Dropping Gloves

by Catherine Gayle

  “Not a chance in hell I’d go for that.”

  “Hmm.” He rolled his head to the side and glanced at the clock on his nightstand. “Morning came way too early today.”

  I felt a tiny bit guilty since I’d been the one to keep him up later than he should have been when he had a game the next night, but not too guilty. “You already have to get up?” I asked, yawning and snuggling closer to him. I wasn’t ready to let go of the flawlessness of the night.

  “I’ve got a meeting with the coaches before morning skate.” He inched out from under me, despite my pouting, and Blackbeard let out a whining sound that suited my mood perfectly. “What are you doing today?”

  I blinked at him, still trying to wake up. The sun streaming in through the windows lit him in a golden glow. He’d only put on a pair of boxers before we’d gone to bed, so I could see every detail of the muscles my hands had explored last night. That only made me want to do some more exploration, though, and it was going to have to wait if he had to leave for a meeting soon.

  I frowned, not ready to move yet, and Blackbeard came down from the pillow and circled a couple of times before curling up in the bend of my elbow. I drew him closer to me, nuzzling my nose against his. Then I regretted it, because he yawned right in my face. His fur might smell sweet, but his breath left a lot to be desired. “I guess I’ll go shopping for some art to put on my walls this morning,” I said. “Mom wants to have lunch. Then I’ve got that appointment with the radiation team in the afternoon before coming to the game.” I hadn’t wanted to think about my upcoming meeting with the doctors. I’d rather just forget all about that, pretend I was perfectly healthy and didn’t need to go through this again, but I doubted anyone would let me get away with it.

  “You’re coming to the game, then?” He stretched his arms over his head, pulling them from side to side to work the kinks out. Probably also in an effort to hide the hint of a blush and the way his dimples had come out. I guessed that meant he wanted me to be at the game, even if he didn’t want to show it.

  “Unless you’d rather I didn’t,” I said. “I might not be able to come to games once I start radiation.” For that matter, I might not be able to be around Jamie and Blackbeard much for a while. It depended on what type of radiation they’d settled on, but some types of therapy would leave me radioactive for a while. I really hoped I didn’t have to go through that. Some of the other kids in the cancer center when I’d been treated before had been stuck in the hospital, isolated, for a week or more at a time. Others were allowed to go home, but they’d had to limit their contact with the people they loved and couldn’t be around children or animals. I didn’t know if I could handle that kind of treatment plan right now. I forced myself to stop thinking along those lines. No point in worrying until they gave me something to worry about. “I don’t know if you’d rather we took some time letting people in on the idea that we’re together now…”

  With all the talk, Blackbeard was starting to get a spurt of energy. Instead of snuggling with me, he was chasing his tail, racing so fast that he was making me dizzy.

  Jamie shook his head. “Pretty sure all the guys already know after you came along for dinner with Razor last night. I don’t care if anyone knows. I’ll even call my mom and tell her if you think word might get out publicly soon.”

  My heartbeat kicked up a notch, now that he was already thinking about telling his mother about me. This was what I’d wanted, of course—for us to really be an official couple—but to have it happening so fast along with all the other changes in my life was leaving my head spinning as fast as Blackbeard.

  “If we were in LA,” I said, trying to keep my excitement in check, “I’d tell you to call her on your way to the rink. No paparazzi here to worry about, though. Tell her when you’re ready for her to know.”

  A memory from a few years ago hit me and caused a brief twinge—news about Cam Johnson and Sara Thomas being an item getting back to Jonny’s sisters in Canada before the two of them were ready for anyone to know—but this was different. That was at a point when Jonny and the whole team were surrounded by a ton of controversy, so the media had been hounding them. There was no reason to think that any of the hockey media would latch on to this right now.

  “Go shower,” I said, brushing that thought aside. “Want me to make you breakfast?” It was only fair, after all. Jamie had cooked for me a couple of times now.

  He grinned. “I would love for you to make me breakfast.” He bent over me on the bed and gave me a peck on the cheek.

