Heart and Snow (Texas Highlanders Ice Hockey) (16 page)

Charbonneau glared at him. “When my arm is better…”

“You gonna make sweet, sweet love to me?” Gavin laughed. “Sorry, man. You’re not my type. You’re too much of a cock.”

“Female coming in!” The decidedly feminine voice of the owner’s daughter echoed through the locker room. “If you don’t want me to see it, you better have it covered!” She rounded the corner with her hands over her eyes. “How we doing, John?”

A couple of guys wrapped themselves in a towel as Charbonneau nodded. “We’re good. I think they’re all kind of decent now. Or, as decent as they get.”

Ellie let her hand fall and peeked one eye out. Satisfied, she opened her eyes and relaxed. “Y’all are learning. I’m so proud. I just wanted to come down and say my congrats on the game. My dad couldn’t be here tonight, with the health issues and all, but he was watching. I know, because I fielded every one of the calls from the hospital.”

The guys snickered. Vince Jenkins was one of a kind. And while Ellie was a much younger and prettier version with actual people skills, she was definitely cut from the same Jenkins cloth as her father.

“Anyway, just wanted to tell you that. I gotta get out to the press now and pretend to be an owner.” Ellie smiled as a couple guys laughed again. Her gaze shifted to the side, and her smile faded. “John? Are you coming?”

Charbonneau cleared his throat. Cody frowned, because the man looked downright uptight, which was so not his normal state of mind. He nodded stiffly. “Yeah, right behind you.”

“Good,” she replied. She turned on her heels and left, her heels clicking across the tile floor. Charbonneau looked bothered, but he followed her anyway. The doors slammed shut behind them, but the noise was negligible, considering the guys had started talking again.

His phone beeped again. Jo.

Do whatever u want. Going to bed.

He winced. That was Jo-speak for
I’m pissed at you now
.

He should go home, but his dad had already left the house and was on his way. He couldn’t just abandon him. But he couldn’t leave Jo either. But she did say she was going to bed. So did it matter if he stayed out late then?

“Hey,” Kozlov slapped his shoulder. “We go to bar. You coming?” He gestured to Gavin, who was getting dressed.

Gavin’s face plummeted. “I’m out, y’all. Too tired.”

Misha didn’t say anything, but his face hardened. Cody’s spidey senses tingled. Trouble in paradise for the roommates?

Cody glanced at Darren, who was on the phone on the far corner of the room. He plugged his free ear, and hunched over. Probably talking to Valerie.

His phone beeped at him. Cody touched the screen and looked at the message from his dad.

I’m outside.

“Nah, I’m out too. Seeing my dad tonight.” It was weird to say. He’d never turned down plans with the guys for his father before.

He sent another message to Jo, telling her he loved her, and put his phone down to finish getting dressed.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Jo sat in the new rocking chair they’d bought, gently pushing her feet against the matching ottoman. She should go to bed, but she just couldn’t seem to make herself tired enough to go. She glanced at the clock. Almost three am. The game had ended at eleven. She’d called Cody at midnight, but he hadn’t picked up. Nor had he at one am. Or two am. She was past worrying. He just wasn’t calling her back.

Worry stewed with anxiety, creating a mixture of rage and fear. He’d promised he’d come home early after the game. They were going to spend time together. They were going to work on this damn room. She should have known.

Cody wasn’t ready to be a father. He was still too much of a child himself. It wasn’t his fault really. His dad left when he was nine, and god, his mother gave him his every whim just to keep him out of her hair. Why would he need to grow up?

Her eyes stung with exhaustion she didn’t feel, but she refused to go to bed. Not until her husband was home. So she could punch the shit out of him.

The doorbell rang. Jo’s heart leapt into her throat. She rushed to the door, and opened it. But it wasn’t what she expected. Cody was half leaning on a man that was equally as large as Cody.

“Baby!” Cody cheered, obviously drunk. “I missed you!”

The man holding her husband upright grinned at her, and suddenly, she had no doubt as to who this man was. “You must be Joey. I’m Jeremy Baker. I’m Cody’s dad.”

Same baby blues. The eye shape matched. Their noses were practically identical, though both of them were just a little bent out of shape. That was probably broken noses from fights.

Perfect. Just fucking perfect. This was not how she wanted to meet her father-in-law.

