Cage's Misconduct (NHL Scorpions #3) (27 page)

“So can I at least hit him one last time? Just to make me feel like I did what a big brother is supposed to do?”

Jody looked at me with creepy hope in his eyes. Karen put a stop to that right away. “No, you cannot! He’s your future brother-in-law. You guys are going to be family. Won’t that be fun?”

It was beyond obvious that he did not think that would be fun, but tough shit. He’d have to get used to it. I stuck out my hand. “What do you say, brother?”

With one of the least sincere smiles I’d ever seen, he shook my hand. “I say welcome to the family. And if you ever hurt my sister, I’ll happily take my place behind bars.”

“Great. That would be really good for Lacey and Addie.”

“Cage, please don’t.” Karen gave me those damn puppy dog eyes.

“Sorry.” I don’t know why I was always the one to take the high road, though. Was that considered pouting?

***

Karen and I were sitting in our favorite spot when we got back from Jody’s. “It’s really nice out today, isn’t it?” Karen’s feet were balanced on my legs while I admired the job I did on her deck a few weeks ago. It looked great, if I did say so myself.

Karen had gotten used to the gorgeous California weather pretty quickly. “It usually is here. I don’t think I need to live anywhere else. The weather here is about perfect.”

“What about Texas? It’s warm there, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, you could say that. The summers are brutal. Winters are nice, though. It rarely, if ever, freezes there. Compared to here it’s really humid, but if you compare it to Houston, it’s dry. It’s all relative, I guess.”

“So you prefer the weather here? Even though it doesn’t get all that hot? The ocean is pretty cool here. Does it ever really get warm?”

“It doesn’t warm up too much in the Pacific. But then I’ve never dipped a toe in the Atlantic, so I don’t know the difference. I often jump in the ocean after a run on the beach on my way back to my cottage. It’s …invigorating.” It was cold, actually. Damn cold for me. In August it was okay, but generally the Pacific was on the cool side.

“Well, I never get in the water at home. In our hottest month, it’s still too cold for me. I’m a wuss, though.”

“I can’t believe we’re sitting here talking about the weather. Come on, Karen. Tell me. Did Jody’s objections put any doubt in your mind? Are you having second thoughts?”

She turned her head to me and stared pointedly in my eyes. “Listen to me. Are you listening?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Our fingers entwined together. I wasn’t sure who did it, her or me. “We’re getting married. I want to give you all I have and see where it leads. I believe in you, Cage. I have no doubts whatsoever about you, okay?”

You know in The Grinch where his heart grows three times larger? Mine just did the same thing. But for the first time, I did have some doubts. What if I couldn’t live up to her expectations? What if Jody was right? I mean, I knew I’d never, ever cheat on her, but what if I fucked up in some other way? One thing I’d
always
believed in was honesty so I told her what I was feeling.

“Well, now I’m a little scared. What if I fuck up?” I didn’t let my gaze waver. I wanted her to see my every emotion in my eyes—every emotion that I couldn’t convey adequately in words. “Karen, I want to be worthy of you. And I swear right now, I’ll never cheat on you, I’ll never, ever hit you. I’ll never knowingly hurt you, but I’m really afraid I’m going to fuck up.”

Her simple smile eased me. “Well, of course you’ll fuck up!”

Wait….what?

“We’ll both mess up. But let’s agree right here, right now, that when we do, we’ll talk about it. And if we ever have any doubts or worries about anything, we’ll figure it out. I have a friend who’s a marriage counselor who tells her clients to start with a catchphrase.”

“What do you mean?”

“A lot of people tend to say ‘you’re not listening to me!’ or something like that when they argue. But if it’s really something that they
need
their partner to hear, and not just a reiteration of the last argument they had, they say something like ‘Please listen. This is important to me.’ That way the couple knows that it’s something that truly needs to be addressed.”

“I can do that. At least I promise to try. Just do me a favor. Between you and me, I can be somewhat hard-headed. If I’m not getting it, hit me. I’ll understand that.”

“Aw, Cage. I’m not going to hit you any more than you would me. I know how to get to you and make you listen.”

She thought she was so smart. Okay, she was. She totally had me over the barrel, and I couldn’t have been happier. “Yeah? How’s that?”

