“This is hard for me,” he said finally.
“What is?”
“Admitting the truth.” His gaze locked with hers. She wanted to look away, afraid he’d see too much in her eyes. “I don’t want to end this today, tomorrow, or in a month. I don’t know what I want, but I do know I want to keep seeing you.”
Vi squeezed her eyes shut to stop the flow of tears burning hot behind her eyelids. “Matt. This will never work out. And I can’t quit my job. I need it to pay school expenses.” The man was crazy. He couldn’t possibly believe they had a future of any kind. Sure, the sex was good, but what else was there? She wasn’t even that good with kids.
“You graduate in a few months, don’t you?”
She nodded.
“I can’t have a girlfriend of mine stripping for a living. No offense, but most people aren’t as open-minded and liberal about such things as I am.” One corner of his mouth twitched as he fought not to smile.
His statement drew a snort from her, and a lopsided grin slanted across his face. God, she adored this man. She didn’t want to end it, either. But it was impossible—
“I do have my boys to consider, and you’re right, my ex would use your profession against us. That’s the harsh reality of it.”
She wanted to quit. She’d known last night before he’d seen her. She didn’t love it as much as she once did. In fact, she’d been finding it harder and harder to get up on that stage and take off her clothes. Only she didn’t have any other option for paying the bills. Job opportunities for felons were severely limited.
“I’d quit if I could,” she admitted.
He put his hands on her shoulders. He grinned smugly as if he’d just come up with the world’s most brilliant idea. “What if I set you up with your own dance studio?” He beamed down at her.
Vi tried to wrap her head around what he’d just said and couldn’t. “You want to buy me a dance studio?”
“Yeah. Why not? You’ll have a degree in dance. You could offer some intro classes for the WAGs at a reduced price. That’d get you going client-wise. Hell, I could arrange a class for the guys, too.”
Vi laughed at the visual of a couple dozen brawny hockey players learning the basics of ballet. “You’d do that for me?”
“Yeah, I would.”
Hope soared within her, the first glimmer of hope she’d felt since that fateful night when she was nineteen and her entire world fell apart through no action of her own.
She shook her head and offered her last feeble argument. “I can’t. I can’t take money from you.”
“It’ll be a loan. I’ll have my attorney draw up the papers.” He bulldozed right past her and didn’t appear to be taking no for an answer.
“What if I fail?”
“You won’t. I have faith in you. You should have faith in yourself.”
“I want to, but my life hasn’t been all that easy. Every time I think I’m getting where I want to go, it blows up in my face.”
“Time to break the pattern.”
She nodded, still looking uncertain.
“You don’t have to give me an answer right away. Think about it.”
“Matt—”
He held her face in his hands and smiled at her. She managed a shaky smile back. “Okay, I’ll think about it, but I still have a past your ex can dredge up.”
“I know. We’ll deal with things as they come. She doesn’t really want the boys. I can always pay her off to get her to leave.”
“I don’t know,” she hedged.
“Think about it.” He planted a kiss on her forehead. “Let’s enjoy this weekend. Then we’ll talk. Game tonight. Open skate at the SHAC tomorrow. Do you skate?”
“Actually, I do. Not the best, but not bad.”
“Will you go with me and the boys?”
“Your teammates know. They saw me, and they saw you with me.”
“Yeah, and I want them to know I’m proud of you.”
She studied him for a long time. “I guess I could do that.”
“And tonight?”
“Okay.” She was going to say more, but she heard a loud crash, followed by pounding feet and shouts of “Kitty! Kitty! Kitty!”
Matt shot her a sideways glance. She kissed his cheek and grabbed for her clothes. “We’d better rescue Luther and your house.”
“Luther? Your cat?”
“Yes, my cat,” she called over her shoulder, and ran out the door to enter the melee.
* * * *
The younger guys gathered around one another in the locker room, laughing and making lewd remarks as they stared at a picture on a cell phone.
