by V. L. Locey
After the food was mostly gone, I pulled Town aside as I fiddled with the desserts loaded into my fridge.
“Can you please go get your guitar and sing us a few songs?” He pulled out a bowl of green Jell-O and gave me his ‘Really?’ look. “You know I don’t normally push you to sing.” His eyebrow flew up to his hairline. “Fine, I don’t normally push you to sing for anyone but me, but we have an hour to kill and all they can talk about is that damned expansion draft. Betting on who’s leaving like it’s a damn horse race. Have you seen how tight Vic and Dan are?”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” He handed me the green Jell-O then tugged a cake out that had fruit arranged on top to look like the American flag. “I’ll run over after we get the desserts out, but I doubt a few songs from a mayoral aide will make them forget it altogether.”
“Thank you, babe. And no, they won’t forget altogether, but maybe they’ll get a respite.” I leaned over the cake to steal a kiss, then hurried outside to wave desserts in the air and announce that we’d have entertainment soon. The kids all ran over when the sweets were announced. Jack climbed into his father’s lap, his face and hands dirty from playing along the lake under the watchful eye of Lila and my delightful daughter, the child who will someday appreciate juicy burgers.
I moseyed around, stopping to chat with everyone, glass of Randy Rooster blackberry wine in hand, trying to be the perfect host. This was my first party, and while I fretted over the clump of hockey players gathered around the TV in the living room, I felt things were going rather well.
When Town came back, old acoustic guitar in hand, I hurried into the house and made the boob tubers turn off the TV and come outside to join us. The sun was sinking and a calm had settled over the lake. The children were getting sleepy. Small heads rested on parental shoulders. The resident loons called out a time or two as Town got himself situated on the glider with his guitar. I sat beside him. My house, my man. Those were the rules. Charity squiggled in beside me. Everyone else quieted when the plucking and tuning filled the air.
“Play some Judas Priest,” Kalinski shouted from the picnic table, where he was holding his sleepy boy close to his chest.
“If I’m taking requests I demand a tip jar,” Town teased. August placed an empty pickle jar beside one of Town’s sandaled feet. “Dill dollars. Nice.”
We all chuckled softly. My girl burrowed into my side, her long dark hair catching on my whiskers.
“You having fun, little one?” I whispered to my daughter.
“So much fun. I’m the only available woman here.” She gave me a naughty wink. I began looking at my unattached players with a dark fatherly glare, just in case. “Stop making that daddy face, Daddy.”
“Did you bring any bagpipes?” McGarrity shouted from the Adirondack chair he was draped in, Lila seated primly on his hairy knee. Everyone aside from the man in the kilt groaned. “Ill-bred buffoons, the whole bloody lot of ye!”
“Okay, play something quick. He’s starting to grow a brogue,” Sander called from the blanket he and his partners had spread over a patch of grass. I had a good guffaw over that one. Mario did as well.
Town smiled serenely, his long fingers moving up and down the neck of the guitar, his brow slightly wrinkled as if he were deep in thought.
“Okay, I’ll do something old but still holding its own,” Town announced.
“If you’re going to do Captain Hominy Grits there, let us get the kids tucked in first,” Vic tossed out.
I rolled my eyes. My kid found great humor in the comment. Town opened the impromptu concert with a rendition of Bobby McGee that had us all clapping and singing along. Over the next hour we were treated to great acoustic blues songs such as Police Dog Blues, Old Guitar, Alabama Blues, and one of my favorites to hear him play and sing, Red Rooster.
Town was so skilled and so charismatic that he held everyone’s attention, but the lure of the expansion draft was too great, and so many of the guys headed back inside. August, Sander, Mitch, Mike, and a few of the others left some of us to enjoy the creeping dusk. Mario was content to sit with his woman on his knee, just as I was happy to be on the glider with Town and Charity. Dan and Vic seemed fine with sitting at the picnic table, knee resting against knee.
“So, where’s your boy at exactly in Scotland?” Mario asked, to break the uncomfortable silence that had fallen over the small knot near the glider.
“Last we heard he was somewhere near Dumfries,” Charity chimed up as Town strummed the strings lightly, filling the cooling air with dulcet notes. “Are you going to be near there, Mr. McGarrity?”
“Oh, aye,” the big man replied pleasantly. “We’re spending six weeks there. I want to show my gal every nook and cranny of Scotland. I may even get her to wear a bonnie plaid dress while we’re there!”
“Do stop, Seamus. I am not a plaid-wearing woman. Although a nice sash would look tasteful with my black dress,” Lila replied, her long legs crossed in the way that women do with such easy elegance. Mario was about to reply when a horde of Cougars came bounding out of my house to tell us that Baltimore picked Mike Morton, a fine Boston winger. That meant that Mitch was staying put, as was August in Boston. With a key forward gone, I assumed that the news of who was going to fill that spot on the roster and any other would be announced after training camps wrapped up. There was no way to predict who would go where, or if any of the Cougars would leave at all. The Baltimore team was a for sure, as was the new feeder team that would be set up after three years. Until then, Cayuga would supply players for both big cities.
With that brouhaha settled, the partygoers who were staying for the fireworks came back outside. Town picked a bit as the sun slipped downward. When he placed his old guitar aside, I handed him what was left of my wine.
He smiled gratefully, stood, and offered me his hand. “Let’s go walk by the lake,” he said, before tossing back the last sip of fruity wine. I liked that idea and went to stand. Someone’s phone chirruped, and Dan pushed to his feet. He gave the incoming call a long look.
“Excuse me,” he said, then went inside to take the call. Vic sat on the bench, rocking his now sleeping child, his gaze never straying from Dan, who was right inside the open back door, his head down, his phone to his ear. Town handed me his empty glass. I turned to give it to Charity and ask her to take it inside when Dan stepped outside, the last flaming colors of the sun illuminating his face. “Just my agent.”
