Home Ice

by Rachelle Vaughn

  “I’m glad you didn’t wait because I had a nice time with you. Well, except for the breaking and entering part.”

  “I was trying to be spontaneous. I just hope you let me take you out again.”

  “Of course I’ll go out with you again.”

  “So, what are you wearing?” he asked mischievously.

  “Oh, no. We’re not doing that!”

  “Sorry. It’s not every day that I get to talk to a pretty girl on the phone when I’m on the road.”

  “Well, I’m not that kind of girl.”

  “I know. And that’s what I love about you.”

  Love? It was how he signed the card.

  Ally’s heart fluttered.

  “So, whatcha doin’?” he asked.

  “Staring at my roses and listening to a CD.”

  “Cool. Which band?” Ben looked around at the hotel room he shared with Dom. Ben didn’t mind having him as his roommate on the road because Dom was hardly ever in the room. He was usually out chasing women every chance he got. Currently, the defenseman had gone out with some of the other guys to eat at the hotel restaurant. The team was always well fed on the road, either by the hotel or sometimes food was catered for them. Ben told his teammates he would catch up with them later. They gave him a bad time about it, but he would rather talk to Ally over them any day of the week.

  “The new Death Cab for Cutie album.”

  “Death Cat for what?”

  “Death Cab for Cutie,” she repeated with a giggle.

  “Of all the things, I didn’t have you pegged for a metal head,” he teased.

  “No! It’s not heavy at all. They’re four guys from Seattle and they make beautiful music. It’s really mellow, I swear.”

  “Okay, sure. Whatever you say. When I get back into town, I’ll be sure to look for you in a mosh pit.”

  “When are you coming home?”

  “Late tomorrow night.”

  “Good. I can’t wait.”

  * * *

  In the Montreal locker room, the Razors were preparing for the game with their usual installment of razzing each other. Word was out about Ben and his new romance and his teammates could smell the fresh meat.

  “I hear Ben’s got a new hottie,” Razors defenseman Patrik Levine said from across the locker room.

  J.D. Mason chimed in, “Are you sure? He probably made her up. Benny’s got quite the imagination when it comes to chicks, man.”

  “Cool it, J.D,” Dom stepped in to Ben’s defense.

  “Thanks, Dom,” Ben nodded appreciatively.

  Dom smirked. “Benny’s sensitive. He will tell us about who he’s boinkin’ when he’s good and ready. Right, Benny?”

  Ben rolled his eyes.

  Cody, who sat in the stall next to Ben leaned over and lowered his voice. “Seriously. Who’s the girl?”

  “She’s great,” Ben answered. “And that’s all I’m saying.”

  “Cool,” Cody nodded. “She must be special.”

  Yeah, Ben thought. Too special to talk about with you jackasses.

  Cody took the focus off Ben and put it on Dom. “You sure picked up a doozey the other night at the strip club, Dom. She was well past her expiration date,” Cody laughed.

  “Yeah,” Sebby chimed in, “she wasn’t dancing to put herself through college, she was stripping to put her grandkids through college!”

  The locker room erupted with laughter.

  “Did you take her to IHOP the next morning so she could use her senior discount?” J.D. asked.

  A collective series of “ooh’s and aah’s” echoed through the locker room.

  Dom was not amused. “Hey, at least I was with someone instead of wankin’ my own crank all by my lonesome.” He threw more insults around the room. “I know Ben’s not getting any.” No one was safe from Dom’s wrath. Not even Ben.

  “Dom,” Ben shot him a sideways warning.

  “Hey,” Dom’s lips curved up in an evil smile. “I’m just saying. Your new blonde doesn’t look like the type to put out.”

  “Dude.” That was Ben’s final warning.

  “Okay, okay.” Dom put up his palms in defeat and focused on Cody. “What about you, Cap’n?”

  “Dom, you don’t know the first thing about a pregnant woman and her hormones. And don’t talk about my wife.”

  “Fine. So, now we know Benny isn’t getting any and Laina‘s too pregnant to fuck Cody. What about you, Sebby?” he asked the goalie.

