In the Zone (Portland Storm 5) (31 page)

A
FTER MOST GAMES
, the boys all go out for a meal together, hanging out a little longer, building up that camaraderie and sense of family that seemed to be so prevalent here with the Storm organization. Or at least it had been prevalent since the arrival of Jim Sutter as the general manager. Before that, a lot had been different.

Tonight wasn’t like most games, though. That was abundantly clear from looking around the owner’s box when I went up to snag Shane and Brie. With the Christmas break arriving, everyone had friends and family in town, just about, and so the guys were all splitting off to do their own things.

Well, not quite everyone.

Babs’s parents and his younger brothers—the ones who still lived with them—hadn’t come for Christmas this year, even though Babs’s birthday was only a few days before it. They were in Windsor with his brother Levi. Levi had been drafted by the Storm over the summer, but he was still playing with his major junior team, developing as a defenseman. In a couple more years, he’d move up to play in the American Hockey League, and maybe after a year or two of that he’d get his shot to play in the NHL. I supposed that, as the rest of those boys grew up and spread out to each do his own thing, it was going to be harder and harder to get the whole Babcock family together for the holidays. Every single one of Babs’s brothers played hockey, and if the younger ones got to be half as good as him and Levi, they could be spread all over this continent and maybe even some of them in Europe for the hockey season.

He wasn’t the only one whose family wasn’t here, though. Vladdie’s relatives were all at home in Russia, so he was going to spend his holiday with Luka and the rest of the Lukashenko family. At least the kid would be around people who spoke the same language he did.

A few of the guys were traveling to be with their families. Mitchell “Q” Quincey, one of the other new guys on the team this year, was on his way to Manitoba so he could spend his Christmas break with his parents and siblings, and hopefully get to see his little girl. He’d gotten divorced over the summer, and his ex had been granted custody. He hadn’t seen her in months.

And then there was Radar. He had no plans to make the trip to the Czech Republic and back in the few days we had off, but he
was
flying out to Philadelphia. He was good friends with a couple of guys who played for the Flyers, so they were going to hang out together for the holidays.

Essentially, that was what Babs and Razor intended to do, too. Razor was staying behind here in Portland while the rest of his team flew back to Buffalo before dispersing for their break, and he and Babs were going to do whatever the fuck they tended to do when they were together. Probably play video games. That was all I ever saw them doing, at least.

Babs hadn’t even bothered to come up to the owner’s box tonight. No one was up here waiting for him, and I think he was worried he might run into Katie Weber if he showed his face up here. If so, he had good reason to think that. She’d arrived in town today, and she was here with her mother and younger siblings now.

Webs walked in to get them all, and Katie jumped to her feet, racing over to hug him. “I’ve missed you like crazy,” she said.

“Have you?” Webs had his Dad face on. Or maybe it went further than that. He looked genuinely upset. “I thought you’d been too busy hooking up with Jesse Carmichael to remember all of us. You haven’t answered your phone in weeks.” He crossed his arms in an intimidating stance after he released her from the hug.

“I’ve been busy. We’ve been working long days—”

Webs scowled. “And you’ve been spending every minute you weren’t working wrapped up with him.”

“That’s not fair, Dad.” She was angled in such a way that I couldn’t see her expression, but her tone more than made up for that. It wasn’t a whine. She was genuinely hurt by her father’s intimations.

“I call it like I see it. And I’ve seen more than I ever wanted to all over the TV.”

“It’s just for promotion! We’ve been doing premiers and all sorts of interviews—”

“He doesn’t need to have his hands on your ass to promote your TV show. I thought we raised you better than that.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“And you’re behaving like someone I don’t recognize. I don’t like it. And I don’t like this Jesse Carmichael.”

She threw up her hands in the air. “You don’t even know him!”

“And he’d better hope I never meet him because when I do—”

At that, Laura Weber grabbed her husband by the upper arm and dragged him out of the owner’s box, the two younger kids following behind them. Dana put her arm around Katie, saying something quietly to her, and then she and Zee walked out with Katie, following behind the rest of her family.

