by Amber Malloy
The jarring sound of a needle off the record ripped through the uncomfortable silence. “And you thought we were the crazy ones.” Lashonda leaned against her husband with a smug smirk.
Hawk touched his finger to her chin, moving her face back to his eyeline. “Ever since the kids, Knox’s been a flake. I’ll deal with him later. Now, what the hell?”
“It was a puzzle that I thought I could crack by myself, and when I couldn’t, I enlisted Remy’s hacker friend.”
“Bumblebee,” he muttered.
“Yeah. It took a while, but we found your bio dad…an African American teenager who got an Indigenous girl pregnant. They ran away to Canada thinking they would get married, but her family caught them before that happened. There’s more to the story, but he should probably tell you.”
“And what time exactly is this meeting supposed to take place?”
Brighter than it had been moments before, the sun completely crested over the horizon, and Lexi caught the sight of dirt kicking up behind a minivan at least a half mile down the road. “About now.”
Hawk dropped his head back with a sigh.
“If you want to meet them alone,” Remy said, “we can get out of your way.”
“No, no.” Hawk stepped away from the group and closer to the edge of the yard. “I meant what I said. We’re family, and I want you guys to stay.” He held out his hand for Lexi. She joined him facing the road. “This is actually perfect timing.”
“Yeah?” Lexi twined her fingers between his.
“Yeah,” Hawk affirmed. Lifting her hand to his lips, he brushed them against her skin before he sweetly kissed her. “It couldn’t be better.”
Epilogue
One solid season had passed and the Northern Royals had won the playoffs. Hawk stood outside of his favorite bar clutching the Keating Cup within his grip. He honestly couldn’t remember a time where everything in his life had come together this perfectly, and it all had begun with Lexington Waters-Maze.
Hawk grabbed the handle to Moe’s and pulled the door open. When he peeked his head into the bar, cheers rocked the room. He did a quick scan of the crowd. “Where’s Lex?”
“Not here yet, but…” Not bothering to listen to any excuses, he ducked out. Cries of disappointment filtered their way outside.
“Come on, Hawk. She’s on her way!”
“I’m not coming in until Lexi’s here.” A curse word or two made it to his virgin ears, but Hawk wouldn’t be moved. He leaned against the door and waited. Of course, it didn’t help that a group of fans was taking pictures of his immature stance from across the street, but he wouldn’t be deterred.
“Hey!” Lexi hung out of the window of the Uber she was in. “Sorry… My flight was late.” For the past year she’d flown back and forth from her California offices and the bar. Lexi had kept Chicago as her home base while she made it to the quarterly meetings. Hawk had had no problem moving to the West Coast once he retired, but Lexi had declined his offer. She enjoyed her Chicago family too much to uproot them.
Not to mention his bio dad lived in Wisconsin, which made it easier for them to visit. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to track down his mom. The story went that after her family had kidnapped her to Canada, his dad never saw her again. Lexi and her girl gang of tech wizards were working on her trail. Until then, he had done a pretty good job melding his bio family with his adoptive one.
Within weeks of his wedding night, he’d been introduced to a couple of siblings who didn’t mind learning about hockey—even though Andre swore they were merely humoring him.
“Why aren’t you inside?” Lexi yelled through the car window. Hawk met her at the door and brought her pouty lips to his, kissing her silly before she could get out.
“We went over this… I go into the bar and you yell ‘surprise’.” She ducked her head back into the window of the Uber.
“But I’m out here with you, so why don’t we just walk in together?” He opened the door to the sedan and grabbed her bag from the driver as he hoisted the cup onto his hip.
“Because I saw this whole thing in my head. You at the front of the crowd cheering me on with my new family and old one.”
“But…” Determined to get his way, he arched his eyebrow and frowned. It would be the only sign to her that he wouldn’t budge.
“Fine.” She sighed on her way to the alley. “But sometimes I think Dre is right about you.”
“No, no, no,” he shouted at the back of her head, paparazzi be damned. “My wife, my side.”