  Sebby’s shoulders slumped. “Dude, that’s a low blow,” Sebby said defensively. Everyone knew that Sebby’s last supermodel girlfriend had left him for her Farmer’s Insurance agent and it was still a sore subject for him.

  “Whatever,” Dom growled through clenched teeth. “You’re all a bunch of pussies.”

  The Assistant Trainer stuck his head through the doorway. “Hey, you ladies gonna sit in here and gossip all day, or what? Let’s get on the ice!”

  Ben finished taping his stick and hobbled out of the locker room on his skates. It was game time.

  * * *

  Ben couldn’t wait to see Ally again. He had been back in town for three hours and his foot pushed down harder on the Corvette’s accelerator. After he got off the plane, he picked up Moose from the kennel, took a quick shower and jumped into his car. He couldn’t seem to drive to Ally’s house fast enough. It had been the longest road trip of his life.

  In the daylight, his Corvette seemed even more out of place than usual in Ally’s neighborhood. Ben didn’t notice the contrast. Instead, he parked in front of the little house and reached the front door in several long strides. Before he had the chance to knock, Ally swung the door wide open. They stood grinning at each other and then she wrapped her arms around him, not caring that they had only been out on technically one date. The last week on the phone had brought her closer to him and she was falling hard.

  “I missed you,” she said into his neck, breathing him in. He always smelled citrusy and clean like he was fresh out of the shower.

  “God, Ally, I missed you, too. I’m not used to having anyone to come home to other than Moose.” And unfortunately, Moose didn’t give hugs that smelled like strawberries.

  Ben wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms, kiss her and never let her go, but he didn’t want to scare her away. Izzy had told him that Ally hadn’t had many boyfriends in the past and Ben knew he needed to take things slow. Which was going to be difficult because every time he looked at her his heart beat sped up. And it didn’t help that she was presently clinging to him in all the right places.

  It was good to be home.

  With one last squeeze, she pulled away from him and looked up into his eyes. “Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t let it affect your game,” she smiled.

  Ben agreed. “It wasn’t too bad of a road trip.” The Razors had won three out of their four games. “Did you happen to watch the game last night?”

  “Yup,” she answered proudly. “It was awesome. I was so excited when you scored the game winning goal.” She had been so excited that she had jumped up and done a silent dance across the living room so as not to wake Gram who was sleeping in the other room.

  “Me too.”

  Ally waved him inside. “Please, come in and sit down.”

  When they were seated next to each other on the couch, Ben laid his head back.

  “You must be exhausted,” she said. He didn’t look it, but she knew how taxing hockey was.

  “I slept some on the plane, but I’m still a little worn out from last night.”

  “What’s on your agenda today?” she asked.

  He lifted his head and searched her eyes. “I was hoping to just hang out and be lazy today. If that’s okay with you?”

  “Are you sure? Don’t you have a lot of stuff to do now that your home?”

  “Not really. I’m all yours.”

  She sighed with contentment. “I knew you were after my own heart. Laziness is my specialty!”
r />   “Good, because I have a couple days off before our next game and I need the rest.”

  “Then rest it is.”

  He looked around and asked, “Where’s Gram?”

  “Ruby took her to get her hair done and then to bingo at Ruby’s church. We have the house to ourselves.”

  It was Ruby and Gram’s weekly outing, usually giving Ally the perfect opportunity to study. Today, though, studying was the last thing on Ally’s mind.

  “So,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, “then it’s okay for me to do this?” Tossing aside his oath to take things slow, Ben leaned over to her and touched his lips to hers.

  The kiss was soft and just sweet enough to send a tingle all over Ally’s body. When she kissed him back, she poured her feelings for him through her lips and onto his.

  Eventually, he pulled away and Ally snuggled next to him on the couch. “Are you sure this is okay? Wouldn’t you rather be doing something more…glamorous?” she asked skeptically. It was still hard for her to believe he was just a regular guy despite his profession.

  Ben laughed. “Ally, this is exactly what I’d be doing at my house today anyway. The only difference is that I’d be alone.”

