by Kat Obie
“Seriously? You think I won’t be good?” asked Alice incredulously.
Scotty kissed her temple and said, “Babe, it’s two breweries and the last game against the Penguins. I’m just afraid that your cursing might go to the next level. I know you won’t get drunk.” Alice seemed to accept that explanation.
After dinner, the three of them settled into the living room and watched the remainder of the hockey game. Alice cuddled up with Scotty on the couch and he put his arm around her. Alice tried not to put too much pressure on Scotty’s torso, but he loved holding her in that moment. Watching hockey with her was one of his favorite parts of the day, especially with how creative she was with her cursing for and against the Flyers.
Alice continued to react to the game. Almost all her swearing was out of happiness since the Flyers were winning.
Midway through the third period, Scott saw her dad was doing some work on a laptop. When her dad didn’t react to a Flyer’s goal, he realized that her dad wasn’t watching the game. That’s when it dawned on Scotty. “Wait, you aren’t a Flyers fan too?” Scotty had assumed that Alice learned about hockey from her dad. Her dad had taught her most sports.
Mr. Kercheck said, “Hockey isn’t my sport. I loved college ball, baseball, even football. Hockey was something she learned all on her own.”
That stunned Scotty. Hockey had always seemed like a sport your family raised you on. But it explained why Mr. Kercheck didn’t seem to know the full playoff picture. Scotty shook his head. “At least we can enjoy the Indians game on Sunday with you, then.”
“Yeah. I’m definitely looking forward to that game, but any time I get to spend with my girls, it’s good. Besides, hockey is fun. I just don’t know the ins and outs.”
At the end of the game, Alice’s dad went up to bed. Alice and Scotty stayed on the couch a little longer. They watched a west coast game. The Flyers were statistically eliminated from the Playoffs. That meant the Sound were going to face a slightly more difficult team, no matter what.
Alice
Alice woke up in Scott’s arms as per usual. Scott pecked her lightly. He held her tightly in a spooning position. He savored the moment.
Alice looked up at Scotty and asked him, “Ready for tonight’s game?”
Scotty looked down at her and brushed her chin with his thumb, “You know it. It’s time to finish the sweep. Last game of the season. Besides, you are going to be there and I have to impress my baby.”
“You already impress me every day on and off the ice. Was everything okay with you and my dad yesterday?”
“Yeah. I told you that last night,” Scotty said while shaking his head. “You’re dwelling. Stop worrying.”
“I’ll try.” Alice just genuinely felt bad for leaving them.
Scotty pushed her hair to the side and pressed his lips along her neckline. Then he pulled her up onto his torso so they were both in a sitting position. He ran his arms along hers. “That’s all I ask. Je t’aime.”
As per usual, she echoed his words, saying, “Je t’aime. I wish we could stay like this all day.”
“After the season ends, I promise you at least one day of anything you want. I would promise you more, but you like to work,” Scotty said with a wink. “Unfortunately, we can’t do it today. I have practice, and you’re going drinking with your dad today.”
Chloe got off the bed and headed to the bedroom door. Alice knew it was time to get up. She ran her hand along his jawline before kissing him one last time. “I’ll take care of the pups and start breakfast. You go get ready.”
“Sounds good.”
Scott grabbed her wrist and pulled her in tight for the second time that morning. Chloe whined again, and Scott let her wrist go since they both knew it was time to get up and that Chloe would only get more insistent.
Alice opened the door, and both dogs rushed downstairs. Alice followed behind at a slower pace. She filled their bowls and heard her dad say, “It’s about time you guys got up.”
Alice wasn’t ready for her dad’s teasing just yet. She said, “It’s not even that late. We still have plenty of time before Scott has to leave for practice. Ready for some food?”
“That sounds good.”
Alice made a couple of omelets and Canadian bacon. It was easy to make, and Scotty always loved having the Canadian bacon. She also got the coffee started. As she was starting to make some toast, Scotty snuck up from behind and hugged her tightly around her waist. She should have known he was going to do that. He loved to come from behind and surprise her with a hug or an ear nibble.
He held her for a moment and laid his head on top of hers. He then whispered in her ear, “Please eat a little bit, for me.”
Scotty almost never asked her to eat in such an intimate fashion, and her dad was there. So Alice prepped three plates. She put an omelet on two of the plates and everything else on all three plates. However, her portion was much smaller.
Scotty helped to bring the plates to the kitchen table.
It wasn’t long before Scotty had to go to practice. Alice and her dad took the dogs out for a very long walk and had a lazy morning.
Alice and her dad went to Platform. They each got different flights so they could sample a bit of everything before ordering a full beer. Her dad said, “I can’t believe how domestic the two of you are.”
“What?” Alice said. Her dad was talking about her and Scotty, but it seemed to come out of nowhere.
“You and Scott. You are so cute and comfortable with each other. You make each other meals and have a great home together. It’s wonderful. I never thought I would see you settle down.”
Alice laughed and shook her head. She said, “You make it sound like I was so wild.”
