by Kat Obie
“You sure?” Scotty was unconvinced about why she was up at 3am. In the last five months, there had always been something tangible that would wake her. A noise or a touch, a panic attack or even a nightmare. They were used to her having some sort of trigger.
“Yup. I can’t sleep. I’m okay.”
Scotty pinned her to the bed. He said with need in his voice, “Come to Carolina.”
As much as she wanted to say yes, she couldn’t. She counted on the Sound winning the series and she didn’t want to miss a single game in the Stanley Cup finals. She’d already used up so much vacation time.
She was taking advantage of Scotty and him giving her so many trips. He was asking her to come because she was upset. “You know I can’t. You are going to have to kick some ass in Carolina. You don’t need any luck.”
“Alright. But if you change your mind, I’ll book everything so fast. Hell, depending when you tell me, I’ll even pack a bag too.”
That had Alice laughing. He wasn’t kidding. He would do that for her in a heartbeat.
Scotty placed a hand on her neck and ran his lips across it, sending pleasure throughout her body. He always knew what spots she wanted to be touched. He pulled back with a husky command. “Don’t run away.”
Alice couldn’t lie to him or make a false promise. She yawned out a “maybe”.
Scott stayed on top of her and looked at her sternly. It was a look she would see all too often when he was up for faceoffs. Scotty wasn’t angry, but he was determined. “No maybes on this one. You need . . .” He paused and second guessed himself. He pleaded, “At least for tonight, don’t run away. Let me help.”
“Okay. I won’t run away.”
Scotty kissed her forehead and swallowed her up in his arms as he rolled over to a spooning position. He held her tight.
“You also help so much,” she said. “Je t’aime.”
“Je t’aime aussi. Dors mainenant,” he said in a hushed voice. While the two of them always said “I love you” in French to each other, it was unusual for him to tell her to go to sleep. He must be tired.
“Okay.” As Alice drifted off to sleep, she couldn’t help but wonder why it was so important for her to stay in bed until the morning.
28
Scott
“Yo. Are you going to watch the game or not?” asked an exasperated Lager.
Scotty looked up from his phone. He knew that Lager was right. He’d asked him over to watch the game and he wasn’t. Over the last hour, he’d been swamped with messages about his plan for the proposal. He wanted to get the messages answered and cleared before Alice got home.
“I will. I just need to finish.”
“You should have hired a party planner if it was going to be this big of a deal. I know you want it to be special but sheesh.”
“It’s fine. People have been responding now there is a confirmed date. I promise I’m going to watch the game. Just give me a few more minutes.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
The garage door went up. Scotty finished sending one last message before Alice walked in the door. He wasn’t thinking and he tossed his phone towards Lager. Lager immediately said, “Finally,” as he caught the phone.
Scotty looked towards Alice with a smile and said, “Hey baby. How was work?”
“Not too bad. How about yours?”
“Tiring.”
Lager buried Scotty’s phone in the couch seat. Scotty was just glad that Lager didn’t try to break or sit on the phone. He’d been getting frustrated with Scotty’s constant phone usage when they weren’t on the ice.
Scotty got up from the couch to help Alice with dinner. Normally, he started dinner while Alice was at work, but earlier that day she’d said she wanted to pick up some sushi. She said, “Go hang out with Lager. I got this. But why does Lager have your phone?”
Scotty smiled, trying to play it off. “It’s nothing. He was getting whiny about how I was on my phone too much tonight. I figured it would shut him up if he had it.”
“Uh-huh,” Alice said with some slight hesitation. She then said, “Seems like a trend lately.”
Scotty grabbed her waist and turned her towards him. He wanted to reassure her and said, “Not you too.” He lowered his head onto hers.
Scotty knew he wasn’t being as discreet as he thought with his phone usage, and she was getting concerned. He would have to be more careful during the next week and a half. He wanted to reassure Alice as much as he could. “If it was bugging you, why didn’t you say anything?”