“I’m not going to tell you!”

It would be something sexual, I just knew it.

“And no, it won’t be sexual.”

Holy shit. How did she do that? I was too transparent. “Okay, fine. Don’t tell me; just don’t let me fuck this up.”

“I won’t.” She kissed me to seal the deal, so to speak. I left shortly after with yet another hard-on and a chest full of hope for the future.

Karen

I’d been enjoying my time with Cage immensely. Add to that the fact that I put jeans on for the first time today, and I was on cloud nine. Then I got a phone call.

“Karen? Thank God you answered.”

“Zoe? What’s wrong?” I immediately panicked at the sound of her voice. It was sharp and urgent.

“He didn’t show! His agent texted me saying he’d be a bit late, but he didn’t show and now no one is answering my calls. We have another three hours here, but what am I going to do?”

I had no idea what she was talking about. “Who didn’t show? Give me details, Zoe.”

“Shit. Okay hold on.” I could hear her taking a deep breath and mumbling to someone in the background.

“Jacques.”

“Andre Jacques? The Scorpions backup goalie?”

“Yes. And today is goalie training. Jody’s here, but Vlad has an appointment with Crystal. So….”

“So?”

“Dammit, Karen, I’m calling in the chick card.”

Obviously I knew where this was going. “The chick card?”

“Look, I love you, but I don’t have time to screw around here. I need Cage, and I need him now. Can you make it happen or not?”

“Why didn’t you just call him?”

I swear I could hear her roll her eyes over the phone. “Come on. He friggin adores you. If you asked him to walk over hot coals, he’d throw off his shoes. I need him here five minutes ago. Okay? Please?”

I happened to know that Cage was sitting at home, having just finished a run, waiting for me to hop on over there. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“I love you. Did I mention that?” I heard her yelling for them to get into formation to do their pre-skate exercises with Jody before I hung up. I immediately dialed Cage.

“Hey, Karen. Anything wrong? I thought you’d be here by now.”

“I need a favor.”

“Of course. Anything you want.”

“Good. Be ready when I get there with your gear.”

“My gear? Where are we going?”

“Just be ready.”

When I got there, he was standing in the kitchen, his bag at his feet. “What’s going on?” We didn’t have time for chatter. I grabbed his stick and almost made my way out the door before he gripped my arm hard.

“Whoa. I love ya, babe, but no one grabs my lucky stick.”

“Oh, come on, Cage. We need to go.” I tried leaving again with his stick in hand, but his grip tightened. “But—”

“No ifs, ands or buts, Karen. That is my lucky stick and if you keep messing with it, I’m putting you in the penalty box. There are only two people who touch this stick, and as hot as you are, you’re not one of them.”

“Oh my God. You’re serious!” I let go of his stick and kissed him. Really, it was too cute. They were crazy. Goalies were really crazy. “But for the record, I don’t think I’d mind if you put me in the sin bin.” He gave me his sexy wink all the time, so I returned the favor. It worked. He broke out in a smile, but smacked my bottom as we went through the door.

“You’re cute enough, but really, don’t touch it again.” I had to respect his dedication at least, and I would not make the mistake of touching his lucky stick again—at least not that one.

***

It was pandemonium when we got to the rink. Zoe’s kids were all over the place. Boys were on one side and girls were on the other. I could see Jody and a few other adults intermixed with the kids. Some on skates, some standing behind the glass. Cage immediately went into the locker room to suit up.

“Oh, thank God!” Zoe hugged the life out of me before remembering I was still a tad sore. “Sorry. Where is he?” She looked frantically left and right. “Oh, God. He’s here, right? Right?”

“Zoe! Relax. He’s in the locker room putting on his gear. He’ll be out in a second. What are we doing, anyway?”

She looked me up and down. “Well, you’re going to have a seat in the penalty box over there, and the rest of us are going to teach these kids how to play hockey. We’ll have to take turns with the ice. Most of them know how to skate, but the ones who don’t obviously can’t play hockey yet.”

“How about I take the ones who don’t skate very well out into the lobby there and play games with them? I could have them play Red Rover or Duck, Duck, Goose for the little ones.” I was always playing games like that with the kids I worked with. It was a great way to socialize them while letting them have some fun at the same time.

