The Arrangement (New Hampshire Bears Novella) (3 page)

Chapter Four

Vance

Tuesday came faster than I planned. I had to ship most of my belongings home. Gerald and Apollo left earlier than I did, since I had my last day of training.

Now, I’m waiting at baggage claim to grab my suitcase. Thankfully, mine is one of the first, and I easily pick it up and roll it out toward the doors. Dacey texts told me where she is parked, and I find her by her father’s car.

She doesn’t see me at first. She stands at the trunk staring at the ground. Her strawberry blonde hair is much longer than I remember. On
Facetime
she usually keeps it up. I prefer her hair down, but I’ll keep that to myself. I study her body. She’s short— only five-five, but I like her petite frame. Her jeans are tight and her top is hugging her in all the right places. The girls I’ve been with were so much different. However, I need to remember what Gerald and Apollo told me: I can’t let my family down.

I take a deep breath and make my way to her. Dacey raises her head, and I notice she checks me out before recovering with a simple smile.

“Hey, Dacey.”

“Vance.” She nods and opens the trunk. I load my bags in before getting into the car. “Do you want to go to your parents or one of your brothers?”

“How about some food?” I suggest.

“You just flew all the way from Toronto; aren’t you tired?” She backs the car out of its spot and heads toward the exit.

“No, I’m hungry, and we need to talk.” I dread this, but we need to put everything on the table. I continue to chant over and over in my head what Gerald and Apollo told me.

Be engaging, caring, and pay attention.

“Where do you want to eat?”

“Nando’s.” I smile at the name of my favorite place to eat when I’m home.

“Okay.” She drives off toward Nando’s. “How was the flight?”

“Good.”

“And your last day of training?”

“Good,” I say again.

“Great.” She continues and we fall into silence until we arrive.

Be engaging,
keeps pushing through my head as we sit down and order our food. Dacey seems bored to tears and looks all around.

Our food comes and we’ve still not spoken to each other. I’m screwing this all up.

“Vance, what do you want to talk about? If you’re ending this, I’d rather you not do it in a restaurant.” Her voice is soft.

“What? Why are you thinking that? I told you I’m taking this seriously,” I say firmly.

“I just figured you thought it through.” Her cheeks are red.

“No, we have time until the PHL Draft. We need to make this work.” I state the obvious.

“I know. I’ve been in Vance classes for the past few days. And trust me, if one more person give me the sex talk, I may just lose my mind.”

“Oh, trust me, I’ve been attending Dacey classes, etiquette classes, and more than enough talk about…sex.” I shake my head, thinking back to Apollo and Gerald’s talks.

Dacey picks at her food. “This shouldn’t be so difficult, right?”

I take a bite of food to delay my answer. “You’re right. It shouldn’t, but we haven’t had a lot of timer to make it easier.”

“We’ve been arranged for eleven years.” She pushes her plate away from her.

This is going horribly wrong, and I don’t know what to do. “Let’s just go.” I toss down my napkin since my appetite is gone. “Just take me to Apollo’s house.”

Dacey says nothing else as she drives me to my brother’s. When she parks in front of his place, I look over at her, she’s staring forward.

“I’ll call Mum when I get home. You don’t have to come to Aimee’s wedding either.”

I remain silent as I get out of the car and grab my bags from the trunk. I watch her drive away, and I slowly make my way into the house.

Leeza greets me and her smile quickly fades. “Apollo.” She calls for him and motions for me to come in.

He comes around the corner and stops, dropping his head. “You obviously listened to nothing we told you.”

“I did listen.” I throw my bags down. “She doesn’t want me. What the hell do you want me to do?”

“Try harder.” Leeza stands next to him. “Where is she?”

“Heading home, I guess. She said she was going to call her mum.”

“Shit.” Apollo growls and grabs my arm. “Come on, we have time. Lee, call Aimee and get her to stall.”

Apollo gets in his car, and like a Formula One driver, speeds like hell to Dacey’s apartment. He is mad, and I can it see all over his face. I know better than to open my mouth.

We reach her place and make our way up three flights of stairs. Apollo knocks, and Aimee opens the door. I know her dirty look cuts right through me.

“I have her phone, and she’s hiding in her room. Everyone is on their way.”

I roll my eyes as we come in. About ten minutes later, Gerald, Robyn, and Leeza come walking in. No one is happy, and I’m wondering if I’ll be put in timeout. Aimee goes down the hall and gets Dacey. When she comes out, she sighs deeply, walking into the room.

“All right, we don’t need to involve the parents.” Gerald crosses his arms. “But, you two need to figure this out.”

“Look,” I jump up from the chair. “It’s not like we can turn on a switch and fall in love.”

“Vance, this is our family tradition. You are held to the same standards we are.” Gerald still stands tall. “This isn’t a joke. She is your arranged, and you two will get this straightened out.”

“Was it easy for all of you?” Dacey speaks loudly. “Did you all instantly fall in love? Did you?”

No one answers.

