Piper gasped. “You did?”
“Me too!” Lucy chirped.
Piper whirled on Kappy and shoved his chest back. “What the hell,husband?”
Kappy threw his hands up in innocence. “I might’ve slipped. But just once, I swear.”
“I didn’t!” Lucy said with a proud smile while skipping over to her dad.
“Yeah, you didn't. You didn’t even tell me,” Colt said, scooping her up easily even though she still had her skates on. “Let’s get home. I’m missing Cally Boy.” Callahan, their drooly baby boy, was at home with a sitter.
“Me too! We gotta make sure we don’t miss his first steps,” Lucy gushed as Colt started walking to the rink exit. “You don’t think he did it yet, right? Every single day when I go to school, I’m afraid I’m going to miss it!”
Colt’s grin widened. “Nah, I think he’s waiting just for you.” He bopped Lucy’s nose, making her giggle, then lifted his arm in a salute to say goodbye to us.
Lucy turned in her dad’s arms to give us a big wave. “Bye guys! Bye Hans!”
Hans chuckled, his blue eyes shining. “Goodbye, little one.” Turning his attention to Colt, he gave a proud nod.
“See you guys in the morning,” Mer called over her shoulder while catching up to Colt. She melted into his side as they walked out into the crisp fall day.
“Yeah, time to go, my little wiffle ball,” Piper said, grabbing Kappy’s hand and tugging him forward.
Kappy’s face faltered. “Wiffle ball? What?”
“Yupp, everything just goes right through you,” she admonished. “Bye JP, bye Hans, we’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“Yeah, uh, congrats,” I said awkwardly, moving to give her a hug.
She gave a small smile. “Thanks, we’re having a wedding and reception and everything later, we just didn’t want to wait to be married, ya know? It was supposed to be secret,” she added through gritted teeth while eyeing her husband.
“I said I was sorry, jeez,” Kappy mumbled, lifting his hat to run a hand over his mullet.
“Yeah, yeah.” Piper rolled her eyes while moving toward Hans for a hug. Hans spoke a few hushed words of congratulations to her, making her tear up.
“And you,” Hans said, wagging a finger at Kappy. “You remember what I told you.”
A shit-eating grin spread on Kappy’s face while he crossed his heart. “Always, old man.”
“Good, now get out of my rink,” Hans said, shooing them away with his mop.
Ignoring him, Kappy pulled Hans in for a big, back-slapping hug. “I still wanna get you on the air, old man.”
“Nope, no one’s stealing my socks. I’ll leave all that nonsense to you,” Hans said.
Kappy threw his head back laughing. “But the world needs ya, old man.”
“Maybe.” Hans grinned. “But this place right here is my world.”
Kappy nodded somberly. “So maybe I should let you know that I was playing suey with some of the U16 boys and we broke one of the lights in the locker room hallway, sorry,” he said before jumping a safe distance away from him and his mop.
“All right, get out,” Hans said, shooing him away, but he couldn’t hide his smirk.
Still laughing, Kappy grabbed Piper’s hand and tugged her toward the exit. Right before leaving, Kappy looked back and locked eyes with me. “Icankeep a secret. You don’t evenknow,” he said ominously.
Shooting me a look of apology, Piper pretty much shoved him out the door.
As soon as they left, the rink fell quiet, almost too quiet. A bantam AAA team was on Rink 1, and a new synchro team was taking the ice in Rink 2, but with the practices in full swing, the lobby was dead quiet. Only the usual peaceful hum of the AC filled the air.