He stared into her eyes and continued to hold her waist. She just shook her head, “’Cause I know you’d tell me that it’s nothing and not to worry.”
Scotty nipped at her lip. She was right. That would be exactly what he would say. He just said, “I promise it’s just a short-term thing and when it’s done, you will love it.”
“If you say so.”
“Hey, don’t be concerned. I promise you will love it. Okay?”
“Okay. Go back to watching the game. I’ll join you in a minute.”
29
Alice
Scotty was up to something. He was so secretive and constantly hiding his phone. It was as if every fear that he would leave her kept growing.
At first, she chalked it up to playoff stress, but this felt different. Especially since he would get her to watch video when it was hockey-related. He was also super confident about the games.
When she got a text from Scotty, it only seemed to highlight her worry more.
Scotty: Be ready at 7pm. Wear something comfortable, but don’t ask any questions.
Alice: Um, what?
Scotty: You can read the message above again. See you at 7. :P
Being told not to ask any questions for a date was going to drive her batty. Why was he being so damn secretive about everything?
Alice snapped a photo of the text exchange from Scotty and sent it over to Jenna. She dialed Jenna’s number, but it went straight to voicemail which was weird.
Alice reached out to Meghan since she needed to talk to someone.
Alice: Help! I’m going mad and seeing this doesn’t help.
She sent over the screenshot of the message from Scotty.
Meghan: Looks like you have a date.
Alice: Yeah. But I know something is up with Scotty. He’s been weird for a while now.
Meghan: Weird how?
Alice: He’s clearly planning something or talking to someone. He’s hidden his phone when I walked into the room in the past few weeks and it seems to be getting worse. Now this cryptic text
Meghan: Okay. That’s not good. Think it could be another girl?
Alice’s heart sank for a moment. While she could never imagine Scotty cheating on her, she couldn’t help suspecting it and needed to be talked out of it. Cheating was her main fear, but Scotty only seemed to care about three things: hockey, her, and the pups.
Alice: I don’t think so, but it’s the only thing I can think of. I’m sure I could look on a hockey forum for any speculation. But I don’t want to see some of that stuff.
Meghan: Let me look then.
Alice: Thanks. I was hoping you would
Alice was honestly grateful for Meghan looking at everything. Any rumor would be on the forum. Not to mention a lot of hate. She avoided the blogs for that reason.
Alice: I’m being dumb, aren’t I? He’s probably just stressed by the playoffs.
Meghan: We all get that worried from time to time. Good news: you are the only girl in his life by the looks of it.
Alice: That’s good. But the bad news?
Meghan: You get a lot of hate.
Alice: Over what?
Meghan: Basically they aren’t you and you weren’t a Sound fan first.
Alice: Should have known.
Meghan: I got to go. Early morning. But I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.
Alice: Sleep well. Thanks for helping.
It was good to know th
at there was nothing on the web about a new girl. So it could be nothing.
She hated not knowing. She would only get worked up if she didn’t stop dwelling on it.
She focused on the work day. She did the lifeguard schedule for June and July. If she didn’t fix aspects of the schedule, she might not be able to get away to do any Cup celebrations with Scotty.
When she got home, she was frightened to see that her hockey bag was gone. That freaked her out again since she couldn’t handle another theft.
She tried to temper her nerves and think logically. There was one person who might take her hockey bag without saying anything.
Alice: Did you take my hockey stuff?
Scotty: I thought I said no questions. ;)
Alice: I just got home and it’s not in the garage. Trying not to freak out. Do I need to call the police?
Scotty: Shit. I wasn’t thinking. I thought you might like to get your skates sharpened and it was just easier to grab the whole thing.
Alice: As long as you have it, it’s okay. See you soon.
Alice was confused. Scotty wasn’t sharing everything since there was no way he would have taken all her hockey sticks just to get her skates sharpened.
