Becker knew it, and it was decent, but even if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered. He’d go anywhere Kendall suggested, as long as she planned to come, too. “Sounds great. I just need to change,” he said. “I’ll meet you in fifteen minutes?”
“Sure, okay. I’ll see you there.”
Chapter Fourteen
Since Kendall knew there was no way Lori would let her say no to Becker’s request to talk, she bolstered up her courage and suggested they meet at the nearby diner for lunch. It would be neutral territory, at least, and she was hungry.
She took a seat by the window and waited while she studied the menu. When a server approached, asking to take her order, Kendall waved her off. “No, thanks. I’m meeting someone. We’ll order when he gets here.”
It was a few more minutes before Becker arrived, dressed in khaki cargo shorts and a blue shirt. A few strands of damp hair hung over his forehead, and a pair of sunglasses was clipped to the neck of his shirt.
Kendall wasn’t sure when he’d ever looked sexier, except maybe when he was naked and hard and wanting her. And where did that come from? She better get her mind out of the gutter, and quick. “Hi,” she said. “Do you want to order?” Instead of waiting for an answer, she flagged down the same server and ordered a club sandwich and a diet soda.
Becker gave the menu a quick glance. “I’ll have the roast beef,” he said. “And just a water for me.” He handed the menus to the waitress, who sauntered off, leaving them alone again. “Thanks for not standing me up.”
“Were you afraid I would?”
He shrugged. “The thought crossed my mind. After all, you didn’t take my calls.”
“No. I...” Kendall searched for the right words... “wasn’t ready.”
“And you are now?”
Was she? No, definitely not. “I wouldn’t go that far,” Kendall said. “But I can’t exactly avoid you, either.” She toyed with the paper band that held the napkin and silverware together. “Tristan was angry with me when I kept him home from camp yesterday, and he let me know it.”
“So why did you keep him home? He said he wasn’t sick, and Ali’s stable now. That leaves me with one conclusion. You were avoiding me.”
Kendall let out a sigh. She might have been avoiding him, but she couldn’t avoid the conversation. “I was trying to.” She folded the paper into an accordion shape. “It was stupid of me. Not quite as stupid as asking you to leave the hospital the other day, though.”
“Maybe it was the right thing to do,” Becker said. “I didn’t want to intrude on a family moment, after all.”
Was he being sarcastic? It was hard to tell. “You don’t mean that.”
Becker laughed. “No, I sure don’t.” He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “I wanted to slug Carter, but I didn’t want to cause a big scene. Not in the middle of the hospital corridor, anyway.”
“So instead, you kissed me like you owned me?” Kendall raised a brow. “In the middle of the corridor. But that didn’t cause a scene?” Truthfully, she didn’t even know if anyone had noticed. She’d been too busy trying to catch her breath and slow down her racing heart.
“Like I owned you, huh?” Becker’s lips curled in playful grin. “Does that mean you liked it?”
A few weeks ago, she’d judged him as arrogant, and maybe he was, but it didn’t turn Kendall off anymore. Quite the opposite, actually. “I think you already know the answer to that,” she said, “but I do owe you an answer to your other question... No, Carter never kissed me quite like that. And frankly, that scares the hell out of me, Becker.”
“I scare you?” His once cocky smile faded to a frown.
“Not you, no.” Kendall shook her head. “I don’t mean that. I’m not scared of you. You’re wonderful and kind and gentle. I am scared of my feelings for you, though, and the intensity of what’s happened between us, and how fast.” She took a deep breath, wishing the food would get there. “It’s crazy. I’ve been married. I have two kids. And I thought I loved Carter. I did love Carter, and we had some good times together.” Times she’d always cherish, but they were in the past. “Yet even in our best times, it wasn’t like it is with you. And I’m not even talking about the sex, not really. It’s just a feeling I have with you. I’m happy. Free. Confident. Bold.” Kendall cringed at the excessive use of adjectives.
“Are you saying that’s a bad thing?”
“No, it’s wonderful,” Kendall corrected. “And it completely terrifies me.”
