Delayed Offsides

by Shey Stahl

  Her tiny body shook with laughter. “You’re so bossy.”

  “Excuse me? You’re the one who demanded I fuck you harder.”

  She turned around completely before I could get inside her again, staring at me. “And are you doing that? No. You’re not.”

  I pressed my palm between her shoulders and made her turn back around before I pressed my hips forward, my erection sliding between her ass cheeks. I noticed what she’d done right then when my eyes dropped from hers to her ass and the way my dick looked sliding between her perfectly round cheeks. Both my hands went to her ass, spreading her cheeks. “You really did it?”

  Callie’s face flushed when she looked at me but her tone didn’t give away that she was embarrassed. “Hell yes, I bleached my asshole and I’m proud of it. Now are you going to fuck me or am I going to have to do this myself?”

  My palm went to her back again pushing her head into the pillow. “Shut up.” My other hand went to my erection, guiding myself inside her warm, wet center.

  Callie laughed but I quickly wiped that grin away, along with any talking when I started pounding into her. The harder, the better it seemed with her.

  Needing a better angle, I raised my right leg up so my foot was flat on the bed, my knee bent. With my left hand squeezing her hip, my right splayed out over the small of her back. I could feel her body starting to unravel by the way it trembled, the need controlling her movements and the moaning pleas for me never to stop.

  I didn’t stop, not until we were both letting go and my body exploded with pleasure as I released inside of her.

  “So fucking good,” I whispered slumping against her.

  “Now that’s a wake-up call I could get used to.” Callie sighed in pleasure, slapping my thigh with her palm, as her eyes drifted closed, sleep overtaking her after she draped herself over my body.

  I chuckled, listening to the sounds of her soft breathing on my chest as I murmured, unheard by my girl, “I could definitely get used to this forever.”

  We ended up taking a shower together after Callie woke up and then I really had to leave when she said, “I have my doctor’s appointment today. To find out the sex.”

  “Okay.” I was in the middle of packing, trying to fit five days of clothes in my bag and trying to get out the door so I didn’t make Mase late too. I’ll admit my tone was off and right when I said that, I wanted to take it back. It seemed like I didn’t care. I did but I’d barely had the time to adjust to the news of her being pregnant with me being on the road so much. Being a boy or a girl didn’t really matter to me. I wanted to be there for the appointment but I didn’t have a choice. You can’t call in sick to a hockey game. It was my job and didn’t allow the benefits of taking a night off unless you were injured.

  Adjusting to all this mattered. By the time the season was done, we’d have five months until the baby would be here.

  “So you’re back on Sunday?” She followed me from the bedroom, down the hall to the kitchen where I set my bag by the door and then grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and placed it by my phone and keys.

  “Yeah.” I watched carefully, gauging her mood as she took a seat at the eating bar.

  She glanced around the condo at the boxes lining the walls. “Hopefully I’ll have this put away by the time you get back.” She turned on the stool and faced me, giving me that look that said she was sad I was leaving.

  I leaned in to kiss her cheek and then her neck, and back up to her jaw. And then finally, her lips. “Mmmm, I’m going to miss you.”

  Her arms locked around my neck pulling me towards her. The small bump she now had pressed into my stomach. “Call me when you find out.” I told her.

  She smiled at me, her eyes lifting from her stomach to mine. “I’ll call you. Do you want to know?”

  Did I?

  “Sure.” I didn’t want her thinking otherwise.

  “You don’t sound so convinced.”

  Alright, so she saw through me as always.

  “I don’t know.” I let go and turned around to reach for my bag by the door and then grab my phone, keys and water. “I care but it doesn’t matter. I’m pretty sure I’ll suck at parenting both.” I teased.

  “Ami’s praying for a girl. Wants to teach her to dance.”

  I gave a nod, smiling. “That’d be cute.” I leaned in when she walked over to me, kissing her once more. “Call me.”