Annoyed at the delay, he signed a couple of autographs and took a couple of selfies. “Okay!” Lexi yelled from inside.
Balancing the cup and her bag, he opened the door to lackluster cheering. “Do better or I’m walking right back out that door again.”
“Yay,” they applauded uproariously.
“Okay, fine.” He entered the bar with a snort. Hawk made the rounds with his cup. Unlike the last time, he had invited one team member—and thankfully, Marco had shown up.
“Congratulations,” Bernard Bueller said. His dad looked young for his age. He had a head full of salt-and-pepper hair, dark brown skin and very few wrinkles. Hawk hugged his dad and slapped his two brothers’ hands. Younger than him by five years, both kids had more of a slender built but matched Hawk in height.
After the wedding, Bernard had told him about his mom. Teenagers at the time, she’d gotten pregnant with him and they made plans to meet up in Canada. However, she’d never showed. Bernard had no idea what had happened to her or Hawk. He’d gone into the military, and when he’d gotten out, he’d searched for his mom, Leilani, but had come up with nothing.
“This is a nice place. I see why you come here. Oh, and we met Lexi’s dad.” He pointed toward the stage where Moe was jamming out with his band. Since Lexi had started the live entertainment, her father and his friends had gotten their mojo back. They planned on cutting new music, then going out on tour. To say he was proud of Moe was an understatement.
“Hey, Hawk’s fam, how did you like football players’ ice capades?” Andre laughed, while he slipped in the middle of their circle. He wrapped his arms around his brothers’ shoulders.
“We love hockey,” Stephen, his youngest brother, admitted.
“Almost more than skiing,” his middle brother chimed in.
“But our favorite is curling,” the family said in unison.
“Okay.” Andre’s slick smile disappeared from his boy-band face. Hawk could tell he was at a loss for words, which rarely happened to the former football player. Unwrapping his arms from around them, Andre left their little group without another word.
“That was the best present ever.” Hawk pretended to dab at his eyes. It almost made up for all those years he’d dealt with Andre’s bullshit.
“Huh, I didn’t think that would actually work. What’s curling?” Stephen said.
“That guy is my kid’s favorite football player. Do you think I should tell him?” the middle brother offered.
“No, no, no,” Hawk warned them, close to stamping his feet like a child. “Don’t ruin this for me.” Andre was already mad that he’d introduced Bane’s foundation to winter sports. This little joke had made Hawk’s entire night.
“That was fun, but I need to go to the little boys’ room,” Bernard announced to the group. He hopped off the tall stool and made his way across the stuffed bar. Hawk hadn’t gotten around to calling him ‘dad’. He wasn’t quite there…yet. Hopefully, it would be easier once some time had passed.
“Hello, family,” Lexi said, joining them.
“When are you going to give us some nephews?” Stephen patted her shoulder.
“Get out of my uterus, sir!” Lexi yelled. She hollered over the bar’s noisy chatter. It quieted down enough for them to hear a tinkle of laughter in the background, as Stephen yanked his hand away from Lexi.
“Dammit.” Hawk swiveled his head around the bar to look for the offending party.
&nbs
p; “My night, my wife, Requiem Knox. You promised best behavior.”
“No such thing,” she huffed somewhere nearby.
“Warning you, lady Knox, I will snatch my baby out of this town before your next dodgeball game.”
“You wouldn’t.” He hoped that threat got through to Remy. Her behavior was almost worse than her silly-ass husband’s.
“Watch me!” he hollered. Lexi had kept Remy’s team on top. If he took her away, then the Ladybug’s championship title would be in dire jeopardy. “What was that about?” he asked his nutty wife, who could never pass up on one of Remy’s little stunts.
“She bet me that one of you would ask about kids, but I told her there was no way a group of dudes would care. Soooo—”
“Let me guess, if they did, you were supposed to yell out crude shit.” Hawk pulled her closer to his side to plant a kiss on top of her head. “Stop playing with that crazy lady.”