***
Becker exhaled. Scared. He could live with that. What he couldn’t live with was Kendall wanting to cut ties with him, or worse yet, Kendall going back to Carter. That wasn’t what she was saying, though. No, she was saying only that she was scared.
The waitress set their food in front of them, and the roast beef sandwich looked good, especially since Becker was starving. Instead of reaching for it, though, he reached across the table and took Kendall’s hand. “Are you scared I might leave you the way Carter did?”
“The thought crossed my mind, yes,” Kendall said. “Look, everything is wonderful when it’s new and exciting, but the shine wears off. You’re seeing me when my kids aren’t around, but that’s not really my life, Beck. I’m not a romance novel heroine. I’m a mom.”
“I know that,” Becker said. “And I’m fine with it. Better than fine, actually.” Maybe he hadn’t set out to fall in love with a woman who already came with a ready-made family, but he had. It happened. It was too late to turn back now. He couldn’t even if he wanted to, and he didn’t want to. He wanted to be with her. “I’ve met your kids. I like them.”
“Sure, you’ve seen them at their best,” she countered. “But what about when Tristan’s acting out or Ali’s having a temper tantrum? Or a seizure?”
Becker wanted to remind her that he’d sort of been there for the latter, at least until she’d asked him to leave, but held back. He sensed they were actually making ground, or beginning to, and he didn’t want to jeopardize it, bruised ego or no. “I’ll probably still like them, then,” he said. “I’m fairly sure I will. They’re yours, after all.”
“They’re Carter’s, too, and he doesn’t always like them.”
“Carter’s an ass. I’m not Carter,” Becker said firmly. “And if you give me half a chance, I’d like to show you that.”
“You can be persuasive,” Kendall said. “But it’s so fast. What happened to taking things slow? I thought we were going to take it slow.”
That had been the plan, but things got a little carried away. Becker couldn’t get enough of her, and he suspected Kendall felt the same way. “So we’ll slow it down, if that’s what you want, but you’re not going to be able to convince me that you don’t want me in your life at all.”
“No, I can’t even convince myself of that,” Kendall said, with a hiccup of laughter. “I’ve tried.”
“Good, since we’ve established that, let’s see where this goes,” he said. “Slowly. What are you doing tonight?”
“No plans,” Kendall said. “It’s Tuesday. I have the kids.”
“I thought Tristan was spending the night with his friend?”
She shook her head. “No, that was just Lori trying to conspire to get us together. I’m calling her as soon as I leave here and having her bring him home.”
Becker was disappointed, but also bolstered that Kendall didn’t completely shoot him down. And it was nice to know he could always count on Lori being in his corner. “Okay, how about I come over later?” he suggested. “It’s a nice day. We can have a cook out. The four of us. Then after the kids are in bed, we can watch that movie you told me about the other day, the one named after the flower.”
“Lantana?”
Becker nodded. “Yes, that one. I think I got a rain check on that date, and I’m cashing it in,” he said with determination.
“You can’t stay the night,” Kendall said. “The kids... I won’t expose them to that.”
It was something Becker could respect, and he admired her even more. “Then I’ll leave before they get up in the morning. Or right after the movie, if that’s what you want.” The latter might kill him, but he’d do it.
Kendall smiled. “You’re a hard man to say no to.”
“Then say yes.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “Yes. You can come over tonight.”
***
Becker stood in Kendall’s backyard, wearing an apron over his shirt and shorts, and holding barbecue tongs in his hand as hamburgers and bratwurst cooked on the grill. “Okay, what does everyone want on their burgers?” he asked. “Cheese? Mushrooms? Ketchup? Pickles? French fries and gravy?”
“French fries?” Tristan scrunched up his face. “You don’t put fries on a hamburger.”
“You can if you want to,” Becker said. “There’s a place in Illinois that serves a burger topped with fries and country gravy. They call it a poutine burger.”
“What’s poutine?” Tristan wanted to know.
