“On it,” Jaxon declares, “I’ll call Kirby and Knox who, for sure, will say something. Then we have Aaron and at least the five players who think you walk on water.” He rolls his eyes. “We only have to worry about the five who want to be traded and then Cam.”
“If Cam comes out and says anything about her,” Zane seethes, “I’m going to break every single fucking tooth in his mouth and feed them to him.”
“I guess that answers that question.” My mother looks at my father. “Anyone who is going to knock someone’s teeth out isn’t going to do it for fun. He’s not going to do it if it’s just a fling and doesn’t mean anything.”
“I’m sorry you guys found out about us the way you did,” he apologizes to them. “It was never my intention for it to happen like this. I respect you both very much.” He then turns to me. “And I respect your daughter more than this.”
“You’re a good man, Zane Gilmore,” I kiss his lips, “and I’m lucky to have you.”
“Aww,” Ariella and my mother both sigh at the same time.
“When this whole situation is over,” my father warns, “we’re going to have more to say about this.”
Zane nods at him. “I’ll look forward to the opportunity,” he replies and then looks at me.
“See?” I smirk at him. “Told you it would all be over in an hour.” Then I look at my dad. “Tell me I’m your favorite without telling me I’m your favorite.” I stand up. “You didn’t even try to rough him up.” Only when I see Zane chuckle do I really feel like everything is going to be okay. I run my hand through his hair, bending to whisper in his ear, “I love you,” before leaning to kiss his lips. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving.”
thirty-six
Zane
“Okay, so the guys have all sent over their statements to Ken,” Jaxon announces. “The only ones we didn’t reach out to were the five in question.” I nod my head at him as he comes back to the table and sits down. “Ken said the team just released their statements.”
Everyone reaches for their phones. As I open mine, I see a picture of me and Ken on the day he announced I was going to be head coach.
“We care about what happens on the ice, not off the ice. Timothy’s piece was misleading, and he should be ashamed of his words.”
“I can’t wait for the next time I see Timothy,” Jaxon says, and I look up at him.
I put my phone down and look up at Manning. “If you have a minute, Manning.” I take the napkin off my lap, placing it on the other side of my phone.
“What?” Victoria’s head snaps to me. “Why would you want to do that?” She looks up at me as I stand. “You literally just came out of the battle unscathed, so why would you rush back in there?”
“It’s fine,” I assure her, and she glares at me. “Oh, when I say it, it’s not okay, but you saying it fifty million times is okay.”
“I don’t make the rules, Zane.” She throws up her hands. “You will be on your best behavior.”
She points to her father.
“Are you going to give me the code for the lock on your bedroom door?” He smiles big at her, knowing she probably will not. “That is your answer.”
“Fine, I’ll give it to you,” she concedes, “but only after you guys finish talking?—”
“Don’t fall for that,” Evelyn advises, “get the code before anything.”
“Mom,” she snaps out and I bend to kiss her lips.
“You don’t need that room,” I remind her softly, “give up the code.”
“That’s my room.” She points to herself. “It’s my property.”
“In their house,” I tell her.
“I thought you were on my side.” She shakes her head and I kiss her through my smile. “I guess I was wrong.”
I walk to the living room, following Manning, and when he takes a seat, I sit in the seat in front of him. “I wanted to sincerely apologize to you,” I start to say. “When we met the first time, I had every intention of not pursuing anything with Victoria.” I put my elbows on my knees and intertwine my hands together. “I just couldn’t stay away from her. It was a force bigger than even I knew.”
“Why now?” he asks me. “What makes now different that you are willing to give up your bachelorhood for her?”
