by Amber Lynn
Doug’s head moved from side to side. His hair had dried from when he’d come in still sweaty, so his hair shook easily with the movement. When it had been wet, it had clung to his head.
“I’m suggesting we let him think we’re dating, not that you have a secret boyfriend you’re keeping from him.”
Annie wasn’t sure she understood the difference. Nelson already knew she was seeing someone. As far as she’d seen, it didn’t seem to change anything. The only time he asked any questions seemed to be when he wanted to know if it was over.
“I can see you don’t get it. If you want to know how a guy feels about you, it helps to make him jealous.”
“How’s that any different than what we’ve been doing the last week?”
Annie originally hoped maybe that would be the case, but Nelson didn’t react jealous when she told him she was seeing someone. Surprise was about the only emotion she saw at first, and he hadn’t pushed to find out more about the guy.
“You haven’t given him a face. We tell him it’s me, and you’ll know if there’s something more than friendship in his head.”
That made absolutely no sense. “Now I’m convinced you spent too long in the bathroom. You’re the one who said Nelson warned you to stay away from me when you gave me your number. That wasn’t about jealousy.”
“Wasn’t it? After seeing what’s behind closed doors, I’m not so sure the overprotective friend act isn’t something more on his part. The only way I can think of verifying that is to let him think we’re a couple.”
Annie got up and walked over to the counter so she could put her plate down. She’d only had two bites of the egg roll and all of a sudden her stomach wasn’t feeling so hot. She tossed the half-eaten egg roll in the garbage and put the leftovers in the fridge. They weren’t going to be great in the morning, but they’d make an okay breakfast.
She wasn’t sure where her night had turned insane, but Doug was definitely to blame. They’d talked in circles from the moment he first made his appearance at her door. She needed to put her hands on the granite countertop to try to center herself and figure out if anything he’d said made sense.
“I don’t know. I was okay telling him there was someone else to keep him from insisting we get married, but I’m not sure I could make a relationship convincing in front of him.”
The fact that she knew she’d cringe when Doug touched her made her statement all the more realistic. If Nelson asked, she could tell him about dinners and watching movies at home, but unless it was normal for couples to sit across the room from each other and never touch, there wasn’t a point in continuing the conversation.
“At least think about it. I may wake up and realize what a bad idea it is, but right now I’m charging ahead because I’d like to see you happy, and it’s pretty clear to me that he makes you happy.”
“Don’t you think you should worry about your own happiness, or at least health? It was nice of you to go along with my scheme, but I think you were right to decide to cut ties. I didn’t give you all the details when I first asked for your help. Would you have agreed if I told you I was pregnant?”
Annie turned around and leaned against the counter so she could see his face when he answered. He hadn’t moved from his spot by the door, again taking his robot stance. The demeanor was strange after how natural he’d always seemed.
“If I knew Nels was the dad, probably not. But if you would’ve come up with the idea I proposed tonight, to try to get the two of you together, instead of trying to convince him you didn’t want to be with him, maybe.”
“I think we should stick to your first instinct then. Look, thanks for your help, even though it didn’t last as long as I thought it would. If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to try to get some sleep.”
Annie should’ve escorted him straight out from the bathroom, so he didn’t have time to confuse her. From the claims of Nelson liking her to the plot of making him jealous, it was too much. The description of her life as a soap opera was becoming impossible to deny.
“Not a problem. If you change your mind, about anything, you have my number.” There was a small smile on his face as he waved and opened the door. Annie held her breath for a second, fearful Nelson would be standing on the other side.
Doug wasn’t instantly snatched up, so she waved back and followed in that general direction so she could lock the door behind him. After the chain slid into place, she grabbed her cell phone from the kitchen counter and made her way to her bedroom.
Eventually she wanted to find a place with an actual bedroom, but the bedroom partition hadn’t caused her any problems. Like the rest of the apartment, there weren’t any frills in the bedroom. Annie had a queen bed topped with a quilt her grandmother had made for her when she moved out of her parents’ house. It was old-fashioned, various pieces of yellow fabric sewn together, which matched Annie’s personality, even if her recent interactions didn’t show her sunny disposition.
She sat down on the bed, putting the phone next to her. After she made her quick call, she was going to try to get some sleep. The rumble of her tummy seemed to be temporary, but she never knew when things would come back up.
Slipping out of her tennies, she relaxed onto the bed. She had two pillows on each side, and they provided a nice pad to lean up against once she propped them up. Annie’s phone found its way back to her hand and she hit the button to wake it up, followed by her password. After a few more touches, the phone was up to her ear as she waited for someone on the other end to answer.
“You do know it’s after ten, right? And I know you didn’t forget that I have a baby who doesn’t always sleep through the night.” Casey sounded mildly annoyed, but not surprised.
“I’ve had too much male input for the night and I need to talk to someone who isn’t insane.” Annie wasn’t sure Casey fell into that bucket, but she was the closest thing Annie had to a sane person to talk to.
“That bad, huh? I heard there was an altercation after the game, and I figured it would make its way home to you.”
Annie didn’t ask how Casey had heard the news. That woman knew everything that went on in a ten-block radius of the arena.