Vic sat on the bench, Jack in his arms, his gaze riveted to his husband.
“Okay, let’s go for that walk.” I took Town by the hand and led him toward the lake, stopping only once to rub Vic’s neck and compliment him on a good season.
“Yep, you too,” Kalinski replied, his hand moving in slow circles on Jack’s small back.
We said nothing to each other for a long while. Darkness soon enveloped the lake, and the first twisting red firework flew into the night sky.
Town and I made the appropriate sounds of wonderment, my arm around his waist, his resting on my shoulder. Boaters tooted their horns. Dogs barked. Kids raced past, carrying sparklers. A brisk breeze whipped over the water. I imagined the wind snapping the two flags—one American and one rainbow—that flew on a pole in my front yard.
“I’m so proud of being your man,” I told Town, as a fizzy blue sparkly firework raced upward with a loud screech, followed by a bang. People hooted in glee, both on the water and at the various houses lining the lake. “You are everything that I ever dreamed of back in the day when all I could do was dream of holding a man.”
Town turned to face me, his hands came up to cup my face, sandy fingertips resting by my ear, his thumbs on my cheekbones. My eyes darted to the sky to witness a wild frenzy of red, blue, and green streaks racing toward the moon.
“You’ll never have to dream of a man holding you again, because my arms around you will be your forever reality.”
“Forever?”
“Forever,” he said over the booms and bangs an
d boat horns, then led my lips to his.
Forever sounded like the perfect amount of time for his arms to be around me.
The End
A note from V.L. Locey
I’d like to take just a moment to thank each and every one of my readers for supporting the Cayuga Cougars books. This series, and all the characters, mean so much to me. They’ve become like family in so many ways. I’ll hear a song and say, “Oh, that’s something Mario would like!” or I’ll see a meme and immediately think of Lila or August or Sander.
It still amazes me that this series sprang from a novella about a hockey player who I feared readers would hate with a capitol H. A man who had so many layers no one person would ever take the time to peel them back. I was wrong. Not only did readers fall for Victor but he did manage to find that one person who was willing to look past the defenses Vic has been building for years. He found a man who would stand by him and guide him to being a better man. Vic found Dan.
When people ask me who my favorite character is, I always answer Victor Kalinski. He’s a person who speaks his mind, never backs down, and loves fiercely. He’s tart and bitter, and yet tender and sweet. He’s a complex man brimming with life and love and tales to tell.
Yes, Vic and Dan have so many stories to tell, so much life yet to live, and so much love to share that I’m not quite ready to leave them alone yet even if Victor does bitch about my nose in his life all the time. I hope my readers feel the same. Although this is the last book in the Cayuga Cougars series, I have three more stories to tell all dealing with Victor and the men who fill his heart. These three books will cover fourteen years in the lives of the Arou-Kalinski men we’ve all grown so fond of. I hope you’re as excited about these upcoming tales as I am…
Coming soon…
Overtime the Trilogy
Book #1 – Rebound (Victor’s Story)
Book #2 – Final Shot (Dan’s Story)
Book #3 – Draw (Jack’s Story)
A note from the author…
If you enjoyed One-on-One, Cayuga Cougars #5, I’d be incredibly grateful if you could leave a review on a major retailer site, BookBub, Goodreads, or on your personal social media platforms.
Reviews are the reason someone else might decide to give this book a try!
Deepest thanks,
*squishy hugs*
V.L.
About the Author
V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, yoga, belly laughs, Dr. Who/Torchwood, walking, reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee. (Not necessarily in that order.) She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a flock of assorted goofy domestic fowl, and two steers.
When not writing spicy romances, she enjoys spending her day with her menagerie in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania with a cup of fresh java in hand.
If you want to keep up with all the latest news about her upcoming M/M erotic releases, sign up for her newsletter by visiting her website: vlloceyauthor.com
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Other Books by V.L. Locey
LGBTQ Releases
Standalones
Holly & Hockey Boots
Life is a Stevie Wonder Song
Improper Fraction
Playmaker – A Venom Novella
New York Nightwings Collection
Colors of Love Series
Lost in Indigo – Colors of Love #1
Touch of a Yellow Sun – Colors of Love #2 (2/27/19)
The Good Green Earth – Colors of Love #3 (9/18/19)
Cayuga Cougars
Point Shot Trilogy Boxed Set
Snap Shot —Cayuga Cougars #1
Open Net—Cayuga Cougars #2
Coach's Challenge – Cayuga Cougars #3
Overtime - Cayuga Cougars #4
One-on-One – Cayuga Cougars #5 (1/16/19)
A Star-Crossed Christmas – A Cayuga Cougars Holiday Short
Harrisburg Railers - Coauthored with RJ Scott
Changing Lines #1
First Season #2
Deep Edge #3
Poke Check #4
Last Defense #5
Goal Line #6
Neutral Zone #8 – A Harrisburg Railers Holiday Novella
Hat Trick – A Harrisburg Railers Novella (14/2/2019)
Owatonna U. Hockey Trilogy - Coauthored with RJ Scott
Ryker #1
Scott #2 (3/27/19)
Benoit #3 (5/29/19)
M/F Releases
To Love a Wildcat
Pink Pucks & Power Plays #1
A Most Unlikely Countess #2
O Captain! My Captain! #3
Reality Check #4
Language of Love #5
Final Shifts #6
Venom
Clean Sweep #1
Twirly Girl #2
Tape to Tape #3
Angle Play #4
Flow #5
Blueline #6
Roster Addition (A To Love a Wildcat novella)
