Something So Right (29 page)

With that, I turn and walk out, not even giving her another thought. When I make it back to Cooper, I have to say I’m a little bothered.

“You were gone a while,” he says while I sit next to him.

“Well, that will happen when my fiancé’s ex-girlfriend corners me to let me know how much she liked you fucking her in your car.” I sip some water, putting up my hand before he says something else. “And while that thought is now in my head, I really fucking hope that it’s not the same car I drive in or else you better go and cancel that auction price because you are buying a new fucking car.”

“It’s not the same car,” he says, and I see the tick in his neck.

“Good. Now, I think it’s time to go.” I put my glass down. “You see, I also told her that you may have fucked her in the car, but I drove you crazy enough for you to fuck me by the car. And seeing as I don’t want to be known as a liar, we have to fuck against the car when we get home,” I tell him while I get up, reaching my hand out for him.

“I love you. You know that, right?” he asks, looking up at me. “And what we have is a million times better than what I had with her. She was something to pass the time. You are the reason I breathe.”

He stands up next to me while I open my clutch and take out something black, putting it in his pocket. He doesn’t ask me about it till we say goodbye to everyone and am walking to the front door. “What’s in my pocket?”

“Oh, those are my panties. I may have said that you ripped them off me, but thinking about that I really, really like that pair.” I shrug my shoulders. “Besides, I really love this dress, and I don’t want anything happening to it, so I skipped a step.” I look up at him, daring him to defy me.

“Get your ass in that car before I fuck you right here in the open.” He pushes me into the car that the valet had returned with. “Next time we get a limo.”

I smile at him before getting in. “That sounds like a great plan. But now I suggest you take me home because with all this sex talk I’m a little turned on.”

With that, he throws his head back and laughs. “Going to be the death of me, and I’m going to love every minute of it,” he says while pulling away from the curb, driving us home where he proceeds to fuck me by the car, twice. One with my dress on, the other with just the shoes on. Check fucking mate!

Cooper

I can’t believe the whole season is down to one game. This is it. Stanley Cup final. Game fucking seven.

Thank God, we are the home team. The arena is packed to the gills. I wish I could say it was easy getting here, but it hasn’t.

We’ve had our ups and downs. Our star goalie getting sidelined in January, he came back right before play-offs began.

The only thing going my way was my home life. Parker, Matthew, and Allison. Parker was always running around, and she never complained, not once. Well, maybe once, but it was just in passing. Matthew was making a name for himself, lots of scouts coming by each time he had a big game, and he never disappointed, pushing himself harder and harder to make himself better.

Now my girl Allison, she has gone through dance, gymnastics, cheer, figure skating, soccer, even fucking hockey, but nothing has caught her interest. Well, actually the wedding has kept her interest.

She wanted to be there for everything. So we let her. She actually has a really good eye. She hasn’t told me about Parker’s dress, but she did say that she is wearing a princess dress, and she got a pink crown.

It’s almost the start of the second period. Things are flying through my mind as I peel the tape off the blade of my stick. Skating out there with my boys tonight feels like a million bucks. But not as good as seeing my family there in their seats cheering me on. All of them wearing their Stone jersey, even Meghan and Tom.

I shake my head from the thoughts and focus on my boys. “One period down, boys, two more to go.” All of them look down, everyone else lost in their own thoughts. “We’ve got forty minutes left. Lots of ice time, lots of scoring chances. Let’s get on that ice and play hard,” I say, standing up and grabbing my helmet. “Let’s go, boys,” I say as I lead my team to the ice for the beginning of the second period. The score is still 0-0. No one has been lucky enough to touch the back of the net. Yet. I hope to change that. I have to change that.

As I make my way onto the ice to warm up, I make my eyes travel to Parker. She’s holding Allison in her arms as they chant my name. My girls. She didn’t want to sit in the wives’ box tonight. She wanted to be front and center to support ‘her man.’

It’s a tough twenty minutes. Everyone is skating hard, everyone is using their body as much as they need to, but both goalies are in the zone. Both of them pull out amazing saves to keep their teams in the game.