“French fries topped with gravy and cheese,” Becker explained. “Or other things, too. It’s very popular in Canada. In fact, it’s Colton’s favorite food. There’s a place up in Montreal, where he’s from, that has like thirty different kinds of poutine.”
“Wow.” Tristan sounded impressed. “Mom, can we go to Canada next weekend and try some?”
Kendall had been watching the exchange with amusement, but now she shot Beck a look that she hoped expressed something along the lines of ‘See what you started now?’ It was impossible not to smile, though. He looked pretty darn sexy standing at her grill, and he had an easy manner with the kids. “No, we can’t go to Canada next weekend,” she told her son, struggling to hold back laughter.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s too far, and it costs too much,” she said.
“Oh.” Her son frowned.
“You’ll get to go there someday,” Becker said. “And in the meantime, maybe I can get Colton to make poutine for you sometime.”
“Okay,” Tristan said, nodding. “That’d be cool. And I think do want fries on my burger today.”
“You got it, kiddo,” Becker said with a laugh.
Kendall laughed, too, enjoying the ease at which Becker tempered any disappointment Tristan may have had about not getting to go to Canada. He’d already developed a good rapport with her son, and her daughter, too, as Alison sat contentedly and played with the stuffed alligator that Beck had brought her. “An alligator for my Ali-gator,” he’d said, gaining an instant friend.
She got up from her chair. “I’ll go get the plates and the condiments, if you can keep an eye on things out here for a minute.”
Beck nodded and met her eyes with a smile. “Yep. I got it under control.”
“Bring some gravy, too, Mom,” Tristan said. “So I can have a poutine burger.”
***
Becker sat on the sofa, his arm around Kendall, as she rested her head on his shoulder. The dinner dishes were cleared—the poutine burgers had been a hit—and the kids were both in bed, leaving the two of them alone to enjoy a movie named after a plant. It surprised Becker how much he did enjoy it.
“Do you get it?” Kendall asked as the closing credits rolled. “Why it’s called Lantana?”
“I think so.” Becker scratched at his chin. The simple answer would be because the movie opened with a body lying in a Lantana bush, but there was nothing simple about the story. “It’s a metaphor for relationships, and marriage,” he said. “The Lantana plant can be sweet and beautiful if it’s well taken care of, but if it’s neglected, it gets out of control and becomes a tangled mess. Like the lives of the characters in the movie.” He had no idea if he was right, but it sounded good, and Kendall smiled.
“I’m impressed,” she said.
“So I’m right?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s what I’ve always thought it meant, though.”
Becker nodded, beginning to understand why Kendall mentioned the movie and wanted them to watch it. “Don’t worry, honey. We’ll take care of our Lantana. We’ll keep it sweet and beautiful.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss.
Epilogue
They slowed things down, which was a far better alternative to Becker than calling things off completely, and it seemed to suit Kendall, too. By the time summer wound down and the Young Generals camp ended, Becker and Kendall had realized something significant about their relationship. While the passion burned hot between them, and Becker hoped it always would, it was far from the only thing they had together. No, they also had their love of movies and music, among other things, as well as a hatred of the Texas heat to bond them.
Becker continued to spend more time with the kids, but was always careful to abide by the boundaries Kendall tried to set. Gradually, those boundaries lessened, to the point that she even asked him to come to one of Alison’s medical appointments. Carter was there, too, which didn’t thrill Becker, but this time, Carter never suggested Beck leave. If anything, they developed kind of a fragile peace between them. Perhaps Carter realized Becker wasn’t going anywhere, so he was resigned to accepting Becker’s presence, much like Becker was forced to accept that Carter would always be in Kendall’s life. As long as there was room for him in it, too, he could tolerate small doses of Carter.
The end of summer meant the dawn of a new season for the Generals, their second in the league. With it came plenty of expectations. In a few days, the team would travel west to El Paso for a few days of training camp in front of the fans of their minor league affiliate, the El Paso Aztecs, before they returned to San Antonio to prepare for their first preseason game. Prior to training camp, though, the team had one more summer event for their local fans, and it was one Becker was extremely relieved to be excused from.
