On the Fly (17 page)

Oddly enough,
I
minded. Not that Tuck
was playing around or anything like that. Tuck was a kid. Playing
is what kids do.

I minded that it was Babs and not me
that Tuck was holding on to.

I’d been jealous before, but never
over a kid. I didn’t know what to do with that, and I wasn’t
particularly keen on trying to sort out why jealousy was striking
me like this so I went on ahead of them and turned the corner.
Rachel had already shut down her computer by the time I reached
her.

Jim’s office was dark, but Martha was
still busy at her desk. She gave me a rare smile, looking up from
over the top of her monitor. “Rachel tells me you’re going to
explain the game to her, Campbell.”

“
That’s the plan.” I was
looking at Rachel instead of Martha. Her cheeks flushed a little,
emphasizing the smattering of freckles covering her
face.

“
Good,” Martha said. “I can
teach her about the business end of things, and I think she has at
least a basic understanding of icing now, but I’m useless when it
comes to explaining things like fighting.”

I laughed. “What, your boys never
fought in their playing days?” Two of her sons had played pro
hockey for several years, in the minors and in the elite European
leagues, and at least one of her grandchildren was playing in the
local peewee league now. They didn’t allow fighting in peewee, but
it was a rite of passage for minor league players—one of the ways
you could make yourself stand out for the scouts of the higher
tiers of teams.

A willingness to fight for
your spot—
literally
to fight—was the only way some guys would ever get a shot at
the big leagues.

“
Oh, they fought,” Martha
said. “A lot more than I would have liked, actually. I’ve just
never understood the code.”

Babs and the kids had finally made it
to the top of the stairs, and Rachel had already donned her coat
and buttoned it. She reached into the bottom drawer of her desk and
retrieved her purse, slinging it across her body in that habitual
manner she had that only drew my focus to her breasts. Even with
the coat covering them so I couldn’t really get a good look. Hell,
I was a mess.

“
I doubt I’ll ever
understand it, either,” Rachel said, “but I’m going to give him a
chance to help me see the light.” At least she was smiling.
Granted, her smile was probably due to Tuck’s laughter that was
filling the hallway and echoing off the walls. The kid’s exuberance
was infectious.

“
Ready?” I asked as I
reached out to pick her up.

She held me off with a hand, shaking
her head. “My feet are healing. You don’t have to carry me all the
time.”

I lifted a brow in Martha’s direction.
There was no chance she would let Rachel get away with lying to me
about something like that.

“
She’s been walking just
fine all day,” Martha deadpanned. “No signs of pain. I’ve been
watching.” Then she shooed us away with her hands. “Get out of here
before I find a reason to keep her.”

I wasn’t entirely convinced, but there
was no good reason for Martha to lie to me. Still, I wasn’t ready
to give up entirely. Before Rachel could pull herself away from me,
I put my hand out and took hers inside it, tugging her closer to
me.

Her eyes shot up to meet mine, but she
didn’t pull away. I’d take it. I’d take anything I could get from
her.

“
Mommy!” Tuck shouted,
releasing his grips on both Babs and Maddie so he could race ahead
and hug Rachel. He hit her with enough force that she bumped back
against her desk.

“
Slow down, Ginger Ninja,”
Babs said. “Your mom’s on our team, not the other side. We don’t
body check our own teammates.”

She ruffled his hair and then took his
hand with the one not in mine. “Did you have a good day at
school?”

We all headed for the stairs, leaving
Martha behind.

“
Yep,” Tuck said
matter-of-factly. He pulled his hand free and situated himself
between the two of us, using his two little hands to pry ours
apart. Then he started swinging himself along with me and Rachel
for support as he’d done with Babs and Maddie on the stairs. “We
learnded the colors of the rainbow.”

We’d hardly gone five or
six steps when Rachel looked up at me and mouthed,
“Sorry.”
I wasn’t sorry.
It felt right.

Maddie walked along ahead of us with
Babs at her side, but she kept her distance from him. Not like she
was scared, though. It was more as though she was just being a
little cautious. Caution never hurt anyone, as far as I was aware.
I just wished I knew why she found it necessary.

We had dinner at Amani’s, a favorite
restaurant among the players. Even with taking the necessary time
to clean up the mess Tuck made of himself in trying to eat his
spaghetti and meatballs, we still got to the Moda Center well
before puck drop.

“
Why don’t we go to the Fan
Shop?” Babs suggested. “We could get you two some
jerseys.”

Tuck tried to run ahead, even though
he didn’t know where he was going. “I want a Mr. Jamie
jersey!”

Babs caught up to him and picked him
up, tossing him over his shoulder to lead us the rest of the way.
Maddie hung back close to her mom. Even after we got into the Fan
Shop, she stayed close to Rachel’s side, almost hiding behind her
despite the fact that the store was almost deserted other than
us.

“
You can go look around,”
Rachel said. “You don’t have to stay right with me in
here.”

Maddie just shook her head.

Babs had taken Tuck over to look at
the wall of hats on one side of the store. They wouldn’t need our
help, at least as long as Tuck didn’t get too rambunctious. A
little voice in the back of my head told me Babs would have an
easier time than I would handling Tuck if something like that
happened, though.