  Then I remembered how he went about his cooking. “Do you own any pots and pans, or…”

  “Nope. Just small pans that’ll fit in the toaster oven. Need me to help?”

  I waved him toward the bathroom. “I’ll figure it out.” And I would probably do that by going back to my house and dragging some of my new pans back with me so I could christen them and his stove.

  Jamie didn’t hurry off to shower, though. He gave me a solid kiss, this time, shoving Blackbeard to the side and settling himself over me, nearly pinning me to the mattress. He took his time about it, too, leaving us both breathless and wanting more.

  “You could come and shower with me,” he said hopefully when he finally came up for air.

  “I could.” I laughed. “Not sure Bergy would be too thrilled with you if you’re late, though.”

  “Probably not the best idea, huh?”

  “Probably not.” This time. We could save that for another day.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about Katie all day even though I didn’t get to see her. I had my leadership meeting with the coaches, morning skate, a media scrum, a film session, lunch with the boys, and my afternoon nap before I had to head up to the arena for the game. She’d been at her doctor’s appointment when I got home for my nap, and she’d left me a text message saying she would meet me in the owner’s box once I arrived, and that she loved me. Nothing more. No word about what the doctors had told her. Needless to say, I was on edge from the moment I saw that message until I got to the arena.

  Usually I headed straight for the locker room so I could get started on my pregame routine. The other guys often stopped by to see their wives and girlfriends and kids before getting ready for the game, or they dropped off friends and family from out of town to be sure they were well looked after. I didn’t often have someone here, though. I couldn’t help but feel nervous as I made my way up the elevator to the suite level.

  “Hey, if it ain’t Captain JB,” said Davey Hearne as I walked up, holding out a hand. He was one of the regular security guys at the Moda Center. He’d been working here since they’d built the place, apparently, and during Storm games, he worked at the owner’s box, making sure no one entered who didn’t have clearance.

  I shook his hand. “Hey, Davey. Is Katie Weber here yet?” I poked my head through the door to look around.

  “Sitting up front with her mama.”

  The room was already jam-packed with not only the guys’ wives and girlfriends but their kids, too. Tons of kids of every age, along with all the noise you expect with a veritable nursery. I couldn’t see Katie through the mass of toys and toddlers, but if Davey said she was up front, then that was where I intended to go. Not that I had a clue how to get through the maze in front of me.

  I thanked him and headed in, and Connor Johnson immediately toddled over to grab my leg. I picked him up because it was easier than trying to walk with a massive growth on the top of my foot, and I assumed Sara would be with Katie and Laura, anyway.

  He put a hand on the side of my face, turning me to look at him, his expression as serious as a heart attack. “Razor is a asswipe.”

  I didn’t laugh this time, but that took a gargantuan effort on my part. I tried to look as serious as he did. “Is he? And who told you that?” I asked, cautiously making my way through the room to avoid stepping on any children or toys. I wasn’t going to argue with the little guy on that score. I’d called Razor an ass and wor
se so many times myself that Connor might have picked it up from me without me realizing it.

  “My mommy.”

  “I see.” So maybe I was in the clear. I hoped for Sara’s sake that Jonny hadn’t heard the latest from his son, though. He might go ballistic on her, not that he would ever hurt her. They would just argue, which would cause her stress, and that was not something she needed right now. She’d had two miscarriages before, and carrying Connor hadn’t been easy for her, either. She’d spent almost two months confined to bed rest with him. This pregnancy was the only easy one of the bunch, not that it had been easy, but I doubted it would help anything if they got into another argument over something like Connor picking up on bad language. “How about we don’t say that in front of the other kids, okay?”

  He pouted at me, but he said, “’Kay ’kay.”

  Soupy and Rachel’s twin two-year-old daughters were camped out on the floor with their dolls right in the middle of the aisle I was trying to traverse. They weren’t identical, but close to it, with Rachel’s bright red hair and a smattering of freckles everywhere you looked. I stepped high to go over them, but I felt little hands grab on, and they giggled. I cautiously put my foot down, and then they each claimed a leg to ride.