By the end of the second period, the score remains the same. The fans are getting louder and louder as the time goes on and more drinks are consumed.

We are getting ready to go out for our last twenty minutes. This is where dreams are made.

“Okay, boys, we’ve got twenty minutes left. Some of you have already been here. Some of you are here for the first time. All three have been amazing, but none of them has meant as much as being with you guys. When I went through that crazy two-week slump, none of you brought it up.” A couple of my teammates laugh. “Okay, some of you brought it up, but we endured it. We endured Anderson getting hurt and barely made those play-offs. We’ve been the underdogs this whole fucking series. Now I’m fucking tired. I want to have this fucking game over with so I can go home a fucking winner. I’ve won three of these things before, but I’ve never wanted to win one as bad as I do today, because of all of you. Now let’s get our fucking game on and win ourselves a fucking Stanley Cup.” With that, I walk out with the boys all hyped, chanting go go go go go.

Once my feet hit the ice, I look around. All fans are on their feet, ready for the last period of the game.

“Let’s finish this fucking game,” I say when I get on the bench. “Show time, boys. Let’s show ‘em what we got.”

It’s the third period, and everyone is out for blood or at least that’s what it seems to me. The checks are harder than I’ve ever felt, the rush faster than before.

But we’re late in the third period, and we are still tied at zero. With seven minutes to go I get to shoot. It’s a play that we’ve come to know from this team. Passing like a diamond, I’m waiting for it. I’m between both defensemen, waiting for one of them to get the puck and pass it to the other. The puck is behind me. I hear it touch tape to tape when I see the right defenseman get it, and just like that I stretch out my stick, knocking the puck out of the zone, skating with it all by myself. I feel the defenseman right behind me, but I also see the goalie in front of me. Their goalie is getting ready for my shot. He has studied me for many years. None of my moves are different. Except today, today I’m fucking winning this motherfucker. When I skate over the blue line, I don’t stay right but almost brake, slowing it down but not too much that the defenseman can catch up to me. What seems like an eternity is five seconds tops, and just like that it’s me and the goalie one-on-one. Someone is going to be the hero. The question is who will it be.

I see him go right, and as soon as I see him move I tip it up so I know it’s going to go right over his left shoulder. He has no chance to stop it, and just like that the red light goes off behind. The ref is calling the goal, and I’m jumping into the glass window where I’m crushed by the four teammates on the ice.

It’s insane. The noise in this building is vibrating off the walls. We can’t even hear each other talk. While I skate along with my teammates to the bench to celebrate the goal, I turn to look up at Parker. She’s standing there high fiving everyone that she can possible touch. Allison is jumping up and down, her blond curls going everywhere. Matthew salutes me with a nod while cheering.

“Okay, boys. Four minutes to go. We can do this,” I say to the bench. We can’t get sloppy. We must be confident so we don’t fuck up, but thank God, Anderson is on fire. He’s already saved four shots in one minute.

With two minutes to go we call a penalty for tripping. It’s the worst thing that can happen. Two minutes it’ll be five on four. They will most likely pull the goalie, making it six on four. Too many men on the ice. It’s a matter of time.

They do exactly what I thought they would do, pulling the goalie. There are two men more than us. We set it up as a box, each of us trying to knock it out of the zone.

The seconds count down. Thirty seconds left. When they finally get called for offside, sending their bench on the attack for the ref. The coach is almost on the ice, yelling at the linesman, wanting a review, but the refs stand by the guy’s decision. I’m not going to stand here and argue. Their bench calls a time-out. Worse mistake to do is to have us relax and catch out breaths.

I skate to the ice and Coach looks over at us. “Stone, do your thing.” Our coach knows that even if he dragged out that white board making plays for us, we aren’t looking at shit. The plays are all going on in our head.

“Boys, we have thirty fucking seconds out there. Lots of time left. Enough for them to tie it up and win this fucker. So let’s go out there and fucking stop them. They are in our building. In front of our families. Let’s make ‘em proud, boys.” I pull the helmet back down, snapping the strap closed. “I’m too old for this shit.” And with that, I skate away, ready to take the face-off and raise that cup over my head.

