Page 103 of Hockey Halloween

Xander

Xander pulled his Land Rover into the parking lot for the restaurant the team had reserved for their Halloween party. Sure, he could've valeted it, but he needed some time to sit and think before walking in.

Seeing Jessica was going to be the highlight of his day.

After all, this long-distance thing was getting rough but she was still living and working in Toronto so that was how it would be for now.

And yes, they had been sneaking around. It was a bad idea and they knew they would have to come clean soon considering how far their relationship had come.

This wasn't a one-night stand anymore. Jessica was someone he really wanted to be with for a long time.

Then it all blew up.

He was so stupid to take a chance like that, but it was the first time Jessica would be alone after arriving in Denver so why not swing by and see her after Chase left? They just never expected that Chase would come back so soon.

Stupid green unitard costumes that didn't have pockets.

At least Xander lucked out by pulling rank so he didn't have to dress up in one of those things. But getting caught making out with your girlfriend by your girlfriend's son while you're dressed as a garden gnome was pretty awful too.

Xander took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He had to go in now. There was no escaping it. So he bitterly snatched his stupid hat off the passenger seat of his SUV, opened the door in a huff, and slammed it shut a little too hard before stomping off to this stupid party.

The party was in full swing once he made his way into the back room of the restaurant reserved for the team.

He could pick out some of the married players as they showed up in cutesy couples costumes with their wives.

Some of the players had decided to go for elaborate costumes while others barely looked like they had put in any effort.

Xander understood that as he usually was one of those guys.

But this year, he agreed to be part of a "team" costume for the "team" or whatever.

He had to give Alyssa credit for finding a solution when he absolutely refused to dress like a green unitard house plant. He almost backed out of this plan too, but Tyler's girlfriend had come through so he had no choice but to be a garden gnome.

That also meant he had to show up, which was a bit inconvenient when he found out Jessica was going to be in town after he had already committed to this party.

So he made a stupid irrational decision that led to him rushing over to his teammate's house to have sex with said teammate's mom not thinking that his teammate would find out.

And now he had to go into this party pretending everything was fine.

Alyssa saw him as soon as he walked in, a huge smile spreading across her face. She looked so happy to see her plan in action with the captain of the team walking in with the garden gnome costume her boyfriend had somehow talked Xander into wearing.

"Amazing!" she yelled as she waved him over.

Seven men in green unitards turned to look at Xander, smiles framed by rose petals and daisy petals and ivy leaves. Well, smiles except for the face of the sunflower who scowled at him. Xander couldn't blame him. Chase had every right to not be sunny towards his captain.

"Holy shit, captain," Tyler said. "I didn't think you would actually go through with this."

"And I can't believe you're all wearing those green things."

The guys laughed — except for Chase. "Alyssa made us stems for a reason," Davis the rookie said with a wink.

Alyssa looked so delighted at the whole scene. "We need to get a picture!"

She wandered off to grab the photographer while one of the flowers handed Xander a soda.

The captain famously didn't drink alcohol during the season.

Although he kind of wished he could just get blistering drunk and call a cab to take him home.

It would help him deal better with Chase staring daggers at him.

He only looked away when the photographer finally showed up and Alyssa instructed everyone to smile. Xander went along with it. She had put work into getting these hockey players to all fall in line for a costume and it was a pretty good idea.

It also seemed to have distracted Chase enough that he started to socialize with his teammates more and went wandering into the crowd at the party to talk to people. He was laughing with friends and Xander even noticed him head to the dance floor at one point. Not that Xander was watching him.

In exchange, Xander let him be. This wasn't the place or the time to talk to him about the man his mom was dating or the details of how Xander met her. He was sure Chase would blow a gasket when he found out about how they started dating after that night on the Moms Trip.

Things were turning out OK for the night.

Xander mostly stuck with the coaches and drank more Cokes, talking about life outside of hockey like how good Denver's baseball team was looking in the playoffs or the ski trips being planned for December — for the coaches at least. The players knew they couldn't do stuff like that during the season in case they got hurt.

It was only after a few hours that Xander realized he hadn't checked his phone for messages. He headed back to the hall for the bathrooms at the restaurant to have some privacy, hoping he would find a note from Jessica. Sure enough, she had sent him one an hour ago.