“You’re a lifesaver. Thanks.”

Zoe blew her whistle and split the kids up into groups of skaters and non-skaters. As I was taking my group out into the lobby, I saw Cage come out of the locker room in all his goalie glory.

He looked like a fantasy walking out there in his skates, pads and jersey. He carried his stick and glove in one hand, his blocker in the other. His helmet was on, but pushed way up the way goalies always did. Damn, he was hot!

“Stop drooling and go play with the kids.” Zoe smacked my butt to get me moving again. What was it with everyone smacking my butt?

“Uh, huh.”

The kids and I weren’t playing for very long before I started seeing wistful glances into the rink. I caught myself looking in fairly often as well. I clapped my hands to get their attention. “Okay. Let’s take a vote. Who would rather go sit and watch the other kids play hockey?” It was unanimous. Inside we went.

Zoe skated over to our group and talked through the camera man’s hole in the glass. “What are you doing in here? Everything okay? You’re not too tired, are you? God, I never thought about that. I was too busy freaking out.”

“I’m fine! Do you ever operate at anything other than full tilt, Zoe?”

She laughed at herself, shaking her head. “No. Sorry. I tend to be a bit high strung all the time. It’s just in my nature. You’re feeling okay though, right? Cage’ll have my head if he hears otherwise.”

“I’m fine. The kids just wanted to watch the hockey action in here instead of playing games out there. I figure it’s their time away from the orphanage, so if they want to watch, why not? Is that okay?”

“Absolutely. I’ll call an end to this session in about ten minutes. Candy will help them get their skates on. Can you just lead them around to the other side over there? All their skates are over there with their names on them. We sized them all up earlier.” Zoe pointed to the other side of the rink where there was a bench set up, still behind the glass.

“Sure thing.”

Zoe called a halt to the play on the ice, giving the Zamboni a chance to resurface it. Cage was chatting with Jody, believe it or not, and I took the opportunity to study the ice.

Ice kind of reminded me of Cage. If you simply glanced at it, it was perfect
—s
mooth, slick—unmarred and beautiful. But if you really looked closely and studied it, you could see that it was actually made up of layers upon layers, and there were thousands of tiny cracks under that smooth surface the world saw. If not nurtured and cared for though, ice could shatter. It could just blow apart. The similarities between Cage and that glossy sheet of ice were not lost to me.

Still absorbed with my thoughts, I didn’t hear Cage walk up behind me. Even in all of his gear. “Hey.”

Did I mention how hot he looked in his gear? His helmet was sitting on the bench, his glove and blocker on top of the net, but other than that he was still suited up. “Hey yourself. Are you having a good time?”

“Surprisingly, yes. These kids are pretty cool. After they got over their initial hero worship—that’s for me, of course.”

“Of course.”

He shrugged matter-of-factly. “I can’t help who I am. The kids dig me.”

Never let it be said that Cage was too humble. “You really don’t know the meaning of the word humble, do you, babe?”

His left eyebrow raised just a hair. “Babe?”

I smiled tentatively. “Yeah. I thought I’d try it out.”

He rewarded me with a larger smile of his own. “I like it. A lot.” Quick as can be, he leaned in and kissed me and then he was off to talk with the little ones who were up next on the ice.

As I watched him across the way, he took off his pads so that he could get closer to the little ones and help the kids skate. It was hard to imagine that when I first met him, all I saw was a badass hockey player. A
player,
player, you know? He couldn’t be farther from that now if he tried. Even Jody seemed to be giving him the benefit of the doubt for now. It was a wholly satisfying day.

Cage

Things were going so well with Karen, I was almost afraid to have Jaden and Ethan here. And she was feeling better every day, which meant I was getting closer and closer to having sex again. I can’t say it didn’t weigh heavily on my mind. As in every other minute. I meant what I said to her, I’d wait as long as I had to, but that didn’t mean I liked it.

Friday night, Karen and I watched the last game in the Cup finals at her place. Chicago took it—again. Someone, hopefully the Scorpions, needed to beat them down soon. They’d won three cups in the past five years. It was time for another team to rise and conquer.

The best part of the night came after the game anyway.