“What happened?”

“Can I bring him in?” She nodded and pushed the door open the rest of the way. The man brought Cody in the house. “Living room is to the right.”

“Nice house,” he said, grunting a little as he tossed Cody on the couch.

Cody whistled and laughed, but otherwise didn’t move from where the man had dropped him. Oh, god, the man was toasted. This wasn’t like Cody. He didn’t drink like this.

Jeremy turned around and faced Jo.

Jo froze. Her father in law was there, right in front of her. She’d never met the man before. He hadn’t made it to the wedding for whatever stupid reason he’d had at the time. He held his hand out. She stared at it a moment, and then took it. “I’m Jo.”

He shook her hand, and clasped his other hand over hers, sandwiching it. “It’s good to meet you, finally.”

Staring into his eyes, she was struck by how similar they were. Cody’s were more clear, less conflicted. Less scarred. But in the very center, in the depths of their souls, she saw the similarity between them.

“It’s late, and you’re…” He trailed off, but his eyes tracked down to her belly. “Well, I’ll call a cab,” he said, releasing her. He dug in his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Um, you could stay… if you want.” Jo said. “I mean, it’s late, and we’ve got a guest bedroom. Sometimes, Cody brings home a stray hockey player here and there. They crash upstairs.”

Jeremy scrutinized her, like he was looking for some flaw. Finally, he smiled. “He really did strike gold, didn’t he?”

“I’m not sure how to take that,” Jo replied. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how to take anything from Cody’s dad. She was woefully unprepared for this meeting.

“As a compliment, of course.” Jeremy laughed. “I’ll call the cab. It’s really late, and you’re too nice to kick me out of the house.”

“Would you like a drink… while you’re waiting, that is?”

He smiled at her. “Got any coffee?”

“Yeah. It’s decaf. I had to switch, with the whole baby thing and all.” Her hand rested on her stomach as if by instinct.

He nodded. “That’s fine. I’m going to step outside and make the call.”

“Kitchen is right through there, on the left, when you come back in,” she said. He nodded and stepped out the front door. Jo sighed and turned, facing her husband, who was currently humming away, drunk on the couch.

She stepped over to him. “Cody?”

Cody’s eyes weren’t tracking anything. She wasn’t really sure what he was seeing, or how many of them he was seeing. She’d never seen him so out of control. “Joey, baby. C’mere.” He reached for her, and she allowed him to pull her close. “I missed you tonight.”

“Somehow, I doubt that,” she replied. “How much did you drink tonight?”

“Uh… some… and then Dad bought me more…”

Damn it. Was this why Cody hadn’t wanted to be around his dad? She brushed his hair back and pulled away from him. “Get some rest, love.”

“On the couch?”

“Do you really want to try and brave the stairs? I can’t carry you up there,” she said. “I’m not supposed to lift that much.”

“No, no. You... not lift me. I’ll be here.” His speech was only slightly slurred. He hugged her close, and suddenly, her anger at him evaporated. Or maybe it had already. She brushed his blond hair from his eyes again. His normally clear eyes were bloodshot. She hadn’t realized how much Cody had wanted a real father. That was what this was about. Cody wasn’t a drinker. And yet, tonight, he was.

“Get some sleep, Cody. I’ll be in the kitchen for a while if you need me, okay?”

He nodded and his eyes shut. She pushed him gently back on the couch, unwrapping him from her. He collapsed on the couch, soft snores already coming from him.

She was only in the kitchen a few minutes before Jeremy showed up. He glanced back toward the living room. “He passed out already.”

“Yeah. He’s not a big drinker.” She replied, getting a cup from the cabinet. She’d actually made coffee earlier when Cody hadn’t come home. It was her comfort drink. She felt a little self-conscious, alone with Cody’s father. She wrapped her robe tightly around her, and got the coffee for him.

“How long have you and Cody been together?”

“Almost ten years,” she replied.

“So, since his minor league days.”

“College, actually. We met in college.” She set the cup down in front of him as he settled on the bar stool at the counter.

“I didn’t know he went to college.”

Jo stared at her father-in-law. The man had been so absent from Cody’s life he didn’t even know his son went to college. How sad was that? “He did. He worked as a mechanic to pay for it, and got picked up by the minors two years into his mechanical engineering degree.”