  “I will.”

  Mase met me in the elevator, his eyes a little bloodshot, his playoff beard a little thicker already.

  “What’s wrong with you? You look like Wolverine. Where’s your claws?”

  He shrugged pulling out one earbud, ignoring my comments. “Nothing. Just thinking about the game tonight.”

  When we had back-to-back games, we usually needed to keep our focus. Mase was quiet when he was focused. With it being the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, we had to stay on point and maintain the team bond, the ones between players fighting for one another was what kept us going.

  My mind was all over the place from Callie, to the baby, and then back to Callie, who had once again woke up from a nightmare the night before.

  “Hey bud,” my mouth went dry. “Does Ami have nightmares still?”

  “Yeah.” Mase looked up at me before getting in the car. “All the time. Is Callie?”

  “Yeah, but she never talks about it other than that one time and I feel like she’s living in that nightmare.” He raised an eyebrow waiting for me to finish my thought.

  He exhaled, slowly, composing himself. “It’s hard. Just be there for her.”

  “Man, I try, but with our messed up schedules being there for her just means I’m a phone call away and that shit ain’t the same as being there to hold my girl,” rubbing my face in frustration. Knowing that in a few months it would be me not being there for two. The thought was crushing to me that I couldn’t have a normal profession and be that eight to five guy. But my profession also provided a lifestyle most only dream of. I could give them anything and everything they’ve ever wanted.

  Evan looked over at me, really looked at me, and said, “Knowing that you will be there, any time of the day or night just a phone call away is all they want to hear. Our girls know and accept our schedules. Ami has called me several times freaking the fuck out…they just need to be able to hear our voices, bud.”

  Mase had a point, I needed to make sure that Callie knew I would always be here for her, no matter where I was playing.

  When we got to the arena where we were meeting to head out to Vancouver, Ed met me outside the locker room. I’ve always questioned authority. Maybe because I didn’t have any growing up I felt the need to justify it when others tried to bestow it. But a guy like Ed, he didn’t want any questions asked. He was going to give you a piece of his mind and you were supposed to take that.

  Wasn’t in my nature.

  “What was that last night?” He asked, giving that look like I should know what he was talking about. I did. He was talking about the last two games and my performance that had been exceptionally shitty lately.

  I shrugged, as if I didn’t care. Only I did care. Oh yeah, I was fucking livid about the last few games. Nothing irritated me more than when I had an off night. “It’s hockey. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”

  Most players wouldn’t talk to their general manager like that.

  “Well, I need you to get into the dirty areas and win the puck. Keep shooting the five hole.”

  Look at him trying to act like he gave a fuck.

  I still couldn’t look at Ed the same way after I heard that he knew Callie had lost her virginity in a locker room and he did nothing.

  “Yeah,” Ed and I never had a good relationship and we apparently weren’t about to now. “I’ll remember that while I’m fuckin’ your daughter.”

  The look of shock on his face that I said that to him was priceless. “You’re a real piece of shit, Orting.” He said pushing past me, his shoulder
hitting mine.

  I had a feeling Ed knew Callie and I were living together, but maybe he didn’t.

  When I got on the plane, the guys were laughing and having a good time with one another. It felt good to see even though we knew the season was slipping away.

  As I sat near the window, I looked down at my phone to see a text from Callie showing me her tits.

  Sitting beside me, Mase nudged my ribs. “What’s with the grin?”

  “Just thinking of Callie in bed this morning.”

  “Not again.” Remy groaned on the other side of Mase. “Stop it. You’re making me jealous. I haven’t gotten laid in like two weeks.”

  “And who was that with? Caitlin?” Ryan grinned and then dodged the left hook Mase delivered towards him. “I take it pregnancy sex is good?”

  “It’s amazing,” I laughed grabbing Mase and making him sit back down because he kicked me in the face as he tried to barrel over the seat, “she bleached her exit ramp. She’s going all out.”