  Before I’d settled on how I would get out of this mess, their older half brother, Tuck, came up to me. I loved this kid. He had the same hair, same freckles, but a devious streak that would rival Connor’s, but in a ten-year-old’s body.

  “Let Mr. Jamie walk, Peyton.” He bent down to pick up one of the girls.

  I held out my free arm, and he passed her over to me. “Ginger Ninja to the rescue once again. Thanks for the assist.” I’d been calling him that since I first met him years ago when he was five.

  He blushed a ferocious shade of red, but then he pried Sidney, the other twin, free. “They like to climb Mr. Soupy’s legs, too. They make him carry them around while they ride his feet and stuff. Mom isn’t letting them do that right now, though, because he’s hurt, and I’m too little. They still try sometimes.” He grinned. “But you’re as big as Mr. Soupy, so I guess they saw their chance and took it.”

  “Not quite as big as Soupy.” I shouldn’t have opened my mouth because the second I did, Peyton shoved her fingers in there and giggled. I wasn’t sure what she’d been into, but at least whatever sticky stuff was all over her tasted sweet.

  “Close enough.”

  Sidney was too heavy for Tuck to carry very far, but he didn’t let that deter him, coming along beside me as we headed for the front where the women were congregating.

  Sure enough, Katie and Laura were there with Sara, Rachel, Brie, and Mia Quincey, Q’s wife. Katie’s brows were pinched and her lips were thin, so I knew she was worried or upset about something, but the moment she looked up and saw me carrying the two toddlers, her whole face lit up.

  “I see you come bearing gifts,” she said, and all the other women glanced over.

  I winked. “Something like that.”

  “Did they try to ride you over here?” Rachel asked, rolling her eyes.

  “They tried to. Might have succeeded if the Ginger Ninja hadn’t come along.”

  She took her daughter from me, and Laura reached for Connor, who was squirming to go in the opposite direction of his mother. Sara had a hand on the small of her back and looked like she was absolutely miserable. Mia patted her lap for Sidney, and Tuck passed over his sister right as Jessica Lynch, Nicky’s fiancée, came in with his niece and two nephews. Elin found Tuck’s older sister, Maddie, in her usual spot in the other corner up front. The two of them huddled together, probably waiting on Danger’s wife and kids to get there since Elin and Étienne were kind of a thing lately. The boys, Hugo and Nils, were right around Tuck’s age. His face lit up when he saw them.

  “Later, Mr. Jamie,” he said, racing away.

  “Homework, Tuck!” Rachel called behind him. I had a feeling he was going to feign deafness on that one.

  Katie got up to join me, but Brie caught my eye before we took off to find somewhere quiet to talk.

  “When you get a chance, I need a word.”

  “After the game?” I asked, taking Katie’s hand. Brie nodded, and I wound my way through the obstacle course of kids and toys to a corner near the back, leading Katie along with me.

  “What’s up with Brie?” she asked me, eyeing me suspiciously.

  “Just a thing for Burnzie she asked me for help with.” It was a bald-faced lie, and I hated lying ever. Especially because I was really fucking bad at it. I searched Katie’s face to see if she was on to me, but I thought this time I might have gotten away with it. This was all supposed to be a surprise for her, though, so I was going to have to get used to lying, and in very short order. “So what happened with the doctor? And why are you upset?”

  “I really hate how you can always tell when I’m upset.”

  “I’d be a bad boyfriend if I couldn’t.”

  She perked up a bit at the word boyfriend, and her lips quirked up in a grin. “You looked really hot carrying those kids in.”

  “Thanks.” Now I was blushing again. “Stop avoiding the question, though.”

  Katie’s smile turned to a pout. “Party pooper. The good news is they’re not going to force me to stay in the hospital for weeks at a time. The bad news is they want to do systemic radiation this time, so I’ll have to be pretty much isolated while I’m going through it.” She sounded upbeat, like she was trying to laugh it off, but her eyes told another story.

  “Isolated how?”