“He worked… because I didn’t pay for it.” He took a sip of his coffee and set it down on the counter. He stared at the black liquid within. “I was a pretty shitty dad, wasn’t I?”

“That’s not for me to say.”

“You’re a sweetheart.” He chuckled. “I made millions playing hockey and I couldn’t even pay for my kid’s college education.”

“Well, he didn’t finish anyway. Like I said, he was picked up by the minors two years into his degree.”

“I guess that’s one way to go,” Jeremy said. “So, when’s the big day?”

“Big day?” She blinked at him. “Oh, the baby. She’s due in June.”

“Are you excited?”

“Sure,” she replied.

“That sounded kind of unconvincing.”

“Well, um,” she paused. How much should she say? “Guess I haven’t let it sink in yet.”

“I was kind of surprised when Cody said you were expecting. He never struck me as the type to want kids. He’s pretty driven to succeed on his own terms. Hockey has always been his life. He grew up watching me, playing it himself. He’d never mentioned kids.”

“Forgive me for saying this, Mr. Baker, but you weren’t there. How could you know what he wanted?”

“True. I do know my son. Because he’s not much different than I am.”

She didn’t have a reply for that, and the statement left her somewhat unsettled. She’d never even thought that Cody could be anything like his father before, but his behavior tonight had her second guessing.

When she heard a knock at the front door, she jumped, and lost the train of thought.

“Looks like that’s my ride.” He stood up, taking a last sip from the coffee cup. “Do me a favor, will you?”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t be too hard on him tonight. It’s hard to know how to be a good husband and father, when you have no frame of reference.”

She walked him to the door. As he stepped over the threshold, he grinned at her. “Will you be at the rink opening? Training camp opens in a few weeks.”

She shrugged. “Maybe. Have to see where I’m at.”

“I hope you come and see what we’ve been working on all this time.”

He left, walked down to the taxi. He glanced back at her with a soft smile on his face, and then got in the cab. Jo was left cold, but she wasn’t sure if that was Jeremy or her own insecurities.

*~*~*

Head throbbing. Mouth dry. Muscles hurting.

This might be the worst hangover ever.

Cody groaned, his neck cracking as he pushed to his elbows and peered through bleary eyes. They were dry, and burned when the light hit them. There wasn’t much about last night that was sticking in his memory. He remembered the game, the locker room after the game, and then meeting his dad.

Dad
. He shot up, and immediately regretted it as his vision swam. He laid back, draping his arm over his face.

Finally, he registered his surroundings. His living room. The couch. Which possibly meant that Jo was really pissed off at him, or she hadn’t wanted to carry him up the stairs. He couldn’t really remember how he got home. And he hadn’t meant to drink at all in the first place. Dad just kept buying shots though. He did vaguely remember handing over the keys, since Dad hadn’t been drinking.

He stumbled up the stairs, pausing halfway to catch his breath. His head was pounding. Finally, he made it to the bathroom and splashed water on his face. The coolness felt awesome against his flushed cheeks. He took a moment to wash his mouth and brush his teeth to get the taste out. None of that helped his headache.

Finally, he made it into his bedroom, and was surprised when he saw his suit was laid out on the bed, complete with socks. Maybe she wasn’t mad? But then next to his suit was Jo’s suitcase. What was she doing with her suitcase? There was already a bunch of clothes in it too. He stepped over to the bed, peering into it. There was enough clothing there for at least two weeks.

Jo came out of the closet, holding a stack of clothes she’d folded. She froze when she saw him, her eyes meeting his. Guilt colored the pretty sapphire irises. “You’re awake.”

“Yeah.”

“Feeling okay?” she asked cheerily.

“What’s going on?”

She placed the clothes she held in the case, and faced him. Her eyes were sad, scary sad. She licked her lips. “I’m… going to see my parents for a while.”

“That’s an awful lot of clothes for a week, Jo.”

“I honestly don’t know how long it’s going to be.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means, Cody…” She cleared her throat when her voice tightened on her. “I don’t know if I’m going to be coming back.”

His heart clenched painfully. Not coming back? What the hell? Because of one night out? “You’re leaving?”

“Yes, Cody.” How could she be so calm? Where were the tears? She always had tears.