Page 16

16

ledger

I hated family day. It was a reminder of how painfully single I was. Most of the guys told me to invite my parents since they were cool, but it felt like the day was mostly for your partner and your kids if you had any. I usually spent it with Alex’s cool-ass kid while he held hands and skated with his wife.

We had our jerseys on, and I was lacing up on the benches because Coach always insisted on me being the first “friendly” face the families saw since I was the captain.

“Chin up,” Stassi, Alex’s wife, chastised me as she came over to lace up her white figure skates. They got married last year during offseason, and I was Alex’s best man. Stassi had a seven-year-old son, Damien, from her previous marriage, and they lived in the same building as I did. Stass and Alex were married, planning to have another baby, and looking for a house once the season ended. Soon, they wouldn’t be my neighbors anymore, which sucked.

“Why? You know I hate this shit.” Stassi didn’t consider herself a professional skater since her career-ending injury, but she was an amazing Olympic figure skater who designed clothes for various sports teams.

“But Damien has been looking forward to skating with his Uncle Ledge for a long time.” She gave me a jovial punch on the shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah.” In truth, I was excited as shit to see the little man again. It felt like it’d been a while since…

“Fuck, I missed family dinner last night.”

“You did.” Stassi narrowed her eyes at me. “We assumed you were otherwise occupied.”

“I never miss family dinner.” It was tradition for us to do dinner at Stassi and Alex’s house on Monday nights if we were home. Stassi’s mom came over and cooked for us when she was in town. It was nice, since I was states away from my own family, to feel like I belonged.

“I was busy…” Alex came in from behind, giving my shoulders a squeeze.

“That’s exactly what I told Stassi. You were…busy.”

“Get out of here.” I chuckled as Alex joined us on the bench.

I didn’t realize how much I had needed a group of people to rely on until I met Alex and Stassi. They’d become my family.

“I missed you, though,” Alex added. “Was everything okay? I called but…”

“I saw your call come in, but at the time, I was with Coach dealing with the child.”

“Before that, though?” Alex asked, and Stassi gave me a big smile. The two of them were absolutely perfect together. She was petite and slender with long blonde hair that she had in a full ponytail, and she was dressed in a cropped jacket made from one of Alex’s jerseys with his number on the back.

As much as I gave him shit for watching her wear his number during the games, deep down, I could admit it’d be pretty fucking sexy to see my woman sitting in the stands wearing my jersey and number forty, knowing that when I brought her home, I would rip it off her body.

I could only imagine what it’d look like if Auburn wore it. Her breasts peeking out with my last name being shown off on her back.

Fuck. I wasn’t thinking about her anymore. It was making me crazy, and I decided yesterday it was just a one-night situation. The world had brought her to me too many times for it to happen again. Trust me, I wasn’t that lucky in life.

“You know I don’t bring anyone home.” I pointed at Alex, and Stassi clicked her tongue at me.

“That’s what you say, but yesterday could’ve been a first.”

It was. “It wasn’t.” I raised my hands at my friends’ disapproving faces. “I swear. I fell asleep on the couch, and the next thing I knew, I was dealing with the child.”

“Alright, we’ve given you enough shit.” Then a little kid screamed in glee, and Damien rushed down the rubber mat straight for me.

“I don’t understand how two professional ice skaters haven’t taught the poor kid to skate yet.”

They laughed at me as Damien took a single step, tripping over his blade and falling straight toward me. Thankfully, I caught him right in time.

“Thanks, Uncle Ledge.” I gave the kid a good ruffle of his hair before telling him I’d meet him out on the ice. Stassi took his hand as he tumbled onto the ice, joining some of the other families.

Alex took a seat next to me as I finished lacing my skates. “I hear Coach made the child bring his mother to family day.”

I sighed. “Don’t tell me about it.”

Alex let out a small chuckle. “I bet the child was irate.”

I’d be pissed as fuck too if my coach mandated that I bring my mother to practice. “No kidding.”

A few more of our teammates joined everyone on the ice. Those of us without spouses or children typically lent a hand to the families, so I teamed up with Alex to skate alongside Damien.

As I started to get onto the ice, the pang in my knee reminded me this would be my last family day. I never saw myself getting married, especially when I was so focused on hockey, but I never imagined I’d go through ten years of hockey family days without ever spending it with someone to call my own either.

I couldn’t imagine not spending this day with a certain curly-haired blonde, as I’d wrap her little self up in my arms and smell the faint scent of freshly brewed coffee wafting from her clothes.

“Uncle Ledge.” Damien interrupted my thoughts. “Are you coming?”

I chuckled, realizing I’d been awkwardly standing at the entrance of the rink, then blinked away the thoughts and willed the pain in my knee away. It was just a pang, but with my luck, it would grow from the strain of skating on it tonight.

“You got it, buddy,” I called out and joined my friends, who’d become family, out on the rink.