by Toni Aleo
He wanted to scream; this girl was so fucking frustrating. He tried to be calm and caring with her, but most of the time, he just wanted to cuss and shake the shit out of her. He felt sorry for the guys he played against. He was slamming people into walls left and right on the ice, out of frustration.
“You are damn right I would, but Claire, I am giving you everything you want and need. I am trying to make your life happy with me, but you won’t let me.”
“Well, I’m not happy here. I’m bored.”
“So you’ve said,” he replied, moving to his closet to grab his nightclothes. His days of sleeping naked were gone now that Claire shared a room with him.
“Quit hockey, so we can go home.”
He laughed. “Yeah right, I worked too hard to get where I am today. I am a first-line player, I am loved by everyone, and my contract is spectacular with the Assassins.”
“Well, you need to work harder on making me happy because I am not happy.”
He wanted to laugh again, but he knew that wouldn’t help the situation.
“Why should I do that when you do nothing but make my life hell?” he asked, leaning against the bathroom door with his arms crossed over his chest. She shrugged her shoulders before bringing her knees up under her chin. It reminded him of when she was a child, and his heart jumped into his throat. Why didn’t he fight harder for her?
“I don’t want to travel, Phillip. I’ve done it for like ever, and I just want to have a home.”
He shook her head, letting his arms fall. “Claire, I have a home but, during the season, I’m not there that much. I’m sorry, but this is my life.”
“But I don’t want it as mine. Can’t I stay at the house without you?”
He laughed out loud at that. “Did you really think that was going to work?”
She shook her head. “No, but I thought I’d try.” Looking away, she softy said, “I just hate traveling all the time. We never had a place to call home. Mom never had the money to keep us in one place, and I just want a home.”
She was pulling at his heartstrings, and soon he couldn’t take it anymore. Nodding his head, he said, “Let me see what I can do.”
She looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears as she asked, “You won’t send me back to the crazy cat lady though, right?”
Phillip shook his head. “No, but I’ll figure something out.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Thanks.”
Entering the bathroom, he shut the door and slid down it until his butt hit the ground. Once there, he crossed his arms over his legs, and leaned his head against them. He had no clue what he was going to do. He had no family, except Alice, but she couldn’t help him. She had made it perfectly clear when they left that Claire wasn’t welcomed back, so that left no one. He couldn’t quit. He loved hockey and the Assassins, so what else could he do? He knew he had to do something though. Claire wasn’t happy, and he swore he would do anything to make her happy—to make the last sixteen years vanish from her mind. He wanted to help her see that she could be more than a two-bit whore. She was smart, she was beautiful, and he had no doubts that she could be something amazing. He just needed help to get her there. He couldn’t do it all on his own.
Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he found the number he needed and hit call.
After only two rings, Elli Adler answered.
“Hey, Phillip, what’s up?”
“I need your help, Elli.”
She paused, and he could hear kids in the background. She probably wasn’t the greatest person to help him since she was busy with owning a team and raising a family, but Elli wasn’t only his boss, she was his friend. He trusted that she would know what to do.
“Absolutely, what can I do to help?”
PHILLIP SQUIRTED a mouthful of water, and then spit. Doing it again, he spit farther on the ice as he watched his teammate, Jordie Thomas, move around the net with the puck. Doing it for a third time, he spit even farther before turning to make sure Claire was still behind him.
She was.
When she sent him her signature glare, he rolled his eyes before turning to look back at the ice. She was not happy with him, more like furious. He thought when he asked Elli to help him that everything would be okay, that he would be giving Claire what she wanted. But he was dead wrong. Since Elli was busy with the kids and the team, like he knew she was, she suggested that Jakob Titov’s wife, Harper, take her on. Harper was a lot like Claire, and Phillip knew that she could handle the hellion he loved. Harper was all for it, and guaranteed him that Claire would be in great hands.
One would think that Phillip suggested that Claire have all her limbs amputated. She cussed, she screamed, and she threw things, saying that Phillip was just throwing her off on someone else. That was so far from what he was doing that it wasn’t even funny. He was trying to get her the stability she wanted while he was gone. Harper said that she could have her own room, and he worked hard to duplicate it to the room Claire had in their house. He thought it was the perfect idea, but Claire didn’t think so. She was under the impression that he was going to leave her alone at his house.
Cold day in fucking hell.
She needed supervision. Two nights before, they were in the room, watching a movie. When Claire got up to use the bathroom, she was wobbling. He asked her what was wrong, and she started to slur her speech. Phillip got up, going to her, and she reeked of alcohol. Reaching for her orange juice, he took a sip to confirm what he hoped he was wrong about. She was drinking. He asked her why, and she told him that she felt numb when she drank, and then she promptly passed out. Clearing out the mini-bar while she slept it off, he actually wanted to cry. He had no clue what to do about her, and it was killing him.
Claire’s issues were also affecting his game, and he didn’t know how to leave her out of his mind when he was on the ice. The only reason she was there right now was because he told her he would send her to Alice if she didn’t straighten up. She blew him off, but he could see the fear in her eyes and, even though he hated to threaten her, he didn’t know what else to do. He had done research. Everyone said to make her feel at home, to give her space and try to talk to her, but the only thing that seemed to make her happy was to leave her alone, and that didn’t work for him. She did stupid things when she was alone, so really he was fucked either way. God, he really needed this thing to work out with Harper.
