “Yeah, but it isn’t just any fast food place. It’s In-N-Out.”

“I’ve never been to one.”

“Well, then consider this part of your anniversary gift because In-N-Out is an experience everyone has to try at least once in their life.” My gaze dropped to his abs. “I just hope you don’t get addicted on your first visit or else you’re going to have to do a heck of a lot more skating sessions with Greg to work off all the double-doubles. Although, I think you can order it off-menu with lettuce instead of the bun. They have this not-so-secret menu that all the locals order from. Except for me today since I promised to skip the grilled onions on my usual animal style.”

“Get the onions,” he chuckled. “I’d hate for you to miss out when you sound so disappointed. I’ll just get them on mine, too.”

“Yay!” I did a little hop in celebration, and almost tripped over my feet when my cell rang. It’d been mostly silent over the past week. Ariana hadn’t texted much, but we met up for dinner with her at the hotel a couple of times. I didn’t have an employer who needed me for anything. I’d cancelled my classes before I met Alec. I’d been too busy trying to keep our heads above water for my friendships from high school to survive graduation. And my mom was avoiding me.

Or at least she had been since it was her number on the screen when I pulled my phone out of my purse.