“Definitely not wild. More like you were closed off. You barely dated for what? Ten years? Then not only did you date Scotty, you guys settled down. It’s good to see. He’s so protective of you, and he takes care of you.”
“Yeah. He’s definitely been doing that for me. He even hates it when I don’t eat.”
“And I love that about him,” replied her dad.
“You would.”
“Yeah, ‘cause I love you. I don’t need you or Ally giving into that demon of yours.” Her dad made a pointed reference to the fact that both her and her sister had bouts of anorexia.
Alice groaned since he was the one person she could talk to about that particular part of her past. “Dad, I’ve been good. You know, I have other ways to cope, now. If I was going to relapse, it would have happened immediately after the burglary.”
“Which is why he’s so good for you.”
“I just hope it stays that way.”
“Why would you even think that it wouldn't?” asked her dad. He was astonished to hear that she had any doubts about her relationship.
Alice said, “’Cause I keep worrying that I will do something dumb and push him away or he’ll realize that I’m nothing special. It just seems too good to be true.”
“Alright, just stop right there, kid. He loves you so much. You just have to see how he looks at you. He’s not going to pull the plug. He’s just wanting to make sure that you’re 100% ready for it. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but he asked for your hand in marriage yesterday. Stop worrying.”
“Is that so? Are you sure?”
“Hey, given what happened the last time you got almost this close with someone, I understand. But we both know Scott’s different. He’s not Nick.”
“You’re right.” Alice closed her eyes. He was right. She was being foolish. She took a long sip of her last taster and looked down at her watch. They’d been at Platform much longer than she anticipated. “Want to try out a different place or catch warm ups?”
“Up to you.”
“Let's do warm ups.”
“Okay. This is how I know you are my daughter.” While her dad wasn’t the same level of hockey fan as she was, they both loved going to games. He wouldn’t ever let her skip part of a ga
me, even if there was a blow out.
“What can I say? I love warm ups. Besides, it’s the only time I can see Scotty on the ice without his helmet on.”
Her dad laughed. He knew that she had a huge crush on his body. The two of them took the Rapid over to the stadium since they’d both been drinking and it was cheaper to keep her car parked at Platform.
24
Scott
The series against the Penguins was going better than he anticipated. The Sound were about to sweep them. Just because they were up, it didn’t mean they could get complacent.
Scotty spent far longer trying to figure out why he was losing face-offs to The Kid so much. There wasn’t much to go on from the video replays. He wasn’t going to settle that it was bad luck.
The other thing that gnawed at him was Alice’s dad’s words. He hoped that her dad was right and that she was ready for marriage. Her dad had practically told him that he should propose sooner rather than later. Scotty knew he wanted to do it soon, but he wanted to do something elaborate.
Alice was supposed to work late, so he decided to use the office to create a wonderful idea. Alice had a habit of leaving her computer on. He knew where he wanted to go for the proposal; now he needed to figure out when and who he wanted to be there. He knew her closest friends weren’t in the area, but he wanted to make sure they were involved.
The givens that he knew about were the friends he’d met in Philadelphia and her family. But he knew there had to be more people she would want to be there. It couldn’t just be guys from the Sound.
He looked to see if he had access to her Google calendar. It was obvious, only automatic schedule blocks were on it. He just wished that her calendar was up to date, but she preferred to use a planner that she kept on her. So he would need to look at that one when she was asleep.
He spent time spying on her Facebook page. That way he knew who she spent the most time talking to and would want to invite. He felt guilty about invading her privacy, but it was for a good cause.
It was getting late, and Alice would be home soon. He knew she would be suspicious if she caught him in the office. He needed a way to distract her.
He called up Corey to see if he would loan out his ice space for an hour or two. As usual, Corey helped him out to have a distraction on the ready when Alice got home.
Alice
Alice came home from work and was shocked that Scotty wasn’t in the living room or the kitchen. Alice peeked downstairs to see if he was lifting, but the basement lights were off. So she figured he had to be napping upstairs.
Alice went upstairs to switch out of her work clothes. The office door was closed. Scotty almost never used the office. He’d been in the office like three times, and the door was always open. It was weird.
Alice knocked on the door, “Hey babe. You okay in there?”
Alice heard some rustling, and she swore she heard a chair scoot across the room. “Just a moment, baby.”
Alice leaned against the door frame. Scotty was up to something.
The door swung open, and he lifted her into a hug. She swore that her chair was moved out of the way, but Scotty was distracting her.
He carried her to the bedroom. Then he pulled back with a smile and said, “You’re home early.”
Alice laughed and said, “What? It’s practically 8:30pm. It’s not early. So, want to try again?”
He laughed and said, “Are you sure?”
As he pulled off her work shirt and tossed her bra off, he kissed along all her pleasure points. What was sad was she knew he was distracting her from something and she was going to let him get away with it.
Alice nodded. “Very.” Before letting Scotty get her too worked up, she asked. “What’s going on? Have you lost your mind?”
He pushed her onto the bed and kissed her madly. He smiled like a Cheshire cat. “Oh. Nothing. Just waiting for you.”
“But you are never in the office. And why was the door closed?” asked Alice in a moment of clarity.
