More Than a Game (9 page)

“Shane was expecting them. He made sure we got over here. I’ve been tailing you since you left work.”

“Good thing you didn’t mean me any harm. I never even noticed,” she laughed.

“I’m doing a good job of it then,” he said with a wink. “I’ll let myself out. Just turn on the front light when you are ready and I’ll make sure you have a clear path to the car.”

“Sounds good,” she told him.

It felt a bit surreal getting ready to go to Shane’s with so many people surrounding her house. How did Shane do this all the time? A part of her told her that maybe running away to Dublin was a good idea. At least they would be away from all of this. Then again, she knew it wouldn’t be forever. They would just have to get through it. When she was ready, she flicked on the front light and waited for Monte to ring the bell.

“That was crazy!” she told Shane when she finally made it to his house.

“Tell me about it. Of course, you had to expect it with a headline like ‘O’Hannon’s Mystery Woman Revealed,’” he laughed.

“It was so strange seeing my name and face sprawled out in the paper like that,” she admitted.

“As strange as being held captive in your own home?”

“About the same, I guess,” she laughed.

Shane pulled her to him and kissed her. Things between them felt right. Despite all the craziness around them, she felt like they belonged together. She still wasn’t sure if it was love, but it felt like it might be and she didn’t feel she had the luxury of making the wrong decision. He pulled away and smiled down at her, brushing a lock of hair away from her face.

“What are you making me for dinner?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah. I brought it all with me,” she told him, walking back toward the door to retrieve the bag of groceries she had pulled out to make their meal. Shane took the bag from her and set it on his kitchen island, helping her unpack. She stopped and looked at him. He looked happier than she had seen him appear for days.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I’ve decided that I want to marry you,” she said.

“I’m sorry. What?”

“I mean, you heard what the lawyer said. I don’t want to risk you getting shipped off to Dublin and maybe never being able to come back again. Stay here with me,” she told him.

“Leslie, there is nothing more I would ever want than to marry you, but don’t do it just to keep me here,” he said.

“What better reason is there?”

“Do you love me?”

“I think so.”

“Shouldn’t you know so if you are going to marry a man?”

“Do you love me?” she asked.

“I think so,” he said with a laugh.

“Then, let’s take a chance that we are right and just do it.”

“Are you sure? Have you really thought about this?”

“Yes. I’ve thought about it quite a bit.”

“Well, who am I to argue with marrying a smart, beautiful, successful woman?”

“No one sane,” she said with a laugh.

“I think we should celebrate,” he replied, pulling wine glasses from the cabinet and retrieving some wine from the wine chiller that sat to one side of the kitchen.

They discussed their plans for a wedding, agreeing to skip all the fanfare and just have a simple, private ceremony in the gazebo on a nearby estate belonging to some of Leslie’s old family friends. Shane called his mother, telling her he was sending her a plane ticket and why. Though Leslie had never met her, she talked to her on the phone and she seemed genuinely happy to be gaining a daughter-in-law. Granted, it was an odd way to start a marriage, but everyone had their own stories, didn’t they?

The following Saturday, they were married in front of only a few family friends and relatives. It wasn’t the wedding day Leslie had always imagined for herself, but she felt content with it. Despite not being clear in her feelings for Shane, she felt like it was right. If it wasn’t, then she doubted she would ever regret what they had done, the effort they had made.

“It’s almost as if we are each other’s good luck charm,” Shane told her several weeks later.

“Yeah? How do you figure that?” she asked.

“Things seem to be settling down,” he told her.

“I think it is about time, don’t you?” she laughed.

“You are very right about that he told her,” kissing her softly on the cheek before climbing out of bed.

A week after their marriage, they had gotten a call from Shane’s lawyer that had caught them both by surprise. He said that he needed to see Shane in his office as soon as possible and they had made their way into town to see what was so pressing.

“It seems that the charges against you are being dropped, as is the civil suit,” he told them.

“What? After all of this? Why?”

“Well, your friend Clarke seems to have gotten a bit too sure of himself. He confided to a friend that he set you up for this.”

