Page 101 of Pucking Strong (Jacksonville Rays #4)

Five Years Later

H enrik and I make our way into the crowded auditorium.

He has the flowers, and I have Karolina’s coat.

Before I can worry about trying to find our seats, a shrill whistle has us both turning.

Ryan Langley stands about ten rows down, waving us forward.

He looks dapper in a grey suit with no tie, his beach-blond hair flopping across his forehead.

“This way, babe,” I say over my shoulder.

Henrik follows me down the aisle, where we’re greeted by what looks like half the Rays.

The Langleys are here, obviously. Tonight, Emma and Karolina are debuting as flower dancers in the Jacksonville Ballet Company’s holiday production of The Nutcracker .

Karro’s been practicing hard for months.

I feel like I have the steps memorized at this point too.

Paulie and his wife Maribel are here. Their daughter Beatriz is one of the Russian candy cane dancers, I think. Next to them are Rachel and Jake Price and their son Jamie.

“Where’s the rest of the fam?” I say, patting her shoulder as I pass.

She smiles up at me. “Split efforts tonight. We wanted to be here to support the kids, while the others all went to watch Tuo’s hockey game.”

I grin at Jake. “Does it gall you at all? Your kiddo choosing to be a forward?”

He just shakes his head. “Not at all. Heck, I was a forward until I was fifteen. He’s got time to change his mind.”

“Maybe he’ll be a goalie,” I say with a shrug.

Jake smiles. “He’s certainly got the genes for it … though his mom has two left feet.”

She elbows him and he laughs. But Jake’s not kidding. The older Tuomas Price has gotten, the more it’s become clear exactly who his father is. The boy is only seven, and he’s already the spitting image of Ilmari.

The St. James-Novikov-Morrows are here too. Poppy sits in the row one below Rachel, her daughter Fiona snuggled in her lap. Bennett sits between his dads, his eyes locked on the glowing screen of his tablet.

“Hey, Teddy.” Poppy gives us a wave. “Oh, Henrik, those are gorgeous!”

He glances down at our bouquet of twelve long-stem red roses with a smile.

“We got flowers too,” says Colton, pointing to the seat next to him where I see a pretty bouquet of winter florals.

I slip into the row in front of them, setting my coat on the seat the Langleys saved for us. “That’s right. Grace is dancing tonight too, right?”

Novy leans back in his seat, arms folded across his chest in his sport coat. “Gracie is a snowflake. Act One. She’s so fucking good. Our girl can arabesque like anything.”

Poppy laughs, rolling her eyes. “She only demanded to audition because Emma and Karolina were auditioning. And she’s complained every night we’ve taken her to rehearsals.”

He narrows his eyes at her. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying you may have to face the fact that, after five years, our daughter has fallen out of love with ballet. Now, all she talks about is wanting to be a drummer in a band.”

I chuckle, sinking down in my seat.

Henrik sits next to me, leaning in. “There are many things I will abide in the name of Karolina’s happiness, but a drum set—”

“I know,” I soothe, patting his knee.

After two years in Henrik’s old apartment, we finally moved into a bigger place closer to the beach.

We’re now only a five-minute walk from the Langleys.

Ever since someone thought it would be a good idea to get Karolina a dog, it’s a walk we make pretty much daily.

“Sparkles bought you some good will,” I assure him.

“If she asks for a drum set, we’ll just say he’s allergic. ”

He snorts, carefully shifting the bouquet of flowers to under his chair.

Tess leans in over Ryan, squeezing my arm. “Is she excited? Did you see her all dressed and ready?”

I nod, grinning. “I took, like, a thousand pictures on my phone. I got some good ones of Emma too. I’ll send them to you.”

She gives me a thumbs-up as the lights go down.

Ryan leans around me to look at Henrik. “Hey, we’re going out for pizza tonight to celebrate. You three wanna join?”

“Can’t,” Henrik replies, clapping along with the rest of the crowd as the lights flash on stage, illuminating the curtains.

“We can’t?” I say, one brow raised. “Why not?”

“We’ve got plans,” he replies, loud enough for Ryan to hear.

This is the first I’m hearing of post-ballet dinner plans. My Spidey senses start to tingle as I glance over at my husband. “What plans?”

He just places a hand on my knee, giving it a pat.

“I won’t let up until you tell me.”

“It’s a surprise.”

The overture starts, and I’m left dangling for the whole of Act One, wondering what plans he made without telling me.

From the moment the “Waltz of the Flowers” begins in Act Two, Henrik and I are on the edge of our seats.

I gasp as Karolina comes prancing onto the stage in her pale green tutu. I grip Henrik’s arm. “Babe—”

“I see her.” He takes my hand, weaving our fingers together.