“No reason.” Scotty pulled her hand and practically wrenched her off the bed. Alice wasn’t expecting that. He was full of all sorts of surprises today. “Come on. We are going to be late.”
“Late? Late for what?” Alice wasn’t expecting to do anything tonight. Well, they were probably going to do one more night of hockey and kisses. “Babe, you are being weird.”
“I’m not being weird. But you need to put a shirt on and we need to work on your shot.”
Alice smiled but couldn’t understand what was going on. If he wanted to work on her shot, why would they be late? They would just go downstairs and use his stuff. She walked to the closet to put on a shirt and a new bra. As she pulled the shirt over her head, she asked “We? The royal we, or are we meeting someone?”
Alice looked towards Scotty. He still had the crazy sly smile on his face. “We are going to Corey’s.”
Alice said, “So, you aren’t going to tell me what’s going on?”
Scotty shook his head and said, “Why are you so curious about everything?” Alice knew he was up to something.
Alice came up to Scotty and kissed him. She left her hands on his broad shoulders. “’Cause I know you. You never work in the office. It’s weird.”
“It’s nothing that you need to worry about. Come on, we need to get going.”
Alice shook her head. Scotty wasn’t going to tell her what he was doing. But he was doing an excellent job of distracting her. He directed her downstairs. She said, “So, we need to work on my shot?”
“Yes. You have a game this week. I told you we would work on it. It has to be tonight.”
She wanted to work on her shot. With him being busy in the playoffs, she’d figured that it would have to happen later on down the line. It wasn’t like her games mattered since she just played in a recreation league. She was sure he wanted to work on her shot to distract her.
Scotty loaded up the SUV with their skates and sticks. Alice was shocked when he grabbed both her hockey skates and figure skates. He drove the short distance to Corey’s house.
As soon as they got to his house, Corey greeted them with, “Hey. I didn’t think you guys were coming.”
It was odd that she didn’t remember anything about him wanting to work on her shot tonight, but everything was all lined up. Maybe he wasn’t using the trip to Corey’s to distract her too.
Instead of heading down to the ice surface right away, Scotty said, “So, I want to run some ideas by you before we get going on Alice’s shot practice.”
“What kind of things?” asked Corey.
“Ideas for the next game.”
Alice honestly wasn’t too surprised. He’d been obsessing about the games. She’d never seen him be so intense before, but she figured it was playoff stress. If he didn’t prefer watching game footage on the giant TV screen, she would have thought he was doing that in the office.
Since she knew the boys would be talking for a while and she had her figure skates, she asked Corey, “Do you mind if I skate while you guys talk?”
“Nah, as long as you don’t tear up the ice with that damn toe pick of yours.” It seemed like ever since she brought her figure skates over with the hockey stuff, Corey kept teasing her about them.
“As if you don’t tear up the ice on your own.”
It seemed like that was the only thing that always united hockey and figure skaters: the mutual hatred of the other one’s skates tearing up the ice. While she wouldn’t admit it to many people, she liked how the hockey skates actually improved her figure skating since she learned how to control the blade better without relying on a toe pick. She needed the toe pick for jumps, and while that did gouge the ice, she wasn’t doing anything over a single rotation, so she didn’t dig in like some skaters.
She led herself downstairs to the rink and queued up some music on her phone. It was peaceful and fun to just skate along to music that she choreographed in her head.
Alice was feeling pretty w
armed up by the time she saw the boys watching her while she was skating to “Lost” by Dermot Kennedy. At first, she continued to skate as if she’d never noticed them. That was until she realized that Scotty was filming her.
When the song was over, she skated to the two guys. Scotty said, “You looked amazing out there. You should figure skate more.”
Alice scoffed. “You obviously know nothing about skating. Those were all single jumps, and I even two-footed the last one.” She leaned up on the toe picks so she could kiss Scotty. “But thanks for thinking it was good. Let me switch.”
Alice turned off the music as she walked off the ice so she could swap out her skates. As she tied up her laces, she watched Scotty and Corey skate on the ice. They were passing the puck around in a drill they must do a lot.
She stepped back out onto the ice, and Scotty came up to her. “Come on Al. Let’s work on your shot.”
After an hour and a half of working on her shot, Alice was more comfortable. It wasn’t super strong, but it was better than it had been.
One of the things that stuck out that night was how comfortable she was working on her shot with Scotty and Corey. It wasn’t long ago that the mere thought of playing with Scotty would scare her shitless. Sure, she knew he would always outclass her in so many ways and she didn’t want to play a game with him and his buddies, but now she just wanted to learn from them.
By the end of the night, she had more or less forgotten about the incident in the office. Instead, she was just happy to spend time playing hockey with the love of her life.
Scott
Scotty had fun playing around with Corey and Alice. He was glad that Corey provided them the perfect distraction to keep Alice from prying.
It was cool to watch Alice figure skate. It was the first time he’d seen that side of her. Alice always wanted to work on her hockey. Despite hearing how she wasn’t very good, she practically danced on the ice. The song that she was skating to seemed to be the embodiment of her.