“Go,” Coach Baxter said, tapping Phillip’s helmet, and off he went. Rushing the puck, he looked left to see E. Titov waiting for the pass. Whipping the puck over to him, a forward from the Sharks stopped it, and passed it to his right wing, but Phillip was there, stealing the puck and rushing down the ice on a breakaway with Karson King, with Erik right behind him. He could have dropped it back to either of them, and they would have had a clean shot, but he knew he could deke the goalie out and get it in when the goalie went the wrong way. After doing just that, the Sharks’ goalie laid on the ice, slamming his fist as the King, Erik, Adler, and E. Titov wrapped him up in a hug. As the guys headed to the bench with the crowd going nuts, the biggest smile came across his face. God, he loved a home crowd. It was his first goal since Claire came home with him and, when he glanced up to where she sat, she was on her feet, cheering. He didn’t know if it was the atmosphere of the crowd cheering or if she was really cheering for him, but it made his heart swell. A little ounce of hope was renewed as he watched her smiling face.
Maybe they would be okay.
Or maybe not.
Phillip was starting to think Claire was drunk at the game because, the next day, she was back to her angry self. Throwing her things in a box, she pinned him with a look that said she was pissed. He moved a packed box into the hall as she yelled.
“If you think I’m going over there and being her personal babysitter, you got another thing coming!”
Phillip shook his head. “Harper isn’t going to ask you to do that.”
“Whatever, that’s pro
bably the only reason she agreed to let me stay there, free babysitting,” she sneered at him as she slowly packed her music stuff.
“No, Claire. She agreed because I needed the help.”
“Help? You act like I’m a burden or something! If you don’t want me, get rid of me. I don’t fucking care.”
Phillip was two seconds from pounding his head against the wall.
“Claire, I do want you. I love you, as I continue to tell you. This is what you wanted. You said you didn’t want to travel with me. This way, you can go to school at a really great private school. You can make friends, and you can enjoy being a teenager.”
“I don’t want to live with a stranger. I want to live with you,” she said, before turning to look at him. Her eyes were so sad, and he felt like the bad guy.
Wasn’t he doing the right thing?
“Claire, I’ll be home in four days, and then you will come back to our house. The great thing about Harper’s house is that it is eight minutes from here, so it’s not like you’ll have a different school or different friends. Everything will be the same. Everything is going to be okay, I promise.”
She slowly shook her head, falling back on the bed. He watched as she moved her hand along her cheek before looking up at him.
“I feel trapped.”
“Trapped?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
She shook her head as she said, “I just do.”
“No, you’re not trapped, Claire. I am giving you options. I am going to give you a better life. I promised you that. Everything will be the same; the only thing that will be different is who the guardian is. It’ll be like a kid with divorced parents. You will spend some time at Harper’s, and then some time here. When I’m home on breaks, I promise you won’t go anywhere but here. In the summer, we’ll go on trips. It’s all going to be okay.”
She looked down and took in deep breaths before shrugging her shoulders. He wanted more from her. He wanted her to talk to him, tell him if she thought everything he said was a good idea. He wanted her to tell him why she felt trapped and what he could do to make it better, but he knew that she was done talking. How many times did he have to tell her he loved her… that he was looking out for her best interest? Shaking his head, he knew he could say it until he was blue in the face, but it would mean nothing to her.
After getting everything in the car, they made their way over to Harper’s house. The Titov’s lived in a nice one-story, ranch-style home in Belle Mead. It had huge windows with blue shutters, which made the house seem whiter, if that was possible. Pulling his car into the driveway, he turned it off, but neither of them moved.
“So I’m just supposed to, like, have Harper to drive me around and shit?”
He rolled his eyes. He knew what she was really asking, but first he needed to get her language under control.
Turning to her, he said, “First, you have to watch your mouth. They have a toddler, Ally, and you can’t say stuff like that.”
She folded her arms across her chest and looked away.
“Fine.”
“And the deal still stands from when you first came to live with me. You show me that you are ready for a car, and I’ll give you this one,” he said, petting the wheel of his BMW Z4 Roadster.
“This car is ugly. I want something else.”
He couldn’t believe she just called his baby ugly but, then again, that meant he could keep it, even though he hardly drove it. He rode his bike more than he drove the car, but that was beside the point, the roadster was hot.
“Fine, be good for six months, and we’ll go shopping.”
“Six months!”
He looked at her, blinking his eyes.
“What, did you think we’d go tomorrow? I’ve caught you drunk, in bed with a rookie, and your attitude stinks, so yeah, we will wait six months. If you don’t mess up, I’ll buy you whatever car you want.”
She let out a huff before pushing the door open and getting out.
In his head, their conversation ended differently.
Claire’s face would brighten, and she would say, “Oh my god, you are the best uncle in the world. Thank you, Phillip. I promise I will never touch another boy in my life or drink another drink. I will be an angel. I will love you so much and never make you worry again. I love you so much.”
