“No, no, no, babe. Don’t go there,” I pulled her against me and smoothed her hair. “You did everything right. You reported it, pressed charges, did the whole thing. You deserve peace of mind, babe. That’s the only reason why I looked into it.”
“Thank you, TJ… for...”
“No problem, babe.” I kissed her hair.
We sat there in silence for a moment, enjoying cuddling together in the cold, peaceful rink.
She cleared her throat then. “Let’s think of something happy. You ready for the Winter Classic?” she asked, her voice still a little shaky. We’d come a long way through the season so far. During the preseason we had a lot of missteps from miscommunications and jumping to conclusions. But now, she was getting better at directly telling me what she needed, and I knew to honor her request when she wanted something like dropping a subject.
The Winter Classic was the traditional New Year’s Day NHL game. Each year a different state hosted it, and teams had to be invited to play. The special thing about the Winter Classic was that it was one of the only official games that was played on an outdoor rink.
“I’m excited for it,” she patted my leg again. “Sav texted me that she got all the tickets for us girls.”
I shot her a serious look and ran a hand through my shaggy hair. “Can’t believe I’m playing init.”
“I can,” she said confidently. “You guys will win too.”
“I might throw up.”
“Nah. You got it. I’ll go coach mode on your ass, baby,” she said with a smile.
“Might need that, Ms. Sassypants,” I chuckled. “I’ve always watched that game and been so jealous because I love outdoor skating. Campbell’s in for a surprise though, he’s never pond skated before.”
“Never?”
“No ma’am, he’s a Cali boy,” I told her. “Kid’s in for a surprise. He won’t know what hit him when it starts snowing out there and his toes freeze.”
“That is the worst,” she laughed. “One time, I took my skates off after pond skating and thought there was a rock in my shoe… turns out that was part of my toe I couldn’t feel.”
“Oh babe. Your toes do freeze easily,” I said knowingly. Everyday when she got back to the apartment after a long day of coaching, she shyly asked for one of my famous foot rubs. I loved the feeling of helping her. I loved feeling needed.
“Wanna get going?” she asked, grabbing my hand toleave.
“Well,” I hesitated and tried to make eye contact with Duke in the stands. He was stealthily making his way down the steps holding a large cardboard box. “There is one more thing… It was supposed to be a Christmas surprise, but I was a little late. I’m not a super organizer like you, so I can’t always get things in a timely fashion, but better late than never, right?
She looked at me curiously. “I loved your Christmas present. I’ve been wearing this everyday, Teej.” She put a hand to her necklace. That was true, and I loved seeing it on her. I gave her a heart-shaped diamond necklace, thinking it was perfect. But afterwards, Duke and Griff roasted me over it, saying that girls never liked heart-shaped jewelry because it was tacky and that she was just pretending she loved it. I had a feeling they were just egging me on to see my reaction… but it worked. They successfully pushed me in a different direction. They didn’t have to push much though, because I really wanted to dothis…
“I just think you’ll love this even more,” I threw a quick - hopefully inconspicuous- nod to Duke, who was now standing in the team box. He quietly opened the board’s door and let him onto theice…
Right then, a tiny golden retriever puppy ran onto the smooth surface, sprinting and sliding in every direction, looking like the absolute happiest puppy in the world with all the open space in front of him.
Ellie gasped and covered her mouth.
She slowly turned to look at me with wide eyes. “Is that…Wait, are you joking? Because if this is just a joke then I’m going to be extremely mad at you.” She waited for my answer with a set jaw, ready to pounce.
“Hey, hey hey,” I put my arms out in innocence. “That’s our baby!” I laughed. “You like him? Spartacus!” I yelled back at him, but he just ran in the opposite direction of my voice… We had a lot of training ahead of us. I popped up to my skates to chase after him.
And chasing after puppies on the ice - wouldn’t be the worst power skating exercise… because it was quite a workout.
When I got close to him, he happily stutter-stepped me and ran away again, thinking that we were playing a game together.
When I finally was able to scoop him up, I glided back to Ellie holding him, and gently placed him in her arms.
He immediately snuggled into her fury jacket, and Ellie released a happy sound… At least I thought it was happy, it was a mixture of a gasp-cry-aww. Her green eyes went glassy and tears pooled up and spilled over as she read the note I attached to the baby dog.
“Babe, don’t cry!” I told her, and rubbed her tears away with my thumbs, hoping they were happy tears.
“I’m… I’m so happy, TJ.”