“Wow, she looks good,” Ryan says next to me.

Next to him, Tess is on the edge of her seat too, her mountain of red curls piled atop her head. A few strands frame her freckled face as she clutches to her phone, recording Emma, who is dancing two girls behind Karolina. My god, how could I forget?

“Babe, your phone,” I hiss.

Henrik scrambles to get his phone, setting it to record, as we watch Karolina leap and twirl, her arms fanning.

At ten, she’s tall for her age. She’s one of the tallest girls on the stage.

Her icy-blonde hair has grown to her butt.

She won’t let us cut it. Her Tangled phase left too great an imprint on her psyche.

I was a proud papa bear watching Henrik help her braid it tonight. We got it pinned up in a crown and hair-sprayed it until it was practically a helmet. If that hair falls, it won’t be our fault. She weaves between the other girls, prancing from stage left to stage right, hitting each mark.

Next to me, Ryan is muttering under his breath. “Tendu … pirouette into fouetté— yes !”

Emma and Karolina both nail landing in a lunge, back legs extended, chests open, arms extended.

Henrik’s eyes are on Karolina rather than the screen of his phone. “She looks so beautiful.”

Tears sting my eyes as I watch our girl go, owning the stage like she was born to dance.

I don’t often let myself dwell on the darkness of how we met, but in this moment, watching the power in her leaps, I can’t help but think back to that little girl I met in Sweden, bruises on her eye, a fluffy pink sock on the foot of her broken leg.

She’s come so far. She still loves drawing and watching movies.

Math is her favorite subject in school. And she’s pulled Henrik back into his love of photography.

They want to set up a darkroom upstairs so he can teach her how to develop film.

We all took surfing lessons together until Karro and I admitted we were too afraid of sharks to continue.

This summer, we’ve planned a family trip to Peru to hike part of the Inca Trail.

“Doesn’t she look beautiful?” His eyes glow as he watches her do her spins at center stage.

“She does,” I murmur, a tear slipping down my cheek. “She’s so beautiful.”

T he lights are up, and Christmas carols play over the speakers in the auditorium. All the families mill around, waiting for the dancers to be released from backstage.

“Did you like it?” I say at Bennett.

He just shrugs. “It was long. The rat dancers were kinda cool. Reminded me of Ninja Turtles .”

I smile. Ah, the mind of an eleven-year-old boy. What a delightful and silly place.

Ryan has his back turned to me, laughing at something with Tess. The pair of them hold bouquets of pink roses as they wait for Emma.

“Your girl is really good,” Novy says over my shoulder, patting Henrik’s back. “How did she get so tall? Was your sister really tall?”

“I’d say she was average,” he replies.

“I’m sure she’ll start slowing down and let the boys catch up,” I say. “My sister, Nat, was 5’11” by the end of middle school, but then she never grew another inch.”

“If Karolina gets any taller, you’ll have to try her out for volleyball,” Poppy teases. “I always wanted to play, but I’m a bit too vertically challenged.”

All at once, it’s chaos as the dancers begin slipping out from the sides of the stage, trying to find their families in the crowd. Gracie Morrow comes prancing down the aisle, still dressed as a snowflake. “Did you see me, Fi?” she calls to her little sister.

“Baby cakes, you did so good!” Poppy hugs her daughter, passing her around from Novy to Colton. Bennett is the one to hand her the flowers. She takes them, giving him a side hug.

“Morbror, Teddy!”

I spin around to see Karolina darting through the crowd, hand in hand with Emma.

“Daddy!” Emma shouts.

“Hey, there she is!” Ryan sweeps Emma up into the air, making her squeal, as Tess smothers her with the flowers.

Karolina is more sedate as she hops like a bunny to come stand in front of us. “Well? Did you see me?”

Henrik hands her the flowers. “You looked so beautiful, mitt lamm.”

She looks to me, smiling from ear to ear, clutching her giant bouquet of oversized red roses. “Teddy?”

Finally breaking, I let the tears fall and pull her to me. “You were fantastic!”

“Don’t cry,” she mumbles against my chest.

I snort a laugh that sounds like a sob. “Just try and stop me.”

She pulls away, her smile shifting to more of a mischievous grin. She glances to Henrik. “Did you tell him?”

“I told him nothing,” he replies stoically.

“Tell me what?” I glance between them. “Guys, tell me what?”

She clutches to her flowers, her cheeks blooming pink. “We have a surprise for you.”

My brow furrows, even as my heart starts to race. “What surprise? It’s not my birthday, and Christmas is still, like, two weeks away.”

She bounces on the balls of her feet. “Should we tell him now?”

“Yes,” I say as Henrik says, “No.”

I groan.

“Get your stuff,” he says at her. “We’ll meet you right back here.”