Page 8 of Clear Shot (Lauderdale Knights #9)

Aiden

I figured I’d get some shit when I got to the arena the following morning, but I didn’t expect a full-on round of cheers and applause when I walked into the locker room.

“Sly devil,” Jude LeBlanc says, coming over to shake my hand. “How did we not know you were dating Johan’s sister?”

I shrug. “We were keeping it casual because we knew the gossip mill would run wild.”

“So you opted to marry her?”

“Her visa ran out so we had to decide—long distance relationship or marriage.” It’s strange that the words come out so easily. As if they’re true.

“Good for you. She’s a great lady.”

“I want to know why I wasn’t invited to the party last night,” Felix says as he shakes my hand. His eyes twinkle with mirth since he knows the truth about our situation.

“It wasn’t my party,” I say lightly, shaking his proffered hand. “Johan and Sloane planned it and it was just a few couples. We really wanted to keep things casual. If she wants a big wedding next summer, we can do that.”

“Is she moving into your bachelor pad?” Jordan asks me. “Because it’s pretty small.”

“She moved in a few days ago, and we’re too busy right now to think about another move until the off-season.”

That probably isn’t true but they don’t need to know that.

“I’m just trying to figure out how you got from casual dating to married,” Wolf Bodilsen says, cocking his head.

“Like I said, we had to make a choice—either take a step back and do the long-distance thing with her in Slovakia and me here or make it official. And we didn’t want to be apart.”

“So this was about her visa situation.” Wolf looks suspicious, and I don’t want him—or any of the others—to think Hana somehow manipulated me.

“It was my idea,” I say quickly. “She was ready to leave the country. I’m the one who asked her to stay and to marry me.”

“I thought you were never getting married again?” Camden Locke, our starting goalie, says with a grin.

“It’s different when you meet the right woman.” I exchange a glance with Johan and he just smirks, pretending to be engrossed in his equipment.

“Johan—you good with this douche marrying your sister?” Jude calls out.

“He’s my brother now,” Johan replies. “As long as he’s good to her, that’s all I care about.”

“You’re a lot nicer than I would be in your shoes,” Wolf calls out.

There seem to be a lot of questions, which is annoying, but I can’t let them know how uncomfortable they make me because the last thing we need is for the higher-ups on the team to get wind of this.

I don’t know how they would react to the news that we only got married so she could stay in the country, and frankly, I don’t want to find out.

I’m also worried about her reputation—no one likes a gold digger and even though that’s not what she is, I can see how people might perceive our situation.

Too many people already know the truth, and though they’ve all promised to keep a lid on the information, things slip out sometimes.

So I have to make it clear that I’m crazy in love with my wife—for both our sakes.

“I hear congratulations are in order.” Our head coach, Anatoli Petrov, comes into the locker room holding out his hand.

“Thank you.” I like our coach a great deal.

He’s smart, friendly, and really good at what he does.

A former player, he knows the game as well as we do, and he left playing less than five years ago, so he can get on the ice with us when necessary.

He’s popular with the team and upper management, and I have a hell of a lot of respect for him.

Which makes lying about my marriage even harder.

“No honeymoon?” he asks quietly.

I shake my head. “We were going to wait until next summer but her visa ran out when the company she worked for went under so we had to do it now.”

“Being newlyweds is fun,” he says thoughtfully.

“Make sure you give her some attention, despite how much of your time hockey takes up. Don’t start off on the wrong foot.

Trust me—I’ve been there. Different circumstances, but I had family drama that kept me from prioritizing my wife when we were first married, and I almost lost her. Be cognizant of that.”

If he only knew how badly I want to prioritize my new wife—except I don’t know what I’m doing either.

“I’ll do my best,” I say diplomatically. “But she knows what she’s getting into. Her brother has been a pro for a long time.”

He shakes his head. “There’s a big difference between her brother and her husband. Especially considering your circumstances. There wasn’t even an engagement, or fancy proposal—just a decision you made out of practicality.”

Fuck.

This is partly why he’s such a good coach—he’s extremely intuitive.

“Look, you can tell me to mind my own business,” he continues, “but I’m coming to you from a place of experience. The divorce rate among professional athletes is high, and you already have one of those under your belt. I’m just trying to give you some brotherly advice. Do with it what you will.”

“I appreciate the advice, Coach. It is a little overwhelming since everything happened so fast.”

“Pick up flowers on your way home,” he suggests. “Make plans for a romantic dinner on your next night off. In addition, make sure she feels at home with the other wives and girlfriends. Those relationships can make or break a new marriage like yours.”

“She has Sloane and Claudia, Zoe and Eden… she’ll be fine in that regard.”

“Good. The wives are the ones who hold us together when we’re traveling and focused on our game. Those relationships are almost as important as yours. Don’t ever forget that.”

Good to know.

I’ll have to be extra careful with the rumor mill because even though some of the WAGs are great women, there are a handful that can be problematic.

“Thanks, Coach,” I say. “I appreciate the advice.”

“You’re welcome.” He claps me on the shoulder and then calls out a greeting to the others in the room, leaving me to my thoughts.

I haven’t had time to think about what our day-to-day life is going to be like, and right now, things are platonic. We’re going to start dating, which seems a little like closing the barn door after the horses get out, but there are extenuating circumstances.

My job now is to make her life—and our relationship—a positive experience.

Part of what’s frustrating to me is that I can’t picture what our future is going to look like.

Do we just shake hands and walk away a year from now?

Does she move to Silicon Valley or Philadelphia or Timbuktu when she gets a job?

It’s all a blur in my head, which I don’t like.

I need to be able to look toward the future.

Instead, I’m in a holding pattern.

I have to date my wife.

No sex until we get comfortable—whatever that means.

Misleading our friends.

And we still don’t know what we’re going to tell our families. She asked Johan not to say anything to their father, stepmother, and grandmother until she and I have had time to come up with a story because they’re going to be upset about missing the wedding.

My dad probably won’t give a shit but I have to tell him at some point. We’re not close and his excessive drinking makes it hard to have serious conversations with him. It’s gotten so bad I can’t even invite him on the Dad’s Trip anymore because he drinks until he passes out.

Everything is suddenly a lot more complicated than I anticipated, and I don’t like complicated. In my head, this was supposed to be simple. Marry her, give her time to get a job that will provide her with a visa, and then quietly end things.

Yet when I look down at the wedding ring on my finger, the thought of taking it off in a year or so confuses me all over again. I was positive one marriage was one too many, but I think I may have been mistaken.

Because with Hana, everything I thought I knew about love and marriage goes right out the window.