The San Antonio Generals Charity Foundation Bachelor Auction.
“Thank you again for saving me from this new form of torture,” Becker said, squeezing Kendall’s hand as they sat in the audience at the San Antonio Events Center, preparing to watch the spectacle. He, along with the rest of the guys who were either married or in a serious relationship, was allowed to sit this one out. Their single—and in Becker’s eyes, far less fortunate—teammates, on the other hand, sat on the stage, fresh meat prepared to be bid on.
“Oh, come on,” Kendall chided him. “I think it’s a fun idea, and I’m sure it will raise a lot of money for the foundation.”
Becker didn’t doubt that. He knew that the prospect of a date with one of his teammates would fetch a pretty penny from some women in the community. He was just glad he didn’t have to be part of it. “Are you saying you want me on that stage, with my hordes of female admirers bidding their hard earned money for a chance to score with me?” he teased.
“No,” Kendall answered with a laugh. “I want you exactly where you belong. Right here, with me,” she said. “I just look forward to watching it. I think it’ll be a lot of fun.”
“Me too,” Dani Greer echoed. Trevor’s significant other had become a friend of Kendall’s over the course of the summer, because when she brought Ali to camp, they often sat near Dani and she and Trevor’s daughter, Kaylen.
“It’s going to be a hoot,” predicted Angie Rollins, who’d recently married the team’s veteran defenseman, Seth Rollins. “Ryder looks constipated.”
“Ryder always looks constipated,” Becker countered. “That’s just Ryder.”
“Casey’s probably loving it, though,” Colton said. “Hoping he’ll have two women win his services in a tie bid.”
“Two?” Seth laughed. “Make it three, and he might be happy.”
***
Kendall listened to the banter back and forth between the guys. Over the course of the past few months, she’d gotten to know some of Becker’s teammates, and found their commentary amusing. Casey Denault was, without question, the team’s playboy, and was sure to be a draw in the auction. Ryder Carrigan, on the other hand, w
as the focused, serious one. No, this wasn’t his thing at all. Then there was Noah, the team’s practical joker, who was on the stage as well.
He was a funny guy who could make anyone laugh, and it made Kendall think of Dr. Marks, who was always serious and remained married to her job. “I wanted Riley to come to this,” she told Becker, “but she’s up in Dallas for a medical conference this weekend.”
Becker eyed her curiously. “You wanted Alison’s doctor to bid on a date with one of my teammates?”
“Well, I doubt she would’ve actually bid, but yeah, why not?” Kendall asked. “Hockey players aren’t so bad.” At least not the ones she’d met, anyway.
“Really?” Becker raised a brow. “That wasn’t the song you were singing a few months ago,” he reminded her.
“No, it wasn’t,” Kendall admitted. “What can I say? You changed my tune.” He’d done it in many ways, both small and large, in the way he treated her and the impact his mentoring and tutelage had on her son. Tristan wanted to continue playing goalie, and Kendall had decided she would let him, and cheer him on every step of the way. Sure, she still worried he might get hurt, but that was a risk with any position and any sport. If Tristan grew up to be a good, honorable man like his role model, Kendall would be the proudest mom in the world. She tipped her head and rested it against Beck’s shoulder. “I love you, Becker Lawson.”
“I love you, too, Kendall Myers,” he said, and planted a kiss on her forehead.
###
Keep reading for a special preview of Chasing the Prize, book 5 in the Men of the Ice series. Coming Spring/Summer 2016.
Chasing the Prize
Chapter One
Ryder Carrigan sat on a stage in the San Antonio Events center and tried to mentally prepare himself for the torture that was soon to come. He was a student of history, and could offer a list of the some of the worst forms of torture ever known to man. Impalement, drawing and quartering, heretics fork, white torture, waterboarding. All were awful, yet none compared to what Ryder was about to endure on this mid-September Friday evening.
Scoring at Love (Men of the Ice Book 4) Page 9