  That got their attention and suddenly they were all ears.

  “Really?” Mase looked around, surprised, and then just as intrigued as Remy was for details.

  “Yep.”

  Remy coughed, appearing relaxed, not too eager, when he asked, “Does it work?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t look at assholes that much.” I nodded and smiled. “But it looks good.”

  April thirteenth was the day and I missed it. I was in Vancouver.

  And Callie never called to tell me what she found out so I called that night. Said we’d talk about it when I got home. Wanted to tell me in person and show me the sonogram.

  With a 2-0 game lead in the series over us, we headed home to the Canucks on home ice on Sunday night.

  Saturday morning, before I was leaving for practice, she was sitting in the kitchen at the eating bar staring at a black and white photograph. Wearing white sweatpants rolled down with the words PINK written up the leg, her light gray tank top was raised up slightly revealing a few inches of her skin. I always found it adorable when her stomach peeked out from her clothing once she had the bump. I always wanted to see skin but Callie with a baby bump was sexy. Nothing was hotter to me than her carrying my child. It was like I took a certain amount of pride in it. That was my child in there. Possessive maybe, but still she was carrying a part of me with her.

  Coming up behind her, my arms wrapped around her chest, my lips resting on her bare shoulders.

  “What’s that?” It looked like an ultrasound photograph but I wasn’t positive.

  Holding the picture up to my eye level, she kissed my forearm. “Your son.”

  A son? I was going to be the father of a son? No wonder she wanted to tell me that in person.

  “What? Really?” My heart thudded loudly in my chest. “What… I… well, can you tell the sex?”

  Callie turned in my arms and stared at me, watching my reaction to the black and white photograph I was now holding. “It’s a boy.”

  I am positive the look on my face wasn’t what she expected me to have, but everything lately was turning out that way. Imagine when the kid was born?

  I stared at the photo trying to make sense of my thoughts.

  A boy.

  I would be a father of the very thing I swore I couldn’t handle.

  A father.

  I didn’t even know what the fuck that term even meant.

  “That’s great.” I finally said. “Are you happy?”

  Callie nodded. “I was kind of hoping for a little girl to dress up. But I don’t care either way. As long as it’s healthy.”

  “Is he?”

  “Yes.”

  I gave a nod, but didn’t say anything else. What should I have said? Congratulations?

  Fuck. You’re horrible at this.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket. “That’s Mase. I have practice.”

  “Okay.” Her face crumbled. I’d said the wrong thing. “I’m meeting Ami and Judy for breakfast anyways.”

  We left it at that. I had practice and honestly, that’s where my head was. We were down in the series and that wasn’t sitting well with me. We needed to figure this shit out or we would be out of the playoffs. If I was honest with you, we all felt that season slipping and knew we were out of it.

  I have these quiet moments, times where I think about what has changed recently for me and how I am dealing with it. It usually hits me on the team plane, when the lights are down low and the guys are sleeping. It’s when I am left to my own thoughts. Time when the fear of being a father almost brought me to my knees.

  I am a cocky sonofabitch but thinking this shit out in my head on the plane caused all these doubts and fears to scream at me, like announcing to the world that “HE’LL NEVER BE A GOOD ENOUGH FATHER OR HUSBAND!” And I couldn’t shut the voices off, the loudest of the voices being my own mom and dad.

  When I said I didn’t want to be a dad, my reasons were selfish, like I’ve said. But it was from fear of failure. I feared someone depending on me. I feared letting someone down the way I was let down.

  The season ended two games later when the Canucks knocked us out of the playoffs. I never liked starting the offseason on a sour note but I also understood you couldn’t win all the games. You couldn’t have a repeat season like last year when you gave up so many opportunities as we did.

  Anybody who’s ever been around hockey players will tell you that a game is never just a game to them. It’s not. It can’t be. Not with as much heart as we put into it.