“Can we get a photo of the family and the cup?” a reporter interrupted them. Hawk had allowed a few journalists in the bar this time around.
It was his last year, and he didn’t want to be bombarded with a lot of ‘what’s next for the enforcer’ questions. Hopefully, they would pop out a couple of kids, but he didn’t want to put too much pressure on Lexi. She had her CEO position and had begun the heavy task of moving SugarTech to Chicago.
A little while after Josh had been slapped with probation and community service, he’d tried to wiggle his way back into the everyday swing of the company, but he’d been banned from the premises and forced to respect the non-compete order if he wanted to keep any of his stock options. That was a win-win for everyone in Hawk’s book.
Other than spending time with family, his only plan was to help Bane’s foundation. He’d already told them as much, and unfortunately the vultures would offer him unsolicited advice on what to do after hockey. It seemed to be a game between the sports reporters to see which one could make him snap the fuck out the fastest. Since he didn’t plan on dealing with them anymore, he’d allowed only a handful of the vultures to attend his day with the cup.
“Sure.” Hawk waved everyone over. The usual suspects crammed in next to him.
“We meant your immediate family,” the reporter said as Lexi hugged his waist along with the guys he grew up with, their wives and his biological peeps crowded all together.
“This is my immediate family. Now take the damn picture.”
“All right, on three,” the reporter said. “One…two…”
“Champions!” everyone yelled.
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Spies R Us
Amber Malloy
Excerpt
Spring was directly around the corner, which would conclude the twins’ first year of preschool.
Vann idled at the kids’ school in the carpool lane at the kid’s school. He waited for the kids with Dylan Hansen, his best friend, in the passenger seat. Dylan had been a one-time silent partner in Vann’s environmental investment firm, Good and Green. However, after this last quarter, Vann had been able to buy him out.
“They’re late,” Vann said, checking the clock on the pickup’s dashboard. The little ones always got released first.
“Why don’t you go check on them? That group of women over there are gobbling me up with their eyes, and it’s making me feel naked.”
“What?”
Dylan nodded toward the housewife gang and joked. “Unlike you, I’m not damaged goods. A runaway wife and two kids. I, on the other hand, am a shiny nugget of gold.” Dylan chuckled as he pointed at himself. “Single and divorced moms can sniff me out a mile away. I think it’s a sixth sense they acquire the minute they sign their names on the divorce papers.”
Vann didn’t doubt what Dylan said. The women were oftentimes overly friendly. He always wondered if it had to do with his semi-single status, but on the other hand, someone baggage free like Dylan would be prime beef.
“If you’d just divorce Eden, then you too could be held in high regard, such as I am.” Dylan ran his hand through his blond hair and polished his fingers on his shirt. Friends since college, they were often mistaken for brothers. Yet ever since Vann had let his hair grow past his shoulders, Dylan appeared the more desirable of the two.
The mandatory uniform at Vann’s company ended with jeans and began with a T-shirt—preferably clean, but that requirement wasn’t always met. Once he’d shed his jacket and tie, the fairer sex had begun to migrate toward men with a more grown-up look. Jobless or homeless seemed to be the popular opinion about his life. Apparently neither of those options qualified him as good husband material, though they still seemed to look at him hungrily.
“I’m going to wait the five years to declare her dead. I think it would be easier for the kids.” He didn’t like to talk about Eden, but he knew Dylan meant well. To avoid further conversation on the subject, he grabbed the door handle. “To save you from the throngs of your admirers, I’m going to get the kids.”
“Hey, I didn’t mean to bring down the mood. I just want better for you, man. It’s been too long.”
Vann nodded. “No harm done. Let me get the kids. Then we can celebrate your return to the Windy City in high style.”
“Oh please, not Showbiz Pizza,” Dylan moaned.
“Of course not. We’re going to Dave and Buster’s.”
Ivy League stuffy, Dylan was a snob through and through. “I hate that fuc—”
He slammed the truck’s door on his friend’s complaints and took a spot in the patch of dried grass uncovered from the freshly melting snow.