“I asked Nelson to come over to use the heartrate monitor, so the plan was for him to be here. I had no idea Doug would storm in demanding answers. He had to hide in the bathroom because he wouldn’t leave fast enough. When in the world did my life become so dramatic?” Annie was even sighing like the women in the romantic movies she’d watched. She should’ve based her dating life on them, instead of getting Doug involved, but they always seemed unrealistic to her.
Annie had broken down and admitted to Casey that she was using Doug as a practice boyfriend one of the times Casey had called trying to offer advice. She was sure Dylan knew too, but thankfully the couple was able to keep their mouths shut around Nels.
“It became dramatic the second a man walked in to it, or in your case a boy, since Nels was just a kid. I’ve learned guys are nothing but trouble, but there are times they can be worth it.” Casey laughed, assumingly at something Dylan did, because a second later Annie heard what sounded like lips coming together.
“Does your husband disagree with that generalization?”
“Not at all. He knows how much grief he’s caused me. Just wait until you have to deliver that baby. You’ll be wishing Nelson had been castrated at birth.”
Because of her feelings for him, Annie doubted that. The baby was already gaining weight, though, and she knew how uncomfortable it felt at first with Nelson inside her, so she knew it wasn’t going to be fun pushing the baby out. If the baby ended up bigger than a stick of butter, there was a chance she’d curse Nelson for even being born.
“Let’s try not to scare me this early in the pregnancy. Wait until I’m as big as a house before you give me all the gory details.” Annie’s free hand drifted down to her stomach as she spoke.
“Don’t worry, I’ll remind you. So, did you get any new marri
age proposals tonight? Or is it something else that has you bummed.”
“Nope. I thankfully struck out. Nels left right after he got to hear the baby.”
“Really?” Casey asked before Annie could continue her thought.
Annie took a minute to fill Casey in on the events of her evening. Casey remained relatively quiet during the tale, but she scoffed at least five times and had to be asked to stop laughing twice. There was nothing funny from Annie’s point of view.
“So, both you and Doug are telling me that I’m blind, but it sure didn’t seem like Nelson was all of a sudden in love with me when he skated out of here as fast as he could.”
“I never said it was all of a sudden. I’m pretty sure it’s been that way for a long time. He just hasn’t realized it since you haven’t been around. In the few months you’ve been here, I’ve seen enough changes to know he doesn’t see you as only a friend.”
Casey was as delusional as Doug. She’d seen her and Nelson together many times, and not once had she taken Annie aside to say something about the new way she thought Nelson was looking at her. Much like Nelson’s odd behaviors, nothing came out until word got around she was pregnant.
“That doesn’t make any sense. We lived together for weeks, and he never made a move. Other than asking me to marry him and half a kiss, he still hasn’t.”
“If you ask me, proposing is a pretty big move for Nels. After talking to him about it, I know he didn’t do it for the right reasons, but he wasn’t appalled when I told him you wanted a white picket fence and a man who sees nothing but you when he carries you over the threshold.”
Annie wasn’t sure what else a guy could be focused on if he was carrying a woman around. Supposedly his feet and objects in their way were other targets, but she’d expect that.
“He would’ve asked anyone to marry him in this situation. Maybe you haven’t known him long enough to realize that.”
Even with the playboy persona the media sometimes gave Nelson, the values he was raised with dictated that if he got a woman pregnant, he tried to make things as traditional as he could. Annie didn’t see him every single day since he’d gone off and become a star, but she spoke to him enough to know the fame hadn’t changed him.
“I’ve known him long enough to know that isn’t true. It’s late, Annie. What exactly are you hoping to get out of this conversation?”
“Something I don’t think you can give me. Doug thought I should try to make Nels jealous by flaunting a relationship in front of him.”
“And? Deep down, wasn’t that the reason you made up the fake boyfriend in the first place? You wanted to see how he’d react.”
Annie had to really look at herself to come up with answer for that claim. She hadn’t even been looking at Nels when she’d come up with the excuse, so the instant reaction was missed.
“I don’t think so. If I thought he really had feelings for me, telling him something like that would hurt him, and it’s physically impossible for me to do that. I just didn’t want him to feel obligated.”
“Then I think you two are going to make it. I’m hanging up so I can cuddle up with my husband and go to sleep.”
Casey’s words effectively ended the conversation that Annie didn’t think was quite over. She’d hoped there would be a bit of conclusion after talking to Casey, but just like with Doug, she was left alone wondering what in the world the people around her saw that she didn’t.
Chapter Thirteen
Nelson had had better nights of sleep, and it showed during morning practice. With the loss the night before, Hines had saved up all his anger to drive the team into the ground, and that was fairly easy when Nelson’s mind was preoccupied.
Hines stood at center ice in his usual zipped-up windbreaker with the team’s orange and black colors. He had a whistle at his lips and the shrill sound of it blasting every thirty seconds was getting on everyone’s nerves. If the devil ever took the guise of a human, Nelson was sure it’d be Hines.