The face-off is just outside our zone, their net still empty. The game not won yet. I lean in, waiting for that puck to drop, and when it does I’m ready. I send it to my defenseman behind me, all eyes on me. No one sees the rookie waiting for the pass all alone. One pass is all it takes, and with that shot, he nails it into the net from center ice, claiming the victory. It’s going to be a feeling he will never ever forget. The gloves fly off his hands, stick thrown aside. Everyone skates to him. I look up. Still twenty seconds left. Not enough time to do anything, so I look over and smile at my girl.

Fuck, it’s good to win.

When the twenty seconds are done, the ice is littered with sticks, gloves, hats, helmets, confetti paper falling from the ceiling. My play-off beard is dripping with sweat and water.

Once we congratulate everyone, new baseball hats are passed around. I look over to see the Stanley Cup being brought onto the ice.

I’m ushered over to take an interview. Always captain first.

“Cooper, we have to say a huge congratulations out there tonight. They are saying the better team won. What is going through your mind?”

I lean down to hear him because it’s still so loud.

“It was an even game, we played hard, they played hard, we got lucky, but we’ll take it,” I say, pushing my sleeves up over my elbow pads.

“This is your fourth time winning. Does it get better each time or are you used to it?” He laughs.

“I have to say it’s better each and every time. I don’t think anyone can get used to this.” I laugh at him.

“So what’s next?” he asks, and I know what I’m going to say next will shock everyone.

“Well, besides the obvious answer that I’m taking my kids to Disney World. But as most of you know, my contract is up this year. And after being in this organization since they drafted me when I was eighteen, I have to say that I’m hanging up these skates.” With that, the crowd gasps and cheers. “I’m going to marry my girl and just be home.” I laugh because I’m fucking happy. The only one who knew about my decision was Scott.

“Well, I’m sorry to see you go, but this is the best way to go.” With that, I skate away and begin to skate to center ice where the commissioner has taken his spot with his microphone.

While he goes on and on about hockey and the game, my eyes land on the seat where my family is supposed to be sitting. I see no one but Meghan and Tom. I look around till I see all the family members ready to come onto the ice.

I see my girl rubbing the tears away from her face with my boy holding his mother’s shoulder, and Allison on the other side of him.

I don’t hear anything he says till he says, “Captain, it’s time to claim your cup.” And with that, I skate over and lift it over my head and skate around the arena one more time before I hand it off. The next person I hand it off to is Anderson, because if it wasn’t for him between the pipes, we wouldn’t have made it this far.

Once I hand it off to him, I skate over to where the family is and open the doors so everyone is allowed to find their loved ones.

They are the last ones out on the ice.

“Cooper, Cooper, you won the silver cup,” Allison says, so happy.

“Stanley Cup, Allison,” Matthew corrects her.

“Hey, babe, get your ass over here and kiss me.”

I look over at her as she walks slowly to me, trying hard not to fall on her ass.

“I’m so very proud of you.” She kisses me on my lips. “And what I’m most proud of is this beard leaving,” she says quietly.

I lean into her ear and whisper, “That’s not what you said last night when said beard was eating your sweet pussy.” I wonder how she’ll like that look. Maybe I’ll shave the head but make it grow back. She does like pulling the shit out of it.

She slaps me right in the chest, trying to push me away.

“Are you really going to retire?” Matthew asks when they both make it to us.

I lean over to pick up Allison in my arms, kissing her neck. She is like her mother and hates this beard. So she tilts her head to cover her neck.

“Yup, I really am. I have won the Stanley Cup four times. I’ve done more than I thought would ever happen. I just want to stay home and be there all the time. Besides, now I can possibly work for my wife, if she hires me.”

She squeezes me. “You wish! I can’t hire you. Then how am I supposed to meet all the hot new men who come in?”

Before she can continue, I smash my lips onto hers.

I’ve got everything a person can possible ask for. If someone had told me this time last year that I would be standing on the ice raising the cup with a fiancée and two step-kids, I would have told them to fuck off.