I'm so sorry about tonight. Please don't say anything to Chase? We can talk later. Miss you already

He couldn't help but smile at the screen. Every time she told him she missed him, he could feel something stirring in his chest. His ex-girlfriends never told them they missed him when he was on the road.

I haven't said anything. Yeah, we'll talk later. Miss you too

He also never told his ex-girlfriends he missed them either.

There was just something about Jessica. Maybe she was different because she was a few years older than him and not younger and perhaps more immature than his other girlfriends.

Maybe it was because she had her own ex-husband and learned what she really wanted — and didn't want — in a partner, which is why she chose him.

Maybe it was because she was a hockey mom.

Xander thought of his own mom who was probably sitting at home right now knitting and watching The Bachelor or something.

She drove him to games and made a lot of sacrifices for him to be where he was now.

That was true dedication and it taught both of them just how hard it would be when he was a professional player always on the road.

It's why his mom would knit and watch trashy reality shows instead of bugging him, knowing he would call her or text her when he had the chance.

"Why are you smiling?" he heard a bitter voice say. "You texting with my mom or something?"

Xander took a deep breath and slowly slid his phone into his pocket, knowing exactly what he would see when he looked up. He wasn't wrong. Staring at him was a man in a green unitard with a ring of felt sunflower petals around his face.

"Chase."

"Xander," he replied sarcastically.

"How much have you had to drink?"

Chase gave him a chastising look. "Two. That's it. We have a game tomorrow, dipshit. Or did you forget because you were too busy trying to get it on with my mom?"

Xander was going to keep his cool. After all, Chase would never talk to him like this normally but he had every right to be mad at him right now. He had been hiding a big secret from someone he was supposed to be mentoring, someone he trusted when they were on the ice and off of it.

That's exactly why he was worried about how Chase would react when he found out about the relationship. But Xander at least had a plan on how to tell him in a way that was better than what actually happened.

"Listen, I know this is weird and it's not how I wanted you to find out."

"Find out what?" Tyler said from behind Chase.

Chase rolled his eyes. "Our captain is having sex with my mom."

Tyler laughed. "Nice. And my mom has been sleeping with Coach Conner!" he replied sarcastically.

Then he slapped Chase on the back and headed into the men's room.

"Did he think you were joking?" Xander asked incredulously.

"Well, it's pretty fucking ridiculous that you're sleeping with my mom, which is why he probably thought I was lying."

Chase put his hands on his green unitard hips. They both seemed to realize at the same time that this conversation was ridiculous. A sunflower having a heated conversation about a garden gnome's relationship with the sunflower's mom was a bit over the top. Xander knew it too.

"Listen, I'm going to go home to my house, OK?" Xander said, making sure he emphasized that he had no intention of seeing Chase's mom tonight after this. "We have a game tomorrow and then maybe we can talk about this together?"

"My mom is leaving tomorrow." Xander winced and Chase immediately picked up on it. "Is my mom leaving Denver tomorrow?"

Xander couldn't say anything, which didn't seem to matter because Chase was smart enough to realize what Xander was trying to imply.

Jessica told Chase she was leaving his house tomorrow, but she didn't tell Chase about staying at Xander's place.

The look of disappointment on Chase's face made Xander feel like an asshole and rightfully so. This had become a complete mess.

"I'm going to go home to my house now and you can talk to your mom when you get home."

"Fine."

Xander reached out, putting his hand on Chase's shoulder who just shrugged it off. Again, it was fair and what Xander probably deserved.

He said his goodbyes to the players, thanked Alyssa again for coordinating the group costume, and headed out to go home.

It wasn't until he got in his car and closed the door that he felt the stress roll off of him.

He didn't realize how much he had been walking on pins and needles around Chase at the party.

He just wanted to go home and have Jessica sitting on his sofa. He wanted to drag her to his bedroom to have his way with her, talk to her all night, and ask her if she could stay one more day.

Instead, he turned on his car and drove away. He needed to be alone to figure out what the hell he had to do with the mess he had made by falling in love with Jessica.