“Set me up? How do you set someone up to accidentally slice open your neck with the blade of a skate?”

“He didn’t mean for that to happen. His friend is a doctor, the doctor that examined him at the hospital. He was intending to fake a head injury that he could blame you for, but the cut saved him the effort of falsifying anything.”

“I don’t get it. Why?”

“Because he was on the verge of being banned by the league for violating the anti-doping policies. He was on steroids and paying someone to cover it up. Quite a few heads are going to roll over this.”

“So, it was just my lucky day? He decided to make me his scapegoat to get himself out of hot water with the NHL?”

“Pretty much. All charges are being dropped against you and he’ll be held accountable for all of his wrongdoings. Plus, you’ll be able to sue him for a myriad of things. Loss of livelihood, defamation of character, you name it.”

“I don’t want to do any of that. I just want this to end,” Shane told him.

“Are you sure? There is nothing wrong with a bit of payback and you have lost quite a bit of money on this. Your lawyer alone has cost you a fortune,” he said with a smile.

“I’m sure. I’m done with this whole dog and pony show.”

“Good enough then,” he said.

“One question,” Shane asked.

“What’s that?”

“How did anyone find out about all of this?”

“I’m not crystal-clear on all of that, but it seems that the doctor was having an affair and his wife hired a private detective to get her evidence to clean him out in a divorce. The bugs he planted picked up a little more than what they were looking for in capturing conversations between him and Clarke.”

“Doesn’t that violate some sort of doctor-patient privilege to tape private medical conversations?”

“Yes, but not when those conversations are held in private outside the confines of a doctor’s visit,” the lawyer said with a grin.

“Brilliant!” Leslie said, breaking the silence in which she had sat wide-eyed, unable to believe the good news.

“Yes, it is. We’re still not completely out of the woods. I’ve received notice from immigration services that they will drop their consideration of deporting you in lieu of your marriage to Leslie. However, they have assured me that your request for a visa to remain as her spouse is going to be heavily scrutinized, so be prepared for an inquisition from them.”

“I understand,” Shane told him.

“Even if the NHL takes you back in light of this new information, I’m afraid that it won’t change their review. I’m not very well versed in immigration law, but I’m sure your current visa won’t cover you if they feel you have married under false pretenses. You’d be best getting a very good immigration attorney and being prepared for their questions.”

“We can handle it. We’ve done nothing wrong,” Shane told him.

“Good enough for me then. At least we are able to get a couple things off your plate
.
I’ll get the final paperwork to you once it is signed off on, along with a very big bill.”

“I’ve no doubt you will,” Shane laughed, getting up to shake his hand. Leslie followed his lead and shook the lawyer’s hand before leaving.

The news was already out. Monte was waiting for them with it playing on the radio in the car. By the time they returned to Shane’s house, there were only a handful of reporters looking for a statement. No doubt they had all moved over to wherever Clarke lived. Finally, things were showing signs of improvement.

“I think we’re going to have to downsize,” Shane told her one morning a few weeks later.

“Downsize in what way?” she asked.

“Well, you have a house that you haven’t really lived in for months now. I have a house that is big and desperately needs an overhaul. The NHL doesn’t want me back until they know I am not going to end up deported or in jail. I can’t work elsewhere on my current visa. Don’t get worried too much. I still have plenty of money. I’ve been pretty frugal for a guy with my kind of payroll over the last couple of years, but I need to consider the future. We still have lawyers to pay and my savings will only continue to deplete rather than grow.”

“So, what do you want to do? Sell both houses and buy something else?” she asked, not sure how she felt about selling the house she loved so much.

“Actually, now that we don’t have to hide behind brick walls and guards to keep the press off  us, I thought we might move to your place and put this one on the market. Later, if we want, we will look at somewhere else. What do you think?”

“I don’t know. Are you sure? My place is so tiny compared to here. Would you be comfortable there?”

“One day, we will go to Dublin and I will show you where I grew up. It’s a tiny little flat in the middle of a very long streets of flats that look exactly the same, but my mother made it cozy and I loved it there. I feel the same way at your house. It feels more like home than this place has ever felt for me.”

