She walks in, stopping inside and waiting for me to step into the rink. She doesn’t move from beside me, making me decide where we are going to sit. I see my parents sitting at the side together with Westley in front of them. “What do you want to do?” she asks me.
“I want to sit down with my son with my woman beside me,” I state, walking down the steps and sitting in the same row as Westley.
“Did they do the warm-up skate?” I ask as I sit down next to Westley and pull Kylie down with me. She crosses her legs, and I drape my arm around them as she snuggles up beside me. “It’s freezing,” she says. “Next time I’ve got to wear one of your sweaters.”
I look at her from the side. “You’d wear my shirt?” I wink at her and she puts her face in my shoulder. I can feel eyes on us, and I know four of them are right behind me but I couldn’t care less.
“I’d wear your shirt,” she confirms and then moves away from me. “So who is going to win?” She leans over me and talks to Westley.
“We better win,” Westley answers, “but the other team is in first place.”
When Vincent comes out, Kylie points to him. When he looks at us, she waves her hand and smiles at him. The game ends with Vincent scoring the tie-breaking goal. When I stand up, she stands up with me and I smile down at her. “This was better than your game,” she teases me as I look at my father, who is just watching us.
We make our way out and head down toward the locker room, where all the parents are waiting for their kids to come out. “So what happens now?” Kylie asks me as we stop near the entrance.
“Now we wait for Vincent to come out. I tell him good game, say goodbye, and then I get to take you home and do dirty things to you.” She pushes my shoulder as she laughs, something she did all night long. She knew she was getting glares from my mother and Josephine, and she just pretended like she didn’t even notice. I grab her hand, holding it to my chest as I bend my head to kiss her softly. “Thank you for tonight.”
“You owe me,” she mumbles, “and I’m going to collect.” She steps closer to me and I lean back on the wall and wrap my arm around her neck. “Prepare to pay, Mr.—” She’s about to say something else when we see Vincent come out and go first to my dad and then come to me.
“Hey,” I say, letting go of Kylie and bending to kiss his sweaty head, “you played amazing.”
“What is that smell?” Kylie says, putting her hand over her mouth and nose making Vincent laugh. “Is that you?”
Vincent just laughs. “That’s called hockey sweat.”
“Eww.” She shakes her head, and it makes him laugh even more.
She lets go of her nose to give him a hug and holds her breath, making him laugh even more, which annoys Josephine. “We have to go,” Josephine says and the kids come to say goodbye to me and then to Kylie.
I slip my hand in hers as we walk out with them, and my father holds up his hand to say goodbye to us from afar and then looks at Kylie. “It was nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” she replies, “both of you.” I shake my head as my mother storms to their car.
“I’ll call you this week,” my father tells me, and I almost roll my eyes at him.
When we get into the car, I look at her. “That wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be, was it?”
The smile she had on her face the whole night is now gone as she glares at me. “Are you kidding me? I feel like I went to battle.” She puts her head back. “Do you know how much energy it takes to pretend I’m a nice person?” Her eyes close as she breathes deeply. “I hope you know that you are going to have to do all the work tonight.” I snort. “I’m not kidding,” she snaps. “I’m not lifting a finger.”
“Okay, baby,” I say softly and rub my hand up and down her leg, “I’ll do all the work.” My hand goes between her legs and she opens them for me. “All you have to do is lie there.”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” she confirms when I rub down the seam of her jeans. “Now take me home.”
“Your wish,” I say, pulling out of the parking lot, “is my command.”
forty
Kylie
I walk over to the stainless-steel door where the security guard is scanning tickets for the line of people trying to get into the arena. I open my purse, taking out the badge Knox gave me on Wednesday, because according to him, the badge Kirby had for me wasn’t good enough since it didn’t have his name on it.
“Hi,” I say, walking up to the security guard, who holds up his hand and aims the scanner at the bottom of the badge.
As soon as the machine does a funny beep, he gets up and walks over to the side where there is an elevator. He presses the button and then smiles at me. “You are on the third floor.”
“Thank you.” I step into the elevator and press the third button.
The elevator doors close and when they open again, I step out onto the floor where there are suites all around. I head to Kirby’s suite, walking in and seeing that Lexi is there with her cousin, Gabriella, and Zoey. “Two weekends in a row,” I say, stepping into the suite and the three of them turn their eyes to me.