  “Oh.” She liked his answer. “Okay.”

  After minimal discussion, they decided to hang out and watch movies. While Ally ordered a pizza to be delivered, Ben looked through her DVD collection. As opposed to chick flicks, he was pleasantly surprised to find she owned more action movies than anything else.

  When Ally hung up the phone, Ben asked, “Which movie do you want to watch first? Mission Impossible or The Transporter?”

  “Either one. They’re both good. But, I have to warn you,” she raised an eyebrow, “you’d better be prepared to watch the sequels, too.”

  He shook his head with disbelief and grinned. “You had better get over here and pinch me because I must be dreaming.”

  Chapter Ten

  Wet Rat

  “Cody, one of my teammates, is having a barbeque and I‘d like you to come and meet him, his family and some of the guys from the team.” Ben’s excitement crackled through the phone line.

  Ally was folding laundry with the phone tucked between her shoulder and ear. For someone who didn’t have much to wear, she certainly seemed to do a lot of it.

  “So, can you go?” He sounded so young, like he was asking her through the screen door if she could come out and play tag after school.

  “When is it?” Ally asked. She went into the kitchen to look at the calendar hanging on the refrigerator.

  “Next Saturday. I know you aren’t working, so unless you have a date with your other boyfriend, I don’t see why you can’t go.”

  Ally laughed into the phone. “I’d love to go and meet your friends.”

  It was true. But she was scared to death. This was a big step in their relationship. What if they didn’t like her? What if they were snobby and had nothing in common to talk about? Ben was easy. She could talk to him for hours on end. But his friends?

  “Great. Oh, I gotta go, Veronica’s here,” Ben rushed.

  “Who’s Veronica?” she asked, trying to hide the rising jealousy in her voice.

  “She’s my housekeeper.”

  “You have a housekeeper?”

  “Of course,” he said, like everyone in the free world had one or like they were handed out at the grocery store. Step right up, get your housekeeper here!

  “You live alone. What could you possibly need a housekeeper for?”

  “Cleaning and laundry and…you know…”

  “You don’t have to do your own laundry!?” she shrieked.

  Ben chuckled. “Not since the bleach incident of ‘05.”

  “Veronica,” Ally said the name, picturing a leggy Brazilian supermodel folding his socks.

  “Relax, Ally. She’s like fifty years old with three kids and a husband.”

  “Really? Okay then, I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Bye.”

  Ally tried to think of what it would be like to not have to do laundry or clean the bathrooms and wash dishes. Gram’s house was built in the 1940’s and didn’t even have a dishwasher installed. She bristled at the image of a woman named Veronica ironing Ben’s shirts and vacuuming his house. Ally let out a loud sigh.

  Veronica had better be at least fifty and very unattractive.

  * * *

  The week flew by and Ally was anxious about meeting Ben’s friends and teammates at the barbeque. On the drive over to Ben’s, her stomach was a bundle of nerves. She hadn’t been to his house since their first date. They had been hanging out mostly at hers with Gram.

  As she maneuvered through his neighborhood, her uneasiness wasn’t soothed. None of the houses on his street had less than a three car garage. When she pulled up to Ben’s house she was reminded once again how wealthy he was. Especially in the light of day. The outside of his house was brown stucco with stacked stonework accent. The landscaping was lush and the lawn was impeccable. She was in shock by how beautiful his house was in the daylight. And how large. It was at least ten times the size of Gram’s house. What was he doing with someone so far out of his league?

  Ally parked on the street because she didn’t want to leave oil marks on his pristine driveway. On second thought, the neighbors probably didn’t want to see her jalopy anywhere on their street, or in their neighborhood for that matter. But, she pushed the negative thoughts away and composed herself enough to get out of the car and walk up the stone path to his front door.

  The door flung open before she had a chance to raise her hand to ring the door bell. Ben’s smile lit up the entryway and she regained feeling in her extremities.

  “Hi,” he said.

  “Hi,” she answered.

  “Welcome to my shanty.”