That looked like it was going to be an interesting family holiday. I was definitely glad that Babs hadn’t come up to witness all that. He didn’t need that kind of distraction right now.

As I watched the owner’s box slowly empty, it dawned on me that there wasn’t anyone here who belonged to Cole. I hadn’t heard what his plans were for the time off. And I was the one looking out for him this season. I should have already known his Christmas plans well before now. At least I had this opportunity to make up for it.

“Colesy,” I called out when only a few stragglers remained.

He’d been inching his way toward the door, probably trying to make his exit without anyone realizing he was alone, damn him. He turned around, his brows drawn together in question.

“What are you doing for Christmas?”

He shrugged, watching the last couple of people head out the door until only the two of us plus Brie and Shane remained. Then he looked over at me. “I tend to spend the holidays by myself.”

Fuck that. Not if I had anything to say about it. “You don’t have any family here?”

“No, and I’m not going home to see them, either.” He didn’t elaborate and looked like he had no intention of doing so even if I poked and prodded. I could respect that. I had never been very keen on sharing the details of my family life, either.

I glanced over at Shane, long enough to see him give me a brief nod, and then I made up my mind. “Go pack up a few things and come over to my place. You’re spending Christmas with us.”

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his suit pants. “I don’t want—”

“You’re not imposing, and I’m not letting you spend Christmas alone. Go get your stuff.” No one should be alone at Christmas. I’d spent enough of them all by my lonesome to know how awful that was. Yes, I’d been planning to do that myself until Shane had shown up, but that was beside the point.

Colesy looked away, in the manner I’d come to realize meant he was embarrassed, but he finally nodded. “Yeah, all right. I’ll come.”

One bird down. Now I just had to find a way to convince the other to come and stay for a few days, too.

I almost reached for Brie’s hand, but I remembered myself and shoved it in my pocket before I made that mistake. Shane reached over and helped her to her feet, and the four of us headed out to the parking garage together.

I wasn’t ready to give up on the possibility of taking this relationship further, especially not after talking about her with my brother earlier today. Shane really liked her after talking to her at the party, and he seemed to think she wasn’t as opposed to the idea of there being an
us
as I believed she was. He thought there could potentially be a future.

And maybe he was right. She’d come to my party, and tonight she came to my game. She hadn’t told me to stuff it when I mentioned that I still wanted to come to her New Year’s Day performance. She wasn’t shutting me out, and I was making an effort to give her what she said she needed from me. Maybe I just needed to stay the course, however difficult it seemed it might be. I had never been very patient when it came to getting the things that I wanted, and I wanted Brie more than was good for me, considering I might not be able to have her in the end.

When we got out to the garage, Colesy headed off in a different direction for his car. I led Brie and Shane to mine, holding open the passenger door for Brie to get in. After I was settled in the driver’s seat and had started the engine, I turned to her. “When we get to your place, would you be willing to pack up a bag and come with us, too? Shane and I talked about it this afternoon. We don’t want you to spend Christmas all alone with your cats.”

She took a moment before answering, the blue of her eyes turning as dark as the midnight sky. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as though trying to slow her pulse. “I can’t leave my cats for that long,” she said. “There’s not anyone I’d be able to get to come and look after them over the holidays, and definitely not at the last minute like this.”

“You could bring them, too. My house is huge. We could set up part of it for them where my dogs will leave them alone.”

She gave me a look full of skepticism, one eyebrow arched almost comically. “You’ve never had cats, have you?” But then she laughed, and it warmed me through. “Moving them even for a few days could be traumatic for Richie, not to mention a lot of work for the three of us. Not only will we have to get the cats and wrangle them into their carriers, but we’d have to grab their litter box and supplies, cat food, toys, some things to help keep Richie calm… It’s a big undertaking.”

“There are three of us and two of them,” Shane said from the backseat. “And we’re all a lot bigger than they are.”

“They have claws,” Brie said. “And sharp teeth.”

Shane’s shrug was visible in my rearview mirror. “Still, my money’s on us.”

“I still have to go to practices with Devin every day but Christ—”

“I can drive you,” I interrupted, cutting off her argument before she could pick up any steam with it. “Or he can come here. I’ve got a room downstairs that should work for you.”