Matt ignored them, as he usually did. They were in the pro hockey player party stage. They’d grow up eventually, either by learning tough lessons like Rod or because someone straightened them out, be it a wife or girlfriend or parent.
“Hey, Lu.” Gibs, the young winger out of Boston, called out to him. He held a phone out for Matt to see. Matt’s blood turned to ice, and he wanted to knock some idiot heads together. On the cell was a grainy—thank God for small favors—picture of a nude Vi with one leg raised above her head and wrapped around the stripper pole.
“You’re one lucky bastard to have Jazz at Dancing Girls for a girlfriend,” Gibs said, oblivious to Matt being close to detonation.
“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s a—a friend.” He struggled to articulate what Vi was to him, because it wasn’t as simple as it had been in the beginning.
“Vhatever. Holy crap. She iz hot. Can I have her when you’re done?” Rush, their Russian party boy, grinned at Matt.
“Damn, I still can’t believe you’re tapping that.” Jasper Flint stuck his arms out and bowed. “We are not worthy. You are clearly the master.” The other guys joined in, at least the younger ones. Most of the veterans watched with amusement.
“Fucking delete that right now.” He jabbed his finger at Gibs’s chest, backing him up against a wall.
Gibs’s smile slid from his face. “Yeah, yeah, sorry, Lu.” He tapped on his phone and held it up. “There, it’s deleted. Sorry, dude, didn’t mean to piss you off. You said she wasn’t your girlfriend.”
“Maybe she isn’t. Maybe she is, but treat her like she is. Got it?”
Gibs nodded and backed away, as if he expected Matt to punch his lights out any second.
Matt throttled down his irritation. He prided himself on being a role model for the young guys to emulate, but not this way. They thought he was doing a stripper, and their relationship was all about sex, but he’d set them straight—sorta.
They didn’t understand. Vi wasn’t your average stripper. She had ideals and dreams and— God, was he that shallow and stupid? Average stripper? Every one of them had a personal life different from their stage persona.
But it wasn’t all about sex? Was it? He’d said, “treat her like my girlfriend,” which had the desired result. They backed right off. Every guy in there understood that WAGs were off-limits when it came to certain things. Brandishing a nude pic of a WAG would qualify as one of those things. He’d invited this sorta girlfriend of his to be his date at the family skate tomorrow. Talk about sending mixed messages—not just to the guys but to Vi, his boys, and himself. Speaking of the boys, they hadn’t batted an eye when Vi came storming out of his bedroom and down the hall to rescue Luther, who streaked past them like his tail was on fire. The cat had dived under Matt’s bed with the boys in hot pursuit.
Matt approved of how Vi sat Andy and Joey down and lectured them on the proper treatment of animals, her second such lecture according to her. He assured her the third time would be a charm. She hadn’t seemed amused.
Matt stalked off to his stall to get ready for the game. Brick watched him but said nothing.
“Fuck,” Matt muttered, and sat down on the bench in front of his stall.
“I wouldn’t be thrilled if anyone other than me was watching my girlfriend get naked.”
“She’s not my—”
“Yeah, whatever. What are you going to do?”
“I’m trying to convince her to quit and open a dance studio. She says that’s her dream.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Brick asked. “Are you going to end it? Dating a stripper could be problematic because of your precarious custody situation.”
“Tell me about it, and she’s a showgirl, not a stripper.”
Brick grinned at him.
Matt put his head in his hands and sighed. He wasn’t going to end it. He probably should, but he didn’t want to stop seeing her. Hell, he’d offered to set her up in business.
But his boys… His boys were the most important thing in his life. He couldn’t jeopardize his situation as custodial parent, and he shouldn’t have to. Vi was ten times the person his ex was.
He’d never been so confused in his life.
“I’m glad I’m not you.” Brick smiled wryly at him and gave him a smack on the back. “We have a game to play.”
“Yeah, we do.”