It sounded like they might be doing hockey, but he wasn’t going to confirm that suspicion. At least she knew where her stuff was and she could enter the house without being completely afraid that actual expensive stuff was gone.
After getting greeted by the dogs, Alice went upstairs and switched to one of her favorite Sound tees. It was heather gray and only had accents of the gold and wine. She threw on a gray plaid blazer to dress it up. She knew that Scotty said to be comfortable.
Right as she put the finishing touches on her hair and makeup, she heard Scotty call out, “Hey Alice, are you up there?”
She shouted down, “Yeah, I’m coming.”
She rushed downstairs after throwing her phone into her purse. She saw Scotty at the bottom of the stairs. He looked divine in a simple black T and a pair of tight jeans. His playoff beard had gotten really full now that it was game 7 in the Stanley Cup finals. The only downside of the beard was that she couldn’t see his dimple when he smiled.
As soon as she was downstairs, he scooped her up. He pushed her up against the wall. His hands quickly pushed up the t-shirt and he felt up her breasts. Alice was breathless with the sensuality of the kisses. He then pulled back and shook his head almost as if to clear his mind. “Je t’aime. You look amazing tonight. Sorry, but we have to go or we’re going to be late.”
“Late?” Alice knew he wasn’t going to give her much but she had to ask. “Late for what?”
He just grabbed her hand and led the way to the garage. “Nice try, Alice. But you will see soon enough.”
“Ugh. You’re killing me, smalls.”
“Look at who you are calling small,” he said with the type of bravado she normally saw in the games where he lit up the lamp multiple times. “It won’t be a secret much longer; just be patient.”
Alice laughed. He wasn’t going to give away his secret plan until he was ready. He could had a sealed trap.
It didn’t take long to realize that they were either on their way to the practice rink or the sushi place near the rink.
Unsurprisingly, he pulled into a parking spot along the back of the practice rink. He’d rented out the rink again. She noticed several recognizable SUVs and trucks by the door to the rink. Alice said, “This is way more than just picking up my skates after having Ed sharpen them.”
Scott just kissed her. He shook his head as he said, “Seriously, Alice, you gotta wait.”
“Babe, I’m more stating the obvious. If it was just for the skates, we would have pulled up to the front to grab them from the pro shop.”
Scotty just said, “Come on,” as he laced his fingers with hers.
He led the way to the rink doors. Once inside, he pulled her into the locker room where they’d first met. She smiled, since the last time they came to the rink together, she was kept out of that locker room.
Once inside, she saw her gear hung up right next to Scotty’s. Instead of her pinnie hanging up, she saw the alternative Sound jersey in grey with only the gold and wine as accent colors. She’d always preferred the alternative jersey, which Scotty knew, and seeing the number 77 on the sleeve, she knew it was for her.
“Come on, get your stuff on,” said Scotty as he prodded her. She was a bit stunned.
Alice put on her stuff quickly since it seemed like Scotty was in a slight rush. Yet, he was putting on his stuff slowly.
As Alice was about ready to put on her new sweater, Scotty stopped her by saying, “Let me.” With one swift move he pulled it over her head. She never had a chance to see the back of the sweater and she figured it was on purpose.
“Go on; I’ll be out in a second,” said Scotty as he urged her onwards.
“Are you sure?” asked Alice.
“Yeah. Besides, I know you. You will want time to retighten your skates. This might allow you to be fully ready by the time I get out there.”
Alice shrugged her shoulders since she knew he was right. He never believed her when she said that she needed to take a few strides out on the ice to make sure it all felt right. “What can I say? It’s something I’ve always done, but it was always worse with my figure skates. Especially if I was jumping.”
Scotty stole a kiss from her and said, “I have them if you’d rather wear them.”
“Nah, I’m good,” said Alice.
If she wasn’t all padded up, she might have switched to the figure skates, but at this point, it was easier to be ready to play hockey. Besides, Scotty seemed to like that she wanted to keep hockey stuff on. He continued to put on his shin pads.