“With mirrors?” The eyebrow raise she gave me nearly cracked me up.

“No mirrors. It’s still a good space even without them, but I can drive you to the studio if you’d prefer, so that’s not a good argument.”

“Is this for the music video?” Shane asked from the backseat.

“Some of it. We’re also working on a show for New Year’s Day.”

“I wouldn’t mind watching you two, if that’s all right,” he said.

I doubted Colesy would mind too much, either, and I sure as hell knew I liked watching her dance. “We can all come, if we wouldn’t be intruding,” I said.

“Great. Just what we need, a huge audience. Next thing I know, you’ll be inviting the whole team over to sit in the peanut gallery and watch.”

“That’s not a horrible idea,” I teased.

Brie rolled her eyes. In the end, she gave in, and we wound up herding her cats, their carriers, litter boxes, cat food, dishes, brushes, toys, and a thousand other things—plus a duffel bag full of what Brie needed for herself, which seemed woefully inadequate in comparison to all of the cat supplies—down the stairs from her apartment to my car. She hadn’t been kidding about it being a big undertaking. When I take my dogs with me for a few days, I only need to grab them, their leashes, and their food. We figure the rest of it out once we get to wherever we’re going. This was an entirely different endeavor, and a hilarious one at that. It took all three of us making two trips with our arms full before Brie said we had everything they would need.

By the time we got back to my place, Colesy was sitting in the driveway waiting for us. It was no surprise that he had beat us there. As hockey players, we spend a lot of time on the road. We’re used to packing up quickly. I pulled into the garage, opening another door so he could park inside, too, and then we all worked together to get everything in the house.

I took Brie downstairs and showed her a few connecting rooms we could put the cats in, helping to close off doors so that they could have a safe space. She set everything up for her cats before she let them out of their carriers. Pepper was trying to help her, and Shadow and Dexter were watching a little too intently, so I herded my dogs up the stairs and out the side door so they’d leave her cats alone. When I came back downstairs, she’d already let both cats out of their carriers to explore. BC was roaming around and sniffing everything in my downstairs game room, but Richie was nowhere in sight.

“He’s crawled inside that recliner,” Brie said, pointing toward one of the La-Z-Boy chairs near the TV. She must have noticed that I was looking for him.

“
Inside
it?”

“Yep. He shoved his body up the back. He won’t come out until he doesn’t hear voices. Even then, he might not come out for a few hours. Every time we’ve moved since I’ve had him, he’s done something like this. Change is hard for him.”

Change was hard for most of us, but I figured it wouldn’t be very helpful to say that right now. I mean, her cat was holed up inside a chair, for God’s sake.

“Is there anything we need to do for him?” The thought of a cat hanging out inside a recliner for several hours didn’t sound too appealing. I couldn’t imagine it was very comfortable down there, and now that I’d seen Richie at least the one time, I knew he was a huge cat. He had to be squashed in there.

“The best thing we can do is give him some time and space to calm down,” she said.

I nodded and started to head out of the game room. Instead of coming with me, though, she got up and took a little canister around the room, squirting something here and there.

“Pheromone spray,” she said. “It’ll help him calm down. You and I can’t smell it, but cats can. It’s the stuff they produce and rub all over things to mark them with their scent. It’ll help him feel safe and like he belongs here.”

The idea of Brie and her cats belonging here—in my house—hit me in a way that I hadn’t been expecting. I excused myself and headed back upstairs so I could rein my thoughts in again before I made an idiot of myself.

Colesy and Shane had disappeared while I was downstairs with her. I didn’t know if they’d gone off together or if they were each heading to bed separately. It was none of my business, frankly, and this house was more than big enough for me to avoid finding out anything they didn’t want me to know. That thought made me think that maybe they’d intended for me to find them on the stairs yesterday. Testing the waters or whatever. Either way, I had no intention of poking my nose in to whatever was going on between them unless they came to me. Even then, there were some things about the two of them that, as a brother to one and teammate to the other, I didn’t need to know. Ever.