  What we feel is heart, soul, and a bond that could never be broken with a sport that dictated a passion strong enough to physically fight for retribution.

  I had no idea what that offseason was about to bring with Callie in my life now and the idea of being a father in a few months.

  I knew one thing, I needed to get my head right and figure out how to promise her forever. That same guy who fought for that passion on the ice needed to do it off the ice too.

  July 2011 – Offseason

  During the offseason, hockey players get bored after a while. For one, there’s sun and we’re the boys of winter. And two, we fucking live for pranking people.

  The shit that entertained us was unheard of at times. Silly things. But it always came back to pranks and trying to one up the other guy.

  Mase and I had paid for Rosco to come to Chicago and covered a month’s worth of rent for him. Dude had a job at a pizza place as a bus boy within a week. It gave me a new appreciation for the homeless and that sadistic fucker that pissed on me.

  Rosco was all about the pranks. Loved them. And it turned out, he liked Ryan.

  Shelby was living with Ryan and got us a key to his apartment for our next joke. We waited until the right time, weeks later, when we knew Ryan would be on a date and bringing a girl home.

  That’s when we sent Rosco over to his apartment to have some fun.

  Only this time we wanted to see the action for ourselves. Shelby set up a camera with a live feed and brought the laptop over. We wouldn’t get audio but we would have a visual this time.

  The night he was set to go on his date, we all got together at my condo and watched. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be rated R or not, so I turned to Callie and Ami who were just as excited as us. “You may see dick on here.”

  They both looked at one another, and then shrugged. “We’re okay with that.”

  I smiled at Callie who sat down on my lap, her arm around my shoulder, my fresh beer in the other hand. “Damn, I’ve got you trained now.” She slapped the back of my head. “But I’ve seen Shawzer’s dick before. You’re gonna have to get close to the screen or you’ll miss it.”

  That got everyone laughing.

  So there we were, laughing, joking, having a good time together and waiting on Ryan to come home with the girl when we saw Rosco go hide behind the couch with a bowl of popcorn. A minute later, in walked Ryan with a dude.

  A motherfucking dude.

  I pointed to
the laptop and looked at Mase. “I’m not at all surprised by that!”

  Mase, and everyone else gaped at the screen in shock, unsure of what we were seeing.

  Ryan grabbed beers and they sat on the couch together talking when the other guy scooted closer and Ryan placed his hand on his thigh, the other on his cheek. Just as he leaned in, Rosco slowly popped up from behind the couch, eating the popcorn one fist at a time.

  That’s when Ryan stopped, just before they would have kissed and pointed at the screen and smiled. We didn’t need audio to know what he said.

  “Eat that fuckers!”

  Mase and I turned to Shelby. “You fuckin’ snitch!”

  “He gave me a hundred bucks to play you.” As if that was a justifiable defense on his part.

  I smacked the side of his head. “You make a million five a year!”

  Callie sat back down on my lap, smiling. My hand instinctively went to her growing bump. I’d yet to feel the baby move until then. My eyes snapped to hers, still entertained by the jokes around us.

  There was a moment between us, surrounded by everyone, when our eyes met at that tiny thump under my hand. “He likes the sound of your laughter. He always kicks when you laugh.”

  I chuckled moving my hand lower following the trail of flutters over her stomach. “Either that or he’s annoyed. Probably thinking, who’s this fuckin’ guy, ma?”

  She tapped my nose with her index finger. “No, it means he knows you.”

  He didn’t know me though. The thought of meeting him soon sent both a thrill and a shock to my stomach.

  As excited as I was at feeling the shifting movement in Callie’s stomach, there was a shifting movement within me as I held the panic attack at bay…you know, the one where I was about to freak the fuck out for not having a damn clue as to how to raise a kid.

  Yeah, that was me.

  I didn’t say anything to her, just smiled because whatever I would have said right then wouldn’t be what she wanted to hear. She wanted me to see the significance in the moment but all I saw was fear.