Phillip would smile as he wrapped his arms around his sweet, beautiful niece. “You’re welcome, I love you, too.”
But that was in his dreams; the girl that stood behind his car waiting for him to pop the trunk was his reality. Thinking he shouldn’t keep her waiting, he got out and helped her grab her things. Walking up to the house, their arms full, Harper appeared, looking sweet with Ally on her hip. Phillip put a smile on his face before saying, “Hey Harper. Hey Ally.”
“Hey guys! Come on in.”
They entered the house, heading back to the room that Harper had for Claire as they exchanged simply pleasantries. It was bigger than the room at his house, and he knew that Claire would appreciate the space. Along the south wall, there were windows, letting light in and giving a beautiful view of the backyard. They had a pool, another thing Claire would love once it got warm out. All the same things that were in her room were in this one. The white bed with the green bedding, along with the same desk and dresser. A plasma TV, and even though she never played her Xbox at the house, he still made sure she had one here too. It had cost an arm and leg to get everything the same, but looking around the room, he knew he had done well. Glancing over at Claire, he could see that she seemed pleased with everything.
“It’s the same things I have at your house,” she said, looking back at him.
He tucked his hands in his pockets as he watched her. “I told you, everything would be the same. I want you to feel at home here and at our house.”
Claire looked away, but he could see a smile pulling at her lips. Soon he was smiling too before he turned to look at Harper and Ally. Like her mother, Ally had big brown eyes; she was a cutie and always stared at him when he was around. She was doing it now, her head leaning on her mom’s shoulder as she watched him.
“Claire, this is Harper and Ally Titov,” he said, reaching out to shaking Ally’s hand.
She giggled before digging her face in Harper’s neck.
“Now you know you make her giddy, Phillip,” Harper joked before turning her attention to Claire. “Hi Claire, I hope that we make you feel at home.”
Claire shrugged her shoulders as she kicked at the ground.
“She is occasionally a mute. I don’t remember if I told you that,” Phillip said, pinning her with a look.
Claire rolled her eyes before looking up at Harper with her mouth set in a straight line.
“Hi.”
Wow, a whole word. For fuck’s sake. Please Lord, let this go okay.
Harper smiled at him as she said, “Don’t worry, I have a feeling we will be great friends.”
Claire scoffed and then said under her breath, “Yeah, right.”
Looking up at the ceiling, he counted to three before looking back over at Harper.
“I told you she could be a brat, right?”
Claire glared up at him as Harper shook her head.
She looked over at Claire, meeting her gaze before saying, “Nope, you told me she was a sweet girl and that once she gets to know my family and me, she will learn to love us, like we are going to love her. We are a big family, us Assassins, you see, and I know you’ll fit in great.”
Looking down at Claire, Phillip suspected she thought that Harper was full of crap, but all she did was look away without a word. Thank God. Meeting Harper’s gaze, he mouthed, ‘Thank you”. She smiled back at him before kissing Ally’s cheek.
This was going to work.
It had to.
When a knock came on Reese’s office door, she looked up to see the mother of Kelsey Writhenmen. Her heart dropped as she motioned for her to come in. As she entered, Reese shut her comput
er and opened Kelsey’s file. Kelsey was new to the studio, and was on probation while Reese decided if she was a good fit for the company. Kelsey was a beautiful girl, with big green eyes, long brown hair, a great body, and great technique. She had trained in New York since she was two, and Reese thought she was going to be exceptional. The only problem was that she was a little brat that thought Reese should be honored to teach her. Needless to say, she wasn’t a good fit. Even though Reese hated this part of her job, she really didn’t feel that bad about letting her go.
“Hey Mrs. Writhenmen, thanks for coming in.”
She smiled curtly before crossing her legs. “Of course, what is this about?”
Always to the point, she thought as she said, “Well, as you know, we are at the end of Kelsey’s probation.”
She waved her hand dismissively.
“Yes, and?”
Man, I’m not going to miss these people, Reese thought, taking in a deep, calming breath.
“Well, I’ve decided that I will not be keeping Kelsey on.”
Mrs. Writhenmen looked up from where she was examining her nails and said, “Excuse me?”
“I said that I will not be keeping Kelsey on. She isn’t a good fit in my studio.”
“She is the best you have.”
Reese shook her head. “Actually no, she is not. I have amazing dancers. Even though Kelsey has beautiful technique, she doesn’t have a good attitude.”
Mrs. Writhenmen’s chest puffed up, and Reese prepared herself for the lashing.
“You are getting rid of her because she doesn’t have a good attitude? She is confident, knows what she wants! She is the best damn dancer you’ll ever see!”
“Again,” Reese said calmly, “that is your opinion, but what matters is what I want since this is my studio. Here is a reimbursement for half the month, and I wish Kelsey the best in her future dancing endeavors.”
Kelsey wouldn’t make it anywhere, not with that shitty attitude. Maybe being kicked out of this studio would straighten her out, but Reese highly doubted it.
Mrs. Writhenmen looked from the check up to Reese before her face became red with anger.