She grabbed her favorite stick and headed towards the ice. To her surprise, the ice was empty. After seeing so many cars in the parking lot, she’d thought there would be guys from the Sound playing with them.
Of course, she skated around the rink twice and her left boot felt weak. She went to the bench to tighten up the skates. She jumped off the bench and things felt much better.
She heard a cascade of pucks hit the ice. Scotty was on the ice. She turned to face him.
“Al!” Alice immediately saw something come her way. She smiled when he called her Al. It was a nickname that only he called her. She could easily catch the puck and passed it right back at him.
It wasn’t a puck at all but instead a small ring box. Scotty laughed as he caught the box on the end of his stick. He flicked the box up into his hand.
He took a lunge towards her as he opened up the box.
Oh hell. This is it and I just threw the ring back to him without even looking to see it wasn’t a puck.
She was more than a little upset with herself for doing that. The only thing that kept her from full-on cursing was the fact that Scotty was not even remotely upset.
“Alice, I’m glad that some things never change. I told you the day that we met that you were afraid of the puck. What I didn’t tell you was that I was completely taken by you and I wanted you to be in my life. Even that day, you showed your passion and your honesty and were just yourself. Then your birthday happened and we got closer, probably quicker than anyone expected but . . . Man it’s been amazing to be with you each and every day. Will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?”
Alice was smiling. At some point she bit her lip to keep herself from saying anything. She noticed that Scotty caught himself from swearing in the middle of the proposal. He normally never stopped himself from swearing unless there were kids around. “Of course I will.”
Scotty took off her left glove and slid the ring onto her finger. He then kissed her and hugged her passionately. Alice was glad that he hugged her so tightly or else she might not have been able to stay upright. When he pulled back from the kiss, she heard stick taps and claps.
Lager screamed out, “Get a room.”
Scotty threw a glove at L
ager. Alice instinctually said, “Hey,” when she realized it was her glove that he’d thrown at Lager.
Scotty turned her around so she could see their friends and family at the rink’s edge. At that moment, she realized how perfect the proposal was. Okay, she shouldn’t have given him back the ring box but everything else was so perfect.
Scotty whispered to her, “I figured this was the perfect spot since you wouldn’t want to do it in the exact spot where we met. Thanks for sending the ring back to me. Je t’aime.” He kissed her one more time. “You okay if I let you go?”
Alice nodded. She was pretty sure she was okay. She continued staring up into his eyes.
The Sound guys were setting up a net for a game on one side of the rink. Lager threw her glove back at them and Scotty caught it. He handed it to her and she tucked it under her arm. The other half of the ice was being prepared for some free skating.
Scotty asked her, “Do you want to skate some or play hockey?”
“I don’t know,” said Alice. Seeing all the Sound guys playing hockey, she was worried about being outgunned and too slow no matter how hard she tried.
“Well, I know what we can do until you decide.” Scott raised his hand to her face and pulled her into a kiss. She forgot about everyone around her. If she didn’t have her skates on, she would have wrapped her legs around him. Scotty pulled back from the kiss with a wide smile. “I think you should play a little hockey with me.”
“Okay,” said Alice. Before she could go anywhere, her niece skated up gingerly to the two of them. Closely behind the almost five-year-old was her mom and Jenna.
“Wait, Aunt Alice. Can I see what My Scotty got you?” Alice smiled widely at the little one’s question. Even though Scotty wasn’t a fan of being called My Scotty by her niece, she thought it was adorable. She knelt down and showed off the ring to her niece. The little one immediately exclaimed, “Wow, pretty.”
Alice was about to agree with the little one, but Scotty leaned down and said, “We need to talk.” Before the little one could say anything, he handed Alice his stick, scooped Noelle off her feet, and held her as they headed off to do some circles on the half of the ice sheet that was being used for open skating.