“You have been together since you were ten,” Aimee reminds us.

“And he’s been gone almost all of it.” Dacey points at me. “Boarding school. Hockey camps. Hockey training. Hockey leagues. He’s not been here,” she shouts. “I can’t fall in love with someone over the damn phone.” She puts her hands on her hips.

Everyone is looking at me. “What? Hockey is my life. I can’t help it.”

“But now you’re home,” Robyn says. “That means from now until the draft, you two need to be connected at the hips.”

“We can dodge the parents if need be to make sure you two stay together,” Apollo says.

“But no sleep overs,” Aimee adds.

“Or sex.” Gerald growls narrowing his glare at me.

“Please, no more sex talk.” Dacey covers her ears.

“I agree with Dacey.” I’m also hoping no one slips up and says the truth about my past.

“Fine,” Robyn says loudly. “Let’s just keep you two together. Starting now.”

I glance over at Dacey, and she’s looking back at me.

“Okay,” she concedes.

“Okay.” I repeat her word and figure it’s time for me to learn about my future wife.

Chapter Five

Dacey

As everyone leaves, Vance and I agree to meet for brunch the next morning. We can’t meet for breakfast because he needs to go to the gym first.

Now, I’m sitting in the restaurant alone, waiting on Vance, who’s fifteen minutes late.

“Another water?” the waiter asks. I’m sure he’s thinking no one is coming to meet me and I’m just taking up space.

“No, not right now.” I smile sadly. I’ll give him five more minutes and then head home.

I check my phone again and try my best not to get upset. If he knew he’d be late then why doesn’t he send me a text? I’m about to flag down the waiter and get the check, when Vance finally walks through the door.

He obviously sees I’m upset and immediately begins to apologize. “I’m sorry. I got caught up at the gym talking to some guys.”

“You could have let me know.” I don’t mean to sound pissy, but I hear it in my tone. “Sorry. I’m hungry and cranky.”

“It’s fine. It’s my fault.”

The waiter returns and we order our food. We fall into silence, as always, and I figure someone needs to talk first.

“Our siblings seem to be very intent on us remaining together.” I finally speak.

“My brothers are deep on keeping up family traditions.” He seems displeased.

“Aimee too.” I nod. “Um…well…I guess we need to give this a real go then.”

“We do,” he agrees.

“Okay, since we both know the severity of this, I’ll let you in on a secret.”

“What’s that?” He furrows his brow.

“I want this to work too.” I lower my voice as my nerves rattle. I’m not a fan of spilling my feelings, but this needs to be said. “I don’t want to be the black sheep of my family. I think, if we both work at this, it’ll be successful.” There, I told him.

Vance looks down, running his hand through his shaggy, dark brown hair. When he gazes up, his light blue eyes seem more serious than sad, like I thought they might be.

“I care too. Let’s put forth all of our effort and make it happen.”

I give him a tiny smile. “Okay. Since we don’t know a lot about each other, I found a dating site on the internet that had a questionnaire to use on a first date and such.” I pull open my phone to the list to help us out.

“You were on a dating sire?” He sounds hurt.

“Yes, but I was just there to get the list.” I hold up my phone, showing him.

“Oh,” he seems relieved.

Before I can get out the first question our food arrives. After a few bites, I go back to my phone. “We can skip the family and travel ones since we already know all of those,” I start. “I’ll ask and we’ll both answer, sound good?”

He agrees.

“Okay, let’s start with favorite color.” It’s simple but not ground breaking.

“I don’t really have. Although, I’ve bought a lot of red jumpers lately.” He shrugs.

“I’m more of a purple or blue girl. Mum hates those colors because she says they’re too dark.” I refrain from rolling my eyes. Mum is constantly trying to put me in pinks and greens. “Next question: favorite book?”

“Don’t have one,” he answers quickly.

“Really?”

“I’m not a big reader.”

“Oh right. I knew that actually.” I remember his mum talking to mine about his difficulties in school. “Well mine is
A Walk to Remember
. It’s by Nicholas Sparks. He’s an American writer.” Vance doesn’t seem to care him about the details. I move on. “Well, we know your favorite sport,” I joke.

“What’s yours?”

“Mine?” I thought for a second. “Probably rugby. Although, I hockey is a close second, and I like watching it.”

“You watch hockey?” He seems startled.

“Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”

“I just assumed you didn’t like it.”

I shake my head. “No, I do. I watch all the highlights and your interviews and such.” My cheeks heats up, and I omit the part where I purchased a subscription to watch all his games on the internet.

For the first time, Vance smiles. “I didn’t know.”

I try to play it off as nothing, but my face is burning now. “Favorite movie or TV show?”

“I’m not a fan of either. I don’t mind action movies every once in a while. I saw some while in Canada, they’re good.”

“I’m more of a reader. But I don’t mind reality TV from time-to-time. Big Brother and such…” I take the last few bites of food, glancing over the list, but everything seems way too personal. Who asks such things on a first meeting?

“What else?” Vance asks wiping his mouth. He pushes his empty plate away and stares at me.

