That’s exactly what I was doing :)
Just come down and get the keys. I have to warm down and do another workout before I can go home
Mara’s facepeeked around the corner. “Everybody decent?” she called, then winced noting the TV crews interviewing me and a few of the other players. I smiled around my swollen lip seeing her like that.
Why did she look fucking cute and innocent being all polite? She’d apparently bought an oversized Princes sweatshirt and her hair was up in some scrunchie thing.
She grimaced and tiptoed away, zipping across her lips.
“Sorry, what was that?” I asked the interviewer.
“Your third career Gordie Howe hat trick, Jack. How does that feel?”
I smirked, looking over at a smiling Mara. “Hurts so good, just like every time.”
That got laughs from the media. The reporter thanked me and turned away. I beckoned Mara into the locker room, and ducking around a few cameras, she made her way in.
“You proud of yourself?” Mara asked, patting my cheek and touching her finger below my busted lip. She sniffed. “Oof. You stink.”
“Very proud, and that’s the smell of hard work and sacrifice,” I said, smiling and accidentally splitting my lip back open again. She laughed, holding her fingers up to keep the blood from streaming. A trainer swooped in with a piece of gauze, and Mara stepped back, extending her blood-covered hand. “Oh, uh, can you get her something for that?”
I took over holding the gauze, and the trainer went to grab Mara a wipe. “You’re very brave,” he said to her.
She laughed and agreed. “Just another day of being a mom.”
“Ouch, Jack, she’s your mom,” Romelski laughed.
I got my keys out of my locker, making a face at him. “You good to drive?”
She took the keys from me. “Yeah, I got real lit on those grape freezies.” She stuck her tongue out in a way that bordered on obscene and I had to fight a blush at the thought of her doing that in a very different context.
Stop making this weird, Jack.
“I have to take Gabi home. It’s kinda out of the way, but she’s got a date tonight,” Mara said, making Nikita’s head snap up, “and I guess I’ll drive back to my house? Yours?”
“I can give Gabriela a ride,” Nikita volunteered, his accent dancing over her full name.
Mara and I exchanged an amused look and she agreed. “Yeah. She’d appreciate that.”
“Go to my house,” I said, going back to the prior point. “I’ll have a dinner order sent to the house. Then I can give you guys a ride home.”
“Great. Good game, Jackie baby,” she said, and with a wink over her shoulder, she was gone.
And I was left standing there with a ridiculous, dumbfounded grin on my face.
SIXTEEN
JACK
NOVEMBER
The adrenaline had firmly wornoff. My face, and my body, hurt. I used the garage code to go into the house since Mara had my keys. Usually, the garage door was loud, but the sound of singing from inside was louder.
I almost can’t describe the scene because it’s so cheesy it makes me uncomfortable.
I opened the door to find Mara at the kitchen sink, leading the song. Aspen, Jace, and Harper sat lined up at the island and Hazel clutched Mara’s leg. Mara scrubbed a dish and rinsed it, putting it in the dish drying rack. Hazel was bopping, bouncing her butt in that toddler dance way. They were taking turns singing the backup and the melody, Mara calling out their names when it was their turn to sing the words.
It was perhaps the most wholesome shit I’d ever seen.
