Razors Ice 04 - Hot Ice (25 page)

Chapter
Seventeen

Sayonara

Jace McQuaid sat on the stage
with a microphone in his face and a roomful of reporters and teammates looking back at him. The concept of a press conference wasn’t foreign to Jace McQuaid. He’d been to plenty of them over the years. The concept of everyone gathered in one place to listen to
him
make an announcement was.

He
glanced across the room at the people gathered to wish him farewell. His teammates sat clustered throughout the room. They were mostly guys from the Razors and a few from his former teams. The media was also there, loaded down with cameras and microphones.

He looked back at a
ll familiar faces of the men he’d played with, for. Men he’d gone into battle with on the ice. Men he’d traveled thousands of grueling miles with, listened to their stories, heard their groans of pain when they were injured. He knew their families, their secrets, their greatest fears. He’d been invited into their homes, sat at their tables, welcomed as a member of their families.

Cody
Lambert sat in the front row, dressed for the occasion in a button-down shirt and slacks. His wife Laina would be at home with their children, waiting eagerly for him to come home. Jace knew the captain’s twin boys would follow in their father’s footsteps and go on to be great hockey players.

Beside Cody sat JD Mason, the tall defenseman. JD was dressed in a suit—they didn’t call him Hollywood for nothing
—and he looked as uncomfortable as Jace felt. JD had announced his retirement, too, before later returning to the sport after receiving a second chance at life. Unfortunately, Jace knew this retirement speech would be his last.

Next to JD sat Sebby, Jace’s closest friend.
Jace knew all the rituals Seb did before each game and knew his superstitions and quirks. The smug Russian was dressed for the golf course in a polo and slacks. Knowing the goalie, he probably had a tee time scheduled for later that morning.

Jace’s
throat tightened at the thought of not playing hockey with these men anymore. Walking away from the sport was what he had to do, but damn it was hard.

When
he first started playing, he never imagined the end of his career. He never looked that far ahead, only played each game as it came, the way he was supposed to, never imagining the end-game.

Jace continued scanning the room and
saw his family seated in the front row. His parents had flown in for the occasion and it was good to see them despite the grim circumstances. His brother Donovan, the future of the sport, slouched in his chair next to their parents, looking awestruck by the big names in the room.

The two brothers wouldn’t get to play on a team together or against each other. Time hadn’t worked out that way. Jace might not have any sons of his own, but he had faith in Donovan to carry on the McQuaid legacy.

Seated next to Donovan, was Jace and Donovan’s mother, Gloria. She sat with her back straight, hands folded neatly in her lap. She met her son’s gaze and smiled warmly. Her eyes crinkled around the edges and she blinked like she was holding back tears. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and Jace looked over at his father sitting next to her. Mac McQuaid sat with his hands resting on his knees. When he swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down like the emotions of the day’s events were getting the best of him, too. His father looked up at Jace and their eyes met. Mac’s lips were stretched in a thin line and he nodded. Jace nodded back.

Jace focused on his hands, fisted on the table in front of him.
Was he really going through with this? Was he really ending his life as he knew it? Part of him wanted to assure everyone that it was a hoax and tell them he’d see them next season.
Ha, ha, Jace McQuaid, always the practical joker
. But this wasn’t a joke. His knee ached and his shoulder throbbed and he knew he’d made the right decision. It wasn’t the easiest decision, but he knew it was the right one.

Emotion welled up in his throat and burned behind his eyes. Dammit. He’d sworn he wouldn’t do this.
He couldn’t lose it in front of everyone. In the past, Jace had seen plenty of guys retire and watched them tear up as they gave their retirement announcement, but he’d never imagined that it would be him someday.

“It’s time, Jace,”
the PR director whispered to him.

So it was.

Jace looked across the room and into his father’s eyes. He looked over at his mother next. There was so much love there. And pride. He knew he was doing the right thing when he looked at them and saw their encouraging smiles.

“I want to thank everyone for coming
,” Jace said into the microphone, his voice booming out into the packed room.

He tried to hold back the emotion, but it came through in his voice anyway.

* * *

Violet went from the living room in
her parents’ house to the kitchen and paced from the stove and back again in a daze. Where had she gone wrong?

On one hand, she had a man who genuinely cared about her, who she loved spending time with and couldn’t imagine him not in her life. And on the other hand, she had a man who treated her like an afterthought, basically ignored her
, and his arousal by her rivaled a trip to the dentist.

Wait, how had she managed to screw this up, again?

Pondering her options, she opened the fridge, absently scanned the contents and slammed the door closed.

Luckily her mom was at her Garden Club meeting, so Violet wouldn’t have to answer her endless questions while she had a small breakdown in the kitchen.

“Eyelet, get in here,” Brayden yelled from the living room.

Numbly, she walked in to where her brothers were lounging in front of the TV.
“What?” she grumbled. Her life was crumbling like on of Miss Lillian’s homemade cookies and her brothers sat like zombies glued to the TV.

“
McQuaid is announcing his retirement,” Brayden answered, turning up the volume.

“I can’t believe it,”
Tanner said with a shake of his head.

Violet couldn’t believe it either. Sure, she knew he was injured, but
retirement
. It sounded so ominous. So final.