“
Come on,” I said to
Maddie. I reached out a hand for her, but she quickly took her
mom’s instead. I tried not to let that bother me as I headed for
the kids section. “Let’s find a jersey for you, okay?”

Rachel and Maddie followed me. I
searched the racks until I saw the leftover selection of pink and
lavender kids jerseys they’d done for the annual Hockey Fights
Cancer month. They still had the Storm logo, a streak of lightning
cutting through a hockey puck, but they looked like something a
little girl might like to wear.

I picked up one in lavender that
looked like it was at least close to the right size. “What about
one of these?”

With a look up at her mother, Maddie
shook her head. “I don’t need one.”

“
We can get you one,”
Rachel said. “Really.”

“
Really?”

It killed me to hear the doubt in her
voice. It was like she was so used to being deprived that she felt
guilty for a little splurge. Rachel had to be doing okay now, if
she was able to pay the rent in our building, but there was no
denying that she drove an old beater and her clothes when I first
met her were nowhere close to the quality she wore these days. It
was hard for me to imagine a life like they must have been living
because I’d never wanted for anything. Dad had spent sixteen
seasons playing in the NHL, and he’d been making a good living in
real estate ever since his retirement. Dana and I weren’t spoiled
as children, but we’d never gone without either.

“
Really,” I answered.
“Whichever one you want. My treat.”

Rachel started to object but stopped
when I gave a brief shake of my head.

Maddie’s eyebrows scrunched together
in thought, but a small smile was working its way to her mouth.
“Any of them?” she asked after a minute.

“
Yep. Pick what you
want.”

She nodded and finally stepped away
from her mother. She didn’t go over to the pink and lavender rack,
but instead headed for the replica jerseys—the ones that looked
exactly like what we wore on the ice. One by one, she looked them
over, studying the names and numbers printed on the
back.

She had to be looking for one of
Babs’s number nineteen jerseys. I was about to help her find it
when she asked, “What number is yours, Mr. Soupy?”

That shocked me about as well as
anything could have. “Eleven,” I said once I found my voice again.
I looked over at Rachel, but she just shrugged. I put the lavender
one I’d been holding back where I’d found it.

A minute later, Maddie had found a
home jersey with my number in her size.

“
You’re sure that’s what
you want?” I asked.

“
Yes, sir.” Then she gave
me a real smile. “Thank you.”

“
You’re welcome, Maddie.” I
got a little choked up, and I wasn’t really sure what to do with
that. Nodding, I took the jersey from her and headed for the
register.

Before I could get there, a loud crash
came from the opposite side of the store. I turned to find Babs and
Tuck in the middle of a cascade of stuffed animals pouring down on
them from above.

Tuck’s cheeks turned as red as
Rachel’s did whenever I embarrassed her. He had one stuffed animal
in his hands, a goalie mask on his head with a Portland Storm
baseball cap on top of it, a jersey slung over his arm, and a
kid-sized hockey stick tucked under his chin. It looked like a
weapon, the way he was holding it. Babs instantly started trying to
help the Fan Shop employees pick up the mess.

“
Oops!” Tuck
shouted.

Oops
didn’t even begin to cover it.

Brenden Campbell was
somehow worming his way into my life, and I didn’t
have the first clue how to stop him. I didn’t even know if I wanted
to stop him anymore.

He spent the whole Winterhawks game
talking to me—explaining what was going on out on the ice, why
certain things were allowed but others weren’t, helping me to
understand what each player’s responsibilities were—all the while
flirting with me outrageously.

He kept leaning over and
whispering things in my ear, like,
“You
should wear green like this more often. It makes your eyes dark and
sexy
;” or,
“Every
time you blush, I try to think of more ways to make you
blush.”

During the second intermission, he
stretched his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in toward him,
and I almost sighed as his warmth wrapped around me. At least until
I remembered I was supposed to be keeping some distance between us.
The physical distance wasn’t the issue—it was emotional distance I
needed, and I was quickly losing that battle.

Jamie entertained Tuck and Maddie
throughout the game, making sure they were never bored. Not to
mention making sure they were otherwise occupied so that Brenden
could continue to flirt with me. I wasn’t quite sure if it was
something they’d worked out in advance, or if it was just because
Jamie liked my kids. Either way, Brenden didn’t seem to
mind.

A couple of times he looked like he
was going to kiss me again. And I wanted him to. No matter what I
did, I couldn’t stop myself from wanting him. That could only lead
to trouble, though.

But then again, Maddie seemed to be
okay with him. She’d surprised me with wanting his name and number
on her jersey. It probably shouldn’t have taken me aback the way it
did. She was always thinking of everyone but herself.

By the time the two of them had taken
us home, I was a mess of nerves and indecision. “Inside, you two!”
I ordered my kids. “Straight to the bathtub.”

They scurried inside, Tuck still
giggling even through his yawns.

“’
Night, Rach,” Jamie said
just before he opened the door across the hall and disappeared
through it, leaving me alone with Brenden and a metric ton of
electrical pulses charging the air between us.

I shifted my purse strap and inched
back closer to my door. He only followed me with his eyes, but that
was more than enough. His gaze could melt steel.

“
Thank you,” I finally got
out. “For taking us to the game. And dinner.”