“Okay, then. If you are sure. I’ll see if I can make you some space for the Pac-Man machine.”

“Funny. I think I can probably get rid of it and some other things or just put them in storage somewhere.”

“Are you crazy? Don’t you dare!”

“That’s what I love about you,” he laughed. “You have a gamer’s priority with curves in all the right places.”

“Unh huh,” she laughed as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Over the course of the next two weeks, they transitioned some of his stuff to her house, some to storage and donated a good bit to a local children’s home. Leslie thought it would seem odd to have him there in her house, but it didn’t. It felt completely right.

However, things felt nothing close to right on the morning of their interview with the USCIS, the immigration arm of the American government assigned to establish whether their marriage was legit or a sham. They had done all of the proper paperwork to request permission for Shane to remain in the States as her husband, but it didn’t mean they would allow it. Both of them were nervous as they sat in stark-looking offices answering questions from intimidating immigration officers.

“Let me see your house keys,” the officer told Leslie.

“I’m sorry. My house keys?”

“Yes. You do have a set of keys to the house you reside in with your husband, don’t you?”

“Of course,” she replied, pulling the keys from her pocket and handing them to him.

He looked at them intently for a moment and then snapped a picture of them. Leslie had no idea what he was doing, but she was already frazzled from the endless questions about how they met, where they married, who attended. Then there were the random questions about the little things like who makes breakfast or what kind of phone does her husband use.

“Is your marriage a sham? Are you attempting to perpetrate fraud on the U.S. government?” he said suddenly.

“No,” she replied.

“Are you sure? You seem to have had some sort of whirlwind romance and gotten married in quite a hurry. It seems awfully convenient to have done so at a time when your husband was in danger of being deported.”

“I love my husband,” she said flatly. “I loved him right away.”

“Is that so? I find that hard to believe.”

“It’s true,” she replied and she realized that her nervousness about this whole interview seemed to just flow away from her as she said the words out loud to this complete stranger.

If Leslie had ever had any doubt about how she felt about Shane, it was put to rest in that moment. Perhaps she had married him to keep him in the country, but the fact was that she did love him and in her eyes that made what she had done okay. She refused to let this man in some government fraud office intimidate her into telling him anything other than she was in love with the man that she married.

“This interview is terminated. I will walk you out to the lobby to wait on your husband,” he told her.

“We’re good then?” she said.

“We’ll let you know,” he told her.

When Shane emerged from his interview, Leslie grabbed him and hugged him like she hadn’t seen him for years. He smiled down at her and kissed her lips. They would probably think it was just a public display to fortify their case, but they couldn’t be further from the truth. Leslie had the feeling that Shane had come to the same realization she had during his interview. Not only were they able to answer the questions put to them, but they truly did love one another.

Obviously, the interviewers had seen it too. Some weeks later, Shane’s visa was granted and they settled into their lives as man and wife. Shane was all smiles the day she had returned from work to find him holding the paperwork they had received in the mail in his hands.

“And, Mrs. O’Hannon, there is more news. I am going back to work with the NHL.”

“You’re back on the team?”

“No, not exactly. I’m taking over as a trainer.”

“Are you okay with that?”

“Honestly? Yes, I am. After my experience in the past months, I think I am ready to get off the front lines and move into a support role.”

“Well, that’s fantastic. It’s good to finally be in a good place together, isn’t it?”

“Any place with you is a good place,” he said, kissing her and pulling her close.

It was the most perfect place on earth there in his arms. Her game was released the following week, without Shane in it as a player, but if you looked closely, you’d see that he was very much there represented as the head coach of every single team. Though they might have different names, their tiny heads were covered with red hair and their green eyes sparkled as their team rolled out on the ice.

Kate Goldman’s Readers Club

Want to be FIRST to learn about new releases, 99-cents promotions and
FREE
BOOK GIVEAWAYS? Sign up for my exclusive readers’ newsletter!

CLICK HERE