“I guess that’s it.”

He tilts his head. “You’re lying. What is it?”

“They…the…” I take a deep breath. “The rest of them are of a personal nature.”

His quiet for a moment and the waiter comes by, taking our plates and leaving the bill. I try to give Vance money for the bill, but he just tells me
no
.

“Come with me,” he says when we’re outside.

“Where to?”

He points down the street. “Let’s walk the park.”

I agree and we stroll down the sidewalk until we reach the park. I’m unsure what Vance is thinking at this point, but I thought our brunch went okay. At least we spoke more than two sentences to each other.

Vance suggests we take a seat on an empty bench. I’m surprised there are not more people out, but I guess they’re mostly at work considering it’s a weekday.

“Let’s go over the rest of those questions,” he says as we sit down.

“Huh?”

“Come on Dacey. You and I both know these are questions and topics we need to discuss. Besides, I’ve had at least ten sex talks with my brothers. It can’t be much more embarrassing.”

“I’m not so sure,” I mumble. My body is trembling thinking about having this talk with him.

“We’re going to be married someday, right? This is going to be part of it. I feel as if we should…talk…you know,” he stammers; he’s nervous too.

“It’s going to embarrass me,” I whisper.

“Trust me, I feel the same way.” He sighs. “But we’re both twenty-one and we need to know about this topic.” He clears his throat and then turns on the bench to face me.

I close my eyes, count to five, and realize he’s right. This is a big subject and one we’ve never discussed before. It’s important. I grab my phone from my purse and open the questions back up.

“How many people have you kissed?” I began using the term
kissed
in the question.

“One.” He answers quiet quickly. “And I regret the way I did it too.”

“Apollo’s wedding,” I add sadly.

“I was smashed that night,” he says in the same weak tone.

“You grabbed me from my table, telling Mum and Dad we were going to dance,” I continue the story.

“But I took you to the coat closet,” he inputs.

He pushed me really. He held tightly to my face and pressed his lips to mine. I remember him smelling of ale. He shoved his tongue into my mouth before I was finally able to push him away.

My first kiss equaled disaster, and he’s never tried again.

“I’m so sorry for that night. It should have never happened.”

“You apologized for it. I’ve forgiven you.” I try to smile and reassure him. I told no one of our kiss and I’m sure he didn’t either. “The next one is: how many people have you slept with? Not sure I want to know this.” I mutter the last part.

“Dacey.” Vance harshly says my name, making me lift me head. He’s mad. “I gave you my word a long time ago.” Even though he sounds serious, my heart tells me something is off.

I remember the day before he left for Canada. He gave me his word that he would remain faithful. Part of me believed him, but the other part thought he might have been with others.

“Thank you. I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy.”

“What do you mean?” He squints.

“I’m sure there were a lot of females around.” My blood rushes to my cheeks.

“A few, but mainly with my teammates. I made it clear about you, and I took care of things on my
own
.”

I whip my head up at him. Did he just say…

“I meant, I just…” his face turns red now. “You know.”

“I do know.”

“You do?” Vance’s blue eyes widen.

“I mean…I just…” Now, I can’t form a sentence. “I understand your meaning.”

“So you don’t?” he questions and my face is about to catch fire.

Are we really going here?

I guess so, and I should be honest with him, right? But this is private. The most private topic ever. It’s not even proper to talk about.

Wait, this is the twenty-first century. I’m an adult woman talking to my future spouse. Is it embarrassing? Sure, but I’ve read articles and read books about women who are capable of speaking on these subject matters. Their faces probably aren’t bright red doing it.

“I do.” I rush the words out and don’t look him in the eyes.

“A lot?”

Of course, he’s more engaging on the sex topics. “I guess a couple times a week.” I’m barely audible. My eyes flick to his and then away.

Vance chuckles. “Now, I’m dying to know more.” But he asks nothing else.

I’m going to be
that
girl. The brave, confident, extremely blusher girl. “Two questions,” I say, still not looking at him.

“What?” He seems alert now.

“You can ask me two questions about
that
topic and I’ll answer them.”

“Are you joking?” He’s in shock.

“No, just…” I wave my hand. “Hurry before I lose my nerve.”

“Do you think of me?”

My whole body is on fire now; this isn’t the topic I figured we’d discuss. At least not this in-depth.

“Sometimes. It depends.” I pick at the bottom of my shirt keep my eyes diverted.

“Do you use…items?” He stammers over his words, but still asks.

I nod. I have a vibrator. I’d die if Mum and Aimee ever found it. Vance laughs, and I’m not sure what’s so funny. He stops, and I know I’m glaring at him.

“I’m sorry. I’m laughing because I didn’t think you’d be this open with me. It’s nice you trust me.”

I nod. “You’re welcome.”

“Um…” he looks down at his watch. “I promised some mates I’d meet up with them this afternoon, but I want to have dinner with you.”

I nod. “Send me a text.” I prayed our dinner conversation would not be this intense.