  She laughed at his sarcasm.

  “You didn’t have to drive. I could have picked you up. Did you find the place okay?”

  “That’s okay. I remembered how to get here.”

  How could she forget his house on the hill overlooking Red Valley?

  “Please come in.” Ben waved her in, shut the door behind them and kissed her. She looked so beautiful on his doorstep, he could have taken her right then and there. He didn’t think she fully understood yet the effect she had on him and his extremities. It was all he could do to tear himself away before things went further than she was comfortable with. He certainly didn’t want to scare her off by being too aggressive, so he tried to quiet the raging animal hunger inside him.

  Damn. She had no idea.

  Damn. He was a good kisser.

  Her inhibitions swirled around in her head, clouding all rational thought. Maybe it was a good thing that he traveled so much. Because if he was always in town, Ally doubted she would be able to get anything done because she couldn’t imaging removing her lips from his long enough to live a productive life.

  After he let her go, she collected her wits again and glanced around the room. Facing a plasma television over the fireplace was a huge black leather couch. He had simple, modern, manly décor. There wasn’t a lot of furniture, but what Ben had looked worn and comfortable. The house reminded her of an upscale bachelor pad. Taking a minute to look up in awe at the cathedral ceiling, she wondered how she ended up here.

  On the far wall, large windows let in streams of natural sunlight. The words light and airy came to mind. Words she knew Izzy would use to describe the house in her real estate mumbo jumbo jargon. The living room connected into a large kitchen with granite counters and stainless steel appliances. Sliding glass doors looked out onto the patio. The magnificent patio where they had shared their first kiss.

  Ally could see Ben’s dog outside through the glass. Moose had his black muzzle pressed against the door and was whining to be let in. His big tail wagged around in circles like a jump rope.

  “May I?” She gestured toward the door.

  “Oh, yeah. I just didn’t want him knocking you down when you came
in. He really likes you.”

  When Ally opened the door, the giant dog came in with a whoosh and immediately started licking her. She crouched down and gave him her full attention in the form of a belly rub. While Ben watched her, he realized how natural it was to have her here in his house, playing with his dog. She scratched behind Moose’s black ears and patted him on the head. She stood back up and looked around the room and back at Ben. He was barefoot with his hands hooked in his pockets, smiling at her.

  “You look great,” he said.

  “Thanks. I’m kind of nervous about meeting your friends.” She fiddled with the hem of her shirt. Nervous? More like petrified. Is it too late to change my mind and go skydiving instead?

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. Not that many people will be there. Just a couple of the guys and their wives and kids. No biggie.”

  Sure. No big deal.

  Tell that to the army of drummers in my stomach.

  No biggie. Just more famous people. Who were used to carrying big sticks and slamming people into walls.

  “So, would you like the grand tour?” He gestured to the rest of the house.

  “Definitely.” She couldn’t wait to see where he laid his head at night.

  Taking her hand, he led her out of the living room. On the other side of the kitchen was a family room with a big screen television and two leather recliners. She could picture herself sinking into one of those mushy chairs and taking a nap until next Thursday. The room was complete with floor to ceiling windows showcasing his magnificent view of the city.

  “This is the movie and game room,” he announced.

  When she walked over to the windows, Ben followed her.

  “Wow, I still can’t believe you can see the whole city from here.”

  The view was spectacular during the day, but even more so at night when everything was lit up. Memories of their first date came to mind as she looked out onto the patio. That first kiss seemed like yesterday and a million years ago, all rolled into one. Now, she could see his reflection in the glass, he was standing so close to her. But, somehow, not close enough.

  Focus. We’re on our way to meet his friends.

  Next, he led her down the hall past a bathroom and three spare bedrooms. One was a guest bedroom, one was his office and the other he was using as a home gym. At the end of the hall, he led her into the master suite. And suite it was. It practically had its own zip code it was so large. Decorated in muted tones of green and beige, the colors had a calming effect. The furniture was minimal except for a massive king-sized bed. It dominated the room and Ally’s eyes were drawn to it like a magnet.