The whistle blew one last time and Nelson slowed down to take a deep breath, the first one he’d been able to get in about an hour. He’d always thought he’d been in prime shape, but Hines had a way of making you feel like you were back in peewees.
“Take five, since you guys have started dragging. I need you to be able to play a full sixty minutes, and that joke you put on for the crowd last night was pathetic. When you’ve got Palmer going in deep to try to bail you out, it’s pretty clear the rest of you guys haven’t picked up a single thing I’ve been trying to teach you the past week.”
Nelson skated over to the bench to get a drink. The guys attempting to make the team were already two deep trying to rehydrate. Nels was sure a few of them were going to collapse on the ice.
“I guess I should’ve asked about meeting with you for training sooner,” Helms said as he skated over and doubled over to put his hands on his thighs.
Helms would probably start out as a bottom defenseman, so he wouldn’t play as much as Nels, but he needed to build up stamina for the times he got stuck out on the ice for more than his usual shifts. In Nelson’s experience, a lot of the people who watched the game didn’t understand how long and tiring thirty seconds could be.
“Practices always seem harder after a loss.” Nelson was able to get a break in the bodies in front of him and grabbed a bottle from the edge of the boards.
“So I’ve heard. I’ve also heard that it’s never been like this before.”
Nelson interrupted before the kid could say anything more. “It is what it is, kid. You get used to it and move on.”
Coach Hines was still at center ice, seemingly fine watching his ants trying to keep upright. Word had a way of travelling sometimes, and Helms didn’t need the coach riding him. Nelson could handle the extra jabs and scrutiny, but the kid didn’t need it.
“Yeah, I suppose you do. You’re still going to help me out, though, right? I’ve seen the nutritionist and am eating everything he told me to, but I’d like to work with someone who’s made it for training. Not that the people I’ve been working with aren’t doing a good job.”
Nelson nodded. He remembered the feeling of thinking there was more he could do. Dylan hadn’t been on the team that much longer than him, but Nelson had pretty much asked him the same thing. Nelson wasn’t sure he had the temperament Dylan had to take someone under his wing, but he’d do his best.
“Are you sure asking Nels to help you out is smart, Helms?” Doug appeared next to Nelson. As a goaltender, his drills weren’t the same as the skaters, but his coach had been working him just as hard.
“Well, he can’t ask you for help, can he?” Nelson put his water bottle down and grabbed a spot leaning against the glass by the bench.
“It wouldn’t be the first time someone asked me for help where you’re concerned. You’re probably right, though. I’m not very good about convincing people that I have good ideas.”
Nelson wasn’t sure what Doug was getting at, but there seemed to be a meaning behind his words. Helms stayed glued to Nels’ side, while Doug stood in front of him. It wasn’t clear why the goaltender thought he was welcome in Nelson’s bubble, but he clearly did.
“That’s enough chitchatting. We’ve got another hour of drills to go, and I’m going to make sure you guys understand I don’t like losing.” Hines blew his whistle and things were back underway.
The fact that Hines hadn’t been in the locker room the night before, sharing his passionate hatred of losing was a bit confusing. Most coaches Nels had the privilege of playing under had a style that made sense. They were either the tough love kind of guy, who never hid their passion, or they were the calm and collected guy, who you didn’t want to disappoint.
By the time Hines had everything he could get out of the team, Nelson was ready for a shower and a masseuse. It had been a long time since he’d been that sore.
The coach didn’t follow them into the locker room, which was probably wise on his part. After the tortur
e they’d been put through, he was going to have a mutiny on his hands. If their head coach was smart, he’d put a leash on his new pit bull, because the season was a long one, and they weren’t going to make it when they were already exhausted before the season even began.
“So, I know you said you didn’t want me bringing it up again, but before I took off last night, I heard you mention you were on your way to listen to your baby. It’d be rude not to ask if everything was good there, right?” Doug sat three stalls down, and had just started stripping his pads off. Something was off about him. They hadn’t spent much time together during the drills, but Doug seemed to be lingering.
“You planning on having a kid of your own soon?” Nelson didn’t have the strength to be pissed about Doug bringing up the baby.
“I wish. Can’t say that I’ve found someone willing to commit to life by my side.”
Nelson hadn’t either, but he was working on that. He figured it would take time, but eventually he and Annie would get to that point.
“Well, I’ve spent enough time in the locker room with you, so I’m glad to hear the women you’ve met are smart enough to run the other way.”
The statement was merely Nelson ribbing on a fellow player. Doug and he had butted heads, but until Annie had shown up, things hadn’t turned heated.
“Eventually I’ll find someone. There’s got to be one woman out there who doesn’t mind what my mother has always called a lack of common sense.”
“Why’s she say that?” someone else in the room asked.
Nelson had his sweater pulled over his head, and wasn’t used to all the new voices, so he wasn’t sure who it was. With everyone on deck for the practice, the room was full, and about a third of the guys were already in the shower.
“Because I’m a goalie. If you don’t understand it based on that alone, it’s going to be a long time before you make the team.”
Most of the guys in the room laughed at the answer. Nelson had heard it enough that it stopped being funny after the third time. There were a lot of stories like that in the locker room.