She
teetered on the arm of the couch, afraid to sit down. On the TV, Jace was seated in front of a microphone with bright lights streaming down on him.

The room grew quiet and Jace began to speak.
It wasn’t easy watching a player announce their retirement from hockey and it was ten times worse because she
knew
Jace. She knew how he felt about the game. She knew that if his body could stay half as sharp as his mind, he wouldn’t be forced to walk away from it.

Her brothers shifted uncomfortably on the couch and
Brayden cleared his throat. They’d seen dozens of these speeches throughout the years and they never got any easier to watch. The players weren’t any less emotional and the announcement wasn’t any easier to swallow.

Violet swiped at the tears on her cheeks and hoped her brothers didn’t notice.
Not only was Jace forced to walk away from the only life he knew, but he had to do it publicly in front of the whole world. She wanted to go to him and comfort him. Instead, she cried for him.

When Jace was finished
, he answered what seemed like a million questions from the media. His voice was strained and raspy and he sounded so tired.

After it was over,
Violet slipped outside to get some air before her brothers could notice she was crying. Outside on the patio, she sucked in a breath and could feel her heart breaking for Jace. What was he going to do now? What was
she
going to do? Why did things have to end the way they did?

Violet
could hear her dad working in the garage. When she had composed herself as best as she could, she went around to the side door. The door was ajar and she could see him inside, his head dipped under the hood of the Firebird.

She went inside and was comforted by the familiar sights and smells
of her dad’s domain.

“
Hi, Daddy.”

Da
le straightened, took a rag from his back pocket and wiped his hands. He smiled when he saw Violet and then frowned when he noticed her pained expression. “What’s wrong punkin’?”

“It’s been a rough couple of days,” she choked out. Then s
he let the words tumble out before she could second-guess herself. “I’ve made a huge mistake. If I…what if I told you I didn’t love Phillip?”

He raised an eyebrow.
“You can’t control who you fall in love with, Violet.”

“But he saved your life.”

Dale frowned again. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you have to marry him. You’re free to marry anyone you want.”

“Oh, Daddy!”
She flung her arms around him. If only she could have simplified it like that herself. “I’ve felt so awful about it. That day at the hospital, I promised him I’d marry him, but everything’s different now. I met someone else and he showed me everything I’ve been missing, but I know you and Mom adore Phillip and I don’t want you to be let down and…”

She paused to take a breath and her father stopped her with a question.
“Is this what’s had you so weighed down lately?”

“Yeah.
We didn’t get engaged for the right reasons, Daddy.”

“There’s only one reason.”

“I know. I know that now.”

“
Honey, I don’t know a lot about people, but I know a lot about cars and it seems to me that their parts are a lot like people. You’ve got to connect the right ones together or else the thing won’t work.”

Violet hugged him tighter and sniffled into his shirt. The man didn’t have a flare for words like Shakespeare, but he always found a way to say exactly what she needed to hear.
“You always know just what to say.”

“Well, honey, I work on car bodies
and you work on human bodies. So, who is this mystery guy?”

He’s on TV right now saying goodbye to everything he loves
and the only life he’s ever known
.

“I’ll bring him over sometime so you can meet him
,” she said simply, her voice muffled by tiny sobs.

If he ever decides to speak to me again.

“Sounds like a plan.”

“I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too, punkin’.”

* * *

The next morning, after an exhausting night of playing “How Big of an Idiot Am I?” Violet woke up on the couch to the sound of the shower running. A glance at the time on her phone told her it was six a.m. After leaving her parents’ last night, she hadn’t even made it to the bed. She’d just collapsed on the couch and cried herself to sleep.

Digging the crust out of her eyes,
she headed down the hall. Phillip was toweling off in the bathroom when she padded into the bedroom.

“Hi,” she said, trying to hide the surprise in her voice. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken a shower with her there.
To what did she owe this honor? Why was he here and not at his precious apartment downtown?

“Good morning,” he said politely. He modestly wrapped the towel around his slim waist before going into the closet to get dressed.

She followed him, pretending to pick out which polo shirt to wear to work. “Are you hungry?” she asked. “I thought we could go out for breakfast or something.”

Maybe food could fill the gaping hole in her middle.

Nah, probably not. It would take all the comfort food in August County and then they’d eventually have to lift her out of the house on a forklift.

“Violet,” Phillip looked like a frazzled parent telling a child ‘no’ for the fiftieth time. “I’m meeting a colleague at the clubhouse at
eight.”

“Okay, how about lunch then…or dinner?”
She really needed to end this charade called their engagement and adding the element of food just might help soften the blow.

Phillip’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry, but my schedule is booked for today.”

Violet didn’t back down. “How about tomorrow?”

“I’ll have to check my schedule.”

Violet narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re telling me you have absolutely no time for me?”

“I’m merely telling you that I have a full schedule.”

“Well, Phillip, that’s not gonna fly with me. I won’t live my life with you penciling me in to yours. If you can’t make time for me then…I don’t want to be with you.” There. She said it. Not that it was any big surprise.

“I don’t know what to tell you
,” Phillip replied. “This is just how it has to be. Between work and my family and—”

“
And what? Where do I fit into all of that Phillip? What number am I on your priority list?”

She was fourth at best, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know, but I have a feeling you’re going to be upset with me no matter what I say.”