Matt lived up to his Mr. Dependable moniker by playing well and not letting the turmoil and shit in his life affect his game. Things had been so much simpler before Vi. He’d had his routine, and so had his boys.
Vi didn’t do routines. She did spontaneous. She followed her heart. She lived in the moment. Matt stayed in his own lane, never deviating, never passing slow-moving cars or taking an off-ramp just to see what was there. Vi shook things up. He was recycling and not buying Styrofoam cups or plates. He’d donated to the Save the Earth Foundation. His boys had asked him if they could adopt an elephant in Africa, symbolically of course. She’d affected all of them in the short time she’d been in their lives.
He wouldn’t trade where he was now for any place he’d been in the past, despite the obstacles.
Chapter 14—Fancy Stats
Vi didn’t want to go to the family skate. She was living in a fantasy, and she, more than anyone, knew fantasies didn’t last. Matt was a straight arrow. Straight arrows didn’t have girlfriends who were ex-cons or strippers.
Or perhaps she was overthinking the situation. She’d always been one to take chances and live life on the edge. She trusted in fate to work things out however stuff needed to be worked out. They were what they were. They’d progressed beyond just sex to what? Dating? She wouldn’t call going ice-skating a date, exactly. Or would she?
When they entered the SHAC, she’d been uncomfortable at first. The young guys and some of the WAGs had gaped at her and whispered among themselves. She met the guys’ leers with friendly smiles and soon she had them eating out of her hand, knowing they probably wanted to do more than eat out of her hand. Even the WAGs warmed up to her thanks to Amelia, Izzy, and Avery, who welcomed her into their inner circle and didn’t give the others a chance to pass judgment. They’d obviously been forewarned by Brick or Matt and shown up prepared for battle.
The staff, players, and their families were all there. Lunch was catered and included everything from prime rib to corn dogs. Ethan spared no expense for his team as usual. The Sockeyes were known as a players’ team, a fact that helped greatly when signing free agents, according to Matt.
After lacing up her borrowed skates, Vi took the hand Matt offered, and they skated slowly around the Sockeyes practice rink while Vi got her “ice” legs.
“Having fun?” Matt smiled down at her and squeezed her hand. She smiled back. She wished life could always be as joyfully simple as this.
“Do you know what it takes to make ice? Is the process environmentally friendly?”
He blinked several times at her and laughed out loud. “What? You’re thinking about making ice right now?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?”
“You’ve just figured that out?”
“Oh, hell, no. But I am learning to appreciate your brand of crazy.”
Before she could come up with a smart retort, Andy zipped by, spun in front of them and skated backward.
“Look at me, Vi,” he shouted as he began to weave in front of them. Another player’s son sped by, tapping Andy on the shoulder. Andy gave chase. Next came Joey, who raced circles around them several times, making Vi dizzy.
“Vi, watch me.” He powered ahead and did a sideways hockey stop, spraying ice into the air before speeding off again.
“They’re showing off for you.”
“They are?” She was seriously flattered and touched. In fact, her eyes got a little misty.
“Yeah, they are. They might give you and Lucifer shit, but they like both of you.”
“Luther,” she corrected.
He shrugged and laughed. “I think I had it right. That cat is evil. And why is he still at my house, anyway?”
She shrugged. She’d left Luther there the night before, assuming she’d be back. She’d been feeling guilty over leaving the poor cat alone so much. Besides, as fat as he was he could use a little exercise running from the boys.
“What’s this thing Brick is doing at two? He’s been cagey about it, and everyone is speculating. You’re pretty tight with Amelia, so I’m guessing you might be clued in.”
“You’ll have to wait and see.” Vi winked and tore off down the rink. She had a head start, but he was on her in two strides, skating effortlessly beside her while she gave it all she had. Her legs turned to spaghetti and her lungs screamed for air. Matt picked her up and spun her around. Setting her back down on her skates, he pulled her into his arms.
“You’re not getting out of answering me that easily. Do you know something about this?” he said.