  She shrugged. “Stay at my house. Not be around pregnant women, kids, or animals at all. Limit my contact with anyone else to less than two hours a day. Oh, and any clothes, bedding, dishes, and whatnot that I use while I’m radioactive will have to be tossed later.” No matter how hard she fought to give off an air of nonchalance, she couldn’t pull it off. Not with me.

  “For how long?” I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that she would be right next door to me but I wouldn’t be able to hold her, to comfort her when she felt bad.

  “A few days each time. Four rounds of this, about a week apart, before moving on to chemo.”

  “But more tests first,” I reminded her. “You might not need chemo.” The radiation might shrink it enough to go ahead with the surgery without going through that step.

  She let go of my hand and crossed her arms in front of her. “I’m getting chemo if there’s even a remote possibility it will get rid of that tumor before they decide to cut me open.”

  I wrapped her up in a hug because there wasn’t much to be said. Sometimes, touch was the best comfort to be had. Which only made it worse that she was going to have to spend so much time completely isolated from everyone she loved. I squeezed her close. “Less than two hours a day? But we could break that up, right? So you could be around your mom for a while, and your dad, and me…”

  “It’s not much.”

  “It’s not much, but it’s something.”

  “That’s not even the worst news I got today, though.”

  My stomach dropped. What was worse than learning about her treatment plan? “No?” I asked.

  “I don’t guess you’ve taken a look at Twitter today, have you?”

  I knew I should have gone back in to the drugstore last night and confronted that douchebag who had checked us out. “It’s not something I feel the need to do every day,” I said cautiously.

  Katie backed away so she could look up at me with shining eyes. “I thought I was safe from paparazzi here.”

  “Paparazzi? So not just the dude at the drugstore?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think Mom and Dad have seen it yet, but it won’t be long. You should probably talk to your family. Tell them what’s going on before they see it. I’ll figure out how to explain it to Mom and Dad, but I don’t want your family thinking…” She shook her head, lost for words.

  “Seen what?” My blood pressure was going through the roof, and I
didn’t even know exactly what I was mad about yet. “Explain what?”

  She slipped her cell phone out of her pocket, pulled something up, and handed the phone to me. The TMZ headline read Katie Weber Caught with Not One But Two New Boy Toys, and it had a picture of her surrounded by two guys who were clearly me and Razor even though our faces had been blurred out. It was from last night. I clicked on it to get to the main article, which was riddled with photos from dinner. No blurring here. A lot of the pics had me holding her hand or with my arm around her waist, but the photographer hadn’t missed Razor dipping her to kiss her on the cheek at the hotel, or when she’d kissed him again afterward when we were dropping him off. With the angle of the shots, though, those kisses looked like real kisses. We might be lucky that they hadn’t caught her planting one on Zee’s cheek when we first got to the hotel. But then again, maybe they had, but since he hadn’t come to dinner, they hadn’t used it. Yet. When I scrolled down to the bottom, I found the tweets from the guy at the drugstore, and they were every bit as offensive as I had imagined and worse. He’d even snapped a pic of us when we’d been in the condom aisle, multiple boxes in hand. The whole article made out that we’d gone back to the hotel with Razor and had an orgy or something.

  I handed her phone back to her, my rage barely held in check.

  “You should probably fill the team in if they haven’t seen it already,” she said, tucking it away in her pocket. “Jim, the coaches. They might need to get PR on damage control. And Razor, too. He should probably let his parents know what it really was, and he’ll need to explain things to the Thunderbirds brass.”

  I’d be sure Razor knew, but I doubted his parents would react like mine would. I’d never met his father, or even heard him talk about the guy, and his mother seemed to take everything in stride as long as he was happy and healthy. He did everything he could to make her life easier, but I didn’t think he would need to do too much to explain himself. My parents would believe whatever I told them, especially since they knew I would never lie to them, but I doubted they’d be thrilled about having to explain this to my youngest brothers if they got wind of it. And then there were their neighbors and coworkers to think about, and the parents of kids my brothers went to school with, and former teachers who would wonder where I’d gone wrong. The list of people my parents would have to deal with seemed endless.