With his Starbucks Grande latte in hand, he hoped none of the moms in his kid’s class noticed him.
“Hi there, stranger! We haven’t seen you in forever.”
Crap! Fighting his instinct to run, he gave the yoga mom a lame smile and tried to place the peppy woman’s face. At six foot two, he was nearly a foot taller than her. He had to outweigh her by at least seventy-five pounds.
“I’m uh…busy. Work.” He choked on his coffee drink when she slugged him on the arm.
“Where have you being hiding, you silly goose?”
Head of his own company, and he couldn’t believe one PTA mom made him this nervous. He attributed his uneasiness to the manic gleam that shone in her eyes every time they spoke.
After the first week of preschool, Vann had realized single moms were natural predators and he didn’t stand a chance against them. From that point on, Marta’d had to pick up the kids. Unfortunately her chipped tooth had forced him out into the wild today. To say he was guarded was an understatement.
“We need a strong, strapping fella like yourself for the spring pageant.”
“Well, my schedule is kind of full—”
“I won’t take no for an answer,” the aggressive woman pushed. “We’re meeting at Mary’s at four p.m.” She gestured at a group of moms who waved back. “Why don’t you join us?”
“I, uh… Oh! Hey, there’s the boys! I’ll see what I can do.”
“You know where to find me,” she hollered at his back before he could put a good distance between them.
A perky little blonde he had never seen before walked between his kids, holding their hands.
“Are you the twins’ dad? I’m Tess, but the kids call me Ms. Tess.”
Last Vann knew, the boys’ teacher hadn’t been this young or cute. It didn’t pay to dodge the PTA, he figured. “What happened to Ms. Lori?”
“Her mother had a nasty fall. I’m here until she gets back.”
“That’s too bad.”
Tess smiled sweetly at him as the silence turned awkward. Vann had been alone for some time and he didn’t want to get categorized as one of those pervy dads. However, the tips of her nipples pushing against the fabric of her sweater were hard not to notice.
“So…uh, nice meeting you.”
“Huh? Oh!” A flush of red crept up her neck. “Sorry. I wanted to
tell you that Miles got upset in class today.”
“Are you all right, buddy?” He glanced down at his shy twin, but the kid wouldn’t look up from his little boots.
“Yeah, I don’t know what happened. The class was sharing what their parents did for a living. It was so cute. Louis said you were a green giant.” Tess touched his arm with a laugh. “And then when it was time for Miles to talk about his mom, he started to cry.”
Vann felt bad. The more sensitive of his two kids, Miles always had a hard time with the no-mom thing.
“My company finds the funding for green start-ups.” He tried to clarify the interworking of his three year old’s mind. “And my wife is out of the picture.” Used to questions about Eden, Vann kept his answer short.
No one wanted to hear that one day she’d taken the boys to the doctor with the nanny but she’d never come back, which was the new version of Dad went out for cigarettes.
Tess’ smile slipped into that familiar expression of pity he’d come to expect, but her recovery was better than most. “Well, I certainly didn’t think you were a giant, and your job explains the…” She nodded toward his clothes before her words quickly died in her throat. “Oh God! I’m sorry.” When she covered her mouth, her blonde hair swung back and forth as she shook her head. “I’m such a goof.”
“It’s okay.” He laughed at her reaction to his worn jeans, plaid shirt and vest. “My job mostly entails places with lots of dirt then coming home to roll around with two three-year-olds.” He shrugged. “A suit doesn’t make much sense.”
“You’re right. You’re right and I’m sorry.”
“No harm done.” He laughed again, amused by her embarrassment.
“Hey, Dad,” Louis said, interrupting them, “can we go?”
“Sure, sure.”
“Well, I have to get back before the head hens scratch my eyes out.”
Vann took a glimpse over his shoulder. The mom herd quickly turned away, pretending to be in a deep conversation.
“Single dad with all his teeth… Throw in a horn and just call me a unicorn,” he joked. “Besides, you should probably get in there before you get any colder.”