“A little.” She batted her eyes coyly at him, and he laughed heartily.
“What is it?”
“If I told you, he’d have to kill me.”
“Something’s up,” Matt said, glancing around. The staff were shooing people off the ice and directing them toward the bleachers. Matt followed the crowd, tugging Vi after him.
Once the crowd was seated, the lights dimmed.
“What’s going on, Vi?”
“You’ll see.” She winked at him and slid onto the front-row bleacher seat. Matt sat next to her.
Matt squeezed Vi’s hand. “This is getting weird. Were you somehow involved in this?”
“In the smallest way.” Vi leaned into him, and he put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. She heard distinctive giggling and choruses of “gross” behind them. The boys were nearby.
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” floated from the speakers, and Vi grinned, as excited as if she were performing herself.
The spotlight followed Macy dressed as a glittery Dorothy as she smoothly skated onto the ice. Her long dark hair was in two ponytails. She was followed by a scarecrow, a very large scarecrow. Matt leaned forward, mesmerized. Amelia crowded next to Vi and hugged her arm, almost cutting off the circulation.
“She’ll do fine.” She patted Amelia’s arm.
“I’m not worried about Macy. It’s Brick. He’s been a basket case about this.”
“He’s a professional skater. He’ll be fine.”
“Thanks for your help,” Amelia said.
“I didn’t do much. Just helped them work out some of the routine.” Vi downplayed her part in the performance. She’d spent hours on the choreography, keeping it simple, yet moving. Her chest swelled with pride as Brick’s spunky little girl skated with her daddy in perfect synchrony. She did spins and spirals and jumps. Brick lifted her high into the air, holding her by her waist above his head as he glided around the rink. He lowered her, and she slipped between his legs and back to her feet, making it look easy, when the risky move was anything but. The routine was hauntingly poetic and touching.
By the time they skated to the center of the ice and took a bow, Vi didn’t see a dry eye in the house. Women were sniffling, and guys were rubbing their eyes. She glanced at Matt. His dark eyes were decidedly moist.
“Wow,” Matt whispered.
Holding Macy’
s hand, Brick skated to the boards and took the mic Ethan offered him. “I want to thank Macy, the best daughter in the world and the best partner ever, for getting my pairs figure skating career off the ground. Gold medal, here we come.”
The crowd cheered and laughed and hooted. The guys stomped their feet.
“I also want to thank Amelia. Without her, I’d still be a dumbass who didn’t understand the important things in life.”
Laughter from the crowd.
“And lastly, a huge thank you to Vi for the choreography. Lady, you should be doing this for a living.”
More cheers as Vi’s face heated up. She ducked her head, but she could feel all eyes on her, especially Matt’s. Were they all thinking she should be good at choreography—after all, she was a stripper? She forced her head up, plastered a confident smile on her face, and gazed around. No one was looking at her with anything but admiration, especially Matt.
He squeezed her hand as the group in the stands dispersed to eat lunch, gab, or play a game of impromptu hockey. The pride shining in his eyes released a million butterflies in her stomach.
“My boys wanna play hockey. Do you mind if I join them?”
“Of course not.”
He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “You’re incredible. You know that?”
“Yes, I do.”
He shook his head and winked at her before vaulting over the boards and skating after his boys.
“Vi, check out the dessert table,” Izzy called, and waved her over. As the captain’s wife, she considered it her duty to make sure everyone had a good time and felt included, which was right up her alley since Izzy owned a professional party-crashing business. Vi hadn’t understood exactly what that entailed until she’d worked a few times as a fill-in. It was great fun. All she had to do was pretend to crash the party and then proceed to sing, dance, and entertain the guests.
Vi stood next to Izzy and drooled over the incredible array of chocolate madness. They filled their plates and took a seat to watch the hockey game. Macy was right in the middle of all the chaos, as were Joey and Andy.
“I hear you’ve had a bit of drama in your